A new smartphone app will be launched on January 23 to help older women gain the confidence and skills needed to turn their hobbies into extra income through online microenterprise training.
The brainchild of Myfan Jordan’s 2017 classroom-based program Money for Jam, the app is a technology solution to the growing issue of poverty among women over 50.
Supported by socially progressive think tank Per Capita, Ms Jordan, who is the firm’s social innovation projects manager, said the program and app were designed by older women, for older women.
She said that currently, Money For Jam is recruiting older women to trial the app for two years while it is being refined.
“They don’t need to have highly evolved tech skills to take part, just a smartphone or tablet,” she said.
The trial is a closed group, which means the app can only be downloaded if you register with Money for Jam. To register, contact Myfan Jordan at m.jordan@percapita.org.au by January 18.
Speaking during last year’s classroom-based program, Ms Jordan said that six of the eight women enrolled – aged 55 to 65 – graduated with a “well-defined microenterprise idea”.
Of those who did not complete the program, one was offered full-time work and the other went on to study.
“The feedback from the graduates suggests that Money for Jam helped them overcome the fear of operating in a competitive market and especially coping with barriers in the masculine world of business,” she said.
“The program re-imagines traditional approaches to business within a more feminised framework.
“With diminishing self-worth identified as a key hurdle for older women, Money For Jam combines enterprise skills-development with regular ‘wellbeing boosts’ for participants. One-on-one mentoring supports women to develop ideas based on their individual strengths and skills, and ongoing peer support structures promote sustainable outcomes for participants.”
Funding from the Gandel Foundation and Equity Trustees has allowed Money for Jam to hire IT talent to design the tool.
Do you have an idea for a micro-business of your own? Have you ever been in business? What do you consider are barriers for older entrepreneurial women?
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