stages of growing a personal business. Other obstacles include the fact that firms owned by women tend to be smaller than men, are more likely to fail, and have lower levels of sale, profits and employment. Knowing that these barriers exist may serve as a deterrent to female entrepreneurs, or alternatively increase the chance of less successful firms. Structural elements include sex discrimination and internalized stereotypes that create these barriers. Furthermore, firms owned by women are predominately part of the service and retail sector. Consolidation of female-run firms in a specific sector highlights internalized stereotypes regarding abilities and interests of female entrepreneurs. External finance and sex discrimination. In general, women have lower personal financial assets than men. This means that for a given opportunity and equally capable individual, women must secure additional resources compared to men in order to exploit the opportunity; because they control less capital. The question of whether women have a harder time getting finance than men for the same business opportunity has developed into its own sub-field. One possible issue in raising outside capital is that 96% of senior venture capitalists are men and may not be as understanding of female-centric businesses. However, the situation seems to be improving. A study by Babson College showed that in 1999, fewer than 5% of venture capital investments went to companies with a woman on the executive team. In 2011, it was 9% and in 2013 it had jumped to 18%. A specific solution for solving women's difficulties for obtaining financing has been micro-financing. Microfinance is a financial institution that has become exceptionally popular, especially in developing economies. Female entrepreneurs have also been especially successful in getting funded through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. Due to lack of funding for women in new businesses many women founders have had to hire or create fake male profiles to act as co-founders, executives, or the face of their businesses to make progress. Obstacles to managing a small firm Studies on female entrepreneurs show that women have to cope with stereotypical attitudes towards them on a daily basis. Business relations—from customers to suppliers and banks—constantly remind the entrepreneur that she is different, sometimes in a positive way such as by praising her for being a successful entrepreneur even though she is a woman. Employees tend to mix the perceptions of the manager with their images of female role models, leading to mixed expectations