Woman Entrepreneurs Gain Skills & Confidence Through HP LIFE e-Learning
by Jeannette Weisschuh, Director, Economic Progress, HP Corporate Affairs
Today, as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, we celebrate the special contribution female entrepreneurs make to drive economic progress worldwide. I am proud to know that HP is helping to give hundreds of thousands of women around the world the tools—and just as important, the confidence—to build their own businesses, thanks to HP LIFE e-Learning.
A free, cloud-based education platform, HP LIFE e-Learning is designed to enable students, entrepreneurs, and small-business owners to learn essential business and IT skills.
HP LIFE e-Learning is part of HP Living Progress, HP’s framework for thinking about how it does business. It’s about creating a better future for everyone through our actions and innovations.
I’m constantly inspired to see how HP LIFE e-Learning is empowering entrepreneurs around the world. Among my favorite examples are the stories of two remarkable women, Bano Fatima and Ada Bustamante. They live a world apart and face different challenges— but both credit HP LIFE e-Learning with giving them the skills and confidence to take the steps to start their own businesses.
Dismayed at how a small community of handloom weavers in Uttar Pradesh, India, was being exploited and subjected to caste prejudice, Bano and her partner Nabila established Weaver’s Hut to provide a broader, more stable market for the weavers; to provide a forum to sell their products. Through HP LIFE e-Learning, Bano learned how to set-up and maintain accounts, track expenses, calculate profit and losses, and more. She also learned how to negotiate bulk orders for products, all for the benefit of the weavers.
It’s been almost three years since Weaver’s Hut was first launched. In that time the weaver families have seen their earnings grow on average from US $0.40 cents per day to US $2.00 per day.
Thousands of miles away, Ada Bustamante is another inspiring success story. A resident of California, Ada used to work in the restaurant industry. Her work required long hours and offered her little control over her future. Eventually, she started her own eco-conscious cleaning service. But without vital business knowledge and training, her company soon suffered. Tired, overworked, and out of her depth, Ada needed a solution.
She found it with HP LIFE e-Learning. With accessible courses presented in her native Spanish, Ada soon had the tools she needed to successfully run her business. She learned how to develop spreadsheets, estimate accurate pricing for clients, and numerous ways to improve the administration of her business—creating efficiencies and saving costs. She also learned how to design a company website to broaden her clientele.
Today Ada’s cleaning company is growing and she has hired her first employee.
