Women Entrepreneurs NYC
WE NYC – Women Entrepreneurs of New York City- is the official initiative of the City of New York to support and empower women entrepreneurs. The first City program in the country to address the entrepreneurship gender gap by offering a set of business services tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs.
Launched in November 2015 by the First Lady of New York, Chirlane McCray, and Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen); and housed under the Department of Small Business Services, WE NYC is committed to expanding the economic potential of women entrepreneurs and small businesses. Since our programs were open to the public we have served 5000+ women, held 1200+ workshop hours, 580+ hours of mentorship and our Facebook Group has attracted 5000+ followers, among other milestones.
The City believes that supporting women entrepreneurs not only empowers women but also uplifts entire families and communities. Recently, the Dell Global WE Cities Ranking, cited NYC as the best city in the world for a woman to be an entrepreneur for the second year in a row. This year the report directly mentions the impact of WE NYC in the ecosystem.
WE NYC has a suite of premiere programs and services, created to help women start, operate and grow their businesses:
WE MASTER LEADERSHIP
Overview
WE Master Leadership is a 12-hour workshop (spread over either 2 or 4 days) that covers soft skills such as:
- Communicating, building confidence, networking, managing time, negotiating contracts, managing stress,
- Managing people etc. The workshop will be run in cohorts of 30 women and will be interactive, experiential and
- Encourage peer learning
WE MASTER MONEY: CREDIT
Overview
WE Master Money: Credit is a cohort-based credit curriculum coupled with one-on-one financial counseling, with
- The goal of teaching these businesses how to separate personal and business finances and establish, then improve,
- Their business credit score.
WE MASTER MONEY: FUNDING
Overview
WE Master Money: Funding is a 1-day cohort-based capital planning curriculum. The workshop guides women entrepreneurs through the process of creating a financial road map that says what financial products make sense at different stages in the company’s lifecycle.
WE CONNECT MENTORS
Overview
WE Connect Mentors is a program to support the needs for mentorship among women entrepreneurs. WE Connect Mentors is composed from a variety of industries, backgrounds and business life stages who have demonstrated success. Each WE Connect Mentor is a subject matter expert and provides mentor sessions across the City.
WE CONNECT EVENTS
Overview
WE Connect Events are a series of networking opportunities. Each event has a topic, such as building confidence, growing your business and accessing capital. Participants break into small groups of 8-10 people to have a structured discussion and learn from their peers. The events take place across the five boroughs.
WE CONNECT PORTAL
Overview
WE Connect Portal is a one-stop-shop for women entrepreneurs. It includes ten features, such as a dynamic listing of events, classes and other resources, a map of women-owned businesses, blog posts from WE Connect Mentors, narratives of successful business owners, the capital planning tool and more.
WE FUND CROWD
Overview
WE FUND Crowd, is a new City-led crowdfunding initiative to help women entrepreneurs access affordable capital. Part of the City’s WE NYC initiative, the first WE Fund Crowd offering is a partnership with the nonprofit crowdfunding platform Kiva. Through this program, the WE NYC contributes the first 10% of crowdfunded loans secured by New York City based women entrepreneurs.
Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WeNYC) is an initiative of the New York City Department of Small Business Services dedicated to helping women start and grow their businesses.