enterpreneurship
...usiness. Among the issues covered are their “official” and “unofficial” positions within the business; the balance between domestic and business responsibilities; and the influence, if any, of cultural factors in the nature of their presence within the enterprise. A case study approach was adopted focusing on qualitative data (Birn et al., 1990). The main issues were to be elicited by non-directive questioning, and open-ended questions. Fieldwork was undertaken in two rounds of personal interviews preceded by a telephone call and also follow-up telephone calls where further information was required. This study is not focusing on statistical representation but the processes and theories in action (Yin, 1994). The sample All the women were born outside the UK and are in their late 40s or early 50s. They have all had traditional arranged marriages (i.e. husbands have been introduced to them through family connections) and they all have children. The self-employed women who are called the “independent” women are “domestic entrepreneurs” (Carter and Cannon, 1988). These are entrepreneurs who organise their business life around the family situation. A breakdown of this sample is given in Table II Independent women . The businesses run by the independent women range from the manufacturing and retailing of sportswear; Asian fashion boutiques; an insurance business; a consultancy advising large supermarkets about Asian foods and spices; and a beauty clinic. Some of these women employ workers, others are working alone. The “hidden” women in my sample (see Table III “Hidden” women )were all in the retail sector, working in retail shops of varying sizes. These family-owned enterprises are in joint husband and wife names or include members of the extended family. Difficulties were encountered initially, especially with the “hidden” women in the sample who were very reluctant to talk. Access was gained through personal contacts and referrals/introductions from friends. The women felt more comfortable once the “mutual” friend had introduced me and explained who I was and that I could be “trusted”. Some of the “hidden” women were concerned, at first, as to the purpose of my study and I assured them of confidentiality and have changed their names where requested so they cannot be identified. The interviews were conducted in Punjabi or a mixture of Punjabi and English for the “hidden” women. They opened up to me as I was from their community – i.e. a fellow Asian, spoke Punjabi myself and came from a small business background – so I could empathise with and understand their experiences. Consequently, the data are more “authentic”, but “closeness” has problems of its own. For many participants the interviews were the first time they had been given an opportunity to talk about their professional and personal ambitions. Findings “Independent” women Background and influences There are great differences in the women’s levels of scholastic achievement and general attitudes towards education. Farzana has a Master’s degree and worked for the Pakistan Times newspaper for four years. Seema, like many middle-class girls, attended a Catholic school in India. Binder, came to the UK to study, but financial hardship ended her ambitions in that direction. A different story is presented by Zainab, who admits she neglected her education in favour of fashion and beauty. Damyanti came from a professional family, but marriage was deemed more important than education. They all value education for their children. They have all experienced difficulty in settling into a new culture in the UK. “I knew I had to be independent and responsible for myself” said Binder who had come to the UK to join her brother, but soon realised that she could not afford to study and instead had to work for a living. This initial poverty drove her to work hard and has been the backbone of her success. Zainab travelled widely with her husband before settling in the UK. Travel widened her horizons and she was heavily influenced by her environment: “I was exposed to different colours, materials and themes”. The decision to become self-employed After settling in the UK and raising families there were many factors that facilitated or inhibited the women’s decision to become self-employed. Boredom was a great factor. “Despite being busy with two children I felt I needed to fill a gap”, recalls Zainab. “Being a housewife and mother was not enough for me”, said Binder. “I felt increasingly frustrated and impatient”, said Farzana. “I wanted to work but I was not sure what I wanted to do”, said Seema whose children were in full-time education. The driving force to set up in business was as a reaction to their children needing less of their time. The businesses were initiated as more of a pastime and challenge or a hobby, to occupy them once their children were at school or had left home, rather than a financial and economic necessity. The women wanted to utilise their skills and have some worthwhile purpose in their lives. The independent women are more aware of their worth, compared to the “hidden” women, and they value their time. In most cases someone else in the family was already in business, normally the father, brother or husband. The significance of family background in acting as a vehicle for the inculcation of entrepreneurial values is a strong factor in motivating these women to become self-employed. It is argued that membership of a business family can act to educate the individual into a world view that is sympathetic towards all the values of business ownership – independence, self-reliance, deferred gratification, competitiveness, achievement orientation, long termism and all the other ingrained attitudes (Ram and Jones 1998) underpinning the continuing survival of the small enterprise economy. In Zainab’s case her father was in the textile business and she recalls it was “common conversation at home”. Farzana, too, had a short-cut into business. Her husband already had the contacts and her business complemented his. Experiences of entrepreneurship For most of the women entrepreneurship was a learning process. Zainab declared: “I was always confident of my knowledge of the fabric business but now I had to develop other skills”. She soon learned about customer relations, customer psychology, marketing, etc. and admits: “I had cultivated quite a curiosity for the world of fashion and business”. Their experiences of entrepreneurship have varied greatly. Zainab began her business venture by selling some tracksuits for her brother. She added personalised logos on his casual-wear fabric range. This small business idea proved very successful and the tracksuits sold particularly well in schools. Her next step was to open up a boutique. At that time there were no ready-made Shalwar Kameez. She planned to turn the business into a specialist designer clothes boutique to overcome the shortage of good quality Asian clothes in London. She manufactured locally and imported from abroad, mainly Pakistan. Within two years the business was so successful that she sold two franchises in Hounslow and Birmingham. A year later she expanded and opened a second branch in central London. Since then she has faced fierce competition and has been undercut by retail outlets with lower overheads. This sector had mushroomed in places such as Southall, Hounslow and Wembley, as well as outside London in Leicester, Bradford, Birmingham, etc. Binder entered the financial sector because she wanted a business that was flexible as she had two children in school who required her attention. More important, it was a low-cost business to enter with few overheads. She feels that being an Asian woman can be a liability with many clients wanting to deal with men when it comes to business and financial matters. “My main motivation is the fact that, as an Indian in a foreign country, I have always had to rely on my own efforts”. Farzana, who runs a manufacturing company making sports clothes, personally trains all her staff. She has an accountant, although her daughter and husband deal with the invoices and day-to-day matters. She works from home and the house is used as a workroom and storeroom as well as living quarters. Seema started up her company which she called Development Dynamics. “The name was important in that it covered both my ventures”, she says, referring to her self-help workshops, as well as her food consultancy. She does not advertise and all her contacts are word of mouth, but being a member of the Ismaili community means that she can network and run seminars for the community which provides her with a good source of income. Her office is based at her home. This gives her a lot of flexibility and she juggles her role as housewife, mother and businesswoman. Damyanti considered importing the Shahnaz Herbal range of cosmetics, which was very popular in India. This led to her meeting Shahnaz Hussain, the founder, in order to discuss the prospect of bringing this range of cosmetics to the UK. Damyanti had no background knowledge of the beauty business at that time, but with the advice of her husband, she formed the House of Herbal Cosmetics Company, which became the sole importer and distributor of Shahnaz Herbal products. Damyanti grew steadily in experience and confidence as she built up a loyal client base and soon diversified into several new ranges of products. “Hidden” women The “hidden” women certainly face different issues from their more independent sisters. It seems that in most cases the “internal” business role such as the day-to-day running of the business is fulfilled by the women while the “external” contacts are the domain of their husbands. The men have total financial control while the women actually do the mundane, manual work of serving customers and checking stock in the shop. They have “responsibility without control”. This is not to imply that their spouses are lazy, but the men do have a greater degree of personal freedom within the business at the expense of the women. Most of these businesses are family businesses, which are labour intensive. When questioned about the ownership of the business all the women say the business belongs to their husband or husband’s family, into which they married. However, in each case the women were actually joint owners of the business. The women do derive some measure of satisfaction from their status within the community as part of a business family. Background While children were the greatest influence for independent women to get into business, so as to provide a better life for their children, or because they had more time on their hands and so could pursue other interests, this is not the case for “hidden” women. They largely feel they have neglected their children because their time has been spent in the business, rather than tending to the needs of their children. The women have been physically present for their children and have met their financial and educational needs but in many cases the children have been expected to work in the business from a very early age and the women want their children to have an easier life to compensate for the hardship they have endured. These women are forced to work long hours, standing on their feet all, and every, day. They carry the weight of responsibility and are conscious of the high financial overheads that have to be met. For these “hidden” women the business is a financial reality, rather than a way to pass time. Their labour is a necessity for the business and their time is not valued, only assumed. The business does not expose them to networking opportunities, but instead denies them the time to go out and socialise. They have had to make many sacrifices for the business. While all these women value education for their children, they themselves have not had the best opportunities: “education was not encouraged for the women in our family”. Most of these women married young and into traditional families. Harjit, for example, has never had any paid employment: “I had no inclination to leave the house and work and my husband would not have let me”. The role in business of the “hidden” women Harjit’s husband decided to buy a small newsagent/grocery shop because having four children was a burden on him as the sole earner in the family. He was increasingly frustrated with his factory job and felt he was constantly overlooked for promotion in favour of white colleagues. Her husband made the decision to go into business having seen many of his friends and relatives make a good living in this area. The business was alien to them, but it was a means of survival and independence from a dead-end factory job. Harjit was concerned about her role in the business, particularly as she could not speak English and the shop was situated in a white middle-class suburban area. Her children helped their father in the shop, while she remained a housewife looking after her family and house, but also playing a small role in the shop. Her lack of fluency in English was the key reason that she did not serve customers and consequently her role was always secondary. However, as the family gained experience her role in the business grew. This coincided with her children growing up and going into further education. While her role is pivotal in the running of the business all major decisions are made by her husband. She does not see h...