BENGALURU : A platform for women entrepreneurs, which has helped around 50 businesses in south India, will be starting its chapter in Bengaluru. This is to help women, in rural areas especially, as well as those from smaller cities, get a head start in their business ventures. Women Entrepreneurs India (WEI), based in Chennai, will be launched in Bengaluru on July 23. "Our focus has always been SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and rural businesses. We have organised events and workshops in small towns and cities, giving budding women entrepreneurs training in many areas," says Mahalakshmi Sarvanan, founder, WEI.
Some of these programmes include how to use smartphones, accessing email, how to network with financers and preparing project reports. "We want to spread in rural areas and give enterprising women a chance to fulfil their dreams through training and mentoring through various processes, such as marketing, connecting with banks, how to prepare business pitches, and more," adds Mahalakshmi.
The aim of WEI Bengaluru is to at least help around 100 women entrepreneurs. "The response from Bengaluru has been amazing. We hope to convert these into flourishing businesses" .
Kausalya Devi, local champion (Bengaluru), WEI, who runs an events management business, says that looking at the model followed in Chennai where the platform is based, a number of programmes and events for rural women entrepreneurs have been organised, "There have been events in Tirupur and other small cities in Tamil Nadu. An event is going to take place in Ooty as well. So the focus has been, and will be, women from two-tier and three-tier cities, and those in rural areas. We are also planning a number such events in small towns and cities in Karnataka in the coming months," says Kausalya.
Some of the success stories range from an entrepreneur who started her own line of herbal beauty products business to another one who founded her own culinary institute. "We want to provide a platform for any business, not just those that are tech-related as is expected in Bengaluru," says Mahalakshmi.