With their constant struggle to conquer different sectors of society, a considerable number of women have already managed to reach successful positions in large corporations and have become important names in the enterprise, as is the case of Luiza Helena Trajano, owner of the chain of stores Magazine Luiza.
According to SEBRAE, the country has around 7.3 million female entrepreneurs. Furthermore, in the last 10 years the number of businesses founded by women has increased by 21.4%. Despite the growing number of women in this sector, in 2021 the IRM carried out a survey with around 2,736 entrepreneurs that revealed some important data on the subject:
To inspire you, we also selected 6 entrepreneurs with brilliant stories:
Luiza Helena Trajano
In Brazil, when we talk about female entrepreneurship, this is probably one of the best-known names: Luiza Helena Trajano. She became known for being one of the founders of the Magazine Luiza store chain. The businesswoman was born and raised in Franca, a city in the interior of São Paulo, and as she grew up she became interested in her uncle's small furniture store.
In less than 20 years, Luiza managed to transform the small store into Magazine Luiza. Today, the retail chain has more than a thousand units spread across Brazil.
Sonia Hess
A mistake that turned out right: this is how the story of Dudalina stores begins. On one of his trips to São Paulo to shop at the store, Duda ended up buying much more fabric than he should have. To avoid losing money, Dona Lina, mother of 16 children, unsewed a shirt she had on sale, understood how the piece was made, hired two seamstresses and made three pieces that were sold quickly. This is how Dudalina was born, in 1957.
Seu Duda and Dona Lina are the parents of Sônia Hess, who took over the presidency of the shirt company founded by the two and transformed it into the largest shirt exporter in the country.
Mary Kay
One of the most influential American women in 1985 by The World Almanac and Book of Facts. When Mary Kay retired after a successful 25-year career in direct sales in mid-1963, she decided to write a book to help women face a male-dominated business world. Tired of seeing young men she had trained being promoted before her, one day, sitting at her kitchen table, Mary Kay made two lists: one containing all the good things the companies she had worked for had done; another including everything she assessed they could have done better. When she reviewed these lists, Mary Kay realized she had created a marketing plan for a dream company – a company that could give women unlimited potential for personal and professional success.
Everyone already knows which business we are talking about, the cosmetics brand Mary Kay was born with an initial investment of U$ 5 thousand dollars. Today, the products are sold in more than 35 countries.
Mary Kay Ash adopted the Golden Rule as a basic principle, because for her, determining the best path to follow in any type of situation – personal or professional – would become simple based on the following sentence: “Do unto others that you would like to be done to yourself.”
Heloísa (Zica) Assis
Heloisa was named by Forbes as one of the 10 most powerful business women in Brazil.
Founder of Instituto Beleza Natural, a network specializing in curly and wavy hair, she has more than 10 salons, a Technical Development Center, and her own product factory capable of producing 300 tons per month. In total, it employs around 1,700 staff and has a growth rate of 30% per year.
Chieki Aoki
The businesswoman is the founder and president of one of the largest hotel chains in the country, Blue Tree Hotels.
Before leading her own company, Chieko Aoki worked in other businesses in Brazil, Europe, Asia and the United States. The entrepreneur has been in the hotel segment since the 1980s, when she worked as marketing and sales director at a luxury hotel chain. Within the company, Aoki learned a lot and built his career.
Sarah Lazaretti
Her daughter's skin allergies and respiratory problems made Sarah Lazaretti put aside her career as an obstetric nurse and become an entrepreneur. 20 years ago, she founded Alergoshop, a franchise chain of stores specializing in products for allergy sufferers.
And you? Are you an entrepreneurial woman? Share your story with us and help us inspire other women who haven't yet had the courage to invest in the dream of their own business.
By the way, have you seen our special PACK of Women's Day? From informative PDF to exclusive animation, we have separated several special contents! Download now for free.
