More and more women are entering the world of entrepreneurship – giving them the opportunity to be more independent and could balance their work-life activities easier. But at the same time only few of the womenpreneurs stay in business for a long(er) time. We do believe this is due to the lack of ongoing, permanent support and lack of skills that are not only focused toward “classic” business skills, we would like to offer a virtual place to discover and tackle these challenges.

Project is open to the whole country and will therefore open the opportunities for whole Slovenia.

Majority of the initiatives that support womenpreneurs in our country are focused on »classic« entrepreneurial skills, like creating business plans, marketing and advertising etc. On the other hand we have some (local) initiatives to support womenpreneurs by organizing locally based events to network. Also, most of them are either very locally based or they are one-time/ annual events. And as women do work differently and they face different challenges (switching between many roles in their lives) we do believe the key to successful business -lifestyle is the ongoing support. Especially support, not focused towards hard business knowledge but also giving them tools to cope in different situations in their life while starting their business or taking it to the next level.

The main challenge a lot of women face is that they still do have some traditional roles, like being a primary care giver in the family (taking care either for their children etc.)They also handle the business and life challenges differently than their male counterparts. Therefore many of the womenpreneurs give up or face bigger challenges especially in the stage of their lives when big changes happens. With our project we would like to focus on womenpreneurs ages 30 – 60 (and even further on) that are at the crossroads of life when big and important decisions need to be made. These are women: entering the business for the first time,having small children or becoming mothers for the first time, changing their career path,facing different life situations, while building their busines.

We are planning 3 major sections which will cover a broader aspect of womenpreneurs needs: 1.Mindset 2.Business foundations in digital era 3.Optimization and taking business on next level. All three topics will consist of a 3 virtual meetings. Meetings will be a mixture of lectures (giving women foundation in the selected topic) and different facilitation methods (like open space/ unconference, world cafe etc.) – giving participants a chance to speak up, to express their real needs and concerns.Virtual meetings will be organized monthly (skipping the summer months). If possible (considering corona situation) on-site meetings will follow – approx. 1 per section.All year long we will also establish the online community as a place to go to search for support

A year from the project start we expect that all women who will be included in the project for a longer time (at least few months) will be empowered with new business skills and knowledge. But also empowered in the sense of knowing where to find the help and support.
We expect they will be encouraged to connect among each other as a part of the bigger network. And also we expect we could disseminate the results and findings of the project (what the inquiries from facilitated workshops will bring) toward institutions and administration bodies that could have impact of further support (EU projects etc.)We expect project will get us a clearer picture of what womenpreneurs really need so we can communicate their needs to authorities and resposible stakeholders.

Many of the events and other types of initiatives supporting womenpreneurs are either lecture-style conferences or networking events not giving the women the opportunity to really express their business and lifestyle needs. Therefore not creating the future initiatives that would really base on the real needs. We would also like to connect women from different parts of our country in order to exchange their best practice, to support each other on their entrepreneurial way and to mentor each other. One way of support is also to give them the tools and knowledge needed to go digital. This way we could empower them to be able to take more active part in the opportunities where digitalization is an important part. We would like to contribute to more equivalent business opportunities for women.

We’re aware of the untapped potential that women can not fully fulfill due to some traditional roles that she carries in sociaty and situations brought by the pandemic as well.
We are aware that many jobs and companies are at risk, so we also need to empower women, highlight their knowledge and all their potential so that we can actively co-create a better tomorrow. A period of change is coming where female engagement will be even more welcome and needed, this is why we want to be The Voice of Women Entrepreneurs.

Project administration: 3000 €
· travel and accommodation cost: 5000
· Online virtual conferences (organization, equipment, facilitators ….): 27000
· On-site meetings (up 3): 9000
· Dissemination cost: 6000

We would like to see their point of view on the idea itself and how they see it would be interesting for their country. If someone has any similar project experiences, what were their obstacles, where did they struggle, how did they overcome them, suggestions who to reach out to/collaborate with..