"I think one of the challenges is that women don’t have enough mentors that really do push them beyond their comfort zones, encourage them to dream bigger, to think bigger, and to really supersize their dreams."
- Ethel Cofie is a Ghanaian-born entrepreneur and founder of Edel Technologies. This techpreneur is passionate about technology, female leadership and empowering women entrepreneurs. Ethel is a Mandela Fellow for President Obama’s Young African Leaders initiative(YALI), and has been featured in BBC and CNN for work in technology and women leadership. She is the founder of Women in Tech Ghana, initiator of the 1st Pan African woman in tech meetup and was shortlisted for the UN GEM Tech Award for her work supporting women in ICT.
Read moreSurround yourself with like-minded women....
"Get started - asap! With the little knowledge, experience or capital you have, get started. Ask for help. There are various mentorship programmes, look them up and make use of them. Surround yourself with like-minded women who can provide a nurturing support system, because tough times will come and you will need to be able to draw strength from sisters."
- Mogau Seshoene is the founder of The Lazy Makoti in South Africa, providing intimate and informative cooking lessons for the modern Afropolitian who would like to learn the lost art of preparing favourite authentic South African dishes. Mogau pivoted from a career in finance to pursue her passion and today has a team of 4 people who handle the entire process, from design to delivery of the cooking merchandise, as well as television shows and social media.
Read moreAs entrepreneurs, what are your thoughts on the company culture you are creating in your own business? Bottom line is that every company should promote an engaging and ethical company culture. This will not only create a happier workforce, but we know that happy employees are productive employees and will therefore give you the competitive edge.
Read moreIn her book The Conscious Entrepreneur, author and coach Laura C. Cannon teaches you how to harness your unique gifts and the power of your own consciousness to maximize your satisfaction - and deepen your enjoyment - of your business and your life.
Read moreNiche South African clothing brand, Pride Journey, designs, produces and sells exclusive ready-to-wear pieces for professional women with curves to ensure a perfect fit and comfort while maintaining a graceful sense of style.
Read moreFinding the gap in a key marketplace is always a positive factor when starting a new business, and for Kenyan entrepreneur Tracy Mulei, founder of Shujaa Delivery, this gap came in the form of specialist courier services. Today her company is bringing a much needed delivery service to Nairobi’s business and consumer community.
Read more“You are what you repeatedly do, then achievement isn’t an action you take but a habit you forge into your life. You don’t have to seek out success. Harness the power of selected discipline to build the right habit, and extraordinary results will find you” – Gary Keller, The One Thing.
Read moreDo you ever feel like no matter how much you get done in a day, your to-do list keeps getting longer and longer? In a culture and society that’s obsessed with being busy and “swamped” with work, I often hear something along the lines of this from women entrepreneurs: “I’m so overwhelmed I don’t know what to do next.”
Read moreEmbrace positivism....
"As a female entrepreneur, my advice to fellow women is that they should follow their hearts and give a deaf ear to all the negative energy thrown their way. Embrace positivism and never compare your own journey to that of others. Yours is unique."
- Robertinah Nzula is the founder of The Tianar Models in Kenya, a company that discovers and nurtures raw talent in modelling, art, dance, music, poetry and theatre, and event management. Robertinah is on a mission to become the first ever modelling NGO in Africa, creating a platform for community empowerment, women’s empowerment, and youth mentorship. She has always been a entrepreneur at heart and on her way to achieving a 1st Class Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree she used to juggle her student commitments with her entrepreneurial activities.
Read morePassion, drive and persistence turn desires into reality....
"I believe that if you are passionate, have the drive and just keep at it, the universe just makes you gravitate towards realising your desires. I think women have the backbone to achieve so much as we are intuitively wired to nurture. We just need to focus on what we want to achieve, lock onto it and go for it!"
- Teresa Nanjala Lubano is the founder of The Nanjala Company in Kenya, an online store that creates and collaborates to deliver one stop solutions for design, customized gifts items and eye catching potted plants. All of Shop Nanjala’s work is locally sourced and made in Kenya.
Read moreEvery entrepreneur has at sometime or another probably daydreamed about their business or their new product becoming a huge hit, or even better an overnight success story, with customers beating a path to the door to buy what’s on offer. And, it sounds fabulous in principle. But in this fast paced world where social media can instantly take a product or business viral, bringing with it instant customer appetite, that quick success can also bring challenges. How many startup businesses are ready to instantly scale to meet customer demand? Are essential resources in place, is the supply chain geared up, are staff trained to cope with this rapid scale in the business? Chances are the answer to all those questions will be no. And whilst entrepreneurs are incredibly resourceful and resilient in the face of such challenges, the pressures to meet supply and demand can be huge without preparation. So, its better to make a plan from the start when it comes to being ready to scale your business. Question is, are you ready to scale?
Read moreWords of wisdom for African women: "We are very proactive. We are strong women. We are great managers. We are great policy makers. We can be a great force for Africa.”
- Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana, co-founded Gahaya Links Cooperatives shortly after the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994. These inspiring sisters had a vision to turn ancient basket weaving skills into a source of livelihood for thousands of rural women. Many of the women, like Janet and Joy themselves, were returning refugees or survivors of the genocide. The women started weaving baskets in exchange for food. Initially bringing together about twenty women, the sisters taught them how to weave and how to enhance their weaving skills with new design techniques. Today, Gahaya Links manages a network of over 5,000 weavers across the country, organised into around 52 cooperatives that help provide much needed income and stability. The sisters have successfully opened the business to international markets, partnering with the likes of Macy’s, Walmart, Oprah Magazine, and Kate Spade. Today, Gahaya Links "Peace Baskets” are sold and admired the world over.
Read moreHave the courage to believe in yourself....
"The Wonderbag journey has not been without its fair share of hurdles. Having the courage to believe in myself, even when the chips are down; facing the naysayers who predicted failure from day one and hiring too quickly and firing too slowly have all been hurdles that I have had to overcome. Also thinking people with smart degrees and foreign accents have the solutions to scaling the business has proven just not true on more than one occasion! I learned this the hard way. You need dogged determination, a very high pain threshold, and incredibly close friends to hold the safety net as you’re definitely going to need it when you fall, and you will fall - you have to - because it's a part of the journey."
- Sarah Collins is the founder and CEO of Wonderbag, a simple non electric slow cooker which works in mud huts in Africa to Manhattan apartments, possibly one of the only cooking devices that is globally relevant! Sarah is a South African adventurer, entrepreneur, and lifelong social activist. She thrives on challenges and has worked tirelessly over the past two decades to inspire change in the realms of gender-equality and environmental sustainability.
Read moreAs women entrepreneurs we must take ourselves more seriously....
"Women don’t take themselves seriously enough, so when we start talking about startup companies that women today are leading, we tend to talk about the types of businesses that people expect women to be involved with. Often, the talk is not around crunching the numbers - we need to be talking more about the net asset values of our businesses; let’s talk more about what our balance sheets look like and actually start taking our businesses seriously."
- Thato Kgatlhanye is founder of Rethaka, a woman-owned South African business that is focused on improving the world around them. Through their green innovations such as the Repurpose Schoolbags, they redefine societal problems into solutions. Thato makes it her business to uncover sustainable opportunities that create a far-reaching impact for low-income communities, with a particular focus on children and women.
Read moreEvery year in the month of August, South Africa celebrates National Women’s Month, and to support this commemorative initiative, Lionesses of Africa headed to Durban on 1 August to host one of its popular Lioness Lean In Breakfast Events. As always, the event was powered by Standard Bank and hosted at its Kingsway conference centre in the heart of Durban. At the event, women entrepreneurs representing all sectors of business and industry, gathered for a morning of inspirational startup story sharing and great networking.
Read moreBuilding a successful niche business is something that entrepreneur and author, Romi Neustadt, is passionate about. Today with her direct approach and humorous writing style, she is helping others build lucrative niche businesses and create lives with more freedom and flexibility, greater purpose and a lot more fun.
Read moreIt is said your habits are the foundation on which success is built. I was again reminded of this by an article I came across on Forbes.com that beautifully illustrates that no matter how much technology has changed our lives, some things will fundamentally never change.
Read moreFor all those who love the taste of chillis and want to buy products that are organic, fair trade produced in Swaziland, and supporting local farmers and producers, then Black Mamba is a gourmet chilli product brand to watch.
Read moreFor all those women out there who are tall and struggle to find great clothes that actually fit, then help is at hand from a great new South African brand, Love Long Length Clothing.
Read moreAs a firm of attorneys, we are known for advocating the importance of having a legally valid will drafted, regardless of your age or financial standing. In my career, I have often come across hugely successful entrepreneurs who didn’t have a will in place, or if they did it was seriously outdated.
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