Marie-Eve Level, Feelweb Formation
Femmes du Numérique:To begin with, what is your definition of “digital”?
Marie-Eve Louvel:For me, digital is the domain of new technologies, a domain that transcends physical boundaries and has its own language, its own codes and its own culture.
Women, an opportunity for digital. Digital, an opportunity for women. What’s your opinion? Why did you choose this sector?
I chose it more out of passion than convenience, but I have to admit that it’s nice to be a woman in the digital field, and even more so in digital entrepreneurship, because you make a difference.
Is being a woman entrepreneur a plus?
It’s easier to stand out from the crowd, but this advantage is offset by slightly less credibility (than men) and therefore more effort to legitimize one’s place and ambitions. All in all, I’d say it’s a plus, because you surprise people in a positive way and attract attention.
Have you had any doubts, hesitations or difficulties in setting up your own business?
Every day! The main concern is to create a product that meets the target market’s needs, and to communicate it effectively. Especially in the dematerialized world of the web, communication is essential if you want to be visible. I carried out a market study on my blogLesDoigts dans le Net, which helped me make the right decisions.
Tell us more about your project. How did the idea come about? What needs do you meet?
It was born of a simple observation: individual entrepreneurs and small businesses don’t have enough websites (in 2013, 80% of companies that went bankrupt didn’t have a website – Source:La Tribune). Getting them to buy a “turnkey” site from a service provider is no longer enough, because owning a site is useless if you don’t know how to manage it. Entrepreneurs need training.
However, in-person training courses don’t often lead to the complete realization of a website, due to lack of time. The idea behind my training program is to enable these entrepreneurs to learn at their own pace, while building their website step-by-step, and all without having to leave their home.
How do you defend gender equality in your professional and personal life?
I don’t discriminate between men and women, either positively or negatively. I choose people on the basis of their skills. In the private sphere, we share tasks, bills, joys and difficulties…
How have you managed to reconcile work and family life?
By imposing a discipline on my life and on my working hours, so as not to let the two worlds merge into one another. Weekends are sensitive times because I often need to work, to the detriment of my private life. Stopping work after 8pm on weekdays, and if possible on both days of the weekend, are objectives that respect my private life and don’t exhaust me in my professional life: a sort of safeguard!
What advice would you give to a young woman hesitating to work or set up a business in the digital sector?
Especially in a dematerialized world, communication and marketing are very important and time-consuming. So I’d advise a woman (or a man!) to team up with someone to separate core business tasks from sales/communication/marketing tasks. To each his own.
Biography
Marie-Eve Louvel is a digital woman of many hats: programmer, blogger and trainer. On her blog “Les Doigts dans le Net”, which she has been running for almost 3 years, she gives advice, writes tutorials and broadcasts screencasts, drawing on her experience of website creation.
Since June 2014, she has founded FeelWeb Formation, an e-learning platform that enables small businesses to train online to create their own website, thanks to courses to follow (choice of predefined modules), or to compose yourself (choice of à la carte modules).
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Interview for the Watify campaign.
Watify is a non-profit initiative set up by the European Commission, based on testimonials from entrepreneurs who explain how they overcame their doubts when setting up or digitizing their business.
Why is this? Because everyone has questions when it comes to setting up or developing a digital business. There will always be a thousand reasons not to take the plunge. But doubts shouldn’t lead you to abandon your project. On the contrary, doubts are useful: they guide you in the right direction and lead you to ask the right questions. Why not create or digitalize your business today!