|
February 19, 2009
 Ladies, start your business
Text by Hannah Faye M. Muralla
"It won't fly if you don't try."
These were the words of 23-year old Renee King as she encouraged fellow women entrepreneurs to press on with their ventures and passion. Renee and her partner Caroline Cua make up Tamang Timpla Foods, Inc., which recently bagged the Cartier Women's Initiative Award in France for the business plan of their product, Kusina Klassics Kalamansi Squeeze. Cartier Women's Initiative is an international business plan competition that recognizes the most innovative, sustainable, and socially responsible business ideas.
The duo also recently shared their experiences at the 2nd Annual Women Entrepreneurs Conference held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Conference Center. Organized by the Network for Enterprising Women (NEW), the event gathered around 150 women entrepreneurs for a half-day of networking and business counseling from leading names in the industry.
Fun with finance
During the conference, GE Money Bank's Eric Montelibano presented a study that showed that in the Philippines, there is an equal likelihood between genders in starting a business compared to a global trend that men are more inclined to start a venture. The country ranks second only to Peru in having the highest percentage of entrepreneurially active women.
To further encourage a culture of entrepreneurship among Filipino women, GE Money Bank and Let's Go Foundation (Leading Entrepreneurs Toward Seizing Global Opportunities) created the Women Entrepreneurship (WE) Program.
WE has created an interactive teaching tool called "Funance," designed to orient aspiring entrepreneurs on the basic knowledge needed to run a business, such as understanding income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Funance was conceived after a survey of female college students found that women find finance - a critical business concept - as a less interesting subject.
Funance uses board games, videos, and case studies; students from Assumption College College of the Holy Spirit, and Miriam College helped in developing the game further. Today, teachers from the Consortium of Women’s Colleges are also being trained on the use of the teaching tool in class. In addition, the WE Program is set to launch a financial advice service as the next step in supporting enterprising women.
Nurturing nature
Speaking during the conference, Let's Go Foundation founder and AIM professor Jun Bernardo said that women have innate characteristics that can help a business grow.
Based on the enterprise life cycle, the first two to three years are considered the "infancy" stage when most of the groundwork is done. "Starting a business is one issue, nurturing it is another. Women have an innate nurturing characteristic, which is good during the infancy stage of the business," said Bernardo.
During a business' "adolescent" years, high growth is observed and aggressiveness is needed to sustain that growth. It is during this stage when a generally female characteristic become a disadvantage. "Women have the tendency to harness back to the home, so during the growth years, allow a man to come in and push development outwards," Bernardo advised.
Upon reaching "adulthood," a common problem is the lack of relatives to continue running the business. This is where a business owner might want to seek the services of professional managers and inject new blood to invigorate the enterprise. "Each stage requires a certain management style. People are usually good in one stage, like the woman during infancy and the man during growth, and it's hard to transition in managing one stage to another," he explained.
And while big business may find the worldwide economic crunch to be discouraging, Bernardo sees it as an opportunity for the entrepreneur who can best focus on the local market.
|
E-mail this to a friend
Printer-friendly version
