More female business power thanks to the “We C Business”-project
“We C Business” addresses the gender unbalance in entrepreneurship and leadership. The project supports young women aged 18-25 on their journey towards the business world. Last November, 75 enthusiastic power women gathered in Örebro/Sweden for the final event of their six-month training programme.
´I want to run my own business ´ is something both men and women dream of. However, the reality looks different: Studies and statistical data for the EU show that twice as many men as women are entrepreneurs, with big variations: Both the Nordic and Baltic countries´ self-employment rates lie below the European average. In 2019, less than 6 percent of Swedish women were their own bosses, compared to an EU-average of 10 percent. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sv/publications/2019/female-entrepreneurship-public-and-private-funding
Hence, there is a lot of room for improvement! The earlier girls train their entrepreneurial skills, test ideas, get acquainted with tools and mindsets, meet coaches, trainers, and not least female role models, the higher the chances that they enter the business world.
Six-month-training programmes for young woman
This is exactly what the Interreg Central Baltic project We C Business (Woman Entrepreneur Creating Business) offers. The project targets young women between 18 and 25 years who run a company they want to level up, or who have a business idea they´d like to develop. The participants, in total 75 women from each Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia, are offered a free six-month-training programme. By providing profound skills about how to start and run a company, We C Business hopes to address another problem many youngsters are facing: the risk of falling unemployed, which in the Baltic Sea region exceeds the EU-average.
The lead partner of the three-year-project with a budget of nearly 1.4 million euros is the NGO STARTcentrum Social Impact Sweden, the other partners being Impact Hub Liepaja (Latvia) and Foundation Tartu Centre for Creative Industries (Estonia). So far, two of the three planned training cycles have been completed, supporting some 150 women with valuable entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
Invaluable knowledge and friends for life
In November, the participants of the second cycle gathered in the Swedish town of Örebro for a Kick-Out event, which marked the end of their common journey with We C Business. A journey that combined lectures, work in small groups, and individual coaching with online- and in-person training and meetings. The enthusiasm, joy, and laughter that filled the conference hall demonstrated clearly that the young power ladies from Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden not only learned a lot, but also had a great time together.
An observation that both Asia Chaabi from Sweden and Kai-Melli Kapten from Estonia confirm. They made friends for life and got inspired and empowered by all the committed participants.
For Asia, who studies International Management at Jönköping University, the programme provided the opportunity to delve deeper into the practical side of entrepreneurship. The 23-year-old intends to start a company of her own, a matchmaking platform for sports people. Her business idea was born out of her own needs – as a newcomer in Jönköping, it proved difficult to find suitable tennis partners. During the last six months, Asia benefitted greatly from the experienced coaches, got a lot of tips on how to proceed with her business idea, and expanded her network. While she recently found a potential teammate, there is market research left to do. “I feel that I stand at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey”, states a highly inspired Asia.
Kai-Melli Kapten, a 23-year-old economics student at Tartu University, has come closer to stepping up her company Transful. Founded two years ago, it is dedicated to helping students enhance their memory and learning techniques, for instance through workshops. The latest achievement is a self-developed board game for teaching memory tricks, which is currently being tested. The young Estonian entrepreneur´s biggest challenge? Finding time for her little company while being a full-time student, says Kai-Melli, who gained a lot of confidence during the entrepreneurial programme.
“Be courageous”, and “don´t let others crush your dreams“
Other young participants praised the programme´s international twist as well as the passionate and inspiring lectures held by successful female entrepreneurs. One of the speakers at the Kick-off was Nebe Almayahi, founder of TEINT, a prized start-up producing skin-tone plaster. Nebe´s advice to the young women: “Whatever your business idea is, make it inclusive, diverse, and accessible!”
Rim Alexandra Halfya emphasized the importance of never giving up: “Don´t let others crush your dreams”, said the co-founder of property-tech company Combify, who didn´t stop fighting for her goals despite a very serious accident. When it comes to a good business idea, Rim Alexandra recommended offering a solution to other peoples´ problems. A third speaker, Nastaran Baleng-Soultani, highlighted the sad fact that only one percent of all risk capital is being invested in companies driven by women. To initiate a change, she co-founded RadCap, an investment company by women for women. “Be courageous” was Nastaran´s advice to the young (to-be)-entrepreneurs who are likely to face many challenges on their road to success.
No guarantee of success
As the final event showed, not all the participants’ initial dreams will come true. Some of the young women realized that their initial business idea was too big, too complex, too pricey, technically not feasible, or lacking sufficient demand. A painful insight, for sure, but also a chance to alter the initial idea or start something completely new. Thanks to the We C Business, the participants are not just equipped with entrepreneurial knowledge and practical tools, they also gained many new contacts to make use of in the future and learned a lot about themselves.
Ilze Šupstika, project coordinator at Impact Hub Liepaja, stresses the importance of getting started and not losing heart in the face of difficulties and backlashes. “Start earning some money, maybe you´ve got a hobby you can turn into a business” is Ilze´s message to the girls.
Mia Carlén, project manager at STARTcentrum, says she´s truly impressed by the young participants´ enthusiasm, creativity, commitment, progress, and personal development. She stresses that entrepreneurship is not the final goal, but a tool they can make use of in the future.
For all those who haven´t gotten the chance to participate in the programme yet, Mia has good news: The third and last circle of We C Business is kicking off in April 2025, and is now open for application. Driven young women from Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden find all the necessary information on https://sites.google.com/view/wecbusiness/application
Text: Ingrid Meissl Årebo, national Contact Point Sweden South/ Interreg Central Baltic programme; December 2024.
