the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
by Lionesses of Africa Operations Director
And so the 5th of our Global ‘Start-up Night Africa’ events came and went. Having been to London, Berlin and New York, here at last we had found a home in Den Haag, The Netherlands, to celebrate the opening of our new European Office and of course to showcase some of our incredible Lioness community members.
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by Thembe Khumalo
For ambitious executives, personal branding is like the stock exchange. Some stocks are valued higher than others, and the goal of every owner/investor is to see the price of his shares go up and stay up. Highly valued stocks mean more money and a better return on investment.
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by Kathryn Main
What is automation, and why do I need it in my business? Automation simply means that you take some of your business processes and automate them. Automation is an important concept in business. It allows you to, for example, automate many functions in your business, such as finance and sales. By reducing the risk of human error in common daily tasks, automation enables you to manage configurations in a predictable and repeatable way, resulting in increased consistency and increased speed of change. Automation gives us more time to work on the business and less in the business.
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by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw
Disputes and conflicts are inevitable in human interaction, often arising in both personal and professional settings. In business, resolving disputes in a timely and amicable manner is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships and fostering long-term success. Traditionally, conflicts have been addressed through the adversarial process of litigation. However, an alternative approach that has gained significant recognition is mediation. In this article, I explore the key differences between resolving a dispute in court versus mediation. I argue that mediation offers a more favourable approach to maintaining good relationships, which is essential in business.
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by Eldari Visser
At a typical game farm in Africa animals roam free, well free within boundaries that is. This means the owner has a piece of land or property that allows his animals to experience life in a carefree way. Many animals have to be kept like this due to human activities and urbanisation, herds for homesteads and unfortunately poachers. These animals are not really free, they have boundaries or fencing, even cages. They see electric wires and gates. There are timestamps, branding, chips and permits that gives you this “freedom”. They are free to move around within limits of the boundaries. The big cage.
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Dr Kimberly Olson
Book Review
As a seasoned coach in the online space, Dr Kimberly Olson, author of the new book Unleashing HER: Redefining Success for Female Entrepreneurs, saw a trend emerging. She noticed that women were setting unrealistic expectations for themselves and getting stuck in the comparison game. In order to truly shift this paradigm, she decided to gather 40 amazing female entrepreneurs together in one book so they could share their stories of what unleashing your potential can look like.
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Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Start-Up Night Africa on 11 July 2023 in The Hague, The Netherlands aims to stimulate investment and international market access for Africa's women entrepreneurs
With support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands and the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank (FMO), Lionesses of Africa has set up the Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague, taking place on 11 July 2023. This initiative aims to showcase high-growth, women-owned businesses from Africa and connect them to investment and market opportunities in The Netherlands. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liesje Schreinemacher, will deliver the opening remarks at the event, together with Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken. The Start-Up Night Africa event will also celebrate the opening of the European office of Lionesses of Africa.
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Vanize da Natividade Teixeira, founder, Muyana and Arts (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Vanize da Natividade Teixeira is the founder of Muyana and Arts in Mozambique. The company uses recycled materials, transforming them into dolls, bags and other products for the home, through sewing skills and empowering women who want to embrace this artform. Vanize has two interns who work with her, and who are currently being trained in specific skills. She is still running the company herself because it's small, but her dream is to be big and international one day. Vanize has a degree in accounting from high school, and was the commercial director of the company Mocinter lda that was in the field of service provision, and also of the business, Marumadi Planeta Mozambique, a guesthouse.
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Sylvia Wambui, Founder, Mursly Digital Group LLC (Kenya)
Startup Story
Sylvia Wambui is the Founder of Mursly Digital Group LLC in Kenya. She is a mentor, virtual assistant, and business consultant to entrepreneurs. She has spent over 6 years in marketing, across local and international clients where she has been a marketing lead, managing multiple brands and large tech brands. After COVID struck, it called for a restructuring of the business. That’s when Mursly Digital Group Limited was launched and has just recently been incorporated in March 2023. Mursly Digital Group offers business consulting services that cover strategy across business structures specifically marketing, social media, personal, and leadership development to ease the load of idea generation. It also does consulting and virtual assistance work, both in Africa and internationally, having worked with community and tech-driven brands like Black Women In Clinical Research, Blaze Group LLC, and Bauce Magazine. As a mentor, Sylvia has worked to support entrepreneurs and professionals by providing knowledge on capacity building and upskilling for scale / professional growth.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, and so when its boss Larry Fink speaks, the world listens, and who are we to argue with his comment above (see here). He has a point and especially in the United States where the discussion, as sadly with so much in many countries these days, has become polarized along political lines.
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by Margaret Hirsch
“You have to be in it to win it!” The saying came from a discussion with a person who always wondered why they didn’t win the lottery and every week they would complain that other people won something and they didn’t until eventually one day someone said to them, “well if you want to win the lottery, the first thing you must do is buy a ticket”.
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by Sasha Knott
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), one thing remains clear: humans are essential. AI is advancing, and for it to keep being an aid, human oversight is needed to ensure that it remains ethical, that biases are detected and addressed, and that AI decision-making remains transparent. As the world latches onto the idea of AI making our lives easier, we need to be harnessing its potential through human intervention, thereby mitigating risks and safeguarding societal values.
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by Lori Milner
What if you approached personal growth like decluttering your wardrobe? If you want to add new items more suitable to your current style, you want to free up space first and let go of the items that no longer serve you or are not aligned with who you are. Instead of reading another personal growth book or attending another workshop, what can you edit out that is no longer aligned with who you are first?
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by Catia Mondlane
The key to keeping your business resilient through change and uncertainty is to have a flexible business plan. This means creating a plan that can adapt to changing circumstances, whether it's a sudden shift in the market, unexpected challenges, or new opportunities. Start by identifying the core values and goals of your business. These should remain consistent even as your strategies change.
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Start-up Night Africa - The Hague
The Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague on 11 July 2023 will celebrate the opening of the European office of Lionesses of Africa. The focus of the event will be on the critical role of investment and the power of partnerships to address the gender finance gap for women entrepreneurs in growth mode in Africa.
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Nomsa Mdhluli, founder, Tishala Communications (South Africa)
Startup Story
Nomsa Mdhluli is the founder of Tishala Communications in South Africa, a boutique Digital Marketing and Public Relations agency. She is an award-winning broadcaster who has a knack for storytelling, and translated this skill into Public Relations through her business. In 2018, Nomsa established Tishala Communications to serve corporate clients who deserved to have their ground-breaking business ideas, innovations and successes brought to public and business attention.
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Startup Story
Mantate Mlotshwa is a creative and social entrepreneur from Zimbabwe. She is the Founder and Creative Lead for U Motle, a creative story-telling brand exploring fashion as a tool to curate experiences of African women and stories of African culture. She is a program design and development expert within the democracy, rights and governance sector. She holds a BSc in Psychology and has co-authored an anthology of short stories called Turquoise Dreams. She wants to grow the U Motle brand to reflect her travel within the continent, and to provide employment opportunities for other youth.
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by Josefa Masinga
Do you know how to be a good seller? There are those who believe that sales talent is something people are born with. It may be that some personalities really have an advantage when it comes to selling, but anyone with the right direction and a willingness to learn can figure out how to be a good salesperson. The art of selling is based on many techniques ranging from good communication to follow-up after the sale has been closed. At each stage of this process, you can learn more and develop to increase your results.
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por Josefa Masinga
Você sabe como ser um bom vendedor? Há quem acredite que o talento para vendas nasça com as pessoas. Pode ser que algumas personalidades realmente tenham vantagem na hora de vender, mas qualquer pessoa com o direcionamento correto e vontade de aprender pode descobrir como ser um bom vendedor. A arte de vender é baseada em muitas técnicas que vão desde a comunicação e a vestuário, até o acompanhamento depois que a venda já foi fechada. Em cada etapa desse processo, é possível aprender mais e se desenvolver para aumentar os seus resultados.
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Carmen Stevens
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Carmen Stevens Wines Pty Ltd, a multi-award winning, black-and-woman owned winery creating impact in South Africa
Carmen Stevens, founder of Carmen Stevens Wines Pty Ltd, is the first black person accepted to study winemaking in South Africa and qualified in 1995 as South Africa's first black winemaker. She was recognised with a Top 10 Pinotage award in 1998 for her very first red wine production. Carmen's industry awards include International Decanter Trophy winner, 2015 Winemaker of the Year California, 2018 - Winemaker of the Decade UK (Naked Wines.com). Carmen Stevens Wines continue to win recognition and industry awards every year. In 2019, Carmen registered the first 100% black-and-woman owned winery in Stellenbosch, South Africa and was awarded South Africa’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 and 2019. The Carmen Stevens NPO was registered in 2015, and today the foundation provides over 25000 learners from 125 schools in the Western Cape with a nutritious breakfast and lunch.
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