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As a business owner, Sandra D’Souza feels lucky to wake up every day eager to go to work, knowing her team members have the same energy and passion as she does. That’s because digital marketing agency Curate Bee taps into their potential to learn new things everyday, embrace change, continually evolve to be better and find ways to positively impact their community.
Her drive to make a greater global impact led Ms. D’Souza to create a way for women entrepreneurs to find an outlet, the Curate Bee franchise model. She believes that becoming a franchisee allows single and working mothers to achieve both flexibility and work-life balance.
Moreover, as a certified women-owned business with WEConnect International, Curate Bee partners specifically with businesses that support women-owned and women-led businesses. With one partner, CXCatalysts, she launched a women-owned digital framework called Ontrack.cloud to address a gap in the virtual market for female ownership.
Ms. D’Souza has also seen first-hand how difficult it is for women business owners to get access to funds for debt recovery or equity. That experience led to a partnership with a FinTech company to create a peer-to-peer lending platform specifically for women entrepreneurs. The platform provides women with access to funds and education so they can grow their businesses and have a greater economic impact in their community.
Outside of work, Ms. D’Souza actively supports women, including stints as a director of BPW International, an international women’s organization, and as one of the Australian leaders for the Commonwealth Business Council for Women. She’s also working on a book, 50 Unsung Business Heroes, that tells the stories of 50 women businesses: their start, funding, growth and diversification.
In 2017, Sandra was nominated for the WEConnect International award for Greatest Social Impact.
