Three-quarters of Australian women believe they would be better off starting their own small business than working for someone else, new GoDaddy research has found, with five out of six working women having experienced burnout in their careers and yearning for financial freedom and flexibility of being their own boss.
The ‘Unstoppable Women’ survey was conducted ahead of International Women’s Day and found more than four in 10 (43%) of women started a business or side hustle for the financial opportunities.
“Australian women are seizing the day to pursue financial freedom and flexibility for themselves through small business ventures. At a time when unemployment is at historic low levels and cost of living is a challenge, many women are taking their future into their own hands and backing themselves to launch a business,” GoDaddy vice president, Tamara Oppen said.
The survey also found that many women tend to overestimate the true cost of starting a business or side-hustle by an average of 37% and underestimate the potential earnings. Three out of five women business owners surveyed said they started their business for under $1,000, with close to one in five (19%) launching with no start-up costs at all.
Many aspiring female entrepreneurs were prepared to invest in a website, with 39% planning to build one on their own and 47% anticipating they will need help.
“It’s easier and cheaper than ever to build your own website and this has significantly lowered the barriers to entry for many women, whether they want to start a side-hustle from their spare room or build a full-time business,”Oppen said.
“The growth in our digital economy has inspired many Australians to take a chance on a passion project, with a nearly 10% jump in new sole trader businesses recorded last financial year.”
The survey results revealed time commitments (57%) and set-up costs (62%) were the biggest barriers identified to starting their own business, followed by childcare expectations and costs (35%).
Women entrepreneurs ranked confidence and self-belief (37%), adaptability (32%) and persistence (29%) as the highest ranked traits for business success, followed by patience (27%), passion (25%), problem solving/critical thinking and juggling/multitasking (both 24%).