Bhoomika Singh
Did you know…that there are 13.76 per cent (8.05 million) women entrepreneurs out of the total number of entrepreneurs in India, which stands at 58.5 million, according to the 6th economic census. Certainly, the numbers must be more than that. It’s no secret that being a working woman entails juggling work, family, finances and a myriad of other responsibilities. Professional women have always been known for their ability to multitask.
However, the advent of various online and digital platforms has made it easier for entrepreneurs to do business, while dealing with various business intricacies. Similarly, Women Listed, a start-up led by serial woman entrepreneur, Meeta Gutgutia is all set to promote and organise women-led businesses, enabling them to flourish and achieve greater heights.
Currently, this platform is a thriving community of 1000+ registered women. Which has taken on the onus of bringing together women entrepreneurs from all walks of life and it also provides engaging content on categories like career, money & finance, health & fitness, social issues, and many more.
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On Women Entrepreneurship Day, SME Futures spoke to Meeta Gutgutia, the founder of Women Listed to talk about the various facets of women’s entrepreneurship, and to discuss about her new platform to understand how it caters to the working women of the country.
Edited Excerpts:
What is your perception about women’s entrepreneurship?
Women’s entrepreneurship is like any entrepreneurship. I have always believed that what a man can do, a woman can do as well, which may be better with our multitasking skills and emotional bandwidth. All we need to do is to get out of our comfort zones, set our priorities right, understand our biases and make a career an important goal in our lives.
But we should not have this gender-based comparison and should treat all individuals as equals. In a professional space, we should judge them for what they bring to the table, based on their capability, vision and skillset. Through Women Listed, I want to make women’s entrepreneurship a norm, so that the divide ceases to exist.
What is your take on the social and financial gender bias in the country when it comes to entrepreneurship?
There is no denying that men in offices and womens in kitchens is what we have seen for decades. There is a deep-rooted conditioning that we need to understand and then we need to fight to bring about a change. I see womens adhering to outdated beauty standards, having people-pleasing behaviour and seeking validation and the list of conformist behaviour by womens is much longer than this.
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Sacrificing our dreams in the name of the family is so normal that we do not realise that it makes a thinking mind question its choices and makes chasing one’s dreams a selfish endeavour. Both men and womens should take pride in sharing expenses and chores.
Womens need to step up to take on the financial loads in their families and to do that they need social and familial support from the men around them and from society at large. The intellectual and creative needs of a human should be valued and upheld with equal gusto.
How do you make a difference in a male-dominated entrepreneurial society?
Saying that womens are multitalented multitaskers is a cliché, but it is true. If more women are included in our economy, not only will they help to bring about multi-pronged growth, but they will also add significantly to India’s GDP. We simply need to organise and upskill ourselves in the areas that Women Listed is offering. I am sure there are more, but research and analysis showed us that these were the major hindrances, therefore we built Women Listed to bridge these gaps.
Tell us about your latest venture—Women Listed and how it is making a difference.
The idea of Women Listed came from multiple need bases. For instance, situations like not being able to find women who are doing amazing products and services. One cannot find them as they are not listed on Google or Amazon.
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I would only get to know these professionals via references from friends or through WhatsApp groups. This thought made me create a platform to give women professionals a designated space to connect and grow.
Women Listed is a need for women entrepreneurs because in India most homes have entrepreneurs, but they fall in the unorganised sector and are not considered financial contributors. They mostly name their career as a part-time hobby, so they are not focusing on upskilling, marketing and networking. At Women Listed, we support women in upskilling, networking and marketing, which are essential for any business module to grow. The end goal is to see them being self-reliant and growing in their careers.
How does this app work? Also throw some light on its features.
Women Listed is a new idea. We started as a pilot project with 100 entrepreneurs, practitioners, counsellors and service providers and received positive feedback. The number of professionals and patrons visiting our platform is steadily increasing.
We are soon going to launch its software application by the end of November 2022. And just like every other social media application, all you need to do is simply sign up as a user/professional (based on your preference), and list yourself if you are a professional. You can then get access to list your services/products and get clients/customers. You can also access our social feed and post content. There is a unique self-marketing dashboard through which you can promote your socials/profiles as well.
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As of now, we are not charging any subscription fee. Both listing on our app and enabling most of the features are free of cost.
So, what is your revenue model?
Our revenue model is our database. The more women we manage to list here, the more features we will be able to offer. As of now, getting featured on our app/web, our networking sessions and our marketing dashboard are our monetisation sources.
What are your future targets and roadmap for Women Listed?
Women Listed is a unique platform that not only provides social space to women entrepreneurs to connect and grow but also provides skill-building and marketing support to them. We are targeting every professional woman, conventional or unconventional from varied professional spaces and from a myriad of backgrounds.
So given that, I can say that we are on a mission to reach out and bring awareness about financial independence to 5 million women by 2025. At Women Listed, we are taking on the mission of encouraging women to understand their roles better, making them realize the importance of having a career and reaching their full potential in life.
