Boss Women

Due to the pandemic, women have lost their means of livelihood at disproportionately higher rates, resulting in over 15% unemployment. They are also often caregivers for children and the elderly. Now more than ever home-based businesses can provide a means to sustain women. The addition of training, mentors, peer support, directory and financing can help them thrive.

The Boss Women program provides the following much-needed resources: (1) training to build technical skills and knowledge, (2) mentorship from successful women in related fields, (3) peer support platforms to share resources/advice, (4) a directory app for home-based service providers, and (5) a micro-loan to help launch the business.  To prevent burdening women with debt, loans would be forgivable to those who participate in training and mentorship.  These incentives also increase the odds of success, and financial independence for years to come.  This program can be replicated by women's organizations in communities globally.

Women have been affected at disproportionately higher rates by COVI-19.  The unemployment rate among women is an astonishing 15.5% as a result of pandemic related business closures and furloughs.  Additionally, in Central Florida, approximately 40% of the jobs are in the hospitality industry and 40% of these jobs have been lost.  Women have traditionally worked in these restaurants, hotels and retail stores and due to closures have lost their means of livelihood.  They also often have the added responsibility of being the primary caregivers for either the children or elderly in their families and, therefore, are required to be home.  Many of these women have passions that can be transformed into sources of income, including art, childcare, tutoring, catering, design, or product sales but do not have the savings to purchase the equipment or acquire necessary certification/licensing or the training in the technology required for e-commerce.  A home-based business provides a means to sustain their families through this difficult time and with this much-needed support, they can thrive.  

MWO will implement the following through its Boss Women program:

1. Training: to build technical, logistical and practical skills that help establish business and achieve success
   1. Monthly Workshops: at the MWO Resource Center, facilitated by community partners and MWO members
      1. Topics include: Mission/Vision, Design Thinking, Compliance, Building Confidence, Elevator Pitch, Growth Mindset, Measurable Outcomes, Negotiation and Persuasion, Product Development, Challenges of Women in Business
   2. Full Day Seminars: large-scale community wide training events open to the public and facilitated by professional trainers
      1. Technology and E-Commerce (Google Apps, websites)
      2. CRM Platform training
      3. Social Media Marketing and Digital Communications
      4. Storytelling through Video
2. Mentorship: connecting new entrepreneurs to successful business women in related fields for accountability and to give support
3. Peer Support Hub: online space for women entrepreneurs to network, share resources, give/get advice, and receive training and pep talks
4. Online Directory and App: to connect home-based women owned businesses to those in the community who need their products or services
5. Forgivable Micro-Loan: provide seed funding ($500 - $2500) to help women turn their ideas into reality.  To build accountability, incentives for skill building, and decrease financial burden on women, there will be loan forgiveness for women who attend workshop series and connect with mentor regularly

The Muslim Women's Organization (MWO) serves the Muslim women of the Central Florida area.  They are ethnically diverse (Approximately 33% South Asian, 30% Arab/Middle-Eastern, 25% Black/African descent, 5% Caribbean, 4% Latin American, and 3% other) and between the ages of 18 and 55.  Every year, the MWO volunteer leaders coordinate community service and feeding projects to help those in need.  Over 180 women applied for financial support since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, a majority were immigrants with English not being their first language. The language barrier made it difficult for them to find work.  These women all live at or below the poverty level and many have lost income or have had a spouse who has lost their income. As always, we provided food items and grocery gift cards, and many mentioned that they needed work and means to support themselves financially to break out of the cycle of poverty.  We are developing a survey to assess their needs in the current economic crisis.  We have also had discussions with focus groups of women who either have or are interested in starting home-based businesses.  The training program will include workshop topics based on the needs expressed.

Boss Women is perfectly aligned with the Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship Challenge. The problem being addressed is the unemployment and poverty of Muslim women due to lack of job opportunities. We will not only create good jobs through the launching of businesses and providing initial capital, the essential element of the solution being offered is equipping women with the skills they need for their ventures to succeed, including technological and digital literacy.  Muslim women home-based workers need to master the use of e-commerce platforms to be able to reach their market in times of social distancing. 

The thing that makes the Boss Women program unique is accessibility.  We have removed the barriers that exist for women from low-income backgrounds to receive training and funding to start their businesses.  The training programs that exist in our community have a cost associated with them that are beyond the means of women in poverty. They are also offered in English and our community often has language barriers. Some examples include:

• eWomenNetwork.com
• Trainup.com
• CareerSource Florida

What makes our program unique is the holistic approach to success.  We understand that women need more than just the skills and tech know-how.  They existing programs only provide the skills, while we provide mentorship and peer support spaces.  While learning the skills, women will have someone there to turn to for guidance when they hit roadblocks along the way or when they are struggling and need moral support.  The technology and skills without the relationships to sustain them only goes so far.  

We also sometimes see either grants available for women owned businesses or micro-finance through loans.  One thing that makes our program unique is the loan forgiveness for women who take advantage of the training and mentorship.  This relieves the debt burden for women who are often stuck in a cycle of poverty.

The Boss Women program gets existing technology into the hands of women who otherwise would not have access or training.  This technology would be essential for home-based businesses to prosper.  Examples of the technology platforms that the women will receive training in include, but are not limited to: Google Suite of Apps (Drive, Calendar, Hangouts Meet), social media platforms (instagram, facebook, YouTube, and twitter) for marketing and e-commerce, CRMs, and Canva for design.  There will also be a web portal developed as a home-based business exchange platform to connect the business owners to those who need their services.  This would be specifically geared towards home-based product and service providers, and the women would receive training to update their profiles and market.

These platforms are widely available but not currently being used widely by women in poverty or low income families because they do not have training in its use and application.

The Muslim Women's Organization believes that if we conduct training programs, provide support through a peer support hub and mentorship, provide forgivable micro-loans, and launch a directory platform, that Central Florida's Muslim women entrepreneurs with home-based businesses will acquire skills, increase their self-worth and confidence, and grow their business by increasing customers and profit.  This will lead to the financial empowerment of women and ultimately to breaking the cycle of poverty for these women of color.

The pilot program in 2019 and 2020 serves 10 women.  After increased funding, the program will serve 30 through focused programming and mentorship and 100 through the workshops which are open to a larger segment of the community.  In 5 years, the program will be implemented in our sister organizations throughout the state and serve 300 women.

The program we will implement, is something that women from around the nation can benefit from.  We have connections with organizations serving Muslim women from around the United States.  After the first year, and any necessary adjustments are made, we will create a toolkit ad well as develop a curriculum we will make shareable to those organizations.  

Our biggest barrier is financial.  As an organization with a relatively small budget ($150,000) the addition of the Boss Women program will require consistent funding and most funders are attracted to larger national organizations.  We also do not have experience managing a financing program, so do not know the technical details necessary to establish it.  Additionally, culturally, loans are also looked down upon since interest, according to many, is forbidden in Islam. We also anticipate there being a language barrier between trainers and cohort members since several of the women who need the program the most do not yet speak English fluently.

For funding, we have been focusing this year on getting grant writing training, as well as training in developing an annual fund.  We also have individual major donors with the potential to support the program.  To manage the financing part of the program, we have connections with the founder of Fattmerchant who has ties with the finance industry and can guide us through the process.  To ensure that the loans comply with Muslim practices, we plan on making the loans forgivable as well as no-interest. We know two different Islamic finance companies that we can work with on the structure of the loan to make sure it complies.  To address the language barrier, we plan on having interpreters available during sessions and also have bi-lingual mentors for the mentees that require them.

1 Full time staff (Paid Executive Director)

1 Boss Women Program Coordinator (Volunteer)

3 Boss Women Committee members (Volunteer)

2 Interns (Administrative and Social Media)

1 Boss Women Advisor

The Executive Director, Fatima Saied, has connections and relationships that have been built over the last ten years with women's organizations throughout the state and the country.  She was part of WAKE International's Tech2Empower Cohort that received training by Google, Twitter and Youtube for women nonprofit leaders and therefor has contacts that can be brought to Florida (virtually or in person) to facilitate the tech training.  

The Program Coordinator, Rasheedah Muhammad, is a local business owner and Board Member for the MWO.  She has been working with the City of Orlando to teach girls entrepreneur skills through her Young Designers sewing class.  She is passionate about empowering women to gain financial independence.

The Boss Women Committee includes Arsheena Khan, the Director of Human Resources for Xenia Hotels and Resorts with experience training C-suite executives, and Rafeea Roche, a Life Coach who is experienced in building the soft skills, like confidence and self-awareness, necessary for business success. 

The Boss Women advisor, Dr. Romila Mushtaq, is a world renowned motivational speaker and wellness guru with extensive experience as a mentor to Boss women especially through the 

Knowledge for Living to support their work to advance education in low-income areas of Central Florida.

Wake International to receive technology training opportunities.

The Muslim Women's Organization is committed to empowering Muslim women through education, training, and sisterhood building activities.  We accomplish this through building welcoming and inclusive spaces when women feel nourished and belonging.  These spaces are virtual as well as physical, through the opening of the MWO Haven for Upliftment and Belonging (HUB) in September 2019. Muslim women from throughout Central Florida have come to rely on MWO for support and referrals that are sensetive to their needs.  The community as a whole focuses on hunger relief projects and meets the immediate needs of women, but through the Boss Women program, the women we already serve will receive education, training, and sisterhood on their journeys to financial independence in order to break free of the cycle of poverty.

Our revenue sources are diversified.  We have traditionally brought in funding through Individual donors, including both Major donors and crowdfunding.  We also rely upon corporate and local business sponsorships.  Since 2018 we have dedicated more time to developing our Annual Fund and sustainability.  We hope to increase grant funding for specific projects, like Boss Women.  We are also developing earned income models through a Chaplaincy training program as well as affiliate memberships.