Women Entrepreneurs In Khulna

Existing sex ratio in demographic structure of Bangladesh indicates that women comprise almost 50% of the total population. They are essential part of nation’s human resources. Due to this demographic structure, the issue of the participation of women in the mainstream economy is imperative. Without a meaningful and active participation of women, half of the total population, in regular economic activities, a dynamic and sustainable economy is impossible.

A sustainable economy is a precondition for national growth and prosperity including institutionalization of a democratic system. It is also impossible to achieve the target of a poverty-free society without incorporation of women in the mainstream economy. Considering the issue, a special emphasis has been given by the Government, donor agencies, NGOs, business community and all other relevant stakeholders through different interventions to ensure increased women’s participation in formal economic sector, especially in business and industry. The major initiatives undertaken by the Government so far included establishment of a separate ministry on women’s affairs, formulation of the National Policy for Advancement of Women-2008 and the National Action Plan. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which is now the main document for national development in Bangladesh, also incorporated some noteworthy issues to ensure women’s participation in social and economic life. The industrial and SME policies 2005 of Bangladesh Government have emphasized women entrepreneurship development, particularly in SME sector.

Despite various initiatives from different corner of the state, the level of participation of women in the mainstream economic activities, especially private sector, remains insufficient and the percentage of women in business and industry is still below than that of their male counterpart. Due to govt. budgetary limitations for Khulna city, the once-titled “Industrial City” has lost its good days and also the business environment is yet to be congenial for business enterprises. Likewise other parts of the country, women in Khulna city have also been engaged in small-scale enterprises for their survival and these enterprises have benefitted their family and life.But here has been too few research efforts carried out in Bangladesh on particularly the women entrepreneurship of Khulna City so far. In this paper an attempt is therefore made to evaluate the nature of the women entrepreneurial ventures and their impact on the socio-economic development of these women taking Khulna city as the study area.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Women’s entrepreneurship needs to be studied separately for two main reasons. The first reason is that women’s entrepreneurship has been recognized during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth. Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also provide society with different solutions to management, organization and business problems as well as to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs. Thus there exists a market failure discriminating against women’s possibility to become entrepreneurs and their possibility to become successful entrepreneurs. This market failure needs to be addressed by policy makers so that the economic potential of this group can be fully utilized. While without a doubt the economic impact of women is substantial, we still lack a reliable picture describing in detail that specific impact. Recent efforts initiated by the OECD (1997, 2000) are responses to this lack of knowledge and have focused the attention of policy makers and researchers on this important topic.

The second reason is that the topic of women in entrepreneurship has been largely neglected both in society in general and in the social sciences. Not only have women lower participation rates in entrepreneurship than men but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different industries than men tend to do. The industries (primarily retail, education and other service industries) chosen by women are often perceived as being less important to economic development and growth than high-technology and manufacturing. Furthermore, mainstream research, policies and programs tend to be “men streamed” and too often do not take into account the specific needs of women entrepreneurs and would-be women entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal opportunity between men and women from the perspective of entrepreneurship is still not a reality. In order for policy makers to address the situation the report makes a number of recommendations.

Many economists, sociologists, psychologists and behavioral scientists have made attempt to define entrepreneurship in their respective fields. The concept in the field of entrepreneurship could be classified into two disciplines: Economic concepts and behavioral concepts. Schumpeter, 1967 clarified entrepreneur as an innovator with potentialities of doing new things, as an economic leader, as a chief conducive function in the process of economic development. McClelland, 1965 views that the supply of entrepreneurship is highly dependent upon the intensity of overachievement motivation, called the “need for achievement” (n ACH motive). Rahman, 1997 said that, entrepreneurship is the function that is specific to the entrepreneurs’ ability to take the factors of production – land, labor and capital and use them to produce new goods or services. Entrepreneurship is defined as a kind of behavior of a person that includes perceiving economic opportunities, initiative taking, creativity and innovation, organizing social economic mechanism to turn resources and situation to practical account and is the acceptance of risk to failure. Women entrepreneurs: A woman entrepreneur is defined as a woman who has alone or with one or more partners, started, bought, or inherited a business, is assuming the related financial, administrative, and social risks and responsibilities, and is participating in the firm’s day-to-day management. Such women are also known as women business owners or women entrepreneurs or self-employed women (LFS, 1996)

More recently, a new trend has emerged where women are venturing as entrepreneurs and are contributing to the economic development. Women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh represent a group of women who have broken away form the broken track and are exploring new vistas of economic participation. Their task has been full of challenges (Begum 2000). More recent American research examines in great depth both by motivation by female start-up and the problems faced by a woman when starting a business (Hisrish and Brush, 1984). Motivations for business start-up as Bangladeshi were identified as a desire for job satisfaction, independence and achievement (Begum, R 2000).The major problems, identified by the female respondents in this study, were under capitalization and a lack of knowledge and training in business skills. A majority of the respondents reported difficulties in “overcoming some of the social beliefs that women are not serious as men about business.” A later study (Hisrish and Brush, 1996) focused on different types of female-owned business and confirmed the lack of support offered to female proprietors in non-traditional sectors. In a more recent study, Goffee and Scase (1999) use a sample of 54 female proprietors to identify a typology of female entrepreneurs. Four types of female entrepreneurs were identified: a) Conventional entrepreneurs; b) Innovative entrepreneurs, c) Domestic entrepreneurs and d) Radical entrepreneurs. Chowdhury (1988) classified ten types of women entrepreneurs in her study as follows: – a) Self made women individual entrepreneurs, b) Trained women industrial entrepreneurs, c) Women entrepreneurs who as wives of business people are involved in production, d) Women are share-holder of commercial firms, e) Women as administrative executives of enterprises, f) Women as inheritor of parents or husbands firms, g) Women as partners in business, h) Researchers turned entrepreneurs, i) Rural women entrepreneurs and j) Industrialists cum traders. In spite of women taking entrepreneurship in many challenging fields, the present women entrepreneurial activities in Bangladesh is not very high. Women are participating in starting small-scale industries in the country, out of which only 8% of the industries are run exclusively by women entrepreneurs (LFS, 1996). Entrepreneurial Quality: Entrepreneurial qualities are same for men and women to succeed as entrepreneurs. The major entrepreneurial qualities seen in Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs are that they have confidence, commitment, innovative and creative knowledge, need for achievement, profit oriented, hard work driving energy and risk taking ability (Begum R.2000).

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Our report paper was constructed with a view to analyzing the present entrepreneurial situation of women in Khulna city and how these entrepreneurial ventures have helped to make them self –reliant in their socio-economic life. In recent years, with the growing tendency to flourish businesses, women are not lagging behind in their contribution to their family and self existence. Although there have been researches in area of entrepreneurship, no specific research has been done on women entrepreneurial ventures on Khulna city. So for a detailed knowledge on women businesses and their motivation to be engaged in such ventures have a special concern for the NGOs, micro-credit institutions and for the policy holders. So this is a effort to have a detailed analysis of women entrepreneurial businesses.

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE REPORT
As mentioned earlier, the main objective of the study was to evaluate the nature of women entrepreneurship in Khulna city, its socio-economic impact and also to identify problems and suggest guidelines. Following were the specific objectives of the study:
i. To analyze the main entrepreneurial ventures run by women entrepreneurs in Khulna.
ii. To show how these enterprises are creating an overall positive impact on their family status and for economic solvency.
iii. To identify the major constraints for women entrepreneurship development and giving recommendations for the rapid flourishment of women entrepreneurial ventures.

5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study was undertaken in Khulna city which is located in the South-western region of Bangladesh. It is the third largest city in the country. Before proceeding to the formal study, a literature review has been covered on women entrepreneurship. For the convenience of time and resources, the main women entrepreneurial ventures in the metropolitan city have been interviewed and questioned. An emphasis was given on hearing the experience of the women entrepreneurs. The policy recommendations have been suggested with regard to the current scenario and also from the research and report papers of national NGOs..

6. LIMITATIONS OF THE REPORT
The study report faced the concrete statistic data regarding the women entrepreneurial activities of Khulna city. There are no updated numerical figures about the entrepreneurial ventures in the internet and in journals. To be authentic and representative, it has to survey a minimum number of women entrepreneurs from each sector, which was time consuming and demands more time and, the survey does not flow such objective, it aims to work out program for women entrepreneurs of the Khulna City. However, a good number of women entrepreneurs were distributed questionnaire for their uses.

Being involved in women entrepreneurship development activities we recognize that there should be an all-covering broad-based survey in this regard to gain a concrete idea for supporting and integrating women entrepreneurs in Khulna city.

7. METHODOLOGY
For the completion of the report, we used both primary data and secondary data from various sources.
1. Primary data: The main source of primary data was a number of interviews with women entrepreneurs from several entrepreneurial sectors and structured questionnaires which were answered by the entrepreneurs. For every sector, five entrepreneurs were interviewed. The questionnaires included questions regarding their educational background, family background, family support, initial capital, scope of businesses, services, profit margin and the probability of sustaining businesses amidst various problems. Then our second goal of assessing the impact of these ventures were achieved through giving the entrepreneurs questions regarding the monthly income, supporting family, decision-making skill and have more say in family matters.
2. Secondary data: The main source of secondary data was internet-based journals and research papers for covering literature review on women entrepreneurial situation in Bangladesh. For covering the solutions of the problems of women entrepreneurs, different proposals that have been made were also analyzed and included.
8. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, results of data analysis is shown and interpreted. Collected data were analyzed and interpreted in line with the report objectives stated before. Hence, the discussions in this section are divided in main three parts: the first part will include the nature and current scenario of entrepreneurial ventures of women including the constraints of these ventures.. The second part will involve the impact of these entrepreneurial activities on their socio-economic life. The third part will suggest some solution proposal for removing the current barriers of women entrepreneurship development in Khulna city.
Scopes and nature of women entrepreneurial venture of Khulna city
Through detailed analysis of the answers of the questionnaires, some common women entrepreneurial ventures were identified.
ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
SL. No. Type of Businesses
1. Beauty parlors
2. Butique shops
3. Poultry farming
4. Tailoring
5. Dairy farming
6. Others

8.1 BEAUTY PARLORS

In recent times beauty parlors have become the lucrative business for women entrepreneurs in Khulna. Starting with home-based services they are entering into this venture in a separate commercial basis. As it is mainly a home based entrepreneurship, women are very much interested about the prospect of this business. Actually beauty parlor is such a place where women care women; that means here service provider is women and the customer is also women. For that reason the women who are related with this business, can conduct their business conveniently. It is also a risk less business as women don’t need to invest a lot for their material of beautification. Along with that, a woman is very much interested to make her self stylist and fair in every circumstance for that this is very momentous for her to get help from a beauty parlor.

It is found that the main locations of the beauty parlors are South Central Road and New Market. Around South Central Road, there are about 5 beauty parlors, and there are 4 beauty parlors in and around New Market. From the interview with some openers of beauty parlors of South Central Road, we found that the initial capital of starting a parlor few years back was much lower than the present modern well equipped parlors for the emergence of new beautification techniques. The first parlor of this area (Pleasure Beauty Parlor) started its business with only 80,000 taka. But newest parlor of this area (Nanking Beauty Parlor) has started its business with around 12,00,000 taka. And obviously it is very much modern and customers are very interested to go there. For the competition, the other parlors are also trying to give better service to their customers. The parlors of new market have begun their business almost at the same time and the market there is very much competitive. But the parlors of this area are not much more popular than those of South Central Road. Here is a table regarding the 10 parlors of Khulna City. For making our study more representative and credible, small medium as well as large parlors were taken as samples. The sample results are given below:

Initial investments of the entrepreneurs
Amount (in taka) No. Of entrepreneurs Percentage
Below 20000 2 20
20001- 90000 2 20
90001- 200010 3 30
200011- 370000 2 20
Above 370000 1 10
total 10

The average monthly turnover of the entrepreneurs is also satisfactory. The average turnover of the studied parlors is Tk. 25000 ranging from Tk. 18000 to Tk. 45000. Profit margin is also very high (40%).
The monthly income of the enterprises
Amount (in taka) No. of entrepreneurs Percentage Average income
Below 20000 1 10 35000
20001 – 26000 2 20
260001- 35000 3 30
35001- 40000 2 20
40001 – 45000 2 20
total 10 100

Percentage of profit
Percentage of profit No of entreprenurs Percentage Average profit (%)
Below 15% 1 10 40
16% – 20% 3 30
21- 28% 2 20
29% – 36% 2 20
37- 44% 2 20
total 10 100

With the starting of home-based and separate business-location based beauty parlors, women entrepreneurs are now able to supplement their family with handsome income and the women are supposed to have more decision making and participating skills in their family. One particular parlor-owner in South Central Road stated that she was having more confidence in maintaining her family through her steady income. With the flourishment of modern and highly instrument-based parlors, the employment opportunity has been created in those parlors. The parlors in south Central Road on an average have created employment for five women. So, this parlor business is creating a overall impact on their socio-economic lives. The role of BRAC Bank, EBL, and Eastern Bank is significant for financing this SME. BRAC bank is giving is providing low-interest short-term credit to women entrepreneurs in this sector. CARE, UNNAYAN and some few other NGOs are providing low-interest credit to parlor-owners. But still govt. banks are reluctant to provide financial support for SMEs. So there should be more proper govt. policies for the growth of beauty parlors and other women SMESs

8.2 BUTIQUE SHOPS
Butique shops are the second largest business sector where we found more women entrepreneurs. There are many Butique shops situated in Khulna city. Lion’s shares of these shops are owned by women entrepreneurs. In Butique shops new designed and fashionable dresses are made and sold. They also take orders from the customers. Customers suggest their own design or select from their catalog. Embroidery, batic, applic, karchupi and different types of design are done in these Butique shops. These shops are mainly small business and very few workers work in these shops. We have found that not more than five workers work in a shop and average number of workers are three. These shops need not too much capital to start but the return is much more appreciable. We have found many Butique shops in New Market, Baitur Nur Shopping complex, Jalil Tower and Daulatpur Bazar in Khulna city. The following table shows some Butique shops in Khulna city.

Initial investments of the entrepreneurs
Amount (in taka) No. Of entrepreneurs percentage
Below 20000 3 30
20001- 90000 2 20
90001- 200010 2 20
200011- 370000 1 10
Above 370000 2 20
Total 10 100

The monthly income of the enterprises
Amount (in taka) No. of entrepreneurs Percentage Average income
Below 20000 2 20 25000
20001 – 26000 1 10
260001- 35000 3 30
35001- 40000 2 20
40001 – 45000 2 20
Total 10 100

Percentage of profit
Percentage of profit No of entrepreneurs Percentage Average profit (%)
Below 15% 2 20 30
16% – 20% 3 30
21- 28% 2 20
29% – 36% 2 20
37- 44% 1 10
Total 10 100

Because of less capital needed and also for the demand this sector becomes much attractive to the women entrepreneurs. But the competition also becomes higher and higher in recent years.

8.3 POULTRY FARM
Poultry is another thriving sector in which women entrepreneurs are getting the advantage of running it as home business. In an interview with five women entrepreneurs from different regions of Khulna we found a positive ground for being engaged in such business, although the fear of Bird-flu is causing some discouragement among women regarding the continuation of poultry. Five women entrepreneurs from Sonadanga, Boyra, and Daulatpur have been interviewed. The average initial capital for starting a firm having 500 chickens has been observed to be Tk. 2 lakhs. Women entrepreneurs reported that they calculate their income and profit margin in terms of sale of chickens and eggs at every term, One entrepreneur from Boyra has reported that for the sale of a 500 chicken package, on an average tk. 30000 is earned as profit margin.
On another study from an entrepreneur from Sonadanga, this particular layer firm owner has stated that, from the selling of every piece of egg, 50 paisa is earned as profit margin. So, for the sale of 1000 eggs, Tk. 500 remains as profit margin. So, by selling 500 eggs daily, this women entrepreneur earns 250 tk. profit margin daily.
So, considering this women entrepreneurs are being more encouraged to run such business, because they can run it with their household chores side by side. Generally, no employment opportunity is being created for other women except for the self-employment of the entrepreneur. But for the bigger socio-economic impact, women are adding income to their family matters and women are becoming self-reliant by being engaged in poultry.

Estimate of expense and income margin
Quantity of output Approximate expenses(tk) Approximate revenues(tk)
300 chickens 60,000 90,000
500 chickens 100,000 140,000
500 eggs 2,500 250
1000 eggs 5000 500

Considering the present scenario, women entrepreneurs have identified the following problems and obstacles in their running poultry firm :
• Increased price of poultry feed items
• Not rising the price of chickens in proportion to the production cost
• Lack of financial support from financial institutions
• Losing encouragement due to Bird-flu
• Profit margin not increasing much
So, in removing the present barriers, most of the poultry owners have reported the following remedies for the smooth completion of their business :
• Govt. To take initiative for not spreading the fear of Bird-Flu
• Providing regulatory measures by the govt. not to increase the price of feed items
• Training facilities from govt. and NGOS.
• Low-interest rated credits

8.4 TAILORING
Most of the women seeking for doing something prefer to start a tailoring shop. As they are normally introvert so they like to work in the environment dominated by her and the stakeholders will be women. It is tailoring shop which fulfills all the requirements. Mainly girls and women are customers here so tailors shop is a good choice for the women to start a business. With the initial capital like thirty to fifty thousands taka women start a tailoring shop. Before that women have to train for tailoring. And in the tailoring shop they act both as tailor and master. We have found that average workers work in a shop is about three to four. Business and demand of the service of a particular shop depends on the updated fashionable dress.
Initial investments of the entrepreneurs
Amount (in taka) No. Of entrepreneurs percentage
Below 20000 2 20
20001- 90000 2 20
90001- 200010 3 30
200011- 370000 2 20
Above 370000 1 10
Total 10 100

The monthly income of the enterprises
Amount (in taka) No. of entrepreneurs Percentage Average income
Below 20000 2 10 25000
20001 – 26000 2 15
260001- 35000 3 25
35001- 40000 2 25
40001 – 45000 1 25
Total 10 100

Percentage of profit
Percentage of profit No of entrepreneurs Percentage Average profit (%)
Below 15% 2 10 25
16% – 20% 2 20
21- 28% 3 20
29% – 36% 2 25
37- 44% 1 25
Total 10 100

8.5 DAIRY FARMING
Dairy Farming is another profitable venture in which poor and lower-income classes of women are being involved more. From interviews with five women entrepreneurs in this sector, we identified the following reasons for growing it more :
• Family business
• Capital is not too high compared to other home business
• Easy for maintenance and care of cattles
• Usage of cow dungs as the fuel for poor women
• Making of fertilizer through processing cow dungs
• Satisfactory profit through selling milk
Considering the haphazard and irregular estimate of their buying and selling of cattles, women entrepreneurs could not give accurate estimate of their business. But, on an average, their whole cost of rearing and feeding cattles are compensated through the selling of milk. Occasional selling of cattles although dont help the women. So, 6 out of the five women said their dairy farming was unsatisfactory and they would rather give it up. The rest of the 4 women expressed their businesss is running well enough to support their family. The result of their monthly income is as follows.
Monthly income of the entrepreneurs
Amount (in tk) No.of entrepreneurs Percentage (%) Average monthly income
Below 3000 3 30 3500
3001-4000 4 40
4001-5000 2 20
5001-5500 1 10

In an effort to analyze the positive impact of the dairy business in the life of women is their solo dependence of this family venture. Women have been able to support the education of their children and making savings in the local Samites and NGOs. Women have become more sensible in their family matters and their decision-making capability has been reported to be more extensive than ever before.
On giving policy recommendations for the flourishment of such cattle business, the following measures have been suggested:
• More easy micro-credits from local NGOs.
• Expansion of govt. training programs in such fields
• Innovation of nutritious cow and goat feeds

8.6 OTHER SECTORS
TEA-STALL
Another sector of women entrepreneurship is tea-stall. Women are starting these shops to contribute in the family income. These shops need too little investment. So, lower middle class and poor women are usually found in this business. In this shop biri, cigarette, snacks, paan etc are also sold. We interviewed some of the entrepreneurs and found that average initial capital needed is approximately five thousands taka. No worker is usually needed because here the owner is the seller. Monthly income is about fifteen thousands taka and the profit is about approximately four thousands taka.
Fish selling, vegetable cultivation, mat weaving are some other minor sectors in which women are doing better and bringing a minimal income to their family. In New Market, Nirala Bazar and Natun Bazar and in footpaths, women have been reported to be involved in fish and vegetable selling. Although no overall reliable data have been found, yet fish and vegetable selling are their major source of income.

VENDORS
women became involved in selling as vendors or hawkers, because they didnot have other sources of support. Majority of these women had to fend for their families as amale breadwinner was absent due to divorce, separation, death or disability of husband.Some said that their husbands left them or married again and they had to take care of thechildren. Some started work after they returned to their father’s home. Some women startedworking to support their families after their husband died. A couple of women said theirhusbands were disabled and they had to take the main responsibility to look after the family.In pursuing businesswomen received support from other women entrepreneurs and NGOs.Some male business persons also helped the women.

In describing the advantages of being a vendor, women said they receive a greater return ontheir sales. They also felt that if more women vendors came to the market, then more womenbuyers would also come. Some women who go to the market as buyers said that if the pricewas right, they would prefer to buy from women. They feel more comfortable buying theirpersonal items from women.From the vulnerability matrix exercise, among potential women vendors and existing womenvendors, availability of and access to capital emerged as the main constraint for women. Men have more resources and social connections which provide them greater access to capital. That gives them a competitive edge. Moreover, women face gender bias when trying to get their space in the market. Vegetable vendors in Bagerhat described the harassment they faced, some times face hazards from the Izaradaar to sit on the vegetable platform. They have specific area but sometimes someone else occupies the spot by giving more “sitting charge”.

Capital constraint is an even bigger issue for women who operate fixed shops. The three fixedshops started by women without government assistance are shabby and very small.. Women had said that if they had the capital, they would decorate the shop to make it look more attractive.
The barriers which have been found by women in this regard are as follows:
• Unavailability of suitable places in the sides of markets
• Dominance in business by male counterparts
• Lack of effort for cultivating vegetable through scientific process
• Lack of financial support for starting a large-scale business

9. OBSTACLES SPECIFIC TO STARTING NEW WOMEN BUSINESS VENTURES
Firstly, women in general lack human and financial capital and that their opportunities are related to their idiosyncratic experiences it is difficult to separate out if they are discriminated against because of their sex, or because of lack of human and financial capital. If it is the latter, then the financial institution has not discriminated against a person based on his or her sex. The financial institution has just tried to optimise its loan portfolio based on those that probably have the highest chance to make a firm survive and prosper.
Secondly, three areas have been identified as potential or real problems for women when it comes to financing: a) women may be disadvantaged in raising the initial capital to start a new firm; b) collateral needed for external financing may be above the wealth level of most women; c) finance for an existing firm may be less available, because women are less likely than men to penetrate informal financial networks.

Thirdly, results indicate that women still perceive a negative attitude from financial institutions such as banks and other lending institutions. This negative attitude arises due to two possible reasons as discussed in the literature: a) women are not viewed as entrepreneurs due to the attitudes formed by traditional gender roles; b) women engage in industries that the financial institutions are not used to handle (as personal services, care, etc.). Also in the personal networks and the family it is harder for women to find financial resources to start a business.

10. KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on these findings, policy measures to support women’s entrepreneurship can be several types:
• Ensuring the availability of affordable child care and equal treatment in the work place. More generally, improving the position of women in society and promoting entrepreneurship generally will have benefits in terms of women’s entrepreneurship.
• Listen to the voice of women entrepreneurs. The creation of government offices of women’s business ownership is one way to facilitate this. Such offices could have programme responsibilities such as providing women’s business centres, organizing information seminars and meetings and/or providing web-based information to women.
• Incorporate a women’s entrepreneurial dimension in the formation of all SME-related policies. This can be done by ensuring that the impact on women’s entrepreneurship is taken into account at the design stage.
• Govt. and NGOs providing loan at lower interest rates and creating opportunity for training and facilitating the environment of business

• More research work on women entrepreneurs and the strengthening of Women and Child Ministry.

• Knowledge about women’s entrepreneurship and valuable tools for its development and promotion. Co-operation and partnerships between national and international networks can facilitate entrepreneurial endeavors by women in a global economy.
• Periodically evaluate the impact of any SME-related policies on the success of women-owned businesses and the extent to which such businesses take advantage of them. The objective should be to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of those that should be retained. Good practices that are identified in this way should be disseminated and shared internationally.

11. CONCLUSION

From the detailed analysis of the women entrepreneurial ventures, women are observed to be more willing to achieve self-employment and self-reliance. The selected women entrepreneurs of Khulna city have mainly started their business for their survival rather than meeting self-actualization needs. Some sectors like beauty parlors, boutique and tailoring are really doing a lucrative job for women entrepreneurs whereas the performance of other business like dairy farming and vendors are not satisfactory as to be more growth-oriented. But, still lots of possibilities are there and if govt. women policy gives more emphasis of women entrepreneurship, then women entrepreneurs will be more encouraged. Besides, Women Entrepreneurs Association (WEA) can arrange more financial capital and technical knowledge for women in Khulna. For one thing, low govt. budget for Khulna region has severely harmed the women entrepreneurship. So, for building up more varied women ventures and rapid growth of existing ventures, a clear cut SME and women entrepreneurship policy needs to be formulated and through this , women will be capable enough to bring a positive socio-economic impact in their life.

12. APPENDIX

12.1 QUESTIONNAIRE:

12.2 REFERENCES:
1. Islam, Nazrul: Entrepreneurship Development With special references to Bangladesh
2. Women’s Access to Markets Vulnerabilities and Constraints: Project of care Bangladesh
3. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2006). Statistical Year Book of Bangladesh 2006
4. Agnello and Moller (2006). Women Micro-entrepreneurs and their Business Needs, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Urban Sector group ILO
5. http://www.managementhelp.org/aboutfml/privacy.htm
6. http://www.erim.eur.nl/entrepreneurship
7. http://www.entrepreneurship-sme.eu/index.cfm/12,html?nxt=ctm_publikatie&bestelnummer=R200809
8. http://ideas.repec.org/stepbystep.html