Entrepreneurial mothers: women face challenges in reconciling business and motherhood in the Amazon

Manaus (AM) – Motherhood includes numerous challenges, responsibilities and tasks, unpaid work that demands a lot from women. Now, when these mothers decide to undertake, they need to juggle, balancing between time taking care of the company and the child. In the Amazon, women tell the In time what is the reality of mothers who follow the path of entrepreneurship.

73.6% of Brazilian entrepreneurs are mothers and 68% started to undertake after becoming mothers, according to data from the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) and the Entrepreneurial Woman Network (RME).

This amount on the market has a reason, especially after the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. According to economist Denise Kassama, many women had to use their skills and undertake to help with the family’s income.

“As businesses stopped operating, many husbands, who were breadwinners in the home, lost their jobs and women who eventually did not have a job began to use their skills. Those who knew how to sew started sewing outside, if they knew how to make cakes, they started preparing cakes outside and, thus, they became the financial providers of the family”,

declared the economist.

Necessity leads to undertaking

Entrepreneurship is linked to the need for many of these women, in a survey carried out by the GetNinjas application, almost the majority (43.72%) pointed out that they had to open a new business both by choice and necessity. This was the case for businesswoman Clara Dias, 27, who has a degree in journalism and had to open a new business to help with her income after her father’s death.

“I never practiced my profession due to my father’s death. I found myself in a situation where, either I ran after an internship to gain experience or I continued working in trade to keep myself in college and help at home, since the provider was my father and I no longer had him around! ”,

stated.

Clara is the mother of a three-year-old girl and started her company Amadita Mulher, in 2022, while working in a factory. She felt the desire to be an entrepreneur, as she always thought she was capable of having her own business and since she had become a mother, she almost never had quality time with her family, as she needed to work long hours and on weekends.

“My routine already starts early, because my daughter studies in the morning, so I take advantage of the time she is at school to do everything at home, dishes, clothes, lunch and everything else, when she arrives I try to give her a bath and lunch right away for her to sleep and it’s during this sleep time, that I create the store’s strategies, the contents, that I make stories for customers and update what we have available. It’s a very demanding routine, because starting a business requires a lot, you need to win over your customers, which is not an easy task, you need to seek knowledge, otherwise you won’t be successful in sales. It’s a lot of little things that make up your life as an entrepreneur,”

he said.

According to the 2021 Socio-environmental Impact Business Map, only 25% of companies founded or managed by women were able to attract investments, against 55% of companies with male predominance. Suelen Franco, mother and owner of Suelen Franco Chocolates, a company specialized in the production of chocolates and fine sweets, highlights these difficulties, especially in the gastronomic area, a market where most chefs are men.

“Prejudices, unfortunately, will always exist, sometimes even coming from other women, but we cannot let ourselves down, nothing is easy, we are mothers, women and entrepreneurs, when we decide to take these paths it is difficult for someone to stop us. We always hold the hands of God and some angels here on earth, who open doors for us and we have opportunities to show a little of our work. I love what I do and I’m always looking to improve every day to offer the best for my clients, my family”,

declared.

Training

Economist Kassama claims that there is still a lack of investment in training for these enterprising mothers. Many enter this market without any instruction and have to look for their own tools, to compete with large companies and established retailers.

“Entrepreneurial mothers enter the race and courage and without all the knowledge they should to operate in the market. And, in a way, they compete unequally with entrepreneurs, with companies, with already consolidated shopkeepers. I think there is a lack of training in this area and here comes the internet, social networks that are great tools for disseminating content, but there is a lack of training. So that these mothers can access these tools and be able to expand their businesses”,

stated.

The founder of Future Solar, Helane Souza da Silva, decided to reinvent in a not so common market, mainly for women who are mothers, being at the head of a pioneering company in solar plant projects in the Amazon. Born in the Santo Antônio community, in the municipality of Novo Airão (115.01 kilometers from Manaus), she graduated in commercial management and marketing, specializing in energy and the electrical sector and was the first woman to work in the Solar Energy area in the North from Brazil.

“When I started, without a doubt, it was more difficult. I am referring to my area in particular, because when I sought qualification to work in this segment, I was the only one in a room with several men. Today, there are already other women working in this market and gaining prominence. About prejudice and difficulties, they will always exist. I believe that if you know who you are, where you came from and you really want it, there is nothing that makes you paralyze”,

declared.

Only 4.7% of technology-based companies are founded only by women, according to data from the Female Founders Report (2021), prepared by the company Distrito in partnership with Endeavor and B2Mamy. The businesswoman, with all her history of struggle and overcoming in her segment, seeks to help motivate other women and mothers.

“The challenges were huge, ranging from scarce technical labor, barriers with the energy distributor, and, above all, the great difficulty of making myself heard and respected in the solar market, mostly made by men. As for being a mother and businesswoman, the concern and fear of feeling ‘guilty’ for not being able to be present at certain times will always exist”,

stated.

According to data collected by First Round Capital, companies founded by women perform 63% better than those founded exclusively by men, due to the fact that women devote more time to training in topics such as management and entrepreneurship.

Owner of Suelen Franco Chocolates, Suelen started working at the chocolate shop in 2014, left Manaus and went to live in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, where she began to discover the world of chocolates, which provided the entrepreneur with a thousand possibilities for creative evolution, but that was where also encountered the challenges of being a mother in entrepreneurship.

“The difficulties came when I went to study Chocolateria in Canela at a school with the Chocolateria Gurmet course, at the time my youngest son, who was a little over two years old, had to stay at home in Manaus, because when I took the course it was a year and little traveling due to classes. During this period, he was hard pressed, but it was worth it, because the knowledge he acquired in relation to chocolate was incredible and I was able to actually enter the market with a great baggage of technical knowledge and, above all, a differentiated product. Today, I have my own chocolate recipe, a chocolate without hydrogenated fat and without trans fat and always with a higher percentage of cocoa”,

said.

dream of winning

The baker Esther Reis, owner of “Bolo da Mãe” started her business with the dream of a better life for her family. The enterprising mother left her services in a beauty salon and a computer store and started investing in the sweets business in 2014. . In recent years, the company has expanded and become one of the main options in the cake market for Manaus.

“I come from a humble family and during my phase of 10, 12 years came that first crisis, the one from the time of Color that left many people’s money stuck in the bank and my father was unfortunately part of those people. So, I spent a very difficult childhood and I always dreamed of giving my children what I didn’t have. Today, my youngest son, eight years old, already speaks English with what I didn’t have. So, I don’t blame myself for the long workload, because I work thinking about them”,

declared the baker.

Three out of four women are entrepreneurs. Among those who still don’t have their own business, 74% want to open a company, according to data from the Mature Empreendedoras Platform and the Women of Brazil Group and the Mapping of Women’s Inspiring Businesses 2022.

Esther has always wanted to be an entrepreneur since she was a child, as an inspiration from her family, who always had small businesses and because of her mother who made sweets and food to sell abroad, as a form of extra income. At the age of 12, the baker was already making handmade jewelry and selling perfumes.

“I started in this area of ​​entrepreneurship since I was a child, I believe it came from the cradle, it already runs in the family. I remember when I was a child, about 10 years old, living in the interior of Amazonas, I helped my mother and she helped me to make cakes, dindin, popsicles and I took the children who lived in the neighborhood and distributed the children in schools. She would leave with a styrofoam box and would sell it at the doors of the schools and when she came back she would report to me. So, since I was a little girl, I have always had this entrepreneurial side”,

said the entrepreneur.

Resilience

Adriana Guerreiro, a physiotherapist and businesswoman with a specialization in functional dermatology, owns the clinic that bears her name. A reference in strategies for smart weight loss and healthy eating reeducation, the entrepreneur started from scratch, believing and persisting in her dream of offering something that would generate positive impacts on people’s lives.

“In many moments I had to divide myself between taking care of my son, things at home and paying attention to clients, paying attention to patients, many times I would go to see them at home, I would take my mask from one side to the other, it’s a struggle . You need to want to accomplish something and believe that you can, that you are capable”,

declared.

The areas of fashion, beauty, food away from home and beauty services are concentrated 70% of entrepreneurs in Brazil, according to Rede Mulher Empreendedora. Adriana stated that the area of ​​aesthetics has a lot to do with women, with self-care, with femininity, a way to connect with these women who are entrepreneurs and mothers.

“The area of ​​beauty is a very favorable area for women, who want to undertake business, due to the ease that many women have in communicating, due to the feminine issue, due to femininity. So, this segment opens many doors for women to undertake and thereby inspire other women who also want to gain their financial security, their independence, grow and evolve”,

he said.

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