NatWest Back Her Business has provided £5,000 of match funding
WE'RE ON A MISSION TO REACH GENDER EQUALITY SOONER
London, England, United Kingdom
Aim
It's going to take 100 years to reach global gender equality. We want to get there sooner via a platform that supports female entrepreneurs.
HELP US BRIDGE THE GENDER GAP BY EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
We want to reach gender parity sooner by empowering and supporting female entrepreneurs.
Our mission is to contribute to the economic empowerment of women by making business training and coaching accessible, simple and applicable to all, and by creating a community of like-minded female businesswomen.
Specifically, we offer and will offer:
- Business coaching
- Planning and strategy workshops tailored for female entrepreneurs
- Business retreats including yoga classes
We invite you to join us as crowdfunders in building a platform to support and grow female entrepreneurship.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO US?
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, the World is still a century away from gender equality*.
This means none of us, including children born today, can hope to see gender parity in our lifetimes.
And as respective parents of two young girls, we each have a personal reason for our passion to do what we can to reach parity much sooner.
THE FACTS
Women globally are suffering from gender inequality.
- From “legitimate” rape in India to unfair inheritance laws in the UK, more than 150 countries have at least one active sexist law*.
- In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages - for the same work*.
- There are only 6 countries in the world which legally guarantee gender equality within the workplace*. The UK is not one of them!
The UN recognises that investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality. This, in turn, eradicates poverty and encourages economic growth*.
In fact, £250 billion could be added to the UK economy alone if women were to grow their new businesses at the same rate as men*.
There are still fewer women business owners than men. And only a handful of women-run businesses break the £1 million turnover barrier*.
WHO ARE WE?
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) is the brainchild of strategic marketer and business coach Ceylan Boyce. In 2019 she teamed up with James Vanderzee, a digital marketing specialist and entrepreneur in his own right.
James and Ceylan have nearly 40 years’ business experience behind them ... and small daughters to add a personal incentive to this project.
OUR MISSION
AWE aims to help build a better, equal world full of opportunities within our daughters’ lifetime.
We want to empower female entrepreneurs to develop their business acumen and achieve strong and sustainable business growth.
To achieve this we have been busy building a platform of training systems and tools tailor-built for the needs of female solopreneurs, independent practitioners and micro business owners.
Our first product is our EMPOWER training and coaching system based on strategic thinking tools, mental models and experiential learning methods.
The biggest challenge facing female business owners is how to juggle conflicting (most commonly professional and family/domestic) responsibilities within a limited time frame.
By building time for practical application as well as theoretical learning into our workshops, EMPOWER encourages participants to start using newly introduced tools from the get-go.
TESTIMONIALS
The feedback so far has been great!
- “I attended AWE’s EMPOWER for women business owners workshop which I found was focused on my business. The course helped me to better market myself and focus more on my target audience. While attending the workshops I took over the running of my business and these workshops were imperative to setting out my business plan and strategy. I would highly recommend the workshop and since I attended I have referred to others and received positive feedback.” Rebecca H.
- “I took part in AWE’s EMPOWER workshops in a group setting and would definitely recommend them if you're looking to get clarity on a particular area in your business. With the insight gained and the push we all need to implement that knowledge, you will be able to make significant positive changes to your business and in the long-term your income and impact. Ceylan is really sharp, savvy, knowledgeable and a strong coach/mentor who keeps you on track and accountable to your goals.” Kate H.
- “I recently had an EMPOWER workshop with AWE during which I was able to set my business goals for 2020. The whole experience has been intense, insightful and incredibly illuminating, as I understood exactly where to go and how to get there, in a moment when I was feeling a bit stuck, tired and restless! Highly recommended!” Stefania B.
WHY WE ARE CROWDFUNDING NOW
We are right at the start of our journey.
We are already running EMPOWER workshops across London and have started work on our platform.
Our plan is to build a team of trainers to deliver empower more widely within the UK, and also expand our online content to reach a far wider audience globally.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORONA UPDATE
First of all, we hope you are all keeping healthy and safe physically and mentally.
These are very difficult times for everyone, filled with uncertainty, worry and isolation.
Due to this unprecedented situation, and the very nature of our current services (workshops, seminars, training) we have had to make some changes to our crowdfunding campaign. We are very grateful that we have chosen such a supportive platform as Crowdfunder accepted to lower our target down to £10.000 and enrol in Back Her Business program.
Hopefully, this will allow us to finalise our campaign with success and receive more backing from Natwest.
Our initial target was £25.000 and you can see below how we were intending to use it. With our current target, we will be able to build our online platform and support female entrepreneurs during these challenging economic and social isolation period.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If we achieve our crowdfunding target of just £25,000 we can launch our online learning platform that much sooner and expand our learning content to cover areas as diverse as growth, finance and business management.
OUR OWN PLEDGE
For every £100 pledged during this campaign, we will create a lifetime membership for a female entrepreneur from a developing country.
So just by reaching our target of £25,000 we will be able to support 250 such women in developing economies to build a better, equal future.
HERE'S HOW WE'LL INVEST YOUR PLEDGES
Here's a rough breakdown on how we will invest based on a total raise of £25,00.
- PLATFORM: £11,650
- CONTENT: £6,990
- PROMOTION: £2,795
- WORKSHOPS: £1,865
- Crowdfunder fees: £900
- Transaction fees: £800 (assuming 1,000 pledges at £25 each)
Although the amount we are trying to raise seems like a lot - it is - please don't forget that we will have to pay VAT on any pledges that are made, and the cost of the rewards themselves.
As you can see we also need to factor in the fees for use of Crowdfunder's platform and the transaction fees on each pledge.
WE’RE OFFERING SOME GREAT REWARDS
If you're a woman entrepreneur, as a thank you for helping us reach our target, your pledge means you can book upfront workshop tickets, coaching sessions, BETA membership and more, all at discounted rates.
But being an entrepreneur isn’t the only reason to get involved. Every penny is helping us to empower women across the globe. Every £100 pledged to our campaign, we pledge life-time access for a woman entrepreneur from a developing economy.
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?
Find out more about us and the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs at www.academyforwomenentrepreneurs.com.
Please also follow us on social and share our news via the links below…
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AWEntrepreneurs/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AWE_Int
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/academy-for-women-entrepreneurs/
...or just drop us a line via [email protected].
We look forward to hearing from you!
THANK YOU
We’d like to thank all our supporters for their generosity, and for helping to spread the word to help bring us that little bit closer to a world of gender equality. An extra special shout out to Hayley, Josh, Claire, Stephanie, Zara, Dusanka, Patrick and of course our mums, Nurdan and Sharon. We couldn't be doing this without you!
* SOURCES
This project successfully funded on 31st March 2020