This paper discusses the findings of a survey of female entrepreneurs in Australia and provides a profile of the female entrepreneur and their business activity. The characteristics of the entrepreneur are described, including their motivation for going into business, their attitudes toward training and joining networks. The issues of access to finance and family/business conflict are further investigated in the light of current literature. The results indicate that female entrepreneurs in Australia are well educated and tend to commence their businesses with low start-up capital obtained from personal savings or from family and friends. Their businesses are concentrated in the services sector, with a significant number starting out as home-based businesses. Despite evidence that female entrepreneurs have difficulty in obtaining loan funds, the survey results indicated that a high proportion of female entrepreneurs applying for loans were successful. Further analysis of the survey data indicated that the reason for the loan success had little to do with the strength of the business. This was evidenced by the respondents advising that the main type of information requested at the loan interview was personal financial details, that a high proportion of loans were secured by the family home, and that financial institutions required little in the way of ongoing reporting.
This paper details an Australian study, conducted by the Small Business Research Unit at Victoria University of Technology, of Internet usage by small business. The objectives of this study were to: explore the expectations of small businesses setting up webpages on the Internet; analyse the commercial impact of the Internet; determine any benefits from using the Internet; and to ascertain any problems associated with using the Internet. The methodology involved a questionnaire distributed either via electronic mail or the World Wide Web. The main findings indicated that the average number of Internet sales inquiries per month appeared low compared to other countries such as the UK and USA. The majority of businesses received less than 20 sales inquiries per month via the Internet and only half of the respondent businesses indicated that sales had increased as a direct result of being on the Internet. Despite this, there existed optimism regarding business use of the Internet with the majority of business owners/managers claiming that the benefits of being on the Internet outweighed the costs, and that their expectations were met in using the Internet. Businesses involved in the computing industry had the highest level of optimism.
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