Historically, the real estate sector has been predominantly male-led. However, in recent years, and particularly in Bulgaria, many women have been pursuing careers as real estate professionals and are gradually making an impact in this field.
Despite progress, gender pay gaps persist. According to NSI data, the gender pay gap in the real estate sector has increased significantly in recent years, reaching up to 10% in 2022. Although women make up a larger portion of the real estate workforce, about 55.71% of employees, they earn less than men., with average annual salaries of approximately 19.5% lower than their male counterparts. This is just one of the many challenges that women-led companies in the sector face.
Over 1,500 traditional agencies and thousands of individual brokers operate in Bulgaria., leading to intense competition and a fragmented market. Imagine running an 8-person startup aiming to digitize a 35-year-old industry with outdated practices and a traditional system that is no longer trusted. However, society accepts the status quo and has yet to recognize the adequate, workable alternative that companies like flatimo offer.
Now, given this context, imagine the following scenario: a 30-year-old female CEO, with international experience in real estate investment and development, is raising funds and presenting to men who are traditionally used to working only with older men. Add two more female professionals – a COO and a marketing manager – motivated to drive a more transparent rental property process, despite the stereotypes they will inevitably be placed into.
All of this is true for flatimo's all-female management team, which strives to break down barriers and build a startup that provides a digitalized alternative to traditional brokerage agencies, while confronting many stereotypical prejudices. In the following lines I will share with you advice from the flatimo management team, namely CEO Sofia Topalova-Zlatkova, COO Nevena Borisova and myself (Stanislava Ilieva, Marketing Manager).
We hope our tips will be useful for all female entrepreneurs trying to create change.Our trio bases every word on their own experiences and how they have shaped us to this day.
Leave the ego aside. It's never personal.
One key tip is to start seeing yourself as professionals, not as womenIn male-dominated sectors, or when you want to attract the attention of influential male investors, your most powerful tool is your own self-belief and confidencethat you understand the information presented in depth and that you can provide a solution to any challenge given to you.
Sofia's experience has taught her to completely forget her ego and change her own perception of herself so that she is in a stronger and more confident position. All the potential investors she has spoken to are men, and she has been confronted more than once with the uncomfortable prejudice against the female gender, associated with initial distrust.
When presenting for investment, Sofia knew that it would often work to her advantage to include a male flatimo board member in the meeting. On multiple occasions, even though she and Nevena had presented the idea and the financial request, the questions were too often directed at the male board members in the room. The subsequent communication, although led by Sofia, was directed back to the male board members, not to Sofia, the CEO. With a lot of patience and over time, she was able to establish a good relationship in which the investor communicated directly with her, recognizing her as a reliable professional.
Nevena smiles, remembering her friend, the owner of a construction company, who had to hire a male collaborator for “visual weight” in order for her business to be taken seriouslyShe shares that although he is on the management team, he does not perform any management work, as the main goal is the subconscious value of his gender in the construction business.
We have to laugh, or we will cry. We have seen comments from customers like “Do you choose these women based on their beauty?” or “I won't talk to little women.” from a landlord insisting on speaking to a man.
Tolerating similar treatment is not an acceptable solution, but it is also right to accept that we cannot magically remove all the prejudices we encounter. So for your own good, when faced with such a situation, forget about your ego and never take the situation personally. In the meantime, use every favorable opportunity to talk about these issues and step by step motivate a change in mindset..
Be prepared. Be seriously prepared.
When you present or pitch your idea, of course you are expected to know the topic and be able to answer questions or take feedback. This is a basic prerequisite. But when it comes to a sector with existing prejudices, our advice is not only to know your material – you need to be over-preparedBecause sometimes they will intentionally put obstacles in your way.
You need to understand in depth and be able to back up every number or claim you make – and more. If you’re presenting to potential partners or investors, first make sure you present your story in a compelling way, emphasizing the key messages you want the other party to remember. It’s equally important to anticipate what questions they might ask you. Your audience will have questions, as they are naturally not experts in your product or service, but they can also put you in an awkward position intentionally and make you feel uncomfortable.
Nevena recalls meeting with a potential client, a man in the construction industry, who challenged her and her associate with passive-aggressive questions for at least half an hour before assuming that the two women had a good knowledge of the industry and could rationally argue each point. After that, he softened his tone and the conversation became easier, more pleasant, and more collaborative. At the end of the meeting, the man admitted that when he first saw “two little girls,” He suspected that they knew what they were doing and decided to cross-examine them..
In our experience, women often tend to be more self-critical than men, to expect more from themselves, to be better prepared than men, but not to believe in themselves as much as they do. Studies show, that women's lack of confidence contributes to a third of the gender gap in financial literacy. So even though women have lower financial literacy than men, they know more than they think they do. This mindset often applies to everything we do. One way to address this confidence gap is through education, or what's called mentoring in business.
Shaping Future Leaders: Women as Mentors
Women tend to be nurturing, mentoring, and empathetic managers whose influence can increase a team's productivity. Data showsthat Women leaders improve businesses by fostering inclusive and supportive work environments, which improves teamwork, collaboration, and employee satisfaction.Strive to find a great mentor who is experienced, knowledgeable, shares similar values to yours, listens carefully, gives you guidance but not ready-made solutions.
Stanislava supports this and shares her growth as a professional, mentored by an inspiring manager (a woman) who very quickly identified her strengths and pushed her to reach her potential throughout her career to date. She recalls how in her first two months at a large corporation, she was invited by her manager to present the company’s business plans on stage in front of 500 salespeople and corporate partners, with the goal of engaging and inspiring them. She was instantly overcome with self-doubt, but the fact that her manager asked her to do it gave her confidence that perhaps Stanislava was capable of this task. And she did brilliantly. To this day, in a difficult work situation, she always looks through the prism of her former manager and thinks “What would she do now” and soon finds a solution. The right mentoring and coaching can have a huge impact when you are aiming for personal and professional development.
Breaking into a traditionally male-dominated industry like real estate requires more than just a good strategy and a solid team – it requires resilience, preparation, deep belief in one's own abilities, and supportive, empathetic leadersDespite common gender biases and structural challenges, women in real estate are trying to reframe the narrative – one step at a time with every pitch, every meeting, and every successful deal. If we forget about ego, always be over-prepared, and help others along the way, women entrepreneurs can not only succeed – we can create lasting change.
Read the original article created for The Recursive, here.
