Everyone – man or woman – has the right to go into business

In line with the overall pattern across Belgium, just one business starter in three currently receiving support from micro-lending specialist microStart is a woman.

“Obviously that’s not enough!" argues Emmanuel Legras, General Manager of microStart, which has been backed by BNP Paribas Fortis since 2011, underlining: “We want to help remove the obstacles that prevent women from setting up businesses in this country.”

Obstacles to female entrepreneurship

Various surveys reveal that the main difficulties experienced by would-be businesswomen are:

• a lack of self-confidence and a feeling of insufficient ‘legitimacy’ when discussing projects with men
• higher risk-aversion
• greater difficulty obtaining finance
• a daily struggle to combine working life with home life 

A national campaign

To help overcome ingrained ideas about women in business and encourage as many women as possible to take the plunge, microStart is running a nationwide poster campaign from 16 to 20 November.

The campaign, which is supported by BNP Paribas Fortis, highlights a number of women with extremely varied profiles, but all driven by the same desire to turn a personal passion into a business, whatever their origins and personal history and in spite of the many day-to-day obstacles.  

One such businesswoman is Jarine Siassia Mafouta, who runs a beauty parlour in Brussels. You can find out about her business career in this video portrait.

Overcoming stereotypes and inspiring women

“When people talk about women in business they often have a picture in their minds of well-connected university graduate entrepreneurs who are able to raise funds, or women at the head of thriving companies,” points out Emmanuel Legras, explaining: “In this campaign on the other hand, we’re showing realistic approaches to business that women might reasonably take.”

Five online workshops

Alongside the poster campaign, every microStart agency will be running during the week a number of online workshops, each one addressing a specific issue relevant to female entrepreneurship.

To view the full programme and register for a workshop of your choice, go to this page.

First-ever 100%-female mentoring network  

Ahead of the microStart campaign, which we’re proud to be supporting, we also launched about a month ago the first-ever business mentoring network in Belgium aimed exclusively at women. Our intention is to put female micro-entrepreneurs in touch with female staff at the Bank to enable them to discuss issues, share their experiences and draw mutual inspiration from the encounters. The first mentoring pairings will be set in motion in January.