Financial education is crucial for social inclusion, it empowers individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed financial decisions and participate fully in the economy. Financial education plays a vital role in promoting social inclusion for a broad series of reasons:

•  Economic Empowerment: Financial education equips individuals, especially the ones from the most vulnerable groups, with the tools to manage their personal finances effectively. It helps them understand concepts such as budgeting, saving, investing, and debt management. By acquiring these skills, individuals can take control of their financial lives, improve their financial well-being, and break free from cycles of poverty and debt.
• Access to Financial Services: Many marginalized individuals and communities face barriers in accessing mainstream financial services. This is exacerbated when talking about women, and women entrepreneurs. Lack of knowledge about banking, credit, and financial products can create obstacles in opening bank accounts, obtaining loans, or utilizing other financial services. Financial education addresses this gap by increasing awareness and understanding of available financial services, thus fostering financial inclusion.
• Prevention of Exploitation: Financial illiteracy can make individuals vulnerable to financial scams, predatory lending practices, and exploitative financial products. By enhancing financial education, people are better equipped to identify and avoid fraudulent schemes, make informed decisions about financial products, and protect themselves from exploitation. This reduces their risk of falling into financial traps and enhances their financial security.
• Entrepreneurship and Employment Opportunities: Financial education provides individuals with the knowledge and skills to start and manage businesses effectively. It promotes entrepreneurship by imparting essential concepts like financial planning, budgeting, cash flow management, and risk assessment. Additionally, financial literacy enhances employability by equipping individuals with the skills needed to navigate the job market, negotiate salaries, and plan for retirement.
• Generational Impact: By promoting financial education, we can break the cycle of financial illiteracy within families and communities. When individuals learn and practice sound financial habits, they pass on this knowledge to future generations. This creates a positive ripple effect, leading to improved financial well-being, reduced poverty, and increased social mobility over time.
• Participation in Financial Decision-Making: Financial literacy enables individuals to actively participate in decision-making processes that affect their financial lives. It equips them with the ability to understand complex financial concepts, evaluate policy proposals, and advocate for their rights. This inclusion ensures that diverse perspectives are considered in financial regulations, policies, and programs, leading to more equitable outcomes.

Overall, financial education is a key tool for promoting social inclusion by empowering individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to navigate the financial landscape, access financial services, avoid exploitation, and participate fully in the economy.

Are you ready to show your beneficiaries how to capture, on a single sheet, the entire business model?
In this theme we will show you the business model canva and how to successfully help beneficiaries utilize this tool.

• Download the Business Model Canva template

This theme is mainly recommended if using a group methodology, but can be equally applied to one on one consulting services with our beneficiaries and their families.

After the successful completion of the CANVAS activity, it is now time for the beneficiaries to present their work. The presentation of the CANVAS is an integral part of the development of their business idea, as it will help the beneficiaries express the needs of their business idea and receive feedback.

This ideally should be an open-door family session, therefore the audience the beneficiaries will be presenting their business idea to will be the social agent imparting the workshop, the group of beneficiaries (and/or just the one beneficiary if doing one on one consulting) and their families. Having the family present at an early stage of the development of the business idea helps with the support the beneficiary needs in the trajectory of this itinerary and with the execution of the idea.

The family unit is an important aspect of a woman’s life, and it cannot be ignored, as we can also not ignore the responsibilities women bear in the care of the family. These responsibilities many times hinder the development of a business idea or even prevent women from taking the decision to open a business due to the excess of responsibilities in the home and the lack of support from their families.

In order to generate a positive outcome from this activity, we must create a safe space for the beneficiaries to present their CANVAS in the presence of their families. That starts by educating ourselves on what women empowerment is, what it means to negotiate co-responsibilities, and what role do they play in the decision making of a new female entrepreneur.

A business plan is a written document prepared by the entrepreneur in order to plan, evaluate and control the most important aspects of a business.

It is a roadmap that they must follow step by step to start their business, ranging from the business idea to more specific aspects, such as the financial plan and the human resources and legal forms plan.

In this module, we will explain how to help aspiring entrepreneurs with the introduction to their business plan.

The marketing plan is made up of two different parts. On the one hand, the benchmark and market study, which will be the main basis for justifying future sales; on the other hand, the marketing mix that will describe the product, the price, the distribution and the communication plan.

In this theme, we will discuss the first part of the communication plan, giving you details as to what an aspiring entrepreneur should include to complete it sucessfully.

Please pay close attention to the language as we will sometimes address you, the social agent, as the entrepreneur to further emerge you in the experience.

In this section we are going to dive in into the second part of the Marketing Plan, the marketing mix.

This refers to a set of actions or practices that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market with the aim of generating sales.

It is a concept that brings together four basic components: the 4Ps. These consist of four variables: product, price, promotion, place. 
The marketing mix consists of discovering the strategy to place the beneficiary’s product in the right place, with the right price and at the right time so they can effectively sell their products or services.

A good marketing strategy is one that takes these four aspects into account throughout the sales cycle. As you will see, it is not a complicated process. However, it is essential to find the synergies between all these variables to create a comprehensive and effective sales and promotion plan.

In advising entrepreneurs it is important to consider that communication is a key factor not only to create a brand and position it in the minds of potential customers, but also to attract customers and sell them our products and / or services.

Without a clear and structured communication strategy it is difficult, if not almost impossible, for an entrepreneur to become visible in the market he/she wants to enter; the consequences, as we can well imagine, could be catastrophic for the success of the business activity.

Supporting the entrepreneur in her strategic approach is undoubtedly a fundamental aspect of business consulting.

It is now time to have a look at the different human resource and legal forms that one needs to bear in mind in starting a business. Human resource planning is the process that one identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its objectives. The legal forms, on the other hand, are the forms needed for establishing a new business in each country regarding each country’s regulatory framework.

However, individual EU countries must make sure that their national regulatory framework protects labor rights as laid down by EU employment laws (Directives). In particular, every EU worker has certain minimum rights relating to:

• Health and safety at work: general rights and obligations, workplaces, work equipment, specific risks and vulnerable workers
• Equal opportunities for women and men: equal treatment at work, pregnancy, maternity leave, parental leave
• Protection against discrimination based on sex, race, religion, age, disability and sexual orientation
• Labor law: part-time work, fixed-term contracts, working hours, employment of young people, informing and consulting employees

We must take this into consideration as we consult our beneficiary in regards to this plan.

Once we have covered all the bases of the business plan, we must return to analyze its impact. This is a module in which we develop methodologies that will aid in the process of female empowerment and will help us identify the entrepreneurial aptitudes that the women have developed in the trajectory of the itinerary

But before introducing the work methodology, we must first learn about some of the problems women face when choosing entrepreneurship.

Family budget – Components of the financial plan