The global economy is witnessing a fast-track growth even after facing crippling glitches in recent years. This year, COVID-19 wreaked havoc and the impact of it is going to be long-lasting. However, governments have started implementing deft measures to bring back the balance and minimize the loss.
But even all these countermeasures cannot solve the riddle of the gross disparity that diverse economies witness in several countries. The gaps are of different types — some display a difference between social strata, some reveal racial angles, while some showcase technological barriers. The types are endless, yet most of them can be weaved together based on one common thread – gender discrimination. Women are always forced to take the backseat irrespective of their class, country, ethnic origin, and expertise in diverse fields.
It’s not just a problem of a particular space-time; rather, it has been going on for ages, in fact, millennia. As its obvious outcome, the number of women who can call themselves financially literate is negligible. Only something radical can break these chains and ensure that women get their dues.
Tuula Jalasjaa has devoted her life to this quest for a method that can set women free financially. Her entrepreneurial venture, The Women’s Collection, reflects that intent. With the company, she is trying to impart how money works into as many women as possible to help them live their lives on their own terms and build a sustainable future.
Treading The Path
No one incident prompted Tuula to think of this venture as her future. Rather, it was a collection of events, things deeply disturbing in nature, that coaxed her into thinking of an alternative path that led to The Women’s Collection’s inception. Her experience in the financial sector brought her face-to-face with events where she had to see first-hand how women suffer due to their lack of financial knowledge. And, she couldn’t sit back and relax to witness their plights.
As a part of the industry, she knew well about all the complexities that shroud the sector. This was baffling for women in particular as their financial literacy was inadequate to grasp the nuances that run the field. It inspired her to set up The Women’s Collection as a one-stop solution for women where they get all the needed “knowledge, resources and tools supporting financial literacy, financial wellness and financial security for women.” Bringing all these aspects under one umbrella is an endeavor on Tuula’s part to make finance ‘Simpler, Accessible, and Engaging.’
In the simplest form, “financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works.” It encompasses an in-depth understanding of “how someone makes, manages, spends, and invests money” and puts various methods into practice like “personal financial management, budgeting, and investing.” Having this knowledge is becoming all the more pertinent as it can help stay abreast of the astounding hike in worldwide wealth. Otherwise, the chasm would grow deeper to create unsurmountable troubles.
It is also essential for women whose wealth and incomes are following an upward trajectory. The financial course they often have to chart is far more complicated than that of men’s. It’s because women have a higher life expectancy and it can trigger “sudden additional and assumed financial responsibilities relatively later in life.” In fact, the very nature of these unexpected effects is never predictable. They may come out as positive or negative depending upon the situation.
To plan well for such occasions, women should get acquainted with the sector’s nooks and corners. This requirement for a thorough understanding spurs demand for knowledge regarding financial literacy.
However, like most journeys into uncharted territories, proper guidance was a rarity, she had to endure hardships and face both good days and bad days. Something, she still does. But these twists and turns make the journey all the more exciting. Tuula has taken all the downs as a learning lesson and turned them into tailwinds for her growth. And when it comes to celebrating milestones, she never backs out as the downs she faces increases the values of her achievements.
Venturing out and finding a foothold in a chaotic world of entrepreneurs often comes with hassles that are different in nature from the corporate world. A little preparation before taking the plunge sometimes is effective in understanding the process and foresee events that can impact the profit margin in a positive way.
All these steps and successes, as Tuula feels, are driven by a steadfast desire to live the dream she has nurtured in her heart and a passion for creating a lasting legacy, which would make her daughters proud. In fact, she finds this passion as a potent weapon with which women leaders can arm themselves to get rid of roadblocks.
There were also things that Tuula learned the hard way. In her early days in the business, she tried to cover everything on her own and capitalize on the opportunities she got. But the process was time-taxing and she never had enough hours to manage it all.
To steer off this complexity, she started setting frameworks that provided her with time to assess opportunities. This showered her with positive results and, since then, the framework has become a thumb-rule for her.
What’s Different In Her Approach?
To stay in sync with the time, Tuula has incorporated many levels of engagement into her system, and one of them is Smart Money for Her. This is a first-of-its-kind online investing platform that uses robo-advisor designed exclusively for women in Canada. The system runs with a goal-based approach as its main driving force and it starts the process by asking women, “what are you saving for?”
Smart Money for Her is a kind of practical lesson that has theories as to its preamble in learning modules offered on The Women’s Collection platform. Since its implementation, it has emerged as a key component of the financial literacy initiative as it provides a live resource to apply what they have learned during their course.
Such innovations are also grabbing the attention of people from other countries. This creates a possibility of turning global in the coming years. It also infuses a desire in Tuula to democratize “wealth creation for women around the world.”
How To Lead People?
It is not always easy to cling on to the venture one has and witnessing it withstand severe adversities. That is why people often leave the road in the middle and start considering other options. In such times, only passion and deep love for the project can keep a person moving forward. These virtues set the pace of the journey.
To emerge as a leader, an entrepreneur can take up different routes. But Tuula believes, “a true leader helps others reach their goals and leads by example.” It is a manifestation of her profound understanding of the method she followed for her own company, where she wanted to set an example by developing a “platform to educate women on financial wellness to achieve their financial goals.”
