Opening Ceremony with Women Entrepreneurs Sharing
Moms4Moms Fellowship Program 2022 had been launched and our opening ceremony was hosted in Dream Impact on 17 September. Lena Wong, Founder and Executive Director of Hong Kong Momtrepreneurs, gave us an opening speech and introduced our 2022 Moms4Moms fellows and mentors to the audience. She also presented a welcome gift ‘Back to School’ GNL plant based Leather bags to each 2022 Moms4Moms fellows. We took a group photo with our Hong Kong Momtrepreneurs board members, 2022 Moms4Moms fellows and mentors to commemorate this precious moment.
We had two panel sharing from our alumni fellows and guests. First we had 2021 Moms4Moms fellow alumni Aarti and entrepreneur Connie sharing their “From Passion to Action” entrepreneurial journey and explained how to start a business and some tips to keep in mind to get started on your business dreams. Aarti’s entrepreneurial story began with her husband, who was an Indian and a vegetarian. However, it was not easy for her and her friends to find Indian vegetarian food in Hong Kong. Out of her love and care for her husband, she started an Indian vegetarian brand of food. Another entrepreneur Connie, a mother of 2 children, had converted her passion of baking to start her company “November Pastry”. She shared to us that she had focused on family commitments as a mom after getting married. When her daughter went to primary school, she pursued her dream to start her business venture, baking hand-made frosted cookies for corporates’ events, wedding gifts to guests and farewell gifts. She emphasised that to maintain her passion and not to make herself regret chasing her baking dream was very important. This also helped her and her family to grow stronger, solve problems and move forward together.
Second, we had 2020 and 2021 Moms4Moms fellow alumni Alice and Clemen to share their handicraft businesses. Alice was a full-time mother after she had given birth to 2 children. During the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people were unable to purchase masks, Alice was inspired to start her own brand of fabric masks. With different patterns of fabrics, she provided customers with comfortable, fashionable, and unique masks. She also mentioned the new startup business also tightened up her bonding with her family. She was impressed that her family was enthusiastic to support her in all aspects. Clemen was a freelance photographer after she had become a mother. The reason behind was that she preferred to work from home and reserve more time on taking care of her daughter. When her daughter grew up and got into primary school, she accidentally discovered and learned Sugar Art in the university. She pursued her dream to let people know about the importance of preserving intangible heritage.Then she started a business teaching sugar art courses and tailor-made sugar art products for different corporations. She also mentioned that being brave and open-minded was very important when you started your business ventures as a mom.
With the wonderful sharing, our alumni fellows had shown their products and shared their startup concepts to the audience. We hoped our coming 2022 Moms4Moms fellows could get some takeaways and enjoyed the coming lessons.