




































Bangladesh Journal of Multidisciplinary Scientific Research 

 Vol. 4, No. 1; 2021 

ISSN 2687-850X   E-ISSN 2687-8518  

Published by CRIBFB, USA 

 

1 

A STUDY ON FUNDING AND FINANCIAL STRATEGY 

FOLLOWED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: A NEW WAY 

TO ENTREPRENEURIAL GROWTH OF BANGLADESH 
 

 

Jesmin Ara 

Assistant Professor 

Department of Finance and Banking 

Faculty of Business Studies 

Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University 

 Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh 

E-mail: jesmin.fib@tch.hstu.ac.bd 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

Managing funds for venturing into a new business is a very challenging task for women. The 

goal of the study is to recognize congenial sources from where they can easily get funds to start 

their business and after starting a business which financial strategy they follow to expand their 

enterprise. To perform this task, primary data collection was carried out through a well-

designed questionnaire and a total of 180 women entrepreneurs from different parts of the 

country took part in this program spontaneously. It is observed that usually women do not get 

bank loans easily, but they discovered that semiformal and informal sources of funds are 

available for their business and these loans help them to achieve the entrepreneurial goal. 

Although the interest rate is much higher, to be self-employed women must collect funds from 

these sources. 77 percent of women withdraw profit and their business follows the start small 

and stay small characteristics, but others save and re-invest their profit to expand the business 

operation. Despite the great loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a light of hope that 

some women are doing very well by using the digital platform and providing home delivery 

services. From this paper, the new women entrepreneur can perceive what should be done and 

they will go through the right way. By following former entrepreneurs, they should take the right 

decision and bring success assuredly. 

 

Keywords: Bangladesh, Fund, Semiformal Source, Women Entrepreneur. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

The achievements of women for the progression of sustainable world economic development 

cannot be negated. To ensure economic growth, women-owned businesses are considered a vital 

measure. According to World Bank data 2020, Women are almost half (49.4%) of the total 

population of Bangladesh. In the workforce of Bangladesh, women’s participation is increasing 

day by day. But their involvement in business is not satisfactory. In Bangladesh women’s 

participation in the business sector is very low. The percentage of women entrepreneur is lower 

than in our neighboring countries. According to a 2019 study by the IFC (International Finance 

Corporation), only 4.4 percent of businesses in Bangladesh are owned by women.  But in 2016 

the percentage was 7.2 percent. In recent time, due to Covid-19 crisis, many women unwillingly 



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closed their businesses especially who were used physical location for providing services and 

doing business of immovable or difficult to moving products which could not be delivered by 

couriers. When at the same time many women move toward movable products businesses using 

a digital platform and delivery services. Women face many challenges in business, but the 

major challenge they face is limited funding. Because of the obvious inequalities, women 

entrepreneur’s production-related activity was under-reflected so that they could not access 

desired capital (Brush, Greene, Balachandra, &  Davis, 2014).  
Every business needs a start-up cost. Nowadays women can start a business with a very 

low amount of capital because they use the lower-cost digital platform for marketing and selling. 

By using an e-commerce platform, they do not need money for a well-decorated physical store or 

showroom. They only need inventory, warehouses, workers, some capital assets and so on. So, 

the amount of initial capital requirement is reduced. But still, this lower amount is not available 

to every women entrepreneur because most of them start a business as their first income-

generating work. However, women-owned businesses are mostly small to medium-sized, and the 

capital requirement is not so large, the author wants to know why they cannot get funds easily.  

Entrepreneurs either large or small are taking part to increase production as well as the 

GDP of any economy. Women start a business to meet their basic needs, but it contributes to the 

whole society and the economy of a country. In Bangladesh, women have many reasons for 

being an entrepreneur.  As they are giving physical support and time to their family, it is difficult 

to maintain office hours for many women. Some women didn’t get the expected job, or some 

remained unemployed. Some women want to help financially to their families. So, they start 

their own innovative small or medium business. The amount of this type of entrepreneur is not 

trivial. So, women entrepreneurs are a significant player in building a growing economy. When 

they want to start a business, in maximum cases their own capital is not sufficient to start a new 

business enterprise. They have to borrow funds from informal sources like family, friends, 

neighbors, relatives etc. or from some formal sources like financial institutions- banks, NGOs, 

and other formal providers. Women entrepreneurs should choose an appropriate combination of 

debt and equity capital otherwise they will not succeed in their business.  

 

The objectives of the current study are 

 To show which sources of fund are frequently used by female entrepreneurs and the 

study also reveal the terms of the fund.  

 To seek whether women entrepreneurs reinvest their profit or withdraw it for personal 

expenses.  

 To conclude the problems faced by women in collecting funds and to know whether the 

fund providers are considering these challenges.   

 

In recent time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many people lost their job, some got a partial 

salary. For lockdown situations, people pass the lazy time. So that many women are getting 

involved in small-scale businesses to give financial support to their families. They are thinking 

about the sources of financing. This study will help them to find an appropriate strategy for 

financing so that they can survive and achieve sustainable growth in their business. The purpose 

of this study is to serve the new woman entrepreneurs in the making decision about collecting 

funds to lever up the capital structure and gather handsome profit and sustainable growth.  

 

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/author/Greene%2C+Patricia
https://www.tandfonline.com/author/Balachandra%2C+Lakshmi
https://www.tandfonline.com/author/Davis%2C+Amy


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LITERATURE REVIEW 

Several researchers’ attention is given bellow              

Ali and Rana (2016) presented a study based on women empowerment through the 

involvement of women of Rangpur region in operating parlor on the basis of sole proprietorship 

form. This study revealed that as Bangladesh is a developing country, women entrepreneur’s 

faced different types of problems related to financial, social and ethical issues during the 

business operation. Going through the analysis based on both primary and secondary data this 

study mainly identified the problems of women entrepreneurs in conducting beauty parlor 

business in Bangladesh as well as prospects and possible opportunities towards women 

empowerment. 

Chowdhury (2017) presented the pros and cons of entrepreneurial development in 

Bangladesh. Based on the secondary data this study mentioned the wide scope of 

entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh. Also this study points out the problems of 

mentality, efficiency, managerial, marketing, riskiness, infrastructural, technological, 

policymaking, political, international, corruption, inflation, the crisis of emergency fund, 

insufficient financial organization, complexity in loan granting, restrictive credit policy, unstable 

market structure, absence of proper policy decision, lack of proper financial support, lack of 

awareness of incentives provided by the government, lack of campaign about areas of 

entrepreneurship, lack of proper training facilities of entrepreneurs, lack of integrated package 

assistance, stimulating, supportive and sustaining activities needed for SMEs and so on. 

Faruk, Hassan, and Islam (2016) reported that social entrepreneurship plays an important 

role in the socio-economic development of a country through solutions to social problems with 

the help of creating new ideas, developing social perception, and searching for new opportunities 

for the benefit of the society rather than private wealth maximization. This study aimed to 

identify the factors affecting the development of social entrepreneurship in Bangladesh as well 

some key factors to determine the development of entrepreneurial social business such as new 

opportunities and innovations, social welfare and value, leadership, knowledge, skill and 

experience, ability and willingness, funding and resources, etc. 

Nyamwanza, Mapetere, Mavhiki, and Dzingirai (2012) identified business challenges 

faced by women entrepreneurs in implementing financial strategy. The study summarized that 

enterprise survival and growth were futile without appropriate financial management skills. 

Mwobobia (2012) listed the challenges facing small businesswomen in Kenya. The study 

identified that many stakeholders were trying to empower women entrepreneurs through the 

formation of funds for women entrepreneurs, formal and informal financial assistance and the 

donor’s implementation. Witbooi and Ukpere (2011) dealt with the extent to which financial 

providers in South Africa were adequately aware of the challenges facing by women 

entrepreneurs. Abdullah, Johari, Bakri, and Razak (2015) descriptively analyzed the 

effectiveness of the collaboration between students and women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The 

study found that the collaboration was very fruitful. 

Chatterjee and Ramu (2018) found innovation and entrepreneurship were being 

dominated by women in India. The survey and round table interview were taken to trace out how 

innovation and entrepreneurship facilitated in India. Vladasel, Lindquist, Sol, and Praag (2020) 

analyzed the importance of family and community that affect entrepreneurship. They found that 

entrepreneurial careers could be highlighted at an early age. 

Aggarwal, Goodell, and Selleck (2015) reported that microfinance institutions (MFIs) 

prefer women debtors universally for many reasons. The study aimed to attribute two major 



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factors- the trustworthiness of women and the social impact of women. This study also depicted 

that microfinance institutions (MFIs) prefer women more in the low trust countries and 

interpreted gender targeting as an alternative for social belief. 

Othman (2015) said women play a crucial role in attaining shared propensity via Islamic 

microfinance in Malaysia. This study also examined the effect of Islamic Microfinance to attain 

shared propensity and to boost up the economy. Researchers conducted many kinds of research 

on the influence of Islamic Microfinance to encourage comprehensive growth, hasten poverty 

reduction, and decline inequality. This study also aimed to discover the present effect of Islamic 

Microfinance on women entrepreneurs to attain shared propensity in Malaysia. 

Murshid and Ball (2018) evaluated the link between women's physical mobility and 

participation of them in microfinance, empowerment program in Bangladesh based on the data 

from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Service of 2011.  This study also discovered that 

women with physical mobility were 12 percentage to take part in microfinance paralleled to 

women without physical mobility. And there was a contradiction between the expansion of 

empowerment programs and cultural, patriarchal, social, infrastructural obstacles that precluded 

women from entering such programs.  

D'Espallier, Guérin, and Mersland (2011) presented a study based on an international 

data set of 350 MFIs from 70 countries. The study explained that, in microfinance, the male 

borrower had more credit risks than the female borrower. It also stated that a greater number of 

female clients in microfinance related to fewer portfolio risks, fewer provisions and fewer write 

off. Besides, women related to higher repayment and resilience for NGOs, MFIs, and individual-

based lenders. 

Drori, Manos, Santacreu-Vasut, Shenkar, and Shoham (2018) discovered that the 

microfinance segment acknowledged and proceeded on inclusive markets as a relevant factor to 

promote female entrepreneurship. This study analyzed how organizations and institutional 

representatives smooth the method by which microfinance challenges gender-based financial 

segregation. This study confirmed market inclusion of women influenced by institutional and 

organizational factors based on the secondary data of 2361 microfinance institutions from 115 

countries. Again Drori, Manos, Santacreu-Vasut, and Shoham (2020) explored gender targeting 

strategy of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) was regulated by the role of culture. This study 

specified that there is a noteworthy effect of gender distinction on the targeting strategy of MIFs.  

This research also suggested to MFIs for distinguishing biased culture that can aid financially- 

impeded women. Fall, Tchuigoua, Vanhems, and Simar (2021) studied and assessed the effect of 

gender on the social competence of microfinance by applying nonparametric techniques to assess 

the influence of gender. They used 680 microfinance organizations as a cross-country database 

from six countries of the world. Their outcomes suggested that the mixture of gender had a 

positive influence universally on the social competence of microfinance. 

Afroze, Alam, Akhter, and Jui (2014) worked on female entrepreneurs funding with other 

challenges and the determinant factors of entrepreneurship, the study area was the Khulna region 

of Bangladesh. It discussed available challenges like gender inequality, permission for doing 

business, inadequate capital negative perception, lack of training and technical support and so on. 

It found potential key success factors of women entrepreneurs were hard-working, family 

member’s support, management and marketing skills, dedication etc.  

From the above literature, it is visible that challenges of women entrepreneurship, 

societal and cultural factors related to women entrepreneurs were the subject matter of many 

studies. But it suggests a scarcity of evidence regarding funding problems and the financial 



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strategy of women-owned businesses. Most of the previous research has been done using data of 

before the Covid-19 pandemic and has not found much impact of external factors that are salient 

in the recent phenomena. 

 

METHODOLOGY 

The study is based on originally collected primary data, but some secondary data is also used to 

mark the concurrent economic situation of Bangladesh. The respondents were women 

entrepreneurs that commenced business a minimum of one year ago. Primary data was collected 

from visiting women entrepreneurs personally. But due to the pandemic, a small number of data 

was collected over the phone. Data were collected from February to April of the year 2021 

through interviews and surveys. A well-structured questionnaire was prepared which comprises 

both open and close-ended multiple-choice questions. At first, the questionnaire included some 

personal questions about the respondent’s name, age, educational background etc. Business-

oriented questions collected data about type, form, commencement, operation, location and so 

on. Financial information like the amount of capital, total assets, yearly sales, and profit was 

collected through the questionnaire. The main objective of the data collection was to gather data 

about funding and financial strategy followed by women entrepreneurs. All possible questions 

about funding and financial strategy were included in the questionnaire. Questions about the 

impact of Covid-19 in their entrepreneurial functions were also included. Respondents were also 

asked about limitations faced by them in operating business and the possible ways to solve these 

problems. They stated their future expectations with the hope of effective and prompt initiatives 

from the authority and the policymakers.  In the time of face-to-face conversation, the author 

gathered some additional effective data beyond the questionnaire. These data were also analyzed 

and revealed in the result section of this study. Some attributes in the questionnaire were targeted 

to measure the entrepreneurs’ perceptions by using a five-point scale (Highly dissatisfied, 

Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Highly satisfied). 200 respondents from different regions of the 

country participated in this survey but from them, 20 respondent’s questionnaires were rejected 

for partial answering.  

Secondary data was collected from research papers, newspapers, magazines, journals and 

the internet. The nature of this study is descriptive and explanatory. Collected data was analyzed 

concluding some common statistical tools and techniques such as average, frequencies, 

percentage, pie chart and table for representing the chronicles. The researcher used SPSS 

software for data analysis. 
 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

Funding is the prerequisite for every business. In most cases, women entrepreneurs start small 

and stay small businesses. But this small amount is not available to the women because they are 

financially dependent on their parents or husband. Table 1 represents available sources of funds 

for women entrepreneurs. The study found that only 5 percent of women started their business 

with their own saved money. They saved money by cutting their expenditure or selling their 

assets. 11 percent of women collected their capital from family members, friends or relatives. 

This informal source was sometimes free of cost and sometimes very costly because some family 

members provide funds without charging any interest but some relatives or neighbors or friends 

charged higher interest rates. For funds, most entrepreneurs knocked on the door of semi-formal 

institutions or NGOs of our country. Women needed a small amount of loans, and these 

institutions provided microcredit, so the demand and supply sides matched each other. NGOs 



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provided microcredit to beginners, so women entrepreneurs got loans easily from this source. 

Only well-established businesswomen were eligible for formal bank loans, so the percentage was 

very small which only 8 percent was. Although the starting capital was not so large, many 

women could not manage it easily. They tried to collect funds from multiple sources. When 

personal savings and informal loans were not enough, they move toward semi-formal or formal 

sources. This happened for 42 percent of women entrepreneurs who collected funds from more 

than one source. 

 

Table 1. Women entrepreneur’s sources of funds 

 

Sources of Fund Frequency Percentage 

Personal Savings 8 4.5 

Informal (Family, Friends, 

Relatives and Neighbors) 

18 10 

Semi-formal (NGOs) 60 33.3 

Formal (Bank) 14 7.7 

More Than One Source 80 44.5 

Total 180 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

From 180 respondents only 10 percent could manage funds without any interest. Most of 

the entrepreneurs paid 11 to 13 percent interest to their borrowed fund. About 31 percent of 

women collected funds paying higher interest rates which were between 14 to 16 percent. Some 

fund provider offered lower interest rates 8-10 percent, but the number of these providers were 

very small. These results showed in Table 2. 

 

Table 2. Women entrepreneur’s cost of collecting fund 

 

Interest Rate (%) Frequency Percentage 

0 18 10 

1-4 0 0 

5-7 1 .6 

8-10 10 5.5 

11-13 95 52.8 

14-16 56 31.1 

Total 180 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

Table 2 represents 162 respondents who had to pay interest. The majority of these 

respondents were dissatisfied with the interest rate charged by the financial institutions. Table 3 

represents the state of satisfaction with the interest rate of the women entrepreneurs. The 

satisfaction level was very low which indicated the interest rate was much higher for the women 

entrepreneurs. As they had no other choice, they took a loan at a higher interest rate to start their 

business. The author wanted to know the repayment rate with this unsatisfied interest rate. The 



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interesting thing was that 98 percent of women borrowers paid their full loans. The common 

feature of these collateral-free loans was short-term and small amounts. Usually, loan installment 

frequency for the informal and semiformal institutions was weekly and for formal banks it was 

monthly. Data were collected from women entrepreneurs who had started a business minimum 

one year ago. For the short-term nature of the loan, all respondents paid their loan before they 

participated in the face-to-face interview.  

 

Table 3. Women entrepreneur’s level of satisfaction with the interest rate 

 

Level of Satisfaction Frequency Percentage 

Highly dissatisfied 35 21.7 

Dissatisfied 72 44.4 

Neutral 43 26.5 

Satisfied 12 7.4 

Highly satisfied 0 0 

Total 162 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

The fund was inevitable for any business whether it is small or large. The utilization of 

available funds is also a very challenging task for the entrepreneur. Women usually like to do 

that business in which they have much knowledge or expertise. So that they can easily earn 

profit. As the maximum women owner operate small to medium business, they manage business 

by their self. Sometimes they get help from family members and recruit few numbers of 

employees.  The study found that, before the Covid-19 pandemic all women could earn profit but 

after starting the pandemic, the profitability position had been changed. Many women faced 

losses in their business. The profitability of every business got volatile because of the lock-down 

situation. But results showed that e-commerce-based businesses’ profits were increased. The 

study also found about 97 percent of the entrepreneurs operated their business in urban areas. 

There were many facilities they received in the urban areas which were not available in the rural 

areas. Communication facilities, infrastructural facilities, network facility and product delivery 

facilities were inevitable for women entrepreneurs. Table 4 shows the direction of profitability in 

the Covid-19 crisis. 

 

Table 4. Women entrepreneur’s direction of profitability due to Covid-19 pandemic 

 

Method of 

operation 

Profitability Business 

orientation 

Frequency Percentage 

Physical 

location-based 

Highly decreased Product 4 2.2 

Service 68 37.8 

Decreased 

 

Product 0 0 

Service 32 17.8 

Stable Product 1 0.6 

Service 1 0.6 

Digital platform- Increased Product 63 35 



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based Service 0 0 

Highly increased Product 11 6 

Service 0 0 

Total 180 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

The study also tried to know the loan recovery consideration by the loan providers during 

the period of lockdown. More than 90 percent of the respondents said that the lenders’ 

consideration for loan repayment in the lockdown situation was good to excellent. From the 

borrower’s point of view, as their income slowed down this consideration was very helpful for 

their survival. According to the Microcredit Regulatory Authority’s circular letter54, 25 March 

2020, microfinance institutions cannot force the borrower to pay the installment if he or she was 

financially disabled. However, some respondents said that the loan consideration was poor to 

fair, but these types of cases were below 5 percent. It was known that some entrepreneurs took a 

loan from informal sectors, and it caused this miserable situation. 

Women entrepreneurs followed two strategies about the uses of the earned profit. Either 

they withdrew the profit, or they retained it in the business. Table 5 represents the result of the 

uses of profit followed by women entrepreneurs. 77 percent of the respondents withdrawn their 

profit because the business was the main source of their income. Some entrepreneur (11%) 

reinvested their profit because they want to expand their assets and some of them followed both 

strategies to run their business in the long run. The study found that as they spend the withdrawn 

money, 80 percent of entrepreneurs wanted to take a further loan to expand their business. Some 

respondents said to the author that they withdraw money and saved it so that they can use it in 

their financial crisis or when they need more capital to increase their business operation. 

 

Table 5. Women entrepreneur’s utilization of profit 

 

Uses of profit Frequency Percentage 

Re-invest 20 11.1 

Withdraw 140 77.8 

Both 20 11.1 

Total 180 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

Apart from the funding and financial strategy of women entrepreneurs, the current study 

got some other important information. Some of them are highlighted to give a better 

understanding of the features of women’s entrepreneurship. If we see the result depicted in table 

6, day by day the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing. The possible reason was for the 

Covid-19 pandemic many families become helpless and both males and females started e-

commerce-based businesses. Because of the lockdown situation online selling has become 

popular and feasible everywhere. When the author collected data, she found that many women 

entrepreneurs were studying at graduation and post-graduation levels of many renowned 

universities of our country. They utilized their leisure time to financially support their family.  

 



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Table 6.   Women entrepreneur’s duration of businesses 

 

Duration of Business 

(years) 

Frequency Percentage 

1-2 57 31.7 

3-4 69 38.3 

5-6 30 16.7 

7-8 10 5.6 

9-10 6 3.3 

10+ 8 4.4 

Total 180 100 

Source: Analysis of primary data (Feb-Apr) 2021 

 

Some demographic factors (age, education and marital status) are pictured below 

 

 
Figure 1. women entrepreneur’s age 

 

Above figure mention that 38 percent of the women entrepreneurs belonged to 21 to 25 years and 

32 percent of them were between 26 to 30. Women had started their businesses in the early stage 

of their life. Some women left their job for many reasons. They found a new way which was an 

alternative to do a job. Entrepreneurship brought them self-independent. 

 

 
Figure 2. Women entrepreneur’s level of education 

below 20
2%

21-25
38%

26-30
32%

31-35
25%

36+
3%

AGE OF THE WOMEN 
ENTREPRENEURS 

Under 
secondary

Secondary

Higher 
secondaryGraduation 

Post-
graduation

EDUCATION OF THE WOMEN 
ENTREPRENEURS



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The above figure represents the level of education of the entrepreneurs. As we observed 

that most of the entrepreneurs’ age were 21 to 35 and they started business from 1 to six years 

ago, so the level of education was obviously higher secondary to graduation. The result explains 

that educated women were interested to do business and wanted to prove their capability of 

doing business. It is a good sign for our economic and social capital development. Women 

entrepreneurs are taking part in the growth of our country’s GDP and solve the unemployment 

problem. The study also finds that the women were educated but they did not have technical 

knowledge about how to operate businesses as well as they need specific sectoral training to 

upgrade the business position. Women entrepreneurs demanded a higher level of training and 

incentives from the government. 

Of the female respondents, 59 percent were married and 40 percent were unmarried. The 

study found only one percent divorcee. The study also discovers the ownership format of the 

respondents. The result shows that 98 percent women were sole proprietor and 2 percent were 

doing as a partner. 42 percent of the respondent were operating their business by using an e-

commerce platform and 58 percent had a physical location, store or showroom to provide 

products and services manually. Again, 83 percent of women did not get insurance for their 

business. 

In the environmental sustainability issue, women were very conscious. They claimed that 

their work did not hamper the environment in any way. Doing business by themselves did not 

threaten the environment by emitting any pollutants to society. The greater portion of the 

entrepreneurs used eco-friendly products. 

There are many problems with women’s entrepreneurship. Experiencing domestic 

violence is one of them. Physical violence by husbands influences women entrepreneur's 

decision to initiate a new business when they have access to financing (Shahriar & Shepherd, 

2019). From the analyzed result, 11 women entrepreneurs had gone through physical violence 

and they said that this violence negatively affects their entrepreneurial initiatives. 20 percent 

women believed that the society exhibited negativity to accept women as an entrepreneur.  

Key problems of women entrepreneurs identified by the author were lack of funds, lack 

of knowledge and training, family restriction, unfavorable business environment, balancing 

between family and business, network problem, women security, unavailable formal loan and so 

on. Most of the women wanted formal financial institutions loans with lower interest rates and 

ease of formalities in getting a loan. Women were less likely to obtain a bank loan and if women 

got a bank loan, they must pay a higher rate of interest than male entrepreneurs (Muravyev, 

Talavera, & Schäfer, 2009). Women entrepreneurs wanted microfinance institutions to increase 

the installment duration so that they got enough time to manage money for the loan repayment. 

They also wanted to gather practical knowledge through higher-level training. Women 

entrepreneurs said that in the job sector women got many privileges but in the business sector 

they didn’t get any subsidies or incentives. So, most of the women entrepreneurs placed a request 

to the government to grant incentives and subsidies for their business development. 

 

CONCLUSION 

The establishment of women’s entrepreneurship has a positive influence to increase the living 

standard of their family and society. Major challenges that women entrepreneurs face in doing 

business are limited funding, balancing business with family life, fear of failure, gender 

inequality and an unfavorable business environment. By considering these challenges the study 

aims to help them to find the appropriate strategy for financing and making decisions about 



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collecting and using funds. It will help them to survive and achieve sustainable growth in their 

business. Male-dominated societies do not believe in the capability of women. Women 

entrepreneurs do not get loans easily from formal financial institutions like male entrepreneurs. 

Formal financial institutions have many criteria for loan approval and have some limitations in 

managerial decisions. So, women entrepreneurs relied on semiformal NGOs and informal 

sources like family members and friends. Although women are capable to repay the loan with a 

higher interest rate, the interest rate is not satisfactory to them. For the betterment of women as 

well as the whole economy the MIFs should minimize the interest rate. 

Women made a choice of doing business to provide financial backing to their families. 

Most of the female entrepreneurs withdraw their business profit because it is the only accessible 

source of income in front of them. Some entrepreneur has other sources of income, so they retain 

their profit for future investment requirements.  

As the study was conducted at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the study cannot get 

the expected number of respondents. Lack of having contact numbers, it was not possible to 

communicate with many women entrepreneurs. One of the major challenges of data collection 

was to collect financial data because most women did not record proper financial statements. 

Sometimes they gave an estimated amount and sometimes gave the wrong financial figure. For 

this reason, the study cannot analyze financial factors. The study considers only the available 

avenue of funds like banks, NGOs, family, and friends but nowadays, crowdfunding offers an 

innovative funding source for both male and female entrepreneurs of the world. In the recent 

future, crowdfunding could be a lucrative source of funds for the women entrepreneurs of 

Bangladesh. In the future, researchers could consider this source of funds also.  

 

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