The European Commission help woman entrepreneurs to get started

In November a new European network of mentors which promotes and helps female entrepreneurship through sharing of know-how and experience has been launched by the European Commission: Women only account for 34.4% of the self-employed in Europe.

Entrepreneurship gives women the flexibility regarding the reconciliation of private and professional life, specifically concerning the time and place of work. Moreover, due to the economic crisis, many women, who lost their jobs could use their skills and knowledge, start-up their own company and create their own job.

In this sense, successful businesswomen will assist women entrepreneurs who established a new enterprise two to four years ago. The mentors will give these new entrepreneurs concrete advice on how to run and grow their enterprises in this early, critical phase of the businesses as well as to help them to develop the necessary soft skills and coach them. In this network 170 mentors and 17 European countries participate: Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, FYROM, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

For the selection of mentors it is important that they have personal experience of owning and managing a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) successfully for at least five years. Also they are willing to share their knowledge with their mentorees on a volunteering basis, are available to meet them regularly for a minimum of one year and are willing to engage with at least two mentorees.

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