H.E.R Entrepreneur is an educational platform, which provides content, workshop and LearnXNetwork sessions to the community of female entrepreneurs and leaders

The difference of approach towards entrepreneurship among women in developing countries and developed countries cannot be starker: those hailing from developing economies take up entrepreneurship out of necessity due to lack of job opportunities, while their counterparts in developed market take the plunge due to opportunities.

Having said that, a common global challenge for women wanting to start a business could be the lack of support from their network and family. It is not as common for women to delve into entrepreneurship as men do.

“This is because some family members may not be very supportive with the idea of women being an entrepreneur, and this makes it more challenging for them to embark on the journey,” according to Reene Tan, Founder of H.E.R Entrepreneur, a programme that strives to promote women entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia.

It is even more challenging for women with a family, as the society expects to take good care of the household, regardless of whether they are working or not. With this added responsibility, many feel that they may not be able to cope well in business or succeed.

“This self-limiting belief disallows them to proceed further to pursue their dreams and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They withhold their dreams and halt on execution and kept waiting for the right time. In my opinion, there never is a right time to start something up. Either you kickstart and get things going, or you never get started,” Tan tells e27.

Tan believes that H.E.R Entrepreneur — which Harnesses the power of women in Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Relationship — can make a difference. H.E.R Entrepreneur, a division of Rendeur (a provider of training, consulting and events production services for our customers), is an educational platform, which provides content, workshop and ‘Learn X Network’ sessions to the community of female entrepreneurs and leaders. It acts as a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from successful business owners and leaders and be inspired to execute their business ideas.

Also Read: 25 inspiring women entrepreneurs in Singapore

Says Tan: “Our goal is to inspire, educate and empower women entrepreneurs and spur them to execute their business (ideas). Some of the women, who have attended our course on ‘Steps to Starting a New Business’, were afraid of starting their own business even after acquiring enough knowledge. Due to their self-limiting beliefs, there’s no continuity in the learning process, and thus, we have created a platform for the community to come together to learn about the various aspects of running and growing a business.”

Watching the startup scene from the closed quarters, Tan has found out that that women entrepreneurs in developed regions are not incentivised by the government funding programmes. In her opinion, what women need is social capital and a community of like-minded individuals or successful entrepreneurs of similar background.

“Our purpose is to increase business literacy among women, create a strong community and provide them with a conducive platform, so that there’s continuity in their learning process,” she explains.

H.E.R Entrepreneur, which recently opened an office in co-working space The Co. in Singapore, doesn’t follow a hard and fast rule with respect the selection process. Unlike a traditional incubation programme, H.E.R welcomes all kinds of people to attend its programme. However, a major chunk of its attendees so far have been women, who are transitioning in their career or are starting a family. They are mostly in the age bracket of 30s to 50s.

Started in 2016, the three-month programme has helped nearly 200 women in inculcating entrepreneurial spirit, and a quarter of them have already started own ventures.

In Tan’s view, there are a few more challenges aspiring women are facing in Southeast Asia. Although there is no explicit gender bias, some form of bias definitely exists here. “I would not think that there’s much gender bias when it comes to starting a business if one is set on pursuing it. However, I have heard of female-led startups having a hard time convincing investors, as the questions from investors steered towards their life, marriage plans, family, etc. While for male-led startups, the questions are mostly about the business and team.”

It might be important, she continues, for the investors to know what’s next for the female entrepreneur when she goes through the next phase of life, but it makes a female founder wonder if her business idea is worth anything, and this can have a psychological impact on her and the success of the business. Thus, it is not surprising when females have self-limiting beliefs about themselves as such situations reinforce such negative thoughts. It becomes a vicious cycle that is difficult to break through, she admits.

“It’s obvious that the startup scene is mostly dominated by males. I have experienced it myself when I was consulting for a tech startup. During the pitching sessions, most of the speakers were male, so were the panel of judges and investors. It can be quite intimidating for a female founder to justify her business and yet, it is required to convince investors that she can cope with life transitions. If she manages to do well in both aspects, we must congratulate and recognise her efforts as she must have superseded her male counterparts,” Tan shares.

Also Read: What it is really like to be a woman in tech

H.E.R also runs a summit in Singapore, which covers three key components: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Relationship. “Women in business have to take into consideration their family and relationships and thus their business strategies and timeline have to be adapted based on their situation. Thus in our H.E.R Asia Summit and regular sharing sessions, we cover three key components: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Relationship.”

“When they know that they can network and gain support from the community, that’s when they feel more assured to take the next step forward. We provide coaching sessions to those who needs to be guided and we hand-hold them from ideation stage to execution,” says Tan.

The event also intends to connect women with successful entrepreneurs. Last November, the summit brought together 26 speakers to share insights and thought leadership, including Cheryl Wee, Actress, Founder, Cheryl W Wellness & Management (Jean Yip Group); Wong Li Lin, Ex-actress, Executive Director, Public Hygiene Council, NEA; Jenny Tay, MD, Direct Funeral Services; Gary Loh, Chairman, CEO, Sun Moon Food; Chatri Sitoydtong, Founder, ONE Championship; and Val Yap, Founder, PolicyPal.

H.E.R is eyeing a few markets for expansion, the next immediate target being the Philippines, where she sees great opportunities.

For Tan who herself an entrepreneur and the mother of a one-year-old kid, maintaining good relationships and managing time well is so important to ensure good work-life balance. The biggest challenge is to excel well in business and take great care of her kids at the same time. It’s not quite possible to perfect both at the same time, she confesses, and thus she prioritises what she does, and multi-tasks as much as she possibly can and be productive.

“For a good balance, I will do my best to work from home whenever possible, so that I can keep an eye on my boy. But when it’s time for business, I would make sure I maximise my time and get the most out of it. I would usually jam-pack my schedule back-to-back whenever I have meeting,” she goes on.

What is your advice to the budding women entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia?

“We only live once, if you are just waiting for the right time, it will never come. Just like the traffic lights in the world will never turn green at the same time, nor the stars will all be aligned. If you think you need to be educated in starting a business, go seek knowledge, if you think you need good advice and mentorship, go seek a coach, if you think you need time to plan, go find time, if you think you just want to try, change your mentality, you need to DO it.

Thinking and dreaming doesn’t make one succeed, one needs to execute to actualise the plan and dream. If you don’t succeed, re-strategise, plan and GO. We need momentum and a few rounds of lessons to succeed, but you need to start something no matter how small to gain that momentum. If you don’t start, you are at status quo, if you take action, you are somewhere along the way. So decide where you want to be, visualise and get that going,” she signs off.

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