According to the EFL study entitled “Women in SMEs. Under the magnifying glass”, women are more likely than men to take a risk and start their own business without any proper business training. They consider themselves creative, hard-working and multitasking.
– Polish women are among the leaders of the European Union when it comes to leadership skills. Firstly, the share of women in management positions in Poland is 43% and, according to Eurostat data for 2021, this is the second highest result in the EU. Secondly, Polish women are more likely to want to be their own bosses – 8% of women in Poland run a business and this is also the second highest result among EU countries – says Ewa Kadziewicz, director of the EFL marketing department.
What types of businesses do they run? These include not only typically female businesses, such as beauty salons, but also those considered more masculine, such as vehicle sales or construction services.
They take advantage of opportunities or fulfill dreams
WITH The report of the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) “The situation of women in Poland from a socio-economic perspective” shows that in our country 8% of women have their ownand companiesę. In the European Union, more women run their own businesses only in… Greece.
Polish women are most often prompted to “start their own business” by an opportunity worth taking advantage of (47% of responses). The second reason is simply the fulfillment of dreams. Men, on the other hand, are more likely than women to start a business because they want to test their strengths (46% vs. 36%).
For the purposes of the EFL report, it was calculated that more than half of companies run by women are microenterprises (55%). Among men, this percentage is 47%. Men are more likely to manage larger entities, as almost one in three run an organization employing between 50 and 249 people.
What is women’s particular strength?
The three most important traits considered to be special assets in running a business are mentioned by both women and men, and they are: communication skills, creativity and competence. However, women are more likely than men to consider themselves more creative (23% vs. 15%), and men are more likely to consider themselves communicative (33% vs. 27%). Women also have the company’s best interests at heart (18% vs. 15%) and are more likely than men to consider themselves hard-working (7% vs. 4%), show a greater desire for development (7% vs. 4%) and are more likely to multitask in business management (5% vs. 2%).
Men, on the other hand, are more likely than women to consider themselves more consistent (17% vs. 14%), more courageous (6% vs. 3%) and more self-disciplined (6% vs. 3%).
It seems that both genders complement each other almost perfectly in business.