Digital Guide - Youth work Empowering Women Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents 01

INTRODUCTION

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

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CHALLENGES TO WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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DIGITAL TOOLS TO SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURS

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SUPPORT FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ON EUROPEAN LEVEL

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SUCCESS STORIES

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader, Let us present you the Digital Guide – result of the TC “Youth work Empowering Women Entrepreneurship”.

The Guide will give you some useful tips, tools and resources supporting and fostering women entrepneurship. The booklet also tackles the main challenges, faced by women during their entrepneurial journey which will help you understand it better and thus be able to more effectively work in the area. Moreover, you will also get inspired by some examples of Success stories of Women Entrepneurs from Europe.

Enjoy!

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Project Description The TC Youth work Empowering Women Entrepreneurshiptook place in Bansko from 2nd till 9th November 2020 and gathered 24 participants from Bulgaria,Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Romania, Greece and Hungary All the activities foreseen in the training were based entirely on the non-formal education field, in which learning comes by doing and by experiencing.

This means that participants get involved in the activities in order to explore themselves and their possibilities on the given subject, to practice with real situations and to gain diverse experience. At the end of the training, all the acquired knowledge and methods was transferred by youth workers inside their organisations trough one day workshops within the teams of each sending partner as well as trough dissemination activities involving the local community.

The basic idea of the project was in fact to form "multipliers", so that they can apply what they learned to their daily work and social life. During the

project the participants got various skills, knowledge and competencces related to leadership, management, role of youth work in empowering women entrepneurship, different tools to support women entrepneurship/such as digital programs for management, useful programs and support networks on EU level to foster women entrepneurship, good practices from different organizations how to support women entrepneurship, etc.

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Challenges to Women Entrepreneurship ·FAMILY RESTRICTION. ·LACK OF FINANCE. ·LACK OF EDUCATION. ·ROLE CONFLICT. ·UNFAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT. ·LACK OF PERSISTENT NATURE. ·LACK OF MENTAL STRENGTH. ·LACK OF INFORMATION.

Although we cannot deny the fact that in the past decade women have begun to establish businesses and become successful, some of the struggles that women entrepreneurs have to face remain. Regardless of the change in time which has led to over 252 million women entrepreneurs around the world, they are still struggling to overcome the challenges that they face regularly.

Social expectations: In a society when women are stereotyped as the ones who are meant to stay at home and put all their attention on their family, it is often looked down upon for them to venture out and establish a career for themselves.

Lack of capital: It is often said that “Money is to a business what food is to the human body and is vital for any business, big or small.” Unfortunately, in this day and age even after women have proved themselves time and again that they are more than capable, people find it hard to believe and hesitate to invest in a business venture which is established by women entrepreneurs. It is also disappointing to see that banks do not consider women as credit-worthy as they believe that they can give-up their business at any time. Therefore, women entrepreneurs do not have any alternative other than to rely on their savings, or maybe take the financial help of their family.

Lack of support: Lack of mentors and advisors is another major setback for women entrepreneurs. According to a survey, 48% of female entrepreneurs said that the lack of mentors and advisors restrain their professional growth. In a world where high-level business is dominated by men, it becomes difficult for women to excel in their profession without someone showing them the right way.

No business networks: According to a survey, women were not a part of business networks which would help them build a network to grow their business, find customers, partners, suppliers, build connections, and more which come very naturally to male entrepreneurs but women do not belong to these networks.

Lack of confidence: A lot of women struggle with confidence and they need help with understanding their skills, their value on what they bring to businesses and organizations. Very often, women tend to underestimate their capabilities and so they need a lot of support to gain that confidence and understand the value that they possess.

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Digital Tools to Support Entrepreneurs

One of the biggest challenges we face as entrepreneurs is staying on top of everything. You have to respond to emails, make sure your website works perfectly, organize projects, keep in touch with your network, and avoid getting distracted by social media, cat videos, and tools that only make you less productive. The Internet does not just enable procrastination. It also offers solutions to busy entrepreneurs: there is an abundance of tools and services that were created to help you organize your life and business, so you can focus on doing work that matters. These resources were created by people who know what it’s like to have a to-do list that never seems to end. Many of them can be used for free, so there’s no reason not to give them a try.

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Trello Trello is a free project management tool that helps you get organized. It shows a board on which you can create lists filled with cards. When you open a card, you can add comments, upload files, create checklists, and more. It is super versatile, so it can be used for many different types of things: to organize a specific project, write an ebook, create an email course, etc. It really helps you to keep a bird’s-eye view on your projects.

Google Docs Google Docs is an essential tool for working on a file with multiple people. Everyone can add or remove text, proofread content, and give comments for others to see. You can also see who else is working on the document and chat with them, so it’s a great tool for teams. It’s also a big help for people who get confused when they have several versions of a workin-progress.

Asana Asana is the ultimate tool for managing your projects more effectively. It works with tasks, projects, conversations, and dashboards. Teamwork has never been easier. You can turn conversations into actionable tasks, provide comments on other people’s actions, and immediately see what progress has been made – all without having to schedule meetings.

Dropbox Dropbox is great for storage and backups. It has a huge amount of awesome plugin apps to improve your experience. Moreover, it provides apps for every device, which means you can access your files from anywhere.

Slack Slack is a beautiful chat app is an amazing communication tool for teams and mastermind groups. Its smooth design is by far the nicest you’ll come across. Even though it’s relatively new, it is already very popular. You can create several channels to discuss different topics, or you can have a private conversation. Slack also allows you to share files and to easily find messages, notifications, and files in your archive. Everything is automatically synced on all your devices, and you can easily connect it to other apps, like WordPress or Skype.

Start sharing your ideas with peers and get inspired by their questions, suggestions, and expertise. We’re all in this together.

Support for Women Entrepreneurs on European level

The European on-line Platform for women entrepreneurs WEgate

The European Community of Women Business Angels and women entrepreneurs

The European network to promote women's entrepreneurship (WES)

The WEgate platform is a onestop shop for women of all ages who want to start, run and grow a business.

Launched in September 2016, it provides information and links on access to training, mentoring, advice and business networking opportunities. https://wegate.eu/

The goal of this initiative – funded by the European Parliament - is to support women entrepreneurs in accessing alternative sources of funding. It will do so by raising the awareness of business angels, training women who would like to become business angels and helping women entrepreneurs to present their business ideas to potential investors. The network was created in 2017, by means of 4 projects covering 14 EU countries.

The WES is a policy network with members from 31 European nations (the EU countries, Iceland, Norway, and Turkey).

The delegates represent national governments and institutions.

They are responsible for promoting and supporting female entrepreneurship at national level. WES members provide advice, support, information, and contacts regarding existing support measures for female entrepreneurs. They also help identify good practices.

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The European network of female entrepreneurship ambassadors The European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors was inaugurated in 2009. It is made up of around 270 entrepreneurs from 22 European countries. The aim of the ambassadors is to act as role models by telling their story to raise awareness and encourage entrepreneurship as a career option for women of all ages. Many of the ambassadors have gone beyond this, having also become actively involved in supporting the establishment of new businesses.

The Network has been very successful and exceeded its objectives in terms of events organised and audience reached. Over 650 national meetings have been organised, reaching more than 61,000 would-be women entrepreneurs.

The ambassadors have supported the creation of more than 250 new women-led enterprises and created 22 networking and business support clubs for women.

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs was inaugurated in 2011. Seventeen European countries belong to the Mentors Network: Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is a cross-border programme facilitating the exchange of entrepreneurial and management experience. The exchange is implemented by a stay of a newly established or potential entrepreneur with a well-experienced entrepreneur running a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in another country. https://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/ The European Commission started the programme in 2009 and wants to reach 10,000 exchanges by the end of 2020. Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is implemented by local contact points, selected through annual calls for proposals.

Main benefits of the programme Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs aims to boost Europe's entrepreneurial culture. The programme ·reinforces entrepreneurial attitudes by offering skills, knowledge and experience ·increases the number of start-ups and boosts their resilience ·fosters the cross-border transfer of ideas, knowledge and cooperation between small firms ·helps small firms to network, innovate, and go international ·helps to create jobs Benefits for participating entrepreneurs New entrepreneurs ·build their capacity to manage a small company ·gain relevant skills and knowledge ·get practical experience ·network Hosting entrepreneurs ·make use of fresh entrepreneurial attitude ·obtain knowledge about another market and culture ·gain international cooperation opportunities ·get new ideas and fresh perspectives

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Success Stories: ALICE BENTINCK

MOOJAN ASGHARI

is a London-based entrepreneur who co-founded Entrepreneur First, one of the world’s leading company builders, helping 2000 individuals build 300+ companies. She also founded Code First:Girls, a free part-time course for female students, and was awarded an MBE, a British Empire award awarded by the Queen.

is a co-founder of Women in AI, a community of 3500 women across 100 countries, including 28 ambassadors organising initiatives on the ground.

Their activities include an educational program for young girls, WAI2GO, events like WAITALK, and a founders award to recognise female founders in AI.

METTE LYKKE

MARIJA RUCEVSKA

is the CEO of the fast-growing social impact startup Too Good To Go, working with around 30K supermarkets, restaurants, bakeries, hotels that have surplus food and leading a team of 400+ talented Waste Warriors.

Previously she was co-founder and CEO of Endomondo, a successful social fitness community based on free real-time GPS tracking of running.

is co-founder and former CEO of TechChill, the leading tech and startup conference in the Baltics, held in Riga, Latvia. Marija successfully turned the spotlight onto this small Eastern European capital, before becoming a Member of the Board for the Tech Chill Foundation.

JULIA BÖSCH

CHRISTINA MARIA POLLETI

luno (Germany) Munich-based Cluno was founded in 2017 by Christina Maria Polleti, Nico Polleti and Andreas Schuierer. It is called the Netflix of car subscriptions as this mobility startup makes the process much simpler. With Cluno, you can book a car online paying a fixed monthly cost including maintenance, registration, warranty, vehicle tax, wear and tear, etc. You will have to pay additionally only for refuelling the car.

is the founder and CEO of Outfittery.

The Berlin-based company, one of Europe’s leading e-commerce startups which aims to revolutionize the shopping experience for men. In 2019 the startup merged with Modomoto, to conquer its European expansion.

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CONTACTS: Association ProVision International Address: 16 Ohrid str, 2760 Razlog, Bulgaria Email: provisioninternational.office@gmail.com Phone: 00359888122125 Web: www.provisionbg.org The current material is created as outcome of project Youth work Empowering women entrepreneurship implemented by Association ProVision International with project number 2020-2-BG01-KA105-079498 and supported by Erasmus + program. The current material reflects only on the views of the author and the National Agency and European commision are not responsible for its content