Women and Business

Late last year, Bucharest hosted the first fair for businesswomen in Romania, B-Fair.

Christine Leșcu, 14.01.2015, 13:29

Equal opportunity and encouraging SMEs, two of the fundamental policies of the EU, can contribute to emerging out of the crisis, whether we talk about global or personal crises. The solution may depend on daring women and the opportunities offered for their entrepreneurship. In 2013, according to EU statistics, businesswomen accounted for only 34.4% of the self-employed European entrepreneurs, holding only 30% of newly created businesses. However, their number seems to be growing. Late last year, Bucharest hosted the first fair for businesswomen in Romania, B-Fair, organized by an association called “Women in Business”. Set up in 2009 by a young entrepreneur, the organization comes in support of women who want to build a business, helping them find the information and support they need. The fair is an extension of this network where people exchange experiences. Adina David is a press officer with the association:

Adina David: “This year we’ve held B-Fair for the first time. Generally we organize business networking sessions with women speakers, but the fair managed to bring together businesses run by women in a more official and general venue, where they could showcase their products, in addition to networking.”

B-Fair was attended by 20 companies with exhibitions, and was visited by between 200 and 300 people during the weekend. The participating companies, most of them set up or run by women, were not just SMEs. Many large companies, even multinationals, have women managers and make products aimed at women. We asked Adina David if companies run by women generally cater to women, and if they have a propensity for catering to certain areas:

Adina David: “We did notice an inclination towards certain areas considered typical of women, such as consultancy or cosmetics. At the same time, a lot of ladies have opened businesses in the IT and automotive sectors.”

Adina Filculescu is an attendee at B-Fair and member of the organization called Women in Business. She runs a business in an area where women dominate: flowers and event organizing. She started this business right after college, and she says she did not feel discriminated against in relation to men, and that she did not have to face additional hurdles for being a woman. However, she had a lot of hard work to do, but she says she did it happily:

Adina Filculescu: “It is a lot of work, sometimes I work 17 hours a day, but I don’t feel tired, because I think of the outcome I desire, the satisfaction of the people around me, and my personal satisfaction. If I worked for someone else I may not have worked with such drive and pleasure. I had nights when I worked until the morning, and weekends when I couldn’t go to the mountains for a trip with friends. As for the bureaucracy, we all know how things are: you have to queue for some paperwork, or some tax payment. You have to adapt to each situation.”

As a member of the Women in Business association, Adina Filculescu monitored the trends of the last few years, and here is what she found:

Adina Filculescu: “A lot of women started looking into a business of their own, and even left their jobs with corporations or public institutions. They developed their own businesses in the areas that they liked. I noticed that passion was the basis for their choice. On top of the capital needed to open a business, they needed a lot of courage to change their life from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur.”

Their courage came from the drive to be independent, and from the emergence of personal priorities: family and children. Here is Adina David once again:

Adina Filculescu: “While working at multinationals, they have little time for their families, and especially when the first child appears, they really don’t have enough time for their families anymore. That is why they choose to become entrepreneurs, which gives them a flexible schedule. In addition, even though multinationals pay higher salaries, women can make their business grow, securing substantial incomes. The start is always difficult, but for many of them this is not a great impediment.”

A lot of employees in public or private institutions, in their wish to be their own boss eventually, start a business after work, holding on to their day job. It is not easy, but the wish to be independent is overwhelming in those cases. It is also encouraged by EU institutions, which have already created a European network of mentors for women entrepreneurs, a division of the Directorate General for SMEs.