A few years back, I was taking entrepreneurship course back in my university. My professor asked us to come up with a business of our choice. I would like to promote and introduce my business idea.
A little background about women’s position in Turkey.
Even though western part of the Turkish land is really similar to European life-style, women’s economic independence in the middle and east Anatolia is still a big problem. Most women in these regions are unemployed. The rate of violence towards women is higher as well.
The Business Idea
So my idea was, if these women find means to increase their income, they won’t have to put up with their husbands’ assaults.
Thus I created the business idea which was focusing on selling the hand-made products these women make. In the core, its basic e-commerce/social commerce site, where the company is an intermediary to connect sellers and buyers, but since the company is non-profit organization and creating successful C2C in Turkey is really difficult. Most of these women are illiterate also even if they are literate, they do not have computers or do not know how to use computers.
Rather than using mainstream charity structures, we are hoping this way will empower the women more and create sustainable way for them to support themselves. In this model we could use different pricing models such as English Auctions, standard pricing. Because the model is online and the labor cost for these women is less, – they do not need to go to their local market place to sell their items- they can be more productive or spend more time with their children, which eventually enhance the social impact of the idea.
My conclusion is since social media and social networks are evolving, sadly the charity organizations are not utilizing these opportunities good. Non-profit organizations should develop themselves with the current trend and come up with new ideas to make the world a better place.
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Ps. We couldn’t start the business yet mainly because administrative costs are high in Turkey, but I am trying to develop the idea every day and joining competition to attract more attention. I have a web-site but you cannot buy or sell items there yet. If your interested you can have a look, let me warn you tho, my web site design skills are really bad!
