Mentoring women entrepreneurs in Indonesia

The Women Mentorship Program component of the APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership project is helping women in Indonesia realize their dreams of being business owners—women like Hayati, from Indonesia.

Through the mentoring program, Hayati received the support she needed to start a business that sells traditional Batik clothes. She had no formal business training, but the mentorship program provided her with the guidance that she needed to go from just “making ends meet” to expanding and diversifying her business.

Her mentor, Nav, provided Hayati with tailored advice on business planning and growth. Hayati benefited from the goal setting that she did with Nav throughout the year of their mentoring relationship. This enabled her to achieve milestones such as participating in international clothing exhibitions in Cape Town, Shanghai and Perth, launching a dedicated website for her business, and distributing a survey to her clients to determine which products were most popular.

Hayati says that the lessons she learned during the program enabled her to adapt during the pandemic by shifting to producing masks to respond to growing needs among her clients.

Testimonials such as Hayati’s show the short- and long-term impacts of the mentorship program. Not only do women entrepreneurs gain tangible business skills, but their relationship with their mentor encourages and challenges them to achieve business goals that they may not have thought possible.