In Greece, women entrepreneurship consists of a driving force for the strengthening of the Greek economy while strong belief for the Greek policy is that «If we manage to take advantage of all the business opportunities of women, our effort for recovery will lead to a stronger & more resilient economy and society.” Women-run business start-ups have risen during the covid-19 pandemic, jumping from 24% (in 2020 according to Elstat, Eurostat) to 33% (in 2021) when the corresponding rates at European level hovered around 30% (for Europe) and 31% (worldwide).
Obstacles to the development of women entrepreneurship, are the fear which characterizes the majority of women who seriously consider the issue of their own business development. Factors such as:
• The theory “family & career do not go together”
• Difficulty to access funding / information
• Limited business networking opportunities
• Lack of proper education & training
• Lack of guidance in the first critical steps of the business
• the inaccessible administrative and tax environment for companies,
These are examples of factors that have led to a lower familiarity of business activity standards amongst women in Greece. However, only 4 out of 10 women believe in their capabilities while in the contrary 1 in 2 believe that their business idea will be successful.
ReSt@rts -“Reinforcing Med Microfinance Network System for Start-ups” project is going to contribute to this direction. Through the activities planned by the partnership,will support the female entrepreneurial community in Greece and especially in Western Greece, as well as the potential women entrepreneurs and stakeholders, who are need of support, guidance, and encouragement to give real substance to their business idea, by immediately starting its implementation and establishing their own business.
Given that ReSt@rts is a capitalization project on the Medst@rts project- which has contributed to an increase in women entrepreneurship in Achaia prefecture (Western Greece area). 4 out of 14 companies established had a female leader and more than half had at least one woman in their business group. It is estimated that these percentages are going to increase, and the reserved nature and stigmatization around women entrepreneurship in our area will significantly be reduced.