Event Pushes for NZ Women in Business

Event Pushes for NZ Women in Business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7 March 2017

A monthly event launching nationwide today will help arm women with the tools and support they need to succeed in business.

The first #CommunityTuesday coincides with International Women’s Day. Events will be held in locations from Kaipara to Christchurch. It will then run on the first Tuesday of each month.

The initiative is being launched by the New Zealand Women’s Entrepreneur Network. Founder Rachel Lewis says women in business need more support than what they’re currently getting.

“When women succeed in business, society succeeds,” Lewis says.

“But right now women are facing more roadblocks than men so we’re here to address that and give them the confidence they need to succeed in their ventures.”

Lewis founded KiwiOz Nannies 15 years ago as a 22-year-old living in London. The company now employs 10 London-based staff and has facilitated thousands of nanny placements.

She says the common barriers faced by all entrepreneurs - such as lack of money or funding, training, knowledge, and peer support - are worse for women.

“But the biggest challenge of all, especially for women, is a lack of confidence."

“Men are generally better at faking it until they make it and are therefore more likely to get loans or funding. Women are less prepared to throw themselves into things they don’t feel fully qualified in doing.”

This year, International Women’s Day’s theme is Be Bold For Change. It’s the same mindset Lewis says women need to take going into business.

#CommunityTuesday will bring women around the country together once a month to escape the isolation of self-employment and help them build strong personal and professional relationships.

“Women are typically less competitive than men and we should use that trait to our advantage to collaborate and help build each other up,” Lewis says.

Each event will be focused around one topic spanning all things business - from social media marketing to productivity - and will be an opportunity to bounce ideas with other women.

Eventually, Lewis aims to make the Women’s Entrepreneur Network the biggest and most useful network for women in business: something not only women, but all society, should get excited about.

An Ernst & Young report identified that women have a larger positive social impact than men do when they succeed in business, as they are more likely to spend their incomes on those close to them, rather than on themselves as men do.

“That’s why we all need to be supporting entrepreneurial women,” Lewis says.

“They’re a currently under-tapped resource which can help our economy and communities grow strong.”

ENDS

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