Archive for the 'Gender challenges' Category

Why Women Don’t Start Businesses and How wegg® Can Help

Published January 7, 2019 Business Development , Capital (working) , Country specific , Culture , e-commerce , Economic growth , emerging markets , Enlighten Me! , Equality , Foreign office setup , Gender challenges , global branding , Global news , global women entrepreneurs , Innovation , Inspiration , International business , Leadership , Research , Sales & Distribution , Trends , Working abroad , World entrepreneurship Leave a Comment
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In 2019, wegg® wants to help all women entrepreneurs, from the seasoned to the aspiring, achieve their business ambitions. We can help you go global, and assist with the obstacles that usually prevent women from reaching their full business potential.

What are some of the barriers women face when trying to start an entrepreneurial career, that wegg® aims to alleviate? Glad you asked.

In a recent report from The Economic Times, a group of women in India were polled on the reasons that they are not able to start their own independent businesses. The Times states,

“Of the homemakers who aspire to start their own business or pursue a hobby to make money, 69 per cent said the greatest barrier was lack of sufficient funds, 63 per cent said home responsibilities took up most of their time, 39 per cent said it was lack of guidance and 36 per cent reported that it was a lack in confidence.”

When the women were asked about what kinds of solutions would aid them in overcoming the aforementioned obstacles, the results were,

“62 per cent said it was financial/funding support, while 51 per cent said they needed self-confidence or counseling the most.”

Enter wegg®. We provide FREE monthly webinars that cover a varying array of topics. At these events, “wegginars®,” we have an entrepreneurial expert present on a business subject of their choice, combined with a participant Q&A. Anyone around the world can participate in these accessible events, and all at no charge. Get a head start on your resolutions this year, and let wegg® help you take your business to new heights.

Registration is open and free for Laurel Delaney’s 1/9 talk. She will present her annual global trade trends report 2019.  Join us. Register here.

Teach a Woman to Fish & Go Global, and You’ll Feed Her & Her Business for a Lifetime

Published December 10, 2018 Announcement , Barriers to trade , Business Development , Country specific , Culture , Economic growth , Education , emerging markets , Enlighten Me! , Environmental , Equality , Gender challenges , Global news , global women entrepreneurs , How-to , Innovation , Inspiration , International business , Social Entrepreneurship , Sustainability practices , Trends , Working abroad , World entrepreneurship , World Travel Leave a Comment
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Everyone knows the classic adage, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

But wegg® knows, “Give a woman a fish, and you feed her for a day. Teach a woman to fish and go global, and you feed her and her business for a lifetime.” This idea is the essence of wegg®’s mission: “to educate, inspire and nurture women business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide on how to go global, so they can run healthier businesses and create a new future for themselves, their families and their community.”

Our goal as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is to teach the women entrepreneurs of the world how to take their businesses global, and we are always thrilled to hear about the triumphs of women entrepreneurs around the world. Recently, we read a New York Times article covering the reform of Rwanda’s fishing industry, from an exclusively male world, to a community of women entrepreneurs. Author Shannon Sims describes the change,

“The intense physical work and danger that comes with fishing on Lake Kivu, along with reinforcement from traditional gender roles, kept women from fishing for generations, tending to backyard farms instead. But in post-genocide Rwanda, that seems to be changing. Today, women form an essential part of the national market for Lake Kivu fish. Besides fishing on the lake at night, women also gather along the shores in the early morning to buy the fish the fisherwomen deliver. They then haul those fish home to their small villages, or sell the fish to cooperatives.”

This newfound emphasis of women on the business side of Rwanda’s fish economy has inspired the development of Projet Pêche, a fishing cooperative made up of 87 women, in Kibuye, a town along the banks of Lake Kivu. This collective has had a supremely positive impact on the lives of Rwandan women. Just listen to one woman, Bonifrida Mukabideri’s, account,

“A lot of women have used the cooperatives to fight poverty. Here in Rwanda we now have the idea that women and men can do every job…Now a woman can say: ‘I can build a house by myself. I can look after my family properly. And even if my husband dies, we can live a better life.’”

wegg® would love to help global women entrepreneurs like Mukabideri feed themselves, their families, and their communities for a lifetime…by fostering an expanding global business that thrives for generations. For more information on the resources wegg® has to offer women entrepreneurs, check out our education page.

 

Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs

Published November 19, 2018 Capital (working) , Culture , Economic growth , Education , Equality , Gender challenges , Research , Training (entrepreneurial) Leave a Comment
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According to Susana Martinez-Restrepo, PhD., CoreWoman and Geri Stengel, Ventureneer, authors of “Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs,” the number of Hispanic women-owned businesses is growing at a higher rate than businesses owned by other groups, including non-Hispanic White women and men.

However, businesses owned by women, especially Hispanic women, are underrepresented and dramatically lag behind men-owned businesses in several key business productivity measurements: amount of revenue, having employees and number of employees.

To help Hispanic women-owned businesses prosper, the authors propose the following.

  • Increase Funding to Women’s Business Centers
  • Elevate Awareness of Training and Support Hispanic Women Need
  • Enlarge and Make Permanent the New Markets Tax Credit
  • Lift or Raise Cap on SBA-backed Loans
  • Invest Federal Agency Pension Funds in Emerging Managers

To read the entire report, visit here.

Registration is open and free for our 12/5 talk with Andrew Molinsky, Ph.D. He will talk about how, “if you are not outside your comfort zone, you won’t learn anything.” Register here.

Show Me the Data Supporting Women in Trade!

Published November 5, 2018 Barriers to trade , Education , Equality , Gender challenges , Global trade , global women entrepreneurs , Research , Supply Chain , Sustainability practices Leave a Comment
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Panelists at the recent World Trade Organization’s Public Forum event in Geneva, chaired by UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant, asked which data were necessary for formulating gender-responsive trade policies and how to improve their availability.

Analysis of global value chains – the complex international supply and manufacturing chains along which modern goods pass – can show the important part played by women in global trade but which is missed by trade statistics alone.

“A way to solve this would be to establish a link between exporting firms and their employees to enable better analysis of gender roles across the whole value chain over time,” Nadim Ahmad, chief of the Trade and Competitiveness Statistics Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said. “In the absence of this, collaboration with the private sector presents opportunities for filling data gaps.”

With the work that wegg® does, we would be pleased to collaborate with UNCTAD to ensure that no woman is left behind on opportunities for exporting and expanding a business globally.  We are also happy to work with the World Trade Organization to craft a policy whereby we offer sustainable trade, technology-enabled trade, and a more inclusive trading system.

Read the entire article about women-supporting trade policies need better data, experts say.  wegg agrees.

wegg® keeps energizing women entrepreneurs the world over. We can help you build confidence, find great resources and show you the steps you can take to go global. Join us for our FREE wegginar® on 11/7 with Cristina Bandal. You can find all of the details, and register for the event, here.

Female Entrepreneurs Are the Engine of Global Growth

Published October 8, 2018 Economic growth , Education , Enlighten Me! , Equality , Gender challenges , Global trade , global women entrepreneurs Leave a Comment
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Bonnie Chui, contributor for Forbes, writes a thoughtful piece about how female entrepreneurs are going global and that new policy attention may close the gap. At wegg®, we are closing that gap — whether there is new policy attention or not.

We not only serve women entrepreneurs by educating them on how to go global, we are women entrepreneurs, and through our educational efforts, we continue to energize economies worldwide.

Further, based on my experience running a successful global business and serving as a consultant to countless global women business owners, my observations indicate that women entrepreneurs must condition themselves to be risk oriented, innovative, and proactive (RIP) in order to achieve any reasonable level of success in the export marketplace.

Like everyone else, they must also achieve five things before venturing out beyond borders:

  1. Becoming ready mentally, particularly emotionally
  2. Being ready operationally
  3. Having run a successful local business
  4. Knowing how to use the latest technology
  5. Having a business with export potential.

Also, in my view, a perceived lack of credibility is the number one barrier for women doing business globally. This perceived deficiency lack makes it difficult for women to access markets, market information, and establish relationships. If you don’t already have an influential person in your life who can tout your capabilities, find one and cultivate the relationship, or just reach out to wegg.

Most of the above referenced facts are covered in my Exporting:  The Definitive Guide to Selling Abroad Profitably, Chapter 27, “Women Business Owners: Engine of Global Growth.”

Let’s face it, women launch businesses for the same reasons men do — to build wealth, to capitalize on their ideas and to be their own bosses.

Oftentimes you must learn about starting a business and taking it global the hard way — by doing it — and getting assistance from programs such as wegg’s helps enormously.

Female entrepreneurs are the engine of global growth and with appropriate support, will conquer the world.  Just you watch.

wegg® keeps energizing women entrepreneurs the world over. We can help you build confidence, find great resources and show you the steps you can take to go global. Join us for our FREE wegginar® on 11/7 with Cristina Bandal. You can find all of the details, and register for the event, here.

The Rise of Women ‘Millennipreneurs’

Published October 1, 2018 Announcement , Business Development , Capital (working) , Economic growth , Education , emerging markets , Enlighten Me! , Equality , Event , Gender challenges , global women entrepreneurs , Leadership , Miscellaneous , Social Entrepreneurship , Trends , wegg event , wegginar , Young entrepreneurship Leave a Comment
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The Female Entrepreneurs Institute has reported that there is a new generation of wildly successful business owners, who are all under thirty-five years of age. The ‘millennipreneur’ model of business has proven to be advantageous worldwide. The Institute explains,

“[This new] approach to business differs from that of their elders in terms of their ambitions, results and leadership style. Among the successful business owning millennials studied in this research, some 78% come from families with a history of running their own businesses. As a group, each has already established on average 7.7 companies, compared with an average of 3.5 among the 50-and-over Baby Boomers.”

A contemporary and forward-thinking entrepreneurship can be seen in this new generation’s most lucrative areas of business. The top three sectors of wealth for millennipreneurs were listed as: retail (12.5%), professional services (8.5%), and technology (7.3%).

This new generation of business owners has paved a way for women business owners, specifically. The proof is in the numbers…

“89% of women entrepreneurs surveyed expecting growing or stable profits in the next 12 months. Female millennipreneurs are aiming even higher with close to 75% expecting business profits to increase in the next 12 months…”

wegg® knows that the future of entrepreneurship is women entrepreneurship. We can help you start your business, or show you the steps you can take to go global. Join us for our FREE wegginar® on 10/3 with Katie Kollhoff, founder and CEO, NUMiX. You can find all of the details, and register for the event, here.

What It Means to be a Successful Global Negotiator

Published September 10, 2018 Compensation , Gender challenges , Leadership , Research Leave a Comment
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According to the report, “Changing the Narrative:  Women as Negotiators and Leaders, “There is powerful evidence that women continue to struggle in their careers relative to men, both in their pursuit of senior leadership positions and of equal pay.”  That’s why a lot of women are choosing entrepreneurship and business ownership:  to avoid an obstacle that seemingly won’t go away and to take control of their careers.

Why is there so much that remains misunderstood about the challenges women face and why the negative stereotypes?  More specifically, why is there the persistent view that women are innately poor advocates for themselves?  When:

In fact, women possess unique advantages as [global] negotiators, including greater cooperativeness and stronger ethics. But often those strengths are overlooked or severely undervalued.

To learn more about practical strategies for managers and negotiators of both genders to close the performance gaps and to discover what it means to be a successful global negotiator, click here.

wegg® educates women on how to take their business global and in one of our most recent wegginars® we talk about the importance of negotiating a good foreign distributor agreement.  Strong negotiation skills can be the difference between closing a business deal and losing it. Learn more about wegg’s monthly educational wegginars here.

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JOIN us for our morning wegg™ workshop on September 12th and hosted by Bank of America (135 S. LaSalle Street, 44th Floor).  Julie Smolyansky, President and CEO, Lifeway Foods, will present “Follow Your Gut,” covering:

  • How global factors influence company values and mission
  • Why we should empower women entrepreneurs around the world
  • How to channel inspiration from travel experiences into marketing initiatives

Tickets $40 ($20 for students); includes Continental Breakfast.  To learn more and to register, visit:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weggtm-workshop-follow-your-gut-presented-by-julie-smolyansky-tickets-48655708534
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Women Entrepreneurship in the EU: The Numbers

Published September 3, 2018 Business Development , Economic growth , Enlighten Me! , Equality , Gender challenges , Global news , global women entrepreneurs , Innovation , Inspiration , International business , Micro-enterprises , Trends , World entrepreneurship Leave a Comment
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On a global scale, women are less likely than men to start their own businesses. This is evident from the above graph, taken from the “Policy Brief on Women’s Entrepreneurship.” The data shows that in every EU country, from 2010-14, there were significantly less female owners of new businesses, than male.

Why is this the reality?

The OECD SME and Entrepreneurship analysis proposes that a:

“…key factor in explaining the gender gap is the social and institutional context [of the countries]. Paradoxically, national-level gender equality is negatively associated with women’s self-employment choice compared to men’s (Klyver et. al., 2013), suggesting that gender equality policies in the labour market may cause women to prefer employment over self-employment (Nielsen et. al., 2010). Similarly, more supportive work-family institutions are associated with larger gender gaps in terms of business size, growth aspirations, innovativeness and use of technology. This appears to indicate that it is important to look beyond simple proportions of women and men entrepreneurs to the motivations and quality of the business, with the hypothesis that greater gender equality may improve good quality businesses and business creation based on positive choices by women, while reducing poorer quality business creation based on lack of choice.”

One of the economic reasons that women might choose employment over the entrepreneurial self-employed path, is that self-employed women make less money than self employed men, on average. This finding is displayed in the graphic below:

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Other factors, such as lack of resources and training for women in business, are consistently cited as justification for the lack of women entrepreneurs in the global . market. This apparent neglect of a business education for women is highlighted in the graph below:

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As displayed by the image, at least thirteen out of the twenty-two countries in the EU showed a significant gender gap in perceived accessibility to business training. This is where wegg™ can help. Our mission is to educate, inspire and nurture women business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide on how to go global so they can run healthier businesses and create a new future for themselves, their families and their community.

We provide monthly resources for women entrepreneurs to become educated on current business strategies in order to go global. If you are interested in entering business, or growing the business you already have, wegg™ can help you. Please check out our website, to discover possibilities you did not even know existed.

_______________________________________________________

JOIN us for our morning wegg™ workshop on September 12th and hosted by Bank of America (135 S. LaSalle Street, 44th Floor).  Julie Smolyansky, President and CEO, Lifeway Foods, will present “Follow Your Gut,” covering:

  • How global factors influence company values and mission
  • Why we should empower women entrepreneurs around the world
  • How to channel inspiration from travel experiences into marketing initiatives

Tickets $40 ($20 for students); includes Continental Breakfast.  To learn more and to register, visit:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weggtm-workshop-follow-your-gut-presented-by-julie-smolyansky-tickets-48655708534
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wegg® Mission

Our mission is to educate, inspire and nurture women business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide on how to go global so they can run healthier businesses and create a new future for themselves, their families and their community.


Women Entrepreneurs GROW Global is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. EIN/Tax ID #47-2956522.

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