A Study on the Problems faced by the Women Entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu with special reference to Trichy City

Women have been successful in breaking their confinement within the limits of their homes by entering into varied kinds of professionals and services women entrepreneurs have proved to be on par with their men counterparts in business acumen and are emerging as smart and dynamic entrepreneurs. Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. The hidden entrepreneurial potentials of women have gradually been changing with the growing sensitivity to the role and economic status in the society. Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main reasons for women to emerge into business ventures. Women Entrepreneur? Is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. Women Entrepreneur faces lots of problems to become as a successful entrepreneur this study was conducted to know the key problems face by the women entrepreneur of Trichy district .


Introduction
Women Entrepreneur faces several barriers and constraints, viz. cultural, educational, technological, financial and legal lie in the way of women entrepreneurs throughout the world. In some parts of the globe, women are prevented by social customs from leaving their house and going to market. In other parts, women may be facing problems, such as lack of transport and storage facilities, market information, etc. and are also exploited by middlemen, due to poor bargaining power. It is often found that enterprises started by women and men a like mostly experience financial problems at the nascent stage of the enterprise. Thereafter, crucial problems are increasingly seen in connection with general management, marketing and delegation of the responsibilities [1][2][3][4][5]. Further, for a female business owner, the process of starting and operating anew enterprise can be difficult, because they often lack the skills, education, and support systems that can expedite their business pursuits. They also face barriers in banking, legal aspects, political contacts, customs tariffs, bureaucracy and extortion. So this study was conducted to analyze the problems faced by the women Entrepreneurs of Trichy.

Review of Literature
The problems of the women entrepreneurs, the challenges ahead the women entrepreneurs, strategy for development of women entrepreneurship and the need for environmental change have been discussed. The suggestions were women have to be made compatible of both social and economical worlds and empower them towards self confidence and self -reliance. Women should be motivated to come out of their traditional perceptions and responsibilities and make them to accept psychological and social changes inculcated in the system. Successful women in the field of entrepreneurship have to help other women in starting and sustaining in their business wholeheartedly. Women should be made aware of various credit facilities, financial incentives and subsidies [6][7][8][9][10].
The women entrepreneurs today are an emancipated lot, a force to reckon with. They are bound to succeed in the field of business with their intrinsic qualities of human relations, perseverance, cash management techniques, winning tactics etc. But the large majority of them are rather skeptical and frightened of the very many problems they are likely to encounter in the course of entrepreneurship.

Methodology
This study was conducted among the women entrepreneurs of Trichy and a questioner was given to them and they were asked to rank the problems and based on that simple percentage the tables where tabulated and again ranked based on their percentages. Date was collected from 112 women entrepreneurs. Table: 1 -Nature of Problems faced by the Women Entrepreneurs Generally, women have a lower status in the society, due to social Setup and implicit assumption that women are frail and indecisive. When they become entrepreneurs, they encounter several problems which are faced by entrepreneurs in general, viz. financial, manufacturing, labour, marketing, training and personal. Successful women entrepreneur consider their problems as a step to success and innovation and they take them as a challenge and face it boldly, instead of running away from it. Some of them are not able to withstand with the problems, due to lack of family support, poor financial position, etc. Training Problems ---Marketing is prime problem and financial problem ranked second by the respondents. Producers are dependent on middlemen for marketing their produce outside their local area. This reduces the community's earnings even though their products are of very good quality. The rich have financial capital for promoting their enterprise; the poor need to promote social solidarity and social capital. Women are seldom allowed to go out of the house to sell their products to the public. So the skilled women workers are discouraged from making use of their creative and entrepreneurial skills. From the above table it is inferred that lack of demand is the major marketing problem of the women entrepreneurs. They opined that the excess number of suppliers and low price are the two main reasons for the poor demand. Rivalry from competitors by way of reduced prices ranks second and problem of credit sales ranks third the women entrepreneurs face the problem of delay in collection of debts due to credit sales.

Measures taken to Solve Marketing Problems
Product differentiation / Product diversification / Innovative advertisement / New salesmanship Participating in trade fairs/ exhibitions / Adoption of own storage facility / Own transportation From the above table it is inferred that the basic financial problems of the women entrepreneurs are most of them have the problem of liquidity, which is ranked as first. The second problem, as perceived by the respondents is inadequate credit.

Measures taken to Solve Financial Problems
Borrowing from money lenders, Sale of property/ valuables, Pledging of jewellery, Borrowing from friends/relatives, Utilizing personal savings From the above table it is inferred that high production cost is the main production problem faced by the women entrepreneurs. It is also observed that high cost of inputs is the main reason for high cost of production, which reduces the margin of some of the women entrepreneurs considerably. The next important problem, as perceived by the respondents is frequent power failure which leads to loss of production time, loss of revenue, increased expenditure, abnormal idle time, etc. The non-availability and seasonal nature of raw materials also create problems to women entrepreneurs.

Measures taken to Solve Production Problems
Purchase of high quality materials, Purchase of modern machinery, Usage of captive power generator Proper disposal of wastage, waste treatment Plant, Quality control, Research and development Restricted mobility 08 7.14 6 Ego clash 08 7.14 6 It is revealed from the study that 14.28% face personal problems. Since women entrepreneurs have dual responsibilities, almost all the women entrepreneurs' face a lot of personal problems in starting and running their units. Table 6 shows that 'family responsibilities' is the basic personal problem of the women entrepreneurs' in Trichy. The next important problem, as perceived by the respondents is 'limited time to take up dual role'. While it is 'opposition from the family' which is ranked as third and women entrepreneurs also face the problem of sexual harassment, which is ranked as next.

Measures taken to Solve Personal Problems
Sharing family responsibilities with the children, Relying on servants/parents , Becoming member of various social/ industrial organizations , Obtaining consultancy services from Governmental agencies /NGOs , Seeking advice of friends/relatives , Winning the support of husband by giving equal participation Trade union problems ---From the above table it is inferred that high labour absenteeism is the major labour problem faced by the women entrepreneurs which is according to them, leads to considerable loss of production time and inability to meet the orders in time. The attitude of employees/ workers ranks next. High labour turnover ranks third.

Measures taken to Solve Labour Problems
Executing labour contracts, / Attractive fringe benefits /gifts to reduce labour absenteeism, Banning the formation of trade union in the concern, Punishment for default, Conducting time / work study/waste management training. Table: 1 reveals that marketing is the main problem faced by the Women Entrepreneurs in Trichy followed by financial problem / production problem / personal problem and labour problem product training is not a major problem for the Women Entrepreneurs in Trichy. Table: 2 reveals that Problem of demand, Rivalry from competitors and Problem of credit sales are the major marketing problems faced by the women entrepreneurs in Trichy. Table: 3 reveals thatProblem of liquidity / Inadequate credit are the major financial problems faced by the women entrepreneurs in Trichy. Table: 4 reveals that High cost of production , Frequent power failure and Problem of raw materials are major production problems of the women entrepreneurs in Trichy. Table: 5reveals that Family responsibilities, Limited time to take up dual role and Opposition from the family are the major personal problems faced by the women entrepreneurs in Trichy. Table: 6 reveals that reveals that high labour absenteeism, Attitude of employees / workers and High labour turn-over are the major labour problems faced by the women entrepreneurs in Trichy. Appropriate measures are also been taken by the women entrepreneurs but awareness level can be increased by appropriate training in all the problem orientated areas.