Motivation to Start the Business

It is a widely held claim that women start a busi­ness to have more flexibility and freedom to juggle work, leisure and family commitments. Business growth is not an explicit objective as it would conflict with their purpose of choosing self employment (Arenius & Kovalainen, 2006; Brush, Carter, Gatewood, Greene, & Hart, 2004; Chell & Baines, 1998; De Martino and Barbato, 2003; Kjeldsen & Nielsen, 2000; Orhan & Scott, 2001; Valiulis, Drew, Humbert, & Daverth, 2004). These family issues may be a source of conflict when deciding to grow the business (Babaeva & Chrikova, 1997; Fielden, Davidson, Dawe & Makin, 2003). Family commitments may serve to restrict the time and resources available to the female entrepreneur to grow the business and explains why many female owner/managed firms remain lifestyle businesses. Villanueva and Pavone (2007) suggest that the lower than average rate of growth among women-owned ventures was often a conscious choice by a subset of women entre­preneurs and did not reflect the actual potential ofthe business itself. Therefore a challenge arises to ensure the reason for starting the business does emerge as a barrier to subsequent firm growth.