In the face of ongoing war-related challenges, Ukrainian businesses, particularly those led by women, are showcasing incredible resilience.
Garage48, the Estonian Association of Business and Professional Women, and the Ukrainian NGO Divergent Woman have joined more than 14 years of experience in empowering female entrepreneurs, startup communities and leadership, and invite female founders in Ukraine to bring their businesses into the digital and international markets.
The Empowering Women: Digitalisation and export acceleration is designed to boost female-led SME-s in the more traditional fields with the best practices and mentors from the startup and technology sector and with a group coaching methodology for individual personal development.
Our mentors include practitioners only - amongst Ukrainian and international entrepreneurs and experts, familiar with the EU market.
WHO CAN APPLY?
We are welcoming women entrepreneurs operating in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Chernivtsi, and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine from various business fields, who wish to digitalise their operations and expand their businesses internationally.
NB! The programme's main working language is English.
PRIZES
15 female-led businesses can benefit from business digitalisation services of up to 2000 EUR.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
The programme consists of three interrelated stages.
Empowering Women hackathon
October 4-18, 2024
Shape your digitalisation and export vision into a tangible action plan in an online extended Garage48 hackathon, with hands-on mentoring and workshops.
Development Circles
October 4, 2024 – March 25, 2025
Drive personal growth through a group coaching approach and build a lasting female support community amongst your peers.
Empowering Women acceleration
November 6, 2024 – March 25, 2025
Top 15 female founders from the hackathon can proceed to implement their plans and benefit from 2000€ worth of digitalisation services in a tailor-made acceleration programme including needs-based mentoring and workshops, peer-to-peer learning, network development and a mini-hackathon for building an e-shop.
Empowering Women Demoday & Conference
March 25th on-site in Poltava, Ukraine
See the detailed agenda on the “AGENDA” subpage 👆.
TIMELINE
APPLY HERE:
garage48.acceleratorapp.co/application/new?program=empowering-women
If you have any questions, please contact us at kseniia@garage48.org
The project is funded by the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV).
22 September - Application deadline (updated)
23 September - Announcement of programme participants
Empowering Women hackathon
October 4-18, 2024
4 October (Fri),
17.30-18.00 Opening session & export plan introduction
18.00-18.45 Development Circles kick-off meeting
19.00-21.00 Checkpoint #1 - meeting your lead mentor
5-6 October (Sat-Sun), 10.00-17.00 - Workshop sessions:
SWOT for export readiness. Business strategy for export. Design thinking.
Financial planning & Pricing for export.
Legal basis for export
9-10 October (Wed-Thu), 17.00-21.00 - Mentoring sessions
11 October (Fri), 18.00-20.00 - Checkpoint #2
12-13 October (Sat-Sun), 10.00-17.00 - Workshop sessions:
Market analysis, customer profiles, promotion.
Branding, SMM, e-sales.
Trade & logistics for foreign markets.
Digitalisation & automation tools for scaling
16-17 October (Wed-Thu), 17.00-21.00 - Mentoring sessions
18 October (Fri), 18.00-20.00 - Checkpoint #3
20 October - Export plan & 5-month action plan submission deadline
21-23 October - Export plans evaluation
23 October (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Development Circles meeting #1
24 October (Thu),17.00-20.00 - Announcement of top 15 SME-s moving to the Acceleration programme
Development Circles
October 4, 2024 – March 25, 2025
4 October (Fri), 18.00-18.45 - Development Circles kick-off meeting
7 October (Mon), 08.00-10.00 - Development Circles team leads training #1
8 October (Tue), 17.00-21.00 - Development Circles team leads training #2
23 October (Wed), 17.00-20.30 - Development Circles meeting #1
7 November (Thu), 17.00-20.30 - Development Circles meeting #2
4 December (Wed), 17.00-20.30 - Development Circles meeting #3
13 January (Wed), 17.00-20.30 - Development Circles meeting #4
12 February (Wed), 17.00-20.30 - Development Circles meeting #5
25 March (Tue) - Development Circles closing meeting at the Conference
Empowering Women acceleration
November 6, 2024 – March 25, 2025
6 November (Wed) - Acceleration kick-off
weekly meeting with the lead mentor and mentoring sessions with ongoing scheduling
13, 20 and 27 November (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Acceleration Workshops. Topics: EU legislation, regulations & financing opportunities, Opportunities in Ukraine supporting export, Logistics
4, 11 and 18 December (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Acceleration Workshops. Topics: Market research, product design & value proposition, branding and marketing, sustainability
8, 15 and 22 January (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Acceleration Workshops. Topics: E-sales and e-shop building
31 January - 2 February (Fri-Sun) - e-shop building mini-hackathon
5, 12, 19 and 26 February (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Acceleration Workshops. Topics: Financial planning & accounting, management
5, 12 and 19 March (Wed), 17.00-21.00 - Acceleration Workshops. Topics: Resilience, pitching practices
25 March (Tue), 09.00-18.30 - Empowering Women Demoday & Conference
Empowering Women Demoday & Conference
March 25th on-site in Poltava, Ukraine (draft)
09:00-09:30 - Opening of the Conference
09:30-11.00 - Panel discussion "The role of women in modern business: challenges and prospectives"
11:00-11:30 - Coffee break and networking
11:30-12:30 - Panel discussion: Strategies of export development with the usage of digital tools
12:30-13:30 - Q\A (questions and discussion)
13:30-14:30 - Lunch
14:00-16:00 - Introduction of the start-ups established by participants
16:00-17:00 - Development Circle's meeting. Group work, exchange of experience and the discussion of challenges
17:00-17:30 - Closing of the conference
17:30-18:30 - Free time for communication and networking
What are Development Circles about?
Women support women and make miracles happen and help each other to succeed.
Participation in Development Circles is required for all Empowering Women: Digitalisation and Export Acceleration applicants. It offers a supportive online environment where all programme applicants can receive guidance from other women for their personal growth and business development.
The concept is designed to help women achieve their business and personal development goals more effectively. Through the use of coaching cards and a structured methodology, Development Circles provide the tools and support necessary for women to grow personally (develop a growth mindset, better understand their strengths, and overcome personal challenges to start their own businesses) and succeed in launching their businesses. This is a women-to-women support system in small circles.
What is the Development Circles schedule?
Development Circles meetings are held online once a month (see the schedule below) where participants are divided every time into small circles (teams). Women get support and inspiration on their individual goals with the help of coaching professionals from Estonia - Ester Eomois and Signe Vesso, along with designated Development Circles team leads.
Development Circles have been highly popular and effective among Estonian businesswomen, helping them start their own businesses, change careers, and discover their strengths.
Development Circles are held online, in Ukrainian language.
Development Circles
October 4, 2024 – March 25, 2025
No additional application is required for participation in Development Circles. By applying for the Empowering Women: Digitalisation and Export Acceleration, you are automatically enrolled in Development Circles.
We offer a comprehensive short training program to those who want to become team leads of the Development Circles (DC) in the Empowering Women: Digitalisation and Export Acceleration. This training program consists of two online sessions (lasting up to 4 hours each) and some independent studies.
The training will cover:
Prerequisites:
The training program will take place online:
The total number of hours to commit during the 6-month project as a Development Circles team lead is 30 academic hours, and all participants will receive a certificate.
APPLICATION FORM to become a Development Circles team lead.
Please apply until September 22, 2024 (updated).
Additional info: Ester.eomois@ebs.ee, +37256491188
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