Five migrant women pitched their fledgeling business ideas to a panel this month as a part of the ‘Leader in you’ mentoring program for migrant women. The entrepreneurship pilot is supported by Albert-Eden Local Board.
The local business-women learnt about registering their companies, accounts and taxation as well as identifying their customers and marketing their business.
"My key learning from this workshop was marketing, how to market my product, how to price it, understand costing and make a profit from it. From the workshop, I understood who my customers are,” says Poonam Garg, Director at Artiste.
‘Leader in You’ is a part of the ‘Inclusion and Diversity’ project. The project emerged from an engagement process with the diverse communities of Albert-Eden by Auckland Council’s Community Empowerment Unit (CEU).
In late 2017, Albert-Eden Local Board commissioned research and backed Auckland Council’s engagement process. This resulted in clear ways to work with communities, to achieve the things the communities are passionate about.
“I didn’t know anything about business, I just had an idea, but now I know how to structure it and run my own business," says Alice Ding, Director at Everload who participated in the programme.
Many of the women including Ms Ding and Ms Garg who participated in the engagement said they would like to be able to develop their ideas for establishing a business.
Albert-Eden Local Board got behind this and funded ‘Leader in You’ as a mentoring program.
“I am very delighted to see that through the local board funds and council assistance, we have been able to help migrant women to establish themselves in Auckland,” said Glenda Fryer, deputy chair of Albert-Eden Local Board, who has championed this.
“As a board, we are keen on listening to what our communities have to say, and it is fulfilling to be able to respond to specific needs identified by the communities.”
This initiative contributes to Albert-Eden Local Board’s outcome to build a strong sense of community and a growing local economy.
