Increasing numbers of women are turning to entrepreneurship, starting businesses, and achieving new heights of business success! But the entrepreneurial road is a challenging one, and more so for women, who face gender-specific challenges. There is much that can be done to support women entrepreneurs – and all of us can make a difference. As the first step toward change begins with education, the Pearl Initiative is proud to present a webinar dedicated to women in entrepreneurship and supporting women who are looking to set up their own businesses.

 This webinar aimed to:

• Explore the MSME landscape in the Gulf region and the journey to start a business,
• Discuss the business case to support women entrepreneurs, and
• Discuss supportive policies and activities which help support women entrepreneurs, both present and future.     

In this webinar, we learnt:

• The reality of setting up businesses in the Middle East, both in general and for women entrepreneurs.
• The perspectives on successes and failures for MSMEs from the points of view of an MSME founder and an MSME investor.
• The realities of the “pink economy”, i.e. the shifts in the economy related to women’s expenditure and investment, and how this impacts wider business shifts and trends.
• Advice for MSMEs in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of mental and physical health, smart investment and expenditure, and changing the business strategy to enter “survival mode”.
• Resources and solutions for entrepreneurs which can help them weather the crisis, particularly in terms of tech solutions, marketing, subscriptions, events, and more.
• Whether MSMEs should be seeking investments at all during the COVID-19 crisis – and if not, what the alternative plan should be.