#BridgingTheGap: Workshop for Artisan Women Micro-entrepreneurs

#BridgingTheGap: Workshop for Artisan Women Micro-entrepreneurs 

The Centre for Business and Society (CBS) organized a two-day #BridgingTheGap workshop for Artisan women micro-entrepreneurs from the textile sector of Multan, Pakistan. It was organized in partnership with Kaarvan Crafts Foundation and MBA Women in Business Club (WIB), LUMS. This workshop was generously sponsored by Syeda Henna Babar Ali.
 
To mitigate the urban-rural divide and enable female micro-entrepreneurs to earn dignified livelihoods for themselves and their families, this workshop focused on providing pertinent business and life skills to women micro-entrepreneurs belonging to rural areas in Pakistan. The two-day growth workshop was held at the Suleman Dawood School of Business, LUMS on the 26th and 27th of November, 2022. The sessions were conducted by student volunteers belonging to the MBA, MS Business & Public Policy, MS Supply Chain & Retail Management and MS Technology Management and Entrepreneurship programmes at LUMS. The workshop was led by Dr. Misbah Tanveer Choudhry, Director CBS.

A total of 32 artisan women micro-entrepreneurs from Multan participated in this activity. The workshop also focused on transferring essential life skills to these micro-entrepreneurs, such as negotiation, communicating confidently, selling and persuasion, quick problem-solving and relationship-building. Each student volunteer was paired with 2-3 artisan micro-entrepreneurs and were prompted to explore different ways of growing the entrepreneur's business by looking into issues such as effective book-keeping, quality assurance, reducing operational costs, differentiating the entrepreneur’s product, procurement of materials, accessing markets and diverse distribution channels and gauging demand. Most importantly, major sessions of the workshop were dedicated to connecting the entrepreneur to a digital platform, catalogue photography of their products and using Canva to curate customised logos and posters for their businesses.

What made this workshop a truly one-of-it's-kind programme was the concept of reciprocal sharing and learning embedded in the very foundation of it. While the participating women micro-entrepreneurs benefited from an enriching learning experience from graduate students from the business, public policy, supply chain, and technology and entrepreneurship programmes; the LUMS student volunteers, too, had much to learn from the unique journeys of these women micro-entrepreneurs who navigate tough business terrains, and attain success despite several socio-cultural and financial limitations.

The two-day workshop concluded on a positive note where CEO of Karvaan Crafts Foundation (KCF), Mr. Danish Jabbar, presented Dr. Alnoor Bhimani, Dean of SDSB, one of the most meaningful and unique souvenirs; a piece of fabric (still attached the embroidery frame), on which 100 Artisan women micro-entrepreneurs had woven their dreams on in colourful dhaga (threads). Shields were also presented to Syeda Henna Babar Ali and CBS' collaborating partners KCF and MBA WIB