EnterprisinGirls is an Italian organisation with a mission to provide women with business opportunities, create working relationships and share social and cultural projects within the region.
They share knowledge of different territories through regular seminars, guided tours and gastronomic and cultural experiences along with opportunities to learn management topics, emotional intelligence and identify target market and countries of reference.
As well as face-to-face networking, there is also an online work platform where female entrepreneurs can talk, read in-depth articles on various topics, organise training sessions and propose ideas.
But it is not just entrepreneurial women who benefit from the organisation. They also give talks to high schools and universities to explain that anyone can do every kind of job (male or female) without limits or stereotypes.
In addition, every year an award is presented to a female entrepreneur who is seen as a source of inspiration: an entrepreneur, a scientist, public administration executives, women in uniform, or photographers.
Collaboration is key
While the organisation provides many opportunities for women in business, they also focus on supporting micro-enterprises which do not have the necessary economic resources to buy services such as marketing, promotion and market strategies. So, they organise activities by bringing several associates together to optimise the resources available. This also means contacting other associations, foundations and institutions to share ideas, projects and activities.
Primarily it is through collaborations where the organisation contributes to its success. As Francesca Vitelli, a consultant at EnterprisinGirls, explained; “Networking is the reason why we started, which is why we look for collaborations inside and outside the organisation. So, we collaborate with many organisations, associations, foundations, schools, universities, local and international authorities.”
Importance of relationships in the world of work
However, one big challenge for the organisation is ensuring women understand the importance of relationships in the world of work. Francesca Vitelli said; “Women often think that time spent cultivating relationships is time taken away from their family and this prevents them from progressing further in their careers like their male colleagues. We face this challenge by putting in place all the possible resources, starting from the indispensable ones such as tenacity and determination to help women understand that participating in meetings means investing in themselves”.