[size=55:o3pksh5s]BNR 22 November 2010

One-third of Bulgarian businesses run by women

“Women always pay their loans back, they are flexible, hardworking, more efficient and are always fast to react”. This is how Yuliana Mincheva, member of the Managing Board of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs described business ladies at the Second forum of women entrepreneurs in Bulgaria. The forum aims to analyze the potential of Bulgarian women for access to new markets within EU and ways to strengthen contacts between them at regional, national and global levels.

With business ladies from Italy, UK, France and Austria, the President of the Bulgarian National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva pointed out that she is the first women to take this post in the 132-long history of Bulgarian parliamentary affairs.

“It is always interesting to try and define how women in business and politics differ from men”, Tsetska Tsacheva said. “Unlike men, we tend not to be that much burdened with the routine of social-political events. This allows us to find innovative solutions in routine situations. In times of crisis this becomes important, given that conventional solutions simply do not work. Women entrepreneurs have the potential to handle things from an unconventional perspective. They avoid men’s traditionalism: they’d rather take the standpoint of the majority.”

There are 60,000 women entrepreneurs in Bulgaria, and 63 percent of them have university education. This makes up for one-third of Bulgarian businesses. A survey held by the Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce suggests that business ladies are younger, better educated and with more modern thinking than their male counterparts. About 62 percent of women start their businesses with their own money or with money borrowed from friends and family, and their dominating motivation is professional development.

How women entrepreneurs differ from men? The question goes to Yuliana Mincheva, member of the Managing Board of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs:

“Well, of course women are much more sensitive and compassionate to the problems of their employees and their families, and to the social problems at large. Women are more farsighted in business, and as a rule they demonstrate much more integrity and ethics.”

Living in a men’s world, what does this take away from women?

“With the process of emancipation, women have lost some of their femininity, but there is no going back”, Mrs. Mincheva admits. “Women live with too much workload, because nobody releases them from their family duties, and besides, they will never be forgiven in case of family crisis and losing the bond with children.”

Why then, has the family of business ladies been expanding?

“In the world today, women have to work”, Yuliana Mincheva says. “The social group of the housewives is almost extinct. Women have to work, because of the social and economic factors, but also because of education. 63 percent of women entrepreneurs in Bulgaria have university degrees, and the figure is above the European average. A woman with university education would never be confined to the household. Look at present-day women: they work for both their families and careers.”

Do women cope better during crisis?

“They fare better because they are more flexible, have faster reactions and find unconventional solutions. Men are more ‘macro’, while women have more efficiency. They have to handle today’s chores, as well as tomorrow’s. They have to make it by the end of the week, and by the end of the month. The Bulgarian women entrepreneurs think fast and have great adaptability, and this has been acknowledged internationally”, concludes Yuliana Mincheva, member of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs Managing Board.