Visa today announced the results of research into female leadership and entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia & the Caucasus conducted by Emerging Europe, a prominent growth hub with expertise in the region, as part of the She’s Next initiative.

The extensive study comprised an online survey of 2,000 business owners or self-employed women in 11 countries, including Armenia, 75 in-depth interviews and focus groups.

“As one of our interviewees said, it is harder for women to raise funds. It is harder in Silicon Valley. It is harder in her country of Armenia. And raising funds is only one of multiple challenges that female entrepreneurs are facing,” said Andrew Wrobel, Founding Partner of Emerging Europe.

Overall, most women-owned businesses in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus (84 per cent) don’t cross international borders, but female entrepreneurs are willing to learn about doing business abroad.

The leading sectors where women-owned businesses operate are beauty and wellness (17%), retail (12%), agriculture and food (12%), education (8%) and PR and marketing (7%).

Two-thirds of female entrepreneurs do not use external financing, while three-quarters do not have any employees. Some 35 per cent of women-owned businesses in the region were set up with an investment of less than 1,000 US dollars. Only one in 10 women employs more than 5 people.

“We are happy to see female leaders of Armenia and the whole region of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus gradually transition to e-commerce and enjoy convenient and reliable digital payments,” said Vira Platonova, Visa Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for 17 countries.  

1. Women strive for professional and financial independence. The main sources of motivation for women to start their business are a desire to increase income (50 per cent), willingness to work for themselves (31 per cent) and fulfillment of a dream (21 per cent).

In Armenia, the main motivation is to increase income (58 per cent).

2. Female entrepreneurs care about their business and private lives almost equally. Respondents named business failure (29 per cent), a worsening financial situation (27 per cent) and neglect of family and children (25 per cent) among their biggest concerns.

Women in Armenia are mostly concerned about worsening financial situation (34 per cent), followed by business failure (32 per cent) and working a lot and not getting enough rest (28 per cent).

3. Women-owned businesses struggle to survive competition and raise funding. Female entrepreneurs tend to face such challenges as high competition (40 per cent), raising capital (32 per cent), and unfavorable business conditions (31 per cent).

Respondents in Armenia said that the biggest challenges of setting up and running a business in their country were obtaining investments/financing (46 per cent), followed by high competition (38 per cent) and recruit workers and build a team (26 per cent).

4. Female entrepreneurs want to learn about doing business online. The primary skills that respondents are willing to obtain are strategies to acquire additional funding (47 per cent), digital marketing and social media (37 per cent), e-commerce (24 per cent) and international business development (21 per cent).

In Armenia, among the most popular skills are obtaining additional financing (42 per cent), followed by digital marketing and social media management (37 per cent), electronic commerce and online operations (28 per cent).

5. Women-owned businesses stick to cash when paying employees and suppliers but tend to install POS terminals for customers. 42 per cent of female entrepreneurs pay their employees and suppliers in cash, while 37 per cent prefer card payments.

For Armenia, 57 per cent choose payment by card and only 37 per cent select cash.

When it comes to customers, electronic payments are far more popular: 37 per cent of respondents named card payments the most frequent method to pay for their goods and services and 42 per cent said they prefer their customers to pay them by card. In comparison, 35 per cent of female entrepreneurs said their customers paid in cash more often, and only 28 per cent prefer clients to stick to cash.

In Armenia card payment share is 48 per cent, which prevails over 28 per cent of entrepreneurs, who choose to be paid in cash.

The next stage of the Visa and Emerging Europe partnership - which has the ambitious goal of uniting female entrepreneurs throughout the region within the She’s Next community - is to provide them with a platform to communicate, mentor, exchange experiences, and expand the horizons of their businesses.