The Juana Milla School of Entrepreneurshipn is an online destination for training and support for women-led organizations. Opening its doors in October 2021, its journey is still short. But that includes the itinerary and the experience. Together we carry on, a program for the promotion and vision of women’s co-operative entrepreneurship schemes started in 2014. In May 2023, the school community has already united more than 800 girls. In this article, we propose to share key lessons learned from the school’s experience to promote a transformative economy together.
Women are (further) disadvantaged as entrepreneurs. We start from disparate socialization, from a fantasy of success and ambition that many women do not identify with, and from limited access to communication networks, from inequality in the distribution of care work.
As a result, women’s businesses tend to be smaller, less ambitious from a technical and economic point of view, and generate less employment (many are standalone). We face more difficulties with access to funding, less visibility and fewer resources to access training and advice.
This disadvantageous situation is compounded when other factors such as migration from rural areas, health problems or belonging to an ethnic group come together.
Where should we go?
We don’t think about it: the dominant economic model is disgusting and unsustainable. We believe we can’t do economics with the same way of thinking (generally male-led) that got us here.
For this reason, despite the adverse situation, we as women must strengthen our role as creators of the economic structure and as defining agents of how this fabric should be created and sustained.
Therefore, we want to be the germ of an economic model that promotes new economic relationships, led by women, from the school, people and planet at the center. It is also the seed of successful and ambitious projects in strategic sectors such as science industry, primary agriculture sector, renewable energies, renovation of buildings, circular economy, culture, relocation of production of essential goods like toilets. , textile, food, technology or maintenance. In short, programs that support a decent life for all.
For this reason, in addition to providing the knowledge and tools to start or strengthen our projects today, we also show other ways to implement businesses with social, environmental and feminist impact for tomorrow’s economy. .
An entrepreneurship school for all women, everywhere
Being an online school helps us reach out to more girls in different regions, but it also makes us more aware of technology gaps and lack of internet in small rural towns.
To adapt to needs and personalize with support, we combine two tools: group training and individual sessions in each program. All of them online, via video conferencing.
The sessions are always practical, participatory and sometimes in the form of workshops where we work on the reality of the projects we participate in.
Sessions with each woman or each group, when it comes to collaborative efforts, are of two types: exercises or specialized consultations. Teachers are the core team of the school and we become their link and referent throughout the process and we assess the need for other resources. Expert advice relies on a wide net More than 60 collaborators And allow us to respond with a high level of expertise to your departmental, legal, economic, sales and other needs.
What is there to learn from implementing economic plans?
At the Juana Millen School of Entrepreneurship, we learned that business itself is surrounded by many conditioning factors, not just market or managerial, but related to life cycles and care. It affects us as a people. Entrepreneurship is complex and all these dimensions need to be taken care of to support women entrepreneurs.
For this reason, training contents include hard skills related to business management and soft skills related to emotions and interpersonal relationships. The connection between our entrepreneurial plans and other aspects of our lives is always a tense area that we cannot avoid.
We also highlight useful skills for developing alternative economic models: social and solidarity economics, feminist economics, group dynamics needed to implement collective projects, and students learn about many real tips to put this into practice.
A safe place
All coaches, mentors, motivational programs and advisors in the school’s extended team are women and entrepreneurs. They become intimate references to flesh and blood.
This makes it possible to share knowledge as experts in their area of expertise and provide experiential knowledge of the entrepreneurial process, realistically, with its powers and limitations.
On the other hand, because it is an exclusive meeting place for girls, their own room to share experiences, resources, information…our students really value that it is a school designed by women for women.
A learning community
To promote networks among entrepreneurs, we have prioritized group training, in which we are looking for spaces for integration and participation. Our teachers make learning easy, but our students learn a lot from the “next-door.” It is a horizontal learning, a “peer education”.
And we’ve found that these group spaces are motivating and allow many entrepreneurs to alleviate feelings of isolation.
An entrepreneurship school for all women at all times
We’ve learned that support needs to be customized to the rhythm and needs of each project. That is why the programs are not rigid. From the school, we combine training with a personalized accompaniment, so that each project develops, on the one hand, group work and, on the other hand, individual work with exercises and advice focused on your specific subject.
Programming and timings of group sessions take into account the school calendar to facilitate reconciliation. Also, self-administered online training is provided for those who are absent in the morning. Individual sessions are flexible and reserved for students’ convenience.
We offer a wide range of activities. The two-hour sessions focus on a specific topic almost every Tuesday. Each entrepreneur can register only one or as many as they like. Many of these sessions are videotaped and available Our youtube channel. We have a virtual cafeteria that serves as a meeting place, open 24/7.
As the school seeks to support programs that are just starting their operation, we assist programs that have a history and are in operation Four itineraries More intensive, group sessions are tailored to the moment and availability of an attempt to participate.
A self-directed course for entrepreneurs (partially available) with a business idea that allows them to start their project without following a fixed learning rhythm, Is Entrepreneurship for Me? Together we discovered that her record was permanently open.
Group training and personalized support for entrepreneurs who want to shape their plans and clear doubts before starting a business. How do I start my business idea? Together we begin. The next edition will start in September 2023 and admission will be open.
We call together a variety of courses aimed at entrepreneurs with plans to strengthen a specific area. What are the keys to improving my business?
A special support program for entrepreneurs with more than three years of experience who need to strengthen the sustainability and credibility of their project, How can I make my business successful? Together we go far.
Don’t speed up or slow down for a “slow” effort
There is a dominant mindset about entrepreneurship that combines it with a combination of independence, self-sufficiency and confidence, with a willingness to take chances on the fly, always be at the forefront of innovation and never miss a step. There was a time when the concept of incubators became fashionable: support programs for the first three years of a project, the years when its integration is at risk. Currently, accelerators are in fashion, which encourage projects to grow quickly, connecting the desire for immediacy to the mantras of entrepreneurship, which we consider too disconnected from the processes and periods of life.
From a social, solidarity and feminist economy, we commit to processes at low temperatures, honoring the rhythms necessary for things to evolve.
It’s not about endless stretching. We know there are times to jump in and take action. But we are making a quiet effort to give him time.
A vision of women’s transformative entrepreneurship
We want to promote a social, supportive and feminist entrepreneurial culture: identifying opportunities in the environment and turning them into viable, personally rewarding, socially and environmentally sustainable economic activities, i.e. with a fourfold balance: economic, social, environmental and personal.
We need to provide visibility to existing projects. Something we will continue to do Juana Millen School of Entrepreneurship Awards: Contribute to the recognition of the efforts of women entrepreneurs and identify projects that can implement the principles and values of the social and solidarity economy, which are committed to a feminist economy and based on collective value. The second edition is underway, if you are a woman and want to make the transition, you can submit your application by July 15, 2023 at 11:59 PM. We are waiting for you to claim, see and celebrate an economy with its own name.
