Paving the way for female leaders in PNG: How Focus Marketing Solutions is doing their part!

Here at Business Link Pacific, we are committed to supporting and promoting social inclusion and gender equality in the work that we carry out across the Pacific by providing SMEs with access to local essential business advisory services.

Last week, we caught up with Christine Peipul, Founder and Business Lead at Focus Marketing Solutions in PNG, on what it’s like running a business in one of the most challenging business and social environments in the world.

Peipul talks about her own experience as a female entrepreneur and how she is advising other female leaders to succeed with support through the BLP programme as a Business Advisor.

In PNG and throughout the Pacific, women are pursuing entrepreneurship more than ever, however, statistics show that gender equality in business is still far from balanced.

Women face significant discrimination, compounded by traditional value systems that create barriers to carry out simple things like gain access to startup finance, purchase land, travel freely after business hours to network with others and open bank accounts*.

Peipul, founder and Business Lead at Focus Marketing Solutions knows all too well how challenging it can be as a female leader in PNG. Having started her own business in 2016 after becoming frustrated with the lack of opportunities in both the public and private sector, Peipul says change is happening in our country (when it comes to gender equality) but it is slow.

Despite having the same qualifications as men in similar positions to me, I found I was always overlooked or not considered for promotions,” says Peipul.

Someone told me not to stay in the position I was in without a promotion longer than three years. But I stayed seven. After going nowhere, I decided I had enough and would promote myself. Become my own boss,” she adds.

Working with other like-minded professionals, Peipul and the team at Focus provide business advisory services across the tourism and trade industries. Through marketing, events and media plans, Focus has helped many businesses in PNG rebrand, relaunch and reinvigorate themselves.

Peipul joined the BLP programme as a Business Advisor two years ago and says the programme has given her opportunities to not only promote her own business but to help others, primarily women, grow their business and become more technologically savvy.

One of the recent projects I have worked on as a BLP Business Advisor is a digital marketing and  rebranding campaign for Ace Tee Café and Catering Services, an SME catering services business in Port  Moresby run by a female entrepreneur. 

Through a competitor and marketing analysis, I discovered they had next to no online presence and so I worked to list them on Google Business, set up AdWords for them and developed a plan to streamline the brand,” says Peipul.

This business has since grown the number of likes it has on Facebook and can now be found through Google search, which I believe, is bringing in more business,” she adds.

When asked what the greatest challenge is for women in business in PNG, Peipul explains how women are always battling social norms and to start up your own business or become a female leader is going against the grain and the traditional roles of being a mother and wife.

Women in PNG will always be challenged in the business world due to the traditional values and culture here. We need to look after our families first and then our businesses and this juggle of time management can be difficult.

Since the COVID-19 crisis, these challenges have also increased due to a restriction on movement with no public transport options and being unable to network very easily face-to-face,” says Peipul.

While there are many challenges still to overcome, Peipul advises women not to give up.

Find the right advice, stay open-minded, do your due diligence and try to schedule your time so that you can be there for your family, community and business,” she says.

 

If you’re interested in connecting with a BLP approved business advisor like Focus Marketing Solutions to transform your business, there are a few ways you can access our services: 

• Use our free online essential business tools, Business Health Check and Business Continuity Planner to identify where there might be gaps in your business that could benefit from business advice. From there you can connect with a local business advisor. 
• Search our database of BLP approved business advisors to choose one that suits your needs. BLP approved advisors can get you access to subsidised services.

Contact your in-country representative to set up a one-to-one Business Diagnostic consultation.

*https://devpolicy.org/png-women-in-leadership-20161118/