On the 13 August 2018, with 100% women ownership, Lime Agency Pte Ltd officially became the first certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE) in Singapore as certified by WEConnect International, a certification recognised by its 80 corporate members, primarily Fortune 500 companies representing over $1 trillion annual purchasing power that have committed to sourcing more from women-owned businesses globally.
(See official press release here)
Founders of Lime Agency Pte Ltd.
It is part of Lime Agency’s DNA to be activists of change, and being a 100% women owned business made us extremely aware of the challenges facing female founders. Our commitment to gender equality and the feminist cause was already without doubt thanks to our long standing partnership with Singapore Committee for UN Women, but meeting with WEConnect gave us the opportunity to become key players in addressing and bridging the gender gap existing in the business world.
The numbers are astounding. From a consumer perspective, women control $20 trillion in annual spending and make 85% of purchasing decisions (making them the prime target of all advertising strategies), while businesses with at least one female founder are found to perform 63% better than companies with only male founder. Still, women owned business do not yet have equal participation in business spendings from large corporations .
“Across the globe, women continue to earn, on average, less than 1% of the money spent on suppliers by large corporations and governments. Our coalition of global partners, government allies, corporate members, and women business owners are integral to bridging that gap.” – Elizabeth Vazquez, WEConnect International CEO & Co-Founder .
In Singapore alone, women represent 27% of the business owners and have the potential to create 170,000 jobs in four years time*. The potential of equal participation of men and women in the economy on a local and global level is endless. This is why Lime Agency decided to take action and become part of the WEConnect International, an organisation partnering with both women enterprises and global corporations to become part of the solution – giving a real platform for women owned businesses to showcase their product and services and an opportunity for large corporations to diversify their supply chain.
“Big market opportunities are often kept behind closed doors in the private sector, with WEConnect International working hand in hand with large corporations to pave the way for women owned businesses, not only do we have the platform to showcase our services to important potential markets, but large corporates also have the avenue to get access to new vendors, integrating quality services and the agility of smaller structures.” – Cecile Gauthier, COO Lime Agency Pte Ltd
* Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2018 and 2017 study conducted by Development Economics and YouGov on behalf of Facebook
You may also be interested in:
Protected: Social media marketing: 10 things I’ve learnt in 10 months
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. ...
Lime Agency Impact Report 2015 – 2020
2020 was a difficult year for all of us, where some might even label it as “the worst year in history”. For us at Lime, we are taking this opportunity to reflect on how 2020 has ...
Naming a brand community: is it possible?
Recently, one of our clients asked us a question: how can we name the users of our brand community? At Lime Agency, we like playing around with the word “lime”. Our 1-week branding co-creation methodology is ...
Top 5 Tips and Resources for Women Business Owners
Women business owners have contributed to the economy tremendously in terms of innovation, revenue, inclusive growth, and more. Yet, they are still underrepresented globally, and Singapore is no exception. A joint research conducted by Accenture and ...
Business resources center Lime Zest
If you follow us on our social media platforms, you might already know that January 2020 has been a huge month. Why? Because we launched a project that has been 1 year in the works: Lime ...
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing – Something For us all?
According to trendwatching.com, one big trend for 2020 is “Consumer Metamorphic“. Meaning, consumers are constantly changing and a perfect fit means constant adaptation around the changing individual. Basically, we have become so used to technological tools ...