Enrolling women on entrepreneurship programs is relatively easy. Supporting them to earn consistently is not.
At Pollinate Group, our data shows a pattern seen in many last-mile programs: many women join at first, but only some go on to earn a steady income. This is not because of a lack of effort or will. It reflects the real challenges women face in their economic lives.
Time is the first constraint.
Most women entrepreneurs we work with can only spend a few hours each week on their businesses. They have to balance household chores, caregiving, and other informal work. Without enough time, it is hard to keep up with sales and follow up with customers, no matter how motivated they are.
Mobility and digital access matter more than we assume.
Limited access to smartphones, shared devices, and restrictions on movement make it harder for women to place orders, get paid, and reach customers. Digital inclusion is not just a side issue; it is essential for earning income. We have an App that helps them manage their stock requests, inventory, outstandings and earnings. This App is language agnostic and predominantly visual.
Progression changes everything.
We have seen that women who move beyond the beginner stage and gain experience, confidence, and skills earn much more. This shows why it is important to keep women involved, offer mentoring, and provide clear steps for growth, while focusing on recruiting new women to grow our impact.
Training must evolve.
Training on products and processes is important, but not enough. To earn well, women also need skills like basic business planning, talking to customers, managing their time, and leading others. Without these, their income is not secure. Our 3 levels of training cover these and more.
Earning is not just economic; it is social.
As women start earning, they often feel more confident, have a stronger voice in family decisions, and can move around more freely. These changes help them take part in the economy, creating a positive cycle, but only if their income is steady enough for families and communities to value it.
Earning income takes time. More than half of active women entrepreneurs earn money each year, but their earnings usually grow as they gain experience and move forward, not in the first few months.
Pollinate Group’s 2025 Impact Assessment shows that as women begin earning, decision- making around income use, healthcare, and household purchases increasingly shifts from male- only control to joint decisions. This transition reflects growing recognition of women’s economic contribution within the household and is a critical early marker of agency. Over time, this shared decision-making reinforces confidence, mobility, and the ability to sustain earning, creating a virtuous cycle between income and empowerment.
To move from just taking part to making real progress, women need more than just access. Expectations, skills, time, and support all need to line up. When these things come together, earning becomes possible and can last.
In the next piece, we reflect on the hard truths our data surfaced in 2025.
