5 Pieces of Advice for Women Entrepreneurs in Modern Architectural Space Women must imbibe these skills to better manage their finances and for the smooth functioning of their organisation
By Dillraj L Bhatia •
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Recent times have seen a spurt in the number of Indian women entrepreneurs owing to more resources and opportunities to be independent. The women in India have come a long way to explore the world of business. Public and private sectors are experiencing fast-paced development among women entrepreneurs.
The story of Indian women in the field of architecture dates back to begins the early 1930s with Perin Jamshedji Mistri. Today, nearly 44per cent of India's 58,646 registered architects are women, according to the Council of Architecture. Architecture is still considered to be a male-dominated profession where women are labelled as "Decorators" and the more technical work is handed over to men. However, it would not be wrong to state that women often find their expertise in niche arrays of architecture such as light designing, interior designing and workplace consultancy to name a few.
Even though the present scenario towards gender inequality is moving in the opposite direction, we as women entrepreneurs still have to face challenges. Below are 5 pieces of advice for becoming a better women entrepreneur than yesterday:
1. Wake up With a Motivation
The architectural and design space is a creative task where no two projects are the same. This requires professionals to be motivated at all times to think in an innovative manner. To succeed, women must strive to look for inspiration around them at all times.
2. Be Ready to Face the Hardships of Being a Woman in an Entrepreneurial Setup
The entrepreneurship in architectural space needs hardcore commitment in order to have better designs than before. People will try to pull you down but one needs to be patient enough for proving them wrong and this can only be achieved by becoming a self-believer.
3. Be Open to Learning Something New
The millennial generation wants an idea which is out of the box and learning something new every day is the basic task for meeting the changing preferences of future India. A woman entrepreneur must have the determination to learn something new in order to stay relevant in the industry. Being an archi-preneur is not just limited to creative ideas and design sense, it also requires special skills of running the business like financial knowledge, legal formalities etc. Women must imbibe these skills to better manage their finances and for the smooth functioning of their organisation.
4. Time Management Skills
There are times when we all face a creative block. This situation combined with the pressure of deadlines often is a reason for stress. Entrepreneurship in the architectural space demands a routine in which time management needs to be dealt with in a smarter way. One should not get stressed over not generating enough new ideas, rather stick to their individual strengths.
5. Be Open to Criticism
Criticism is often mistaken as negative. One must not forget that constructive criticism is the key to push your limits and overcome challenges. Instead of getting discouraged by criticism, one should think of it as a way of self-improvement.
The challenges for women entrepreneurs in this industry could be anticipated well when even the iconic Zaha Hadid labelled it "a man's world," noting that it was extremely difficult for women to make it to the top. To date, only two have ever won the prestigious Pritzker prize for architecture, and one of them was Hadid herself. This should only serve as motivation for young women in this field to prove these existing notions wrong and work in a smart manner to outshine her own self.
