EmpowerWOMENt

Successful Entrepreneurial Empowerment for Women in Startup Businesss

Guidance Collection for Partners 01
[Present graphics used until the project has developed its own graphics]

RATIONALE

About 50% of new businesses fail during their first five years. If European entrepreneurs are to be able to deliver the growth we expect from them, we must devote greater resources to helping them to get through this period. Businesses often lack an appropriate ecosystem that will enable them to grow.

Women constitute 52% of the total European population but only one- third of the self-employed or of all business starters in the EU. Women thus represent a large pool of entrepreneurial potential in Europe. When establishing and running a business, women face more difficulties than men, mainly in access to finance, training, networking, and in reconciling business and family.

The visibility of bigger number of successful professional women will show other women that they have chances of success on the labor market.

Commission, Entrepreneurship 2020 Action plan

 
Therefore, many women wish to start their own small business or enterprise, forcing them to deal with all sorts of problems andchallenges.Financial crisis and global competition makes it difficult for women, less educated women in particular, to find good jobs.

The first years of business are very difficult for these women and they need strong and systematic support measures.

EmpowerWOMENt will create local ecosystems for women wishing to consolidate, sustain and expand their small businesses, including mentoring from experienced entrepreneurial women, professional support and community networking.

The focus in empowerWOMENt is on women in the start-up phases of running their own business (2-3 years) and meeting their training needs.

A woman in entrepreneurship is a great source for growth in Europe; however, women need different approaches than men. Women might choose different business areas and work differently than men. Many women like to include social values in their work as well.

This is why we need entrepreneurial ecosystems for women, based on their own life experiences and value systems.

In this context ecosystem means communities of support structures, mutual help and networking resources put at the service of entrepreneurial women – an interactivity creating its own self-sustaining ecology.

The project aims to design and pilot such ecosystems in different partner countries, and to produce case based guidance to other European communities.

The core mission is to empower entrepreneurial women to create such eco-systems themselves in support of consolidating and expanding their business.

The project works on two different impacts:

IMPACT 1:

LOCAL TARGET GROUPS

(Addressed through project activities)

Primary target group is entrepreneurial women in fragile and often difficult business (products or services) start-up situations (1-3 years) and in need of support measures including local and virtual eco-systems

Secondary target group is experienced and successful entrepreneurial women offering the start-up groups inspiration and practical useful guidance

Tertiary target group is existing, emerging or new local eco-systems of support in the partner communities, including entrepreneurial drivers and enablers in the community

These target groups are readily reached through the partner organizations.

EUROPEAN TARGET GROUPS

(Addressed through project outcomes)

Primary target group and beneficiaries are similar start-up groups of women across Europe, including existing or emerging eco-systems of support

Secondary target group is the European audience of entrepreneurial learning, including professionals, researchers and a wider community of stakeholders

Tertiary target group is European policy-makers and funding programmers in the fields of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning

These target groups are built up along the project progression, based on the dissemination of project outcomes.

IMPACT 2:

This impact concerns the expected outcome impact, and is therefore linked to the expected impact generated by the different products and service

Project Website to Be Available Soon.

Currently Available on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empowerWOMENt/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf