Wanted: one million women entrepreneurs
Cambridge Satchel Company founder, Julie Deane, was one of the speakers at an inaugural event organised on July 23 by SHE (Start Her Enterprise), a non-profit organisation that seeks to boost entrepreneurship among women in developing economies.
Ms Deane, who launched her leathergoods brand in 2008 from her kitchen table in Cambridge with funding of £600, is an ambassador for the organisation.
Starting with women in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal, SHE seeks to help them improve their business skills and provide them start-up capital to launch businesses. The organisation has said it wants to help launch 1 million women-run enterprises by 2030.
“By becoming financially independent, by allowing a woman the chance to support her family, to pay her own bills, we also provide her with a way to reclaim her pride,” Ms Deane has said. “Every woman SHE can help will be a win, to set out to do this a million times is a cause I am honoured to be associated with.”
