The FINANCIAL -- About two thirds of the 349,000 women who became self-employed last year started their business in part-time.
This is the result of a study based on the "KfW Start-up Monitor" focused on the specific characteristics of female business start-ups. The reasons for the smaller scope of their start-ups are often found in personal preferences: "Women continue to take responsibility for the family and household. Thus many women value the flexible hours of being self-employed on a part-time basis, allowing them to combine careers and family", says Dr Margarita Tchouvakhina, Vice President at KfW Bankengruppe. A part-time start-up also accommodates women's low appetite for risk, as the business idea can then first be tested and when successful the start-up can be expanded from part-time to full-time.
In the sectors where women found businesses particularly frequently, start-ups can be launched successfully with low funding and reduced time requirements. The area "personal services", for example, is not capital intensive and comprises among others the education, health care or entertainment sectors. In these areas about 43% of all female founders start their businesses, while only 20% of male founders start here. In the "economic services" sector (e.g. management consulting, architecture or real estate offices), women start businesses significantly less often than men. Overall 39% of all founders and only 32% of all female founders are represented here.
Start-ups founded by women are smaller than those founded by men in both full-time and part-time: About three fourths of all female founders set up their own business without employees (male founders: 64%). In addition, female founders make due with even less funds than male founders: 15% of female start-ups utilise neither material nor financial resources (male founders: 9%).
Those who do require external funds at the launch of their start-up utilise comparably high financing volumes as male founders for similar projects. In this way the share of male and female founders with external funding needs of more than EUR 25,000 differentiate themselves only marginally (25% of male founders, 22% of female founders with use of external funding). "The financing volume fits the size of the start-ups. It isn't the case that women underfinance their businesses compared to men", says Dr Tchouvakhina.
A central indicator for the success of start-up projects is their viability. Here it is evident that start-ups founded by men and women with comparable project characteristics - such as size, financial resources or sector - and similar personal background - such as education and start-up motives - remain on the market for the same amount of time.
This study is an addition to gender research conducted at KfW Bankengruppe. The KfW document "Female managers of SMEs" was published in June of this year. One of the main results was that women are less likely to want their business to expand in order to remain flexible and more successfully maintain the balance between their private and professional lives.
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