Monday 16 March 2015

Google Gives South African Women An Entrepreneurship Boast

Expanding on the 106th International Women’s Day that took place on Sunday March 8, Google South Africa recently provided burgeoning entrepreneurs the chance to expand their business skills with a workshop in Johannesburg.

Held over March 10-11, the Digital Business Manager event set out to help female business women better develop and understand internet skills. Topics that were covered ranged from social media marketing to using various Google advertising products such as Google Analytics and AdWords.

As reported in htxt.africa, before the event Google discussed their aims and ambitions for the project: “Core to Google’s mission is equal access to information, which is why it is committed to helping users of all backgrounds and experiences make the most of the web. This is why, when looking at how to mark this years’ International Women’s Day Google SA decided to embark on this project,” said Google.

The event as a whole hopes to not simply inspire women to start digital businesses, but additionally to create further opportunities for females in the online sector.

This comes at a time when creating an online store and building a successful internet presence has become far more accessible for anyone to undertake. For example, web hosting from 1&1 and similar companies has made selling products online and setting up an “e-business” possible for those not versed in HTML and CSS. Optimisation of your site on smart phones and tablets has simultaneously become easier and more profitable in 2015.

Like Google, these companies are keen to assist determined online business people, by giving tips on attracting customers with marketing tools and cutting edge website design.

Furthermore, aspiring young South African females would do well to look at the success of some of the country’s most powerful businesswomen, namely Kurisani Maswanganyi, Tania Mulligan and Mariota Essery.

Maswanganyi has now become managing director of Kulani, a South African based engineering consultancy firm that was founded in 2007. Mulligan is a co-founder of Kushesh Xpress, a similar South African business on the rise that operates for health care distribution.

Essery is a Cape Town native now working in Los Angeles as Associate Creative Director at TWBA, and was named as one of 2014’s most creative women in advertising by Business Insider.

In what is proving to be an exciting time for young ambitious females living in Africa, earlier this year Intel teamed up with social enterprise She Leads Africa, to deliver three free workshops across the African cities of Nairobi, Johannesburg and Lagos. Titled ‘Who wants to be a tech millionaire?’, the events were formed to inform women on how to harness new technology to make products ready to deliver to the public. Additionally, participants received practical training on knowing exactly how to get consumers’ attention with regards to product or services.

She Leads Africa also led a pitch competition for promising female entrepreneurs in 2014, giving away $16,000 in cash prizes to help South African start-ups. She Leads Africa’s mission statement tells of eradicating unequal access to education, limited access to financing, constraining cultural stereotypes and limited opportunities in order to develop useful networks.