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Women are entrepreneurs. So says the latest GEM report 2021-2022, a study by the Observatory of Entrepreneurship in Spain and the National Public Innovation Company (ENISA) that shows that they are now more launched into self-employment through their own businesses than men. Specifically, 5.6% versus 5.4%, respectively. By the hair, yes, but it is a significant figure because it indicates that the tortilla is being turned around.

After the pandemic -which affected them much more economically, according to data from the study 'Entrepreneurs after COVID-19', led by Lluís Soldevila, CEO of Acktitude and researcher at OBS Business School-, the unflattering figures made analysts start talking about 'she-cession', but it seems that the situation is beginning to reverse. "For the first time since we have been doing this report at the national level, the percentage of women involved in entrepreneurial initiatives of less than three and a half years of life is higher than that of men, and increases in all phases of the entrepreneurship process," explains Ana Fernández Laviada, president of the Observatory of Entrepreneurship in Spain (Red GEM Spain) and director of the Yunus Center of the University of Cantabria.

According to GEM figures, in Spain there are more than 650,000 entrepreneurs who reside mainly in Catalonia, Madrid and Cantabria, the autonomous communities with the highest rate of entrepreneurship, above 5.5% of the national average. This is a small number compared to the 128 million women who run established companies in the world; However, it is a decisive amount, because thanks to them the gender gap in our country has been reduced by 6% since 2012, says the study.

On average, the one who is encouraged to undertake is between 35 and 54 years old, a medium or higher level of education, specific training both for the business that starts and for the management of their company and the same motivation as most of those who embark on this adventure (more than 70%): find a good job in the face of the shortage of quality employment for others.

But entrepreneurship does not augur a path of roses, but rather of thorns. More than 70% of new companies are set up with less than 30,000 euros of capital and many of them, especially in the case of women, are financed with personal savings, which makes their businesses much more vulnerable. "It's disastrous," says Lluís Soldevila. "It costs a woman much more to move a company forward for two reasons; one, because their businesses belong mostly to the service sector, the most affected always by economic crises; and two, because they ask for less funding when it comes to undertaking and, in addition, they are also granted less than they ask for. Translated into figures, the generosity of the entities is 75% lower if it is a woman who applies for the loan, "he adds.

According to Soldevila, the problems of women-led businesses go beyond the boundaries of market crises and reflect the distinct gender roles and unequal access to finance they have historically experienced and continue to contend with. In this sense, the GEM report also points out, "because although the figures bring us closer to parity, they show that there are 50% fewer initiatives of medium and high technological value led by women than by men, which continues to represent a significant gap in entrepreneurship with high added value, which requires specific actions and policies". highlights José Bayón, CEO of ENISA.

When capacity plays against

Put on paper, the problem is simple, almost mathematical, explains Soldevila: "For the same business a man would ask for 150, and a woman 100; He would be given the amount he has asked for, but the woman would only get 80. It is a perversion of the system that is based on the erroneous belief that there is less entrepreneurial capacity in the female sphere."

But why does a woman, in the first place, ask for less? "It's the result of a mixture of two feminine characteristics: risk tolerance and the ability to do things more efficiently. They are two positive traits, but the end result is bad, "answers the CEO of Acktitude.

Entrepreneurship without money

Sara Serantes.Ivan Chamber

The beginnings of Sara Serantes, CEO and founder of Freshperts, were marked by the situation put on the table by the researcher of OBS Business School. His company was born in Barcelona in 2012 as a startup, Sushifresh. It was the first brand of what is now a home catering group with seven ecommerce verticals and several stores in Barcelona that invoices more than 5 million euros a year and employs more than 80 people. Among its brands, also Tako Tako, La Gloria Vegana, Tarri & Co, Rainbowls and Fish and Greens.

His business idea came a year after the cuts ended his professional stage in a marketing company. It was 2009 and he decided it was time to do what he always wanted: go around the world. She dragged her husband, who took a leave of absence, and arrived in New Zealand, where he began working as a babysitter and studying English. "Every day I took care of a baby and went to an academy. I was running from one place to another, without time for anything, and when classes were over I ate as fast as I could and always the same, sushi, the one in the restaurant that was right next to the academy. So for weeks. One day I told my husband, 'I'm going to open a sushi.' That's when the dream began. When I returned to Spain I knew I had to set up a sushi shop online," Sara recalls.

To give shape to his idea he only needed 50,000 euros, but that small amount, insignificant for the figures that today moves his business, became almost unattainable: nobody wanted to finance it. Pregnant and with her paper business plan under her arm, a folder she still keeps as a souvenir, she began to visit bank after bank. According to his calculations, to be profitable he only needed 12 orders a day. How is it not going to work in Barcelona, with the amount of people in the offices?, Sara defended. "Do you really think someone is going to buy you food through a website?" he was asked every time he presented his project. "All the financial institutions I went to told me no, both private and public. Neither banks nor microcredits nor ICO loans ..., nothing, "he says. He still remembers his frustration when he saw the advertisement that then appeared at all hours on television, a young man raising a blind while the voice of publicized the aid offered to entrepreneurs.

Then Sara was 26 years old, and that didn't help either. "Age plays a role, of course. The calculation made by who is going to give you the loan has a lot to do with the date on which it is expected that the woman will stop working because she will have children. Motherhood is a brake," says Lluís Soldevila.

After a long pilgrimage that seemed to have no end, Sara managed to knock on the right door. It was that of ENISA, the entity that after a heavy bureaucracy agreed to finance it. Interestingly, it was also the only one where he never showed up; They never saw it because the whole process was done telematically. Did it have anything to do with the decision depending on an algorithm? "The truth, I don't know. I prefer to think not, but it is true that those who knew me did not believe in me, "she answers amused. "The key is not to give up, not to let them sink you," he advises. They granted her the 50,000 euros, to which she added 8,000 of her savings. And his dream began.

The power of the team

"Transferred to the entrepreneurial issue, the gender bias of society results in women being given less money to start their businesses. It is uncomfortable to talk about this subject, but it is a reality. And it is a matter of time that those who manage the funds that allow investment are not conditioned, "says Soldevila, who is also not in favor of positive discrimination and quotas to accelerate changes. "It's not the way. When they ask me if I 'sign' more men or women I am indignant, it is as if they ask me if I prefer blondes or brunettes. I hire good people."

And even if a magnificent project is presented, such as the one defended by Sara Serantes, entrepreneurs often make a mistake. "What an investor values most, much more than a promising idea, is the team behind it. But the usual thing when a woman wants to start a business is that she is alone. This is a mistake. Any successful startup has a brilliant person at the helm, but backstage a team just as brilliant, or more, taking charge of each of the key areas of the company," says Soldevila.

One last piece of advice from the expert for all those women who today consider embarking on the adventure of entrepreneurship: "You do not have to look so much at technology, but at the 'pain' of people. The businesses that have succeeded are the ones that have identified a need, a problem, and solved it." In this sense, the sectors that augur the best future are "health, which has a brutal journey; business productivity, that is, everything related to the tools that allow working more efficiently and that enhance teleworking, and ecommerce, because we have all lost the fear of buying online, "concludes the expert.

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