The project “Women Entrepreneurs in Action “(WE’RE IN!) is aimed at women entrepreneurs (under 3 years of activities) and women with a business creation project. Even though there are more women than men in Europe, female entrepreneurs represent only a third of the self-employed in the EU. There are some additional factors (such as reconciling business and family) that make entrepreneurship a less attractive option for them than for men. The European Commission is working with EU countries to overcome these and encourage more women to start their own companies. The project is undertaken in 4 European countries : France, Spain, Belgium and Germany. The objectives of the project are to : - Raise awareness of women about business creation - Encourage more business creation among women - Develop the skills and competencies of the women targeted by the project - Help created companies to succeed - Enable women to expand their business, including through networking (including at European level) Actions and outputs 1) 1 Worshops « I create my own Business » for women who want to start their own business and its implementation in Galicia (Spain), West of France, Belgium and Germany. 2) 1 new training program on entrepreneurship with focus on management aspects of the activity (legal, management, finance, commercial, …) and the implementation of this training program in the 4 countries 3) 1 new training tutorial based on professional co-development. Thanks to a sharing of concrete practices and problems between peers, the method of questioning and mutual listening allows mutual help and opens new fields of creativity and solutions for women creator. It will be experimented in the 4 countries. 4) One comic book: with the main concepts about the women entrepreneurship and business creation. It will be translated in Spanish, English, French and German. 5) One video capsule : Creation of a short animation video (maximum 3 minutes) with examples of successful women entrepreneurs having developed small businesses in a peer-to-peer approach. It will be translated or subtitled in French, English, Spanish and German. 6) 80 training mobilities of women business creator in Germany, Spain, Belgium and France 7) 4 multiplier events in Germany, Spain, Belgium and France 8) A large dissemination among partners and women entrepreneurs and business creator Impacts : A minimum of 384 to 480 women will directly benefit from the project thanks to their participation in the trainings programs (including mobility) and the raising awareness workshops and meetings. Indirectly, thanks to the large dissemination of the different outputs in 4 languages (comic, capsule video, training modules tutorials,…), the impact will expand in the 4 countries and in Europe.
The project objectives were the followings: - Raise awareness of women about business creation -Encourage more business creation among women by helping them having more self confidence, access to the information, overcome their fears, give them necessary training on the business management - Develop managerial skills : manage marketing, finance, human resources, time - Develop self-reliance, the ability to be productive, the ability to make entrepreneur friends, are also other skills and competencies targeted by the project - Help created companies to succeed - Enable women to expand their business, including through networking (including European networking)
Even though there are more women than men in Europe, Female entrepreneurs represent only a third of the self-employed in the EU. The European commission works with the EU countries to overcome these and encourages more women to start their own companies. Situation of female entrepreneurs in the EU: ‐ women constitute 52% of the total European population but only 34% of the EU self-employed and30% of start-up entrepreneurs. ‐ female creativity and entrepreneurial potential are an under-exploited source of the economic growth. When establishing a business, women face challenges such as: ‐ access to adaptated training and to networks for business purposes ‐ reconciling business and family concerns ‐ access to finance and information