With over 18 years of experience in the corporate world, she believes in living her life with elemental love.
Trailblazing into a previously male-dominated home décor industry, skilled women entrepreneurs are shattering glass ceilings like never before!
A home is mere an ensemble of brick and mortar until it is decorated with signature home decor pieces that add value and personal touch to your space. With changing consumption patterns and more digital spending, the home decor industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past couple of years. From choosing traditional wooden furnishings to selecting diverse home decor items, people are not shying away to experiment with new designs and patterns. While the furnishing industry has vastly remained male-dominant over the years, many skilled women entrepreneurs have begun to create a mark in the industry with their modern, personalized, and intuitive home décor pieces, thus inflicting tough competition over some of the well-established brands in the market.
Either by choice or compulsion, many females tend to spend more time indoors, which gives them a sense of practical knowledge about the placement of different objects in a defined space. Since a home is an embodiment of one's personality, many women spend days and even months to plan the whole home decoration part. While it might be wrong to stipulate that women are better at designing and decorating spaces, their organizational skills and sense of style definitely give them an upper-hand. Therefore, as women are steadily becoming educated, they are foraging into the home decor industry and taking on new roles at every level of business.
Role of Women Entrepreneurs in the Home Décor Industry
- Female Perspective
There is no lack of excellent male designers and entrepreneurs who are doing a marvelous job of creating astounding home decor pieces with their creativity and talent. But, unfortunately, even the best designers cannot put themselves in someone else's shoes. Since different contributors bring forth distinct perspectives into account, a female designer and a male designer may have a similar problem but, they might come up with a totally different solution based on their perspectives and experiences. So, a male in a leadership position might overlook the facets that can be significant to women without even realizing those issues at all. However, as women are venturing into the home decor industry, they are bringing something different to the table and creating a design accessible and convenient for everyone. With more involvement of women in the furnishings and home décor industry, there has been a significant advancement in the patterns and styles of home décor pieces, which leads to more varieties. Many modern designs reflect elegance, eloquence, and sophistication, which are generally regarded as female traits. Thus, women entrepreneurs have been fundamental in expanding the horizon of home décor pieces to the next level.
- Enhanced Communication at the Workplace
A woman entrepreneur can encourage other people in the team to participate and engage more actively in meetings or other activities as females are good at building relationships with their peers. On the contrary, male counterparts might seem a bit harsh and imperative to communication due to the stereotypical attitudes and beliefs, which might create a communication gap. Of course, men can be great communicators, but typically women possess the social quality of active listening, thorough communication, and compassionate understanding, all of which make one an effective leader. When the communication channels run smoothly, especially in an enterprise, then the work quality improves, and productivity automatically increases.
- Increased Profits
Women consumers have been growing over the years significantly and thus control a major segment of the market. Since women entrepreneurs can easily understand the concerns and interests of over half the market, creating products that appeal to females without a condescending approach has led to several growth opportunities for them. With the right marketing approach, many skilled women entrepreneurs can attract a set of audiences towards their products or services and increase their profitability.
- More Women Workforce
Unfortunately, many males operating at managerial or leadership positions are reluctant to hire a female workforce, assuming that they might not be able to set a good work-life balance, which would impact their productivity. However, women entrepreneurs are well-aware of the challenges that females have to face while balancing their career and home. So, women entrepreneurs are likely to be more understanding of the female employees and would not be hesitant to hire them or give them leadership roles as well. Also, females might feel safe and secure at a workplace where women hold a prominent position and thus are likely to gravitate towards those companies for earning a living.
Since social media has become a focal point for marketing these days, many women entrepreneurs are using online platforms to share their journey, experiences, and challenges with the audience, which has been inspiring for other females to start their own ventures. Although many women are rapidly progressing from job seekers to job creators, there are still many challenges faced by women entrepreneurs impacting their growth. Lack of confidence, socio-cultural barriers, family dependency, personal obligations, stiff competition, and others, are some of the discouraging factors for women to take up the leadership role. However, new government policies, changes in lifestyle, values, and a thriving business ecosystem can women overcome these barriers.
Also, the home décor industry is undergoing a major transformation as people are becoming more eco-conscious. Sustainability has become a significant factor for attracting consumers towards home décor items, which do not lack style and convenience. Many women entrepreneurs have already started inculcating sustainable items for manufacturing home décor pieces, which have been fundamental in the growth of their startups. It would be fascinating to see more women taking up entrepreneurship roles and changing the business scenario.
