Around three years ago, co-founders Sarah Woods and Julia Perry took their belief, that by standing together women can achieve more and further their entrepreneurial success, and turned it into a community of female empowerment.

SHE is a support network for women in Malta, designed to help establish connections and relations in business.

Since the launch in May 2017, SHE has grown consistently from 50 attendees at the first ticketed event in June 2017 hosted by The Lily Agius Gallery, to 125 at the June 2018 Networking event, hosted by Camilleri Paris Mode.

Graduating from the University of Malta with honours in B Communications, Ms Wood’s professional background is rooted in marketing (with particular focus in graphic design) and events both in Malta and in a leading hotel in Dubai.

Ms Perry is Maltese-born, residing in Bath, UK. She holds a BA joint honours degree in English, Film and TV studies, later graduating from Bath University with an MA in European film.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8th March, Whoswho.mt spoke with the co-founders to discover what they’ve learnt over the years and what’s next in store for the growing network.

SHE co-founders Julia Perry (left) and Sarah Woods

Through your experience in speaking with the many women that make up Malta’s business community, what do you think is the biggest challenge to local women in business in 2020?

We created our community with the idea of reaching out to all women experiencing the urge to follow their dreams and ambitions. In today’s society it’s not easy "to just get out there” and start a business.

Having a career means putting in the time, commitment and dedication and with this of course, come many challenges and set-backs. As the saying goes, a woman’s work is never done, and this rings true in most circumstances.

What SHE does, is provide a platform where women can connect and share their experiences with one another. At our larger events, we bring in guest panelists from various career backgrounds to share their stories with others.

By listening to those who’ve been there before, or to whom they can relate with, women feel supported and hopefully gather enough inspiration and encouragement to try something out for themselves or work to improve their current position.

One of the greatest challenges for women these days seems to be the guilt factor - where motherhood and having a career tugs at either end, causing a struggle to find balance.

Another we’d say is confidence, which is key to success and a trait which doesn’t come easily to most. This is where the importance of venturing out of your comfort zone by joining events and workshops really comes into effect. The combination of learning new skills and networking is a wonderful opportunity to grow and feel supported.

SHE's most recent event, held at Emma's Kitchen

You recently held a networking event at Emma’s Kitchen, would you consider it to have been a success? Where there any stand-out moments?

Our business breakfast opened up a new phase of our community where we’ve introduced smaller events and workshops to tie in everything we’ve been working on so far. For the last three years we’ve been creating larger events as a showcase of the services we intend to provide our clientele and gauge our audience’s interests.

In doing this, we have worked out a formula to better serve our audience and offer them the right support in areas where the most help is needed. The breakfast event turned out to be a great start to our year.

The aim here was for women to connect in a more intimate, less intimidating environment and enjoy a delicious breakfast prepared for by the fabulous team at Emma’s Kitchen.

This in itself, was a talking point, as well as the wonderful prizes on offer during our raffle draw. SHE Co-founder Sass Woods gave a warm introduction to our community and Emma De Marco, founder of Emma’s Kitchen spoke a little about her journey and the importance of collaboration. We certainly had many smiling faces that morning, followed by lots of positive feedback from all who attended.

After running SHE for close to three years, and meeting so many women in business hailing from different backgrounds, what has been the most valuable lessons learnt?

Every person we’ve met and collaborated with so far has opened our minds up to new ideas and opinions. You could say we are inspired by others every day and this has been very constructive to our work.

We should also mention that being in a professional partnership has also helped us to reassess ourselves and understand each other better, which is crucial for the growth and success of our community.

This we’d say, has been one of the greatest challenges, yet at the same time the most rewarding!

Could you give an overview of the events that will be taking place in the SHE community in 2020?

We’re very excited to have launched a brand-new series of workshops and events for 2020, starting with our Business Breakfast last February, which we are looking to organise again later this year.

On 12th March we’ll be holding a workshop entitled, Charge-Up Your Ambition with Lifestyle strategist Emma Hogg at The Xara Lodge in Rabat. Ms Hogg is also the founder of ‘A Life I Choose’.

This workshop is aimed at all women who are looking to start or drive their career forward by working on adjusting their mind-set and developing a strategy to action their next steps towards success and fulfilment in life and business.

Closely following this high-energy event, we’ll be holding another workshop on 26th March, entitled: Your Brand in a world of others, with digital strategist Becky Kamsky at Palazzo De Piro in Mdina. Ms Kamsky is also the founder of littleisle.com .

Here, our expert will be showing attendees how to improve their social media presence whilst providing them with the basic tools and tried and tested techniques to drive forward their business and secure their dream clients.

Then on 23rd April it’s time to wind down! Yoga and meditation teacher Yasmin De Giorgio, who is the founder of Sanya Eco-Spa, will be leading our Breathe and Brunch session, where a small group of women will be getting together to practice the art of meditation.

The meditation is designed specifically for career women who later have the opportunity to network over a delicious brunch prepared by the Sanya team.

Tickets for the aforementioned workshops are available to purchase via our website: www.shemalta.com