Today might be the day to stop assuming that women are risk-averse decision makers.
Research release this week from BMO Wealth Management has found that female business owners are actually quite comfortable making bold decisions -- more comfortable than their male counterparts..
In a report titled “Are there gender differences among entrepreneurs?” a BMO survey found that 75 percent of women entrepreneurs are confident about making risk-related business decisions, compared with 66 percent of men.
On the other hand, men in the survey were more likely to view risk strategically -- while 36 percent of women viewed risk-taking as a source of opportunity, 45 percent of men felt the same.
More men also felt that risk could be a means to achieve strategic objectives or social and economic goals, and while 31 percent of men saw risk as a necessary prerequisite to innovation, just 21 percent of the women in the survey felt the saem.
Women entrepreneurs tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, too. Forty percent of BMO’s female respondents said that work was something they enjoyed, versus 35 percent of males.
Both men and women reported similar reasons for being entrepreneurs -- 38 percent of both genders indicated that the number one reason that they started their own business was to pursue greater freedom and flexibility.
Yet men and women seem to define success in business differently, with more women, 30 percent, saying success was doing something they feel passionate about. Only 24 percent of men shared that definition of success. Women, at 26 percent, were also more likely than men, at 20 percent, to say they started a business primarily to pursue a passion.
Among the respondents, men were more likely than women to define success as making enough money to live comfortably or by increasing their business’s profitability.
For its report, BMO sponsored an online survey of 1,000 entrepreneurs, which was conducted from May 26 to 29, 2016.