Our survey, conducted by OnePoll, evaluated the ideas of 9,000 women in 15 countries and identified their main reasons, motivating factors and potential challenges for starting a new business. Making the decision to build a business from scratch is not easy. What are those motivating factors that drive entrepreneurship? We sought to understand the tangible benefits that women believe they can gain from becoming entrepreneurs.

The benefits with the highest mentions were:

• The potential to increase their income (54%).
• Being their own boss (52%)
• Having a flexible work schedule (45%)
• Being able to do what they are passionate about (40%) and
• Spending more time with family (36%).

In addition, we wanted to understand the other motivating factors that go beyond tangible benefits. For most women, being an entrepreneur is inspiring, meaningful and life-changing. Indeed, 45% of respondents see entrepreneurship as an opportunity to "provide women with more positive role models".

In other words, helping future generations is one of the main motivating factors why women want to be entrepreneurs. Eighty percent of respondents agree that they wanted to start their own business to be a role model for girls and young women.

The most common challenges when starting a new business

While for most women the desire to start a new business is most important, we also wanted to know the risks, challenges and concerns related to entrepreneurship. When asked what might prevent them from starting their business, our respondents cited the following concerns:

• The initial cost of starting a business (52%).
• Lack of funding or support for market knowledge (44%)
• Uncertainty about the steps to take to start (24%)
• Lack of education and training to open, manage and grow a business (19%)

New businesses can be heavy and many people can feel overwhelmed by the idea of starting something new. Like many, we want to feel confident in our abilities before embarking on a new venture.

For this reason, 52% of respondents said that a mentor to guide them through their entrepreneurial journey could help them take the first step in opening their own business. We heard similar stories among our independent distributors who receive coaching and training from their sponsors.

Similarly, our survey found that 43% of women would have taken the first step if they had the ability to run their business part-time until they were ready to go full-time.

Translated by: A.M