Gelisim News

A competition was held to increase the entrepreneurial skills of women with the "Women in Innovation" themed project created in cooperation with TÜBİTAK Marmara Teknokent, KADEM, Informatics Valley and TOBB ETÜ. Res. Asst. Safiye Top from Istanbul Gelisim University School of Applied Sciences, who ranked in the top 30 with the work related to students in the competition, qualified to attend the entrepreneurship camp. In addition, 25 thousand TL will be awarded to five successful project owners selected at the end of the entrepreneurship camp (if they receive support from national and international support programs within a year).

“I WAS DRAWING MARBLING ART TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS INTO THE SHOP”

Describing the first steps taken towards becoming a woman entrepreneur Res. Asst. Safiye Top said: “I attended many entrepreneurship trainings during my employment. In 2015, I quit my job and opened a store big on our own but physically small selling women's clothes with my brother, we were selling the products we bought by making small changes, and at the same time I was doing marbling art at the entrance of the shop to attract customers to the store. My first dialogue with customers, my entrepreneurship story started here.”

“THE OBJECTIVE OF MY PROJECT IS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS WITH A LITTLE COST”

Safiye Top, who deserved to receive education on entrepreneurship with her project for students, said: “As of 2020, there are approximately 7 million university students in Turkey. Every year, millions of students buy materials such as textbooks, stationery materials, clothes, and household items. One of the most common problems in student life is that they do not have the financial strength to meet these needs, my project will ensure that these needs are met with less costs. While the project is being carried out, special attention will be paid to the fact that everyone working within the framework of social responsibility is female students.”

“I WANT WOMEN TO PARTICIPATE IN THESE STYLE PROGRAMS”

Stating that every woman should have their own entrepreneurship story, Top also said: “I want all women to participate in programs like ‘I have an idea, I want to give life to it’. If that idea truly meets people's needs, it will surely be accepted into a program. Each failure shows what we are doing wrong and will help fill the gaps that will exist in future projects. For this reason, addressing the needs of women to the masses instead of talking in their inner circle will contribute to the economy.”

HOW I JOINED THE ‘WOMEN IN INNOVATION’ PROJECT?

Finally, Top giving information about the project application and its content to women who want to participate in projects such as 'Women in Innovation' concluded her words with the following: “I applied to the 5th Entrepreneurship Camp for Women in Innovation via https://www.inovasyondakadin.org . This application form requires the filling of detailed information about the project such as the description of the project, the project's purpose, the innovative aspect of the project, the market and competition conditions, the intended outputs and gains at the end of the project. In the trainings that started on 05.10.2020, we receive general information about entrepreneurship and start-up, entrepreneurship-related support, business plan preparation, project management, as well as mentoring by experts in the field for the development of our project twice a week. In the project, we include the points we did not think about before or the points we know wrongly, by using the experiences of our mentors. At the end of the camp, we will try to be among the top 5 projects by presenting the presentations about the final version of the project we have prepared to the jury. If we realize the project when we enter the top 5, we will receive a monetary award of 25,000 TL and the right to use free office in Teknokent. Even if we cannot be in the top 5 in the camp, we will have the opportunity to use the projects we have prepared to apply for TÜBİTAK and KOSGEB support.”