EDT Business Accelerator
A bespoke entrepreneurial support for small and medium businesses with a strong focus on female entrepreneurs in low-income communities
Targeted beneficiaries are entrepreneurs who have been running their business for at least 12 months. Over 80% being women, located in low-income communities/township communities between the ages 18 to 40.
Program Components
Within a 10 month period, entrepreneurs participate in 3 key components:
Masterclasses
This aspect of the program is capacity building for the entrepreneur in order to be empowered to take the business to the next level. The sessions are designed in a practical way so that the participants can be able to begin to work through particular concepts during the sessions while receiving live feedback.
A masterclass curriculum is designed to tailor fit the cohort‘s business needs, where industry leaders teach and share practical steps on various business related topics.
One-on-one Coaching
The coaching sessions is the structure of the program that heavily focuses on the bespoke support in working with one business at a time.
Pitching Competition
A real-world pitching competition where the entrepreneurs are able to put into practice all that they have learnt throughout the program; develop critical skills that will be useful in accessing finance for their businesses and receive valuable feedback from a panel of expert judges.
Program Objectives
The objectives of the program are defined under four pillars:
Revenue Growth
The existing business increases revenue or adds new sales channels.
Creation of Employment
The existing business increases the number of employees.
Access to Finance
The improvement of existing business ability to apply for a loan, a grant or equity and be considered a viable investment.
Compliance
The existing business improves its compliance with regulatory bodies relevant to their sector.
A Bespoke Approach
The type of women supported by our program have competing priorities that are very much gendered which is why we equally focused on a bespoke approach whilst creating a cohort and peer experience and network. One of the benefits of our bespoke approach is that it allows us to engage each business uniquely and be able work towards the defined success at the appropriate level.
We have experienced that customizing women‘s needs is the beginning of achieving meaningful support as you are able to determine what will make the biggest difference for each business. It also allows us the opportunity to assess the impact of the program at a very detailed individual level to provide a program/cohort narrative and individual journeys.
In our 5 years working with women in business support in order to make entrepreneurship a viable pathway, we have seen that one needs to create a program that is contextual and agile enough while achieving its objectives.