Following a call for entries through the Lioness Lean In event series, the first Lionesses of Africa Accelerator programme officially launches on 6 December in Johannesburg. 30 women entrepreneurs have been accepted onto the Accelerator Programme, which is powered by Standard Bank, in partnership with Liberty, and held at the SB Incubator in Rosebank.
The aim of this women-focused growth programme is to improve the lives of women entrepreneurs and help them to take their businesses to the next level by preparing them to do business with major corporate supply chains, such as Standard Bank and Liberty. As all the participants are part of the Lionesses of Africa community, the programme is fully funded, but does require each of them to commit to attending on one morning per week for a total of 12 weeks, at the end of which there will be a business pitch presentation session, attended by Standard Bank and Liberty executives.
The Accelerator Model is a 12 week Accelerator (core programme) has been developed for established businesses that are typically between 1 and 3 years old. It is run at times that make sense to women entrepreneurs who also have family as well as business commitments, ie. 9.00am to 12.00am on a Tuesday morning each week. The 12 modules to be covered in the programme include:
• Developing leadership skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) in business
• Manoeuvering through the business world as a woman entrepreneur (harrassment,
ethics, etc)
• Communications, networking, stakeholder engagement and management skills
• Negotiation skills
• Business modelling and strategy formulation
• Project management
• Human resource management
• Financial and risk management
• Branding and marketing
• Social media and digital management
• Next generation marketing - e-commerce and how to tap into global markets
• Perfecting the Pitch
• The Showcase and the Profiling
To find out more about the Lionesses of Africa Business Accelerator and the next series of programmes to be launched in 2017, email accelerator@lionessesofafrica.com