Boost your biz: Facebook looks to rope in 3 million more entrepreneurs

Facebook is targeting to onboard three million additional entrepreneurs in India onto its Facebook Pages to run their small businesses, as a part of its ‘Boost Your Business’ (BYB) programme, which kicked off in Hyderabad last August.

Currently, two million Indian entrepreneurs run their small businesses on Facebook Pages, from a global base of 50 million Facebook Page users.

After hosting a series of BYB programmes for men and women entrepreneurs in Hyderabad and Uttar Pradesh, where over 3,000 small businesses were trained, Facebook hosted an all-women’s BYB programme in Bengaluru on Friday, which witnessed the participation of over 525 women entrepreneurs.

Speaking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the event, Ritesh Mehta, Head of Economic Growth Initiatives for Facebook India, pointed out that there are nearly 3 million micro SMEs in India with full or partial female ownership that contribute to 3 per cent of industrial output and represent 8 per cent of the workforce in India as compared to 42 per cent of the workforce from micro SMEs worldwide.

“This is a huge gap which we are looking to fill by providing them with a platform like Facebook Page, where they can create a page, list their business, post content/images/videos, promote and also measure their business. Entrepreneurs require zero investment to start a business on Facebook Page,” he said.

Manorama Kulkarni, a lawyer, started a non-for-profit business called, Bangalore Woman Forum, using Facebook Page eight years ago that has empowered 600 women professionals such as doctors, teachers, psychologists, and lawyers to set up their own businesses.

Similarly, Mehar Zariwala set up the Institute of Experiential Learning on Facebook Page four years ago, which provides tools to supplement what is taught in school. “Facebook Page has helped to generate awareness about my business however, no sales has happened through this platform,” said Zariwala.

Nearly 10 per cent (142 million) of the 1.6 billion global Facebook users are in India. Mehta said he wants to achieve the same percentage for Facebook Page users in India, which currently stands at 4 per cent of the global count of 50 million users.

Entrepreneurs can promote their business with Facebook’s advertising platform for as little as $2 a day. “It is an auction-based system where for instance, a user can allocate ₹500 a day to promote his/her business and reach out to X number of people, who are relevant to the business,” he said. Facebook’s online platform Blueprint with 50 e-learning modules helps entrepreneurs learn the skills required to run a business on Facebook.

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