INCAEPRENEURS WOMEN ACADEMY

Entrepreneurship, developing small businesses as engines of growth and prosperity, is recognized worldwide as a hallmark of prosperous nations. Therefore, the World Bank has suggested that Latin America's productivity would increase by 25% if countries focus on strengthening entrepreneurship capacity and engaging women entrepreneurs.

Different research on entrepreneurship in Latin America has shown that women excel in sectors different from men's, promoting collaboration and community benefit. They also foster knowledge exchange and customer orientation, and 71% are strongly motivated to seize market opportunities.

However, only 1.5 out of 10 Latin American entrepreneurs are women. Although the innovative drive of entrepreneurs is at the center, experts agree that the common challenges facing women entrepreneurs in LAC in growing their businesses include a lack of access to capital, education, training, and support through networks to achieve their goals and grow their businesses.

Access to education and financing is a significant problem for women entrepreneurs in Latin America and globally. However, education and training can help to overcome some of these obstacles and support women entrepreneurs in starting and growing their businesses. Initiatives such as the e-learning platform mentioned earlier can provide valuable resources to support these efforts of strengthening their knowledge in finance, marketing, and other areas with the aim of designing a growth strategy for their businesses and strengthening those areas that they identify as necessary for their entrepreneurship is crucial."

• According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women's participation in entrepreneurship is 8% lower than men's, and smaller businesses and lower growth rates often characterize women's entrepreneurship.

• In Latin America and the Caribbean, women entrepreneurs face significant obstacles. Only 44% of women in the region participate in the labor market, and women-led firms in the region are smaller and less profitable than male-led firms, according to a study by the IDB.

• Regarding access to financing, women entrepreneurs in the region face significant challenges. According to the GEM report, only 2.3% of women entrepreneurs in Latin America have access to venture capital, and only 17% of women entrepreneurs have access to bank loans.

However, studies have shown that education and training can help to overcome some of these obstacles. The IDB study found that women entrepreneurs with higher levels of education were more likely to succeed, and the GEM report states that women with access to entrepreneurship training programs are more likely to start and grow their businesses.

Sources:

• The World Bank report "Boosting Productivity in Latin America: The Role of Women Entrepreneurs" (2016).

• "Women's Entrepreneurship in Latin America: An exploratory study" (2017) by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

• The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2020/2021 report states that only 1.5 out of 10 Latin American entrepreneurs are women.

In partnership with Mastercard, the Entrepreneurship Center at INCAE BUSINESS SCHOOL developed an e-learning platform called "LEADS Mujer" to provide financial tools and knowledge about operations, strategy, marketing, sales, and innovation to Latin American women entrepreneurs. The platform is designed to help their businesses grow and overcome women entrepreneurs' barriers.

The platform consists of 4 asynchronous courses as follows:

• Innovative Entrepreneur Toolkit: This course offers enriching tools to consolidate the growth of businesses in the new context and develop new products and services while improving communication and sales efforts.

• Finance Bootcamp: This course was created because many users need to learn basic accounting terms and financial statements. It explains the basic concepts every entrepreneur needs to know to have a financially healthy company.

• Virtual Accelerator: This course aims to support entrepreneurs in designing a growth strategy and identifying areas to adjust before starting this process. The seven modules cover growth and internationalization strategies, marketing and sales, talent management, cash flow, financial management, how to finance growth, challenges in scaling operations, and corporate governance.

• Financial Tools: This course gives users the tools to understand the financial alternatives available to finance their growth.

The platform was built on an open-source learning management system (Moodle), and the contents of each course were also developed in an open-source solution (WordPress).

While the platform does not directly provide access to financing, it helps prepare women entrepreneurs to access financial resources by strengthening their business skills and knowledge.

The presented solution has shown its functionality and viability through the results achieved to date, which are certainly promising and demonstrate the impact on the lives of women entrepreneurs in Latin America. They have improved their business abilities and networks, consequently driving the growth of their businesses and significant economic impact in their communities.

Below are data on the impact of the platform on the businesses of women entrepreneurs who have used and participated in the different programs:

• Number of businesses with a better strategy: 74

• Increase in sales: 67

• Reduction of operating costs: 35

• Business scalability through exports: 9

• Increase in brand visibility: 71

The impact on the lives of women entrepreneurs permeates different aspects. The growth of their businesses allows them to capture a more significant amount of income through increased sales, thus allowing them to increase their solvency and guarantee their economic stability and that of their families.

This is reflected in the testimony of one of the e-learning platform's users:

"Before the pandemic, my husband and general manager of the company suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for almost two months. I had to go from being a sales director to a general director then. Thanks to what I learned in the program, I could take care of everything, from sales and marketing to finance, managing the team, and making and implementing all the decisions." (Jendi Varela, Costa Rica).

"The program has helped me structure the organization, know how to hire personnel, know which skills are required for marketing and operations, etc. Starting this second time was a total change compared to the first experience; the program took some time, and you must be persistent, but it was vital for this second project." (Marlene Manrique, Panama).

"The tools provided to us in the course are beneficial for us to implement in our businesses, and in my case, they are beneficial for the industrialization processes of turmeric." Sandy Luna, Ecuador.

The following table shows the metrics for our program, including registered users, users who have completed at least one topic, and users who have obtained at least one badge for each program.

Francisco Pérez, a recognized social entrepreneur from Costa Rica, leads the Entrepreneurship Center at INCAE Business School.  He was the delegate for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit of 2016 in Silicon Valley for his work in Blubraille (a social enterprise supporting the visually impaired). The rest of the team comprises two women, Marilyn and Priscilla. All the team members are Latinos living in Costa Rica.  

The team has an approach of deep interactions with the beneficiaries of their programs, whether in person, through electronic surveys, and other interactions. The Center constantly communicates with the entrepreneurship community to measure its impact and design new programs. 

The Center aims to foster entrepreneurship in the Latin American region by supporting entrepreneurs, investors, and other actors in the ecosystem by studying and applying tested tools and methodologies. 

Since our founding, our work has impacted thousands of Latin Americans. The success of the enterprises we work with is also the success of dozens of collaborators, their families, and their countries.

32,000+ PEOPLE have participated in activities organized by the center

10,215+ SMES have been trained in critical topics to support their exponential growth

217+ STARTUPS have participated in our program INCAE Labs

After participating in our training programs, companies:

• 85% Improved their financial management

• 80% Experienced growth in sales 

• 71% Were a source of new jobs

• 35% launched their prototype

• 73% Rise in brand visibility 

• 20% increase their opportunities to raise capital

*Source: Startups and SMEs impact survey (2021-2022)

7754 entrepreneurs, with 70% of those being women entrepreneurs. 

We seek ways to expand our impact by creating a mobile version of our programs. Also, we would like to expand the reach by adding a mentorship component and improve our communication efforts to attract more women entrepreneurs from LATAM.  Finally, we would like to get resources to create an English version of our programs to serve Caribean entrepreneurs. 

We have digitalized expert content and made it freely and broadly available online for all Spanish-speaking women entrepreneurs.

The potential for impact is enormous due to the nature of the internet and the improvements in access to it in Latam. 

We have two sets of goals for the coming years. First, we are interested in expanding the reach of our platform measured by the number of enrolled users and the number of those who complete the courses.

Second, we want to see improvement in the businesses they operate by measuring any positive change in sales, reduction in cost, employment generation, improved access to financial resources, etc.  

To reach these goals, we plan to create a mobile version of our programs, if possible, create new programs with different lengths to make the material more accessible. Also, we plan to improve our marketing efforts. 

As mentioned, our first indicators are those related to access and completion of the current programs (registered users and completed courses). We have a second set of indicator based on business performance. 

1. Activities: Designing and delivering e-learning modules, providing mentorship, and organizing networking events.

2. Outputs:  Number of women who completed the e-learning course, the number of mentorship sessions provided, and the number of networking events organized.

3. Outcomes: Increased knowledge and skills among women entrepreneurs, improved access to finance, and increased confidence in running their businesses.

4. Impact: Increased women's economic empowerment, reduced gender inequalities in entrepreneurship, and increased economic growth and development.

Our platform is web-based. We use software, web services (hosting, processors), learning tools, multimedia software, and social media. 

Our team operates from Costa Rica.  We are all Hispanics.

Mastercard´s Center for Inclusion provided the funds for the original development of the courses. Our business model for this project consists of providing the online platform free of charge to women entrepreneurs. We fund our operations through grants, donations, and sales.  

Our goal is to generate income by charging a small fee to the users for the new mobile platform. This income should reach a level to cover the expenses of offering the platform to the public. 

As explained previously, we aim to develop a hybrid strategy of donations, grants, and sales for this platform. 

We received from Mastecard´s Center for Inclusion two grants for a total of $300.000 during 2018 and 2020. Since then, we have kept the platform live using our operating budget to cover hosting, maintenance, and marketing. 

Since we aim to expand the platform's reach by creating a mobile version, we seek donations to finance the new platform (app) and content creation.