“They Have Succeeded!” – Conference For Women Entrepreneurs in Romania, Lavinia Netoi, blogger, todayelite.com.
On Thursday I participated at “Ele au reusit!” / “They Have Succeeded!” conference for women entrepreneurs in Romania, organized by Elite Business Women and ANAA – Asociatia Nationala A Antreprenorilor / The National Association of Entrepreneurs. The conference took place at the Bucharest Stock Exchange and was a very successful event: nice ambiance, informative and motivational speeches, Q&A, netorking during the coffee break and gifts at the end from the sponsors. Congratulations Bianca Tudor for organizing the event!
There were 2 panels: the first was about women in entrepreneurship, moderated by Dan Paul, the President of The Brokers’ Association, and the second was with success stories, moderated by Irina Cordoneanu from The Romanian Television.
During the conference I took notes and these are my favorite takeaways from each speaker:
Bianca Tudor, Founder of Elite Business Women:
Be the woman who makes the difference!
Madalina Balan, Managing Partner HART Consulting:
- Mixed teams (made up of both women and men) make the most profitable teams.
- A person’s personality predicts the quality of his/her leadership.
- The values and personal motivations of leaders imprint the culture of a company.
- Women are self-critical and this may lead to self-sabotage.
Clara Alexandrescu, Co-owner CardioRec:
- Time is very important and you should respect other people’s schedule.
- You should dress well in public.
Peter Barta, CEO Fundatia Post-Privatizare / Post-Privatization Foundation:
- Modesty is good only to a certain extent. Women generally don’t know how to sell themselves. There is nothing wrong in promoting yourself.
- Women should go to networking events.
Ileana Botez, Communication and Marketing Director, Bucharest Stock Exchange:
- She presented AeRO, a new transaction platform for startups and small and mid-sized companies.
- Statistics: 36% of business owners in Romania are women. 35-45% of top management is represented by women.
- In some countries, there are rules for business which specify that women should represent o certain percentage in board membership etc.
- The stock exchange has services to offer for small, mid-sized companies and startups: getting listed at the stock exchange, investing on the capital market.
Gabriela Bradea, Manager at BCR (The Romanian Commercial Bank) Business Development Department:
- Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a state of mind.
- For each female entrepreneur, there are 3 male entrepreneurs.
- Failure in entrepreneurship can be a stepping stone to big achievements.
- People are the first to create obstacles for themselves.
Cristina Chiriac, President ANAA – Asociatia Nationala a Antreprenorilor / The National Association of Entrepreneurs and Founder of Flori de Ie:
- Overall women are not doing well in business today.
- Financing for small and mid-sized companies isn’t favoring.
- At the stock exchange, the problem for startups is that they lack notoriety.
- Entrepreneurs are innovative and courageous enough to build the future.
- Entrepreneurs will face problems. The only idea is to learn the life lesson and carry on.
- Entrepreneurs should be united. There should be real communication, they should meet at events. Together they can fight the lack of transparency which leads to not finding out about opportunities, changing laws. If they form associations, they can react together when the government affects the dynamics of business.
Everything is a matter of perspective. Where some people see trouble, others see success.
Oana Stan, Brand Manager Techir:
We can find inspiration in what others are doing, then personalize the products.
Bianca Dancila, Founder & Managing Director Grip Ads:
- Choosing not to give up will lead you to success.
- Self-trust is very important.
- Take the risk and make the first step.
- You will succeed if you have the right mindset and if you do awesome things.
- Work with people you get along with, with whom you can build a solid relationship and most surely you will be successful together.
- When you have a tough moment, you can re-connect with yourself by taking a break: go out for coffee with a friend, go out in nature etc.
Ana Radu and Roxana Panturoiu, Founders of JUICEit:
- People impose barriers upon themselves: for example in the beginning Ana and Roxana were afraid that they couldn’t handle the accounting part of the business.
- They learned new things along the way, after starting their company in 2014.
- There will be difficulties along the way and you will break down if you are not strong.
- You have to be open.
- They want feedback from customers so that they can optimize their products based on the clients’ wishes and needs. You should try to understand your clients, but also to educate them.
- A happy client gives you other 5 clients. This way you can grow in an organic way.
- It is very important to believe in your idea and not be afraid of obstacles.