Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Entrepreneurs who have completed the trainings can become Beko dealers within the scope of “Beko 100 Female Dealers” Project if they wish. Beko's goal is to continue to grow and operate until at least half of its dealers are female dealers.

In cooperation with TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council and Beko, trainings started in the “Heroines of Entrepreneurship Project”, which was implemented with the support of Arçelik Retail Academy. The trainings, which started with the participation of Nurten Öztürk, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Women Entrepreneurs Council President, and Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu, Chairman of Koç Holding Durable Consumption Group, are aimed to reach 7,000 entrepreneurial women at Koç Community Bağlarbaşı Korusu Social Facilities.

Beko, which embraces and supports women's entrepreneurship, implemented the “Heroines of Entrepreneurship Project” in cooperation with TOBB as a new step in its vision for gender equality after the “Beko 100 Women Dealers” project, which has been under way since 2019 in order to increase the representation of women in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Women entrepreneurs who have completed the program will be able to continue their business life as Beko dealers within the scope of “Beko 100 Women Dealers” project if they wish.

The incentives to be provided to women entrepreneurs in the TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council ecosystem within the scope of Beko 100 Women Dealer Project are as follows:

·         Determination of store location by Beko geolocation team by opportunity analysis and store selection

·         Free supply of main materials used in decoration and infrastructure

·         Provision of contract and post-contract opening events and advertising campaigns

·         Rent subsidies given according to location analysis

·         Participation in the mentor network and female mentoring app for female dealers

·         Merchandising, management, sales and product training

·         In collaboration with Token Financial Technologies – Free next generation android POS device

·         Support for free imaging technologies system for store display (DS TV)

·         Free consultancy support specially designed for entrepreneurs to benefit from public support

·         Additional women's dealer store premium support

·         Additional premium subsidies for working personnel

·         First purchase of goods special discount and maturity support

·         Special sales campaign support during the opening process

Koç Holding, a community that operates in sectors with a high concentration of male employees, set its goal as “eliminating the prejudice of male-female work by helping to break the sexist stereotypes about professions and business groups.”

Nurten Öztürk, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Women Entrepreneurs Council President, said, “With the ‘Heroines of Entrepreneurship Project,’ which we aim to support and empower entrepreneurial women, we will touch the lives of many women and support the members of TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council to develop and grow their business through online trainings.”

Öztürk stated that there will be a decrease in the return of women to the workforce after the pandemic period according to expectations. “‎We can't let that happen.‎ We will continue to support women who want to become new entrepreneurs with result-oriented projects and women who are already entrepreneurs but want to change sectors. As TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council, our aim is to educate women in many fields and support women in all areas with the trainings we will spread throughout the country. With the protection and sustainment of existing entrepreneurs, we can only increase the number of female entrepreneurs. Therefore, we attach great importance to providing coaching support to existing women entrepreneurs.”

Thanking everyone who contributed to the project, Nurten Öztürk, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Women Entrepreneurs Council President, said, “Research shows that women are successful in every field they enter, make a difference and contribute positively to the performance of companies. In order to reach the desired levels, we need projects that produce innovative and sustainable results. We all know a bird can't fly on one wing. I am confident that a world where women have more say in production and management processes will reach much more advanced levels, both economically and socio-culturally.”

- Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu: “Our goal is to continue to work until we equalize the number of male and female dealers in our ecosystem”

Stating that they see the empowerment of women in all areas of life as an indispensable element of sustainable development, Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu, chairman of Koç Holding Durable Consumption Group, said that they are working to ensure that men and women take part together with equal rights and responsibilities in all areas.

Ebiçlioğlu said that they are joining forces with TOBB to support and empower entrepreneurial women. “‎As Koç Community and our companies, we want to start changing minds with our awareness of gender equality.‎ For this purpose, with the “Beko 100 Women Dealers” Project we launched in 2019, our goal is to continue to work until we equalize the number of male and female dealers in our ecosystem. We believe that the “Heroines of the Initiative” Project, which we are carrying out together with TOBB, will contribute greatly to achieving this goal.

We are very proud to support the entrepreneurial women of Turkey. We have implemented the ‘Heroines of Entrepreneurship Project by joining forces to boost their courage with education and help them achieve sustainable success in their business lives. As Beko, we support and stand by women's participation in the business world. I would like to thank all the managers of TOBB, our business partner who has always been with us since the development phase of the project, and most of all, Nurten Öztürk, TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council President, who is one of the first names that comes to mind when it comes to women's empowerment in Turkey.”

- Education program aims to ensure continuity in entrepreneurship

The training program, which is a complete design to ensure the development and continuity of entrepreneurial women in entrepreneurship, consists of five modules. Within the scope of the training and development program designed by the Retail Academy, a mixed education model will be implemented using different educational channels such as online and face-to-face.

Instead of content-oriented training, the program, which is based on action-oriented, information-oriented, learning-oriented approaches to continuousness, rather than learning activity, will include sales, marketing, finance and HR management, customer and service-oriented approaches.

Participants who have completed the trainings of the project, which aims to provide entrepreneurial women with easy access to the trainings they need and support them in developing and growing their business, will also be certified.

TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council members will be able to access their education through the www.bekoperakendetv.net commissioned by the Retail Academy.