In the early nineties, when I was at what is now one of the leading Indian global technology companies, entrepreneurship was seen through the lens of the seven founders. It was all about first-mover advantage, thought leadership and unique selling proposition. If you did not have a proprietary idea that was before its time - there were more chances that you would probably fail. There were many organizations, especially in the IT space that had ideas of chip design and telex.

In the dotcom era, Boo.com sold only apparel and Beautyjungle.com sold only cosmetics. The thinking was that the focus should be on what one is good at. Then with technology innovation, liberalization and new age economies, it all started to change. There were more opportunities and better times.

The likes of Amazon that started with books, started selling almost everything under the sun on their online platform. The market allowed a larger number of companies to play in the same space. Take for example Uber and Ola, Whatsapp and Hike, or FoodPanda and Swiggy; the list is endless. These companies are hardly unique and have very similar models, yet they all seem to be growing their business.

Today with cloud computing, it is so much simpler to start a business due to the ease of use of the internet and mobile technology. Age and gender, that were big barriers two decades back are now non-issues for most. Favorable government policies; a plethora of products and services to be built on unlimited emerging technologies; a market that has enough capacity for both push and pull demand; several funding options, mentoring opportunities and more make these times the best for any woman entrepreneur.

Sure there are challenges which women and men entrepreneurs need to face. There is also the accepted reality that there are some issues that are unique to us as women. But the environment today is so conducive that if you want to make it as a successful entrepreneur, there is no holding back! All you need is a good business idea and some strong business essentials to see it through, A few of such basic requisites are: