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As this year’s Ro’Ya programme for female entrepreneurs gets underway in Dubai, Maria Pearson, CEO and Founder of grow.ME, reflects on the learning points so far

Maria Pearson is a people development professional, with over 20 years’ experience across the Middle East region and this expertise has led her to work with businesses around the globe, leveraging the diversity of the group, to create lasting results. As the CEO and Founder of grow.ME, she works with a team of industry experts to help organisations connect people performance to achieve outstanding business results. She is one of the leaders of the Ro’Ya initiative.

Maria Pearson

Ro’Ya, meaning ‘vision’ in Arabic is a Dubai Business Women Council and MasterCard initiative to empower and encourage budding female entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates which kicked off at the start of April. Participants will attend a series of eight workshops delivered by GrowMe, Dubai Women Business Council, ActionCOACH, MasterCard and expert panels. At the end of the programme, finalists are invited to pitch for the opportunity to win a top prize of $50,000 towards the costs of starting their business.

What commonly holds back women entrepreneurs – belief

Women entrepreneurs of the UAE have the ideas and creativity to build amazing businesses. What commonly holds them back is the belief and confidence that they can do it. With this in mind, grow.ME has designed a curriculum to overcome this challenge. Our starting point was working with the women to build confidence and create a support network within the group.

Where you start out will not be where you will end up

In the first workshop, using the Lumina colour frame, we identified the attributes of successful entrepreneurs and then created self-awareness with the ladies to recognise how many of these attributes they had and the opportunity to grow.

The key message from the second workshop in the programme delivered by ActionCOACH is to know you will pivot. Where you start out will not be where you end up, and to make the right adjustments at the right time.

Moving from a seed of an idea to a planned approach to launch

The community the Dubai Business Women Council has created encourages an eco-system to help the contestants move from a seed of an idea to a planned approach to launch within the dynamic market that is the UAE.

The true prize of Ro’Ya is contestants will receive the support to overcome the fear, uncertainty and doubt – the $50k from MasterCard will be a bonus.