This one made nearly every list I found.  Clearly a huge challenge if you need money to get off the ground or to grow.  More money flows to male dominated businesses than it does to female owned businesses by a huge margin.

 This showed up under a variety of titles but when examined closely, I found this was the common thread.  Women tend to lack faith in their ability to build a successful business or to believe that what they are doing will succeed.

Different sources listed this in different ways like “Inadequate Support System”, “Surrounding yourself with the right people”, etc.  To me this means building your team.  I always go back to “having the right people on the bus in the right seats” as Jim Collins says in his book, Good to Great.

If you lack confidence, it’s going to be hard to be taken seriously.  And though we can’t influence other people’s mindsets, we can influence their perception of us.  Building your expertise will go a long way to how others see you and whether they take you seriously or not.

Women generally tend to bootstrap their businesses and are less likely to take on partners or debt to build their companies.  They are also more fearful of expanding or hiring employees.  I think this goes to a fear of letting go.  Most women like to control everything and trusting someone else is challenging.