Resumen de Entrepreneurship as a therapy: Skill discovering and development among necessity-driven women entrepreneurs
Rocío Ruiz Martínez, Katherina Kuschel, Inma Pastor Gosálbez
Necessity-driven women entrepreneurs often start a business because of family reasons. Desperately they tried to generate an income that supports the basics needs of their families. But the entrepreneurial activity ends up being a process for healing and recovery: i.e., “therapy”. We collect qualitative data on necessity-driven women entrepreneurs by conducting six group interviews after an entrepreneurship course from a publicly funded organization in Chile. This study identifies the elements on how can the entrepreneurial activity and the support of an organization facilitate women’s “therapy or healing process”. We found that the entrepreneurial activity provides women with a) the opportunity of staying active, b) discovery and development of new skills, that c) the ability to reach a state of flow. The organization also provided a safe space with social support in the form of: a) feedback and positive reinforcement; b) sharing their similar experiences and building a common entrepreneurial identity; c) tearing down old limiting beliefs; d) creating a professional network, and e) staying social and breaking down their tendency of isolation. We offer practical implications for entrepreneurship educators, policymakers, mentors, and women in entrepreneurship.
