Connected and ecoherent entrepreneurship

The Women Entrepreneurial Center of Québec (WECQ) is a bilingual non-profit organization based in Montreal. It was founded early in 2005 by Nicole Beaudoin former CEO of RFAQ and now chaired by Sylvie Bédard, CEO of Mind Drop. and  managed by Marie Brouillet  acting as General Manager. The WECQ offers francophone and anglophone women, and men entrepreneurs that share feminine values in business, throughout Quebec, a one-stop centre for specialized activities and mentoring designed for starting up or expanding an enterprise.

Mission

Offer to all entrepreneurs of Québec who share feminine values in business, francophones and anglophones, whose businesses are at the start-up or growth stage, the possibility to maximize their entrepreneurial potential and to attain success and financial independence, by creating a growth without frontiers using new technologies and ecoherence.

Vision

• Collect and optimize all available resources needed to achieve recognition as a centre of excellence for creative strategies and innovative approaches.
• Be imbued, in our structure and actions, with a spirit of entrepreneurship oriented to new technonologies and ecoherence.
• Become a major asset for Quebec entrepreneurs, regardless of their social, ethnic or cultural origins.
• Contribute effectively to realizing their entrepreneurial ambitions and dreams of a new leader generation that share feminine values.

One-stop Centre

All Quebec adults with entrepreneurial ambitions now have at their disposal:

Reference Centre

* Focus for a pool of women entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and sectors.
* Available to players in the field, public, educational and financial institutions, and others involved with women entrepreneurship.
* Centre for collecting and analyzing targeted information, and an outstanding research lab and seed-bed for pilot projects.

Values

* Entrepreneurship - belief in your potential, innovative attitudes, risk-taking abilities.
* Outstanding Quality - human resources, relationships with customers, programs and partners.
* Diversity - openness to different opinions and preferences, optimization of the wealth of resources provided by diversity.
* Ethics - a moral approach to the art of management, for yourself and your enterprise.
* Prosperity - revenue and profit as essential tools for activity and growth.

Objectives

The objectives of the WECQ are to:

* Promote the start-up and development of enterprises managed by women.
* Increase the rates of survival and success for their enterprises, both new and established.

WECQ Services

1. Access to up-to-date targeted information
A centre linked to a regularly updated information Web portal devoted to documentation and programs for women entrepreneurs, and to existing service providers.

2. Upgrading skills
A full range of specialized courses, seminars or workshops in managing an enterprise, offered by the WECQ or other specialized public and private institutions.

3. Networking activities
Networking activities throughout Quebec to enable women entrepreneurs to break out of their isolation and make valuable contacts, in a context of mutual assistance and significant economic benefits.