Women-led businesses count pursuing a passion as their top motivator, new study finds

As businesses the world over have been shining a light on successful women in business in accordance with international women’s day this month, US company and online platform Yelp has released the results of a survey it carried out with over 1,500 women-owned businesses.

Forming part of the company’s upcoming Women in Business Summit, the results shed light on a number of factors that women in business found in common, including prevailing trends and obstacles.

Among the findings, it emerged that the majority of women-led businesses counted pursuing a passion as their top motivator.

Other interesting results revealed that nearly two-thirds of respondents depended on personal savings for the initial funding required for their business; and over two-thirds considered social media as the most effective marketing tool for their business.

Asked about how their business fared in the pandemic, 43 per cent of respondents said that their business performed worse than their pre-pandemic expectations, while interestingly, 36.4 per cent felt it had performed better than they expected.

Meanwhile, asked specifically on obstacles related to their gender, 35.8 per cent reported having experienced negative perceptions related to competency based on gender.