Author: Mira Bekar 

On February 3, 2024 we witnessed the realization of one of the primary goals of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), which in our country is supported by the US Embassy in the Republic of North Macedonia and MAAA. Specifically, we had the chance to hear about the projects of future women entrepreneurs who gained knowledge, networking opportunities, and access to what they need to establish their own business with the help of the Academy.

The wonderful ambient in Netaviile was enriched by the innovative ideas of 12 young women entrepreneurs. The current MAAA president Mrs. Zorica Trajkova Strezovska opened the event, while the former MAAA president Mrs. Verica Jordanova informed the attendees that out of 40 women participants in the project, 24 proposed their final business plans and projects. A special board is going to evaluate the projects and soon announce the winners in three categories.

What follows are some details from the presentations which were professionally prepared and conveyed:

Martina Martinovska, as a young mother who shares similar experiences with many sleepless moms, got the inspiration from Cocon de Coton’s knit blanket for babies. The idea is to produce a soft sweatless blanket for moms from mousseline (muslin) and organic ingredients such as shafran using ethical and ecologic practices, which will improve the life of young mothers with toddlers.

Marina Toševska presented another eco-friendly project but hers was focused on pets. Her Eco Food Concept is motivated by the urge to save the planet Earth by producing healthy food with minimizing the waste from slaughtering processes. Their Tricky Treats Trail snacks are without allergens, rich with proteins and prevents the increase in slaughtering and the quality is constantly analyzed and guaranteed.

Natali Ristovska, an Ethical Lifecycle Advisor and owner of YOVA showed us some highly functional bags, handcrafted with zero-waste. Her motivation is to empower 300 professional women knitters in the community. Having presented six new products for the current year which cost from 15 to 650 euros, she explained the B2C e-commerce concept and her future plan to obtain the 2025 certificate for ethical production.

Nadica Gorgieva with her Mexico-inspired story about ChiaDia drinks enthusiastically shared her lifestyle with us along with the increased energy, fullness and vitality of the drinks they produce. ChiaDía strives for a quality lifestyle and improving habits for consuming healthy-energy soft drinks, without added sugars and additives. As the other products, the production of these drinks is zero-waste, plant-based and plastic-free. Future plans involve selling the product in Serbia and Switzerland.

Monika Rizovska Tanevska, following the idea of Elevate AI technology, taught us how data insights meet marketing innovation. With her smart and creative friends, they created an app called REELax.app with short videos (popular reels) to help online content creators (such as influencers) and start-ups, tech industry with A to Z tips and guidelines for content creation. Their Unique Value Proposition consists of content creators' university, A to Z content creation and real-time collaboration. She emphasized the project projections and demonstrated that connecting AI and marketing is a profitable business.

Elma Dehari with her start up idea Vendify explained the need for better vending machine management in R. N. Macedonia. After having informed us about the biggest challenges such as delayed information access, customer satisfaction, outdated software she shared her dream of placing 10.000 machines in Macedonia and creating an app for mobile phones for locating the vending machines.

Angela Petruševa follows her dream by realizing other people’s dreams, especially of those who do not own a car. With her platform rini.mk she is planning to manage a car renting business. When people need a car, they can rent cars from other ordinary people (not from professional renting companies). Her future projections include managing a platform with 3500 cars and receiving 10% from the renting deal. Biggest challenges that await her are creating a smart subscription and protection plan.

Marija Ljuševa’s passion is clothing. Her business idea about starting a clothing rental company RENTIQUE revolves around individual renting of unique pieces of clothing one cannot afford to buy regularly. With the monthly subscription, virtual “clients” can rent 20 clothing items within a month. She is aware that investment for high-quality digital marketing is necessary as well as a tracking system of recommendations from satisfied customers. The biggest challenge is lowering the transportation and storage costs. 

Drita Zeqiri is the founder of BRAIN TREE NLP, a neuro business training center, she runs with her mom. With the use of psychology and subconsciousness they created coaching programs (life and business-related). They are cooperating with the International Association of NLP Institutes and following what these various institutions do. The practice of mindfulness techniques instructs us to stay attuned to the occurrences in our lives and our environment. It involves cultivating a heightened awareness of the present moment.

Elena Anastasovska is eager to redefine and address the food waste problem. With her food waste app OBROK, she plans to slightly alleviate the horrific situation with millions of tons of thrown food worldwide which contributes to environmental degradation. The app connects food producers with people who can purchase food with 50% discount before it gets wasted. With real-time listings of food items and exclusive discounts, as well as donating meals, she expects to promote some environmental impact. What awaits her is coming up with clear and efficient business model (e.g. transaction fees) and marketing strategies.   

Elena Kirandziska, the THREEHOUSE founder considers herself as an experienced young woman in sales strategies, legal support, price estimations, and project proposals. With her adventurous, dynamic team she is planning to develop a discord community where software developers will meet and exchange ideas and business workshops will be organized.

Marta Pejoska, Ohrid-based architect is passionate about teaching foreigners to work with silver threads. Combining the cultural heritage from the region, tourism and art she opened the first filigree gallery, the only place where bystanders get seriously engaged in the process of filigree making. She offers classes to foreigners teaching them that filigree is part of the intangible Macedonian cultural heritage and should be sustained. Her Ohrid filigree story is a successful example how one passion can turn another passion into business. The silver thread helped her develop her sailing regatta business.

We wish all the applicants to get the chance to put their ideas into practice while simultaneously saving the endangered planet Earth with zero-waste ideology and high ecological awareness. And we also wish many more new, unique, scientific-based ideas to sprout in our local context and “conquer” the global market.