Self-Employment through Beauty Parlor Business : Vindication from Women Entrepreneurs of Agartala

The study attempts to report the motivating factors of women entrepreneurs of Agartala to become self-employed through beauty parlor business and to assess their strategies for sustainability in a competitive environment. Using cross-sectional research design, a survey through interview-Schedule comprising of 52 questions is executed for data collection with a randomly chosen 83 sample respondents. The data has been tested for its reliability and validity followed by a protocol interview and pilot study before the final execution. A model has been formed and the data reduction test is carried out through Factor analysis. Cross tabulation, Correlation analysis, Simple and Multiple Regression analysis have been performed to assess support for the hypotheses. The empirical results document that age, education, family background, and business expertise have motivated the respondents to start the business. Again, the push factors motivate more than the pull factors and they apply a number of strategies to increase customer satisfaction as well as sustainability. Policy relevance is drawn and the study acknowledges few shortcomings like the small sample size, study area and period, selective variables and the limitations of statistical tools while generalizing the results. It also indicates the future research directions