the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Deborah Nicholls, founder of Ageless Grace (South Africa)
- Deborah Nicholls is the founder of Ageless Grace in South Africa, a company that provides Anti-Aging Exercise and fitness programmes. Deborah is an educator and teacher of Anti-Aging Exercises – Timeless Fitness for longevity of your body and mind. Deborah resides in Cape Town and offers Ageless Grace group classes to fitness centres, gyms, community centres, wellness centres, schools and retirement villages.
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Eldari Visser, founder of Picketfence Life (South Africa)
Never ever doubt yourself....
- Eldari Visser is the founder of Picketfence Life in South Africa, a one stop place for the consumer to find expert advice from financial coaches, lawyers, accountants and tax practitioners, life and business coaches, and even psychologists. Following a long and successful corporate career in training, lecturing and finance, Eldari decided to launch her company to support people by providing them with an avenue to easily reach expert advice.
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Mariéme Jamme, Senegalese-Born CEO, blogger, technologist and social entrepreneur
- Mariéme Jamme is a Senegalese born-British businesswoman, who runs a technology consultancy business. She is best known for her role in promoting technology, good governance, transparency and a better education standard in Africa. She was recently named as one of the 100 most influential Africans of 2014 by the Africa Business Magazine and Forbes Magazine.
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Shona MacDonald, founder of Shonaquip (South Africa)
At this year’s SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards, Shona MacDonald, founder of Shonaquip in South Africa, was announced as the winner of the inaugural Disability Empowerment Award at an official awards ceremony on 27 October 2016. The award was established in recognition of the increase in the number of innovations providing solutions for people with disabilities. As a means of recognizing the critical work carried out in this under-served sector, the SAB Foundation established the Disability Empowerment Awards, which carries an additional total prize money of R1.5-million. In judging this award, the innovation’s business potential, innovation, life change potential and scalability was reviewed.
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Rozanne Collings, founder of Chillalas (South Africa)
Anyone who loves cooking understands how crucial it is to get great ingredients for the pantry, particularly when it comes to spicing up favourite dishes. Passionate and talented home cook Rozanne Collings took her love of spice and turned it into a business that is inspiring other cooks who appreciate the culinary power of the chilli. Her new chilli paste brand Chillalas is livening up kitchens and meals across South Africa.
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One of the greatest challenges in Africa is recruiting the unskilled labour force that makes up the majority of unemployed people. Where we've seen exponential growth in the number of new businesses, in spite of the challenges in accessing markets and funding, skills pose a limitation on the growth of these businesses.
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Deborah Nicholls, founder of Ageless Grace (South Africa)
Helping clients to achieve ‘ageless grace’ is the vision that entrepreneur Deborah Nicholls has for her company and she has developed an innovative exercise and wellness programme called Ageless Grace - Anti-Ageing Exercises for Body & Brain, which provides the solution.
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Felena Hanson, entrepreneur & author
Flight Club is a call to rebel, reinvent, and thrive! The book shares the journey of women who "leaned out" of the corporate world to launch their dream businesses. Author Felena Hanson, founder of Hera Hub, shares her personal story and rise to entrepreneurship.
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Being an entrepreneur automatically means that you keep learning. You keep developing your skills-sets, understanding new ways of doing business and applying new methods to make your business better. The same principles are applied to sales. If you want to be a better salesperson, with the understanding that all entrepreneurs are salespeople, then you need to keep honing your skills and developing your mindset to have a winning attitude in sales.
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Eldari Visser, founder of Picketfence Life (South Africa)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a professional expert in a particular field walking your life journey with you and providing support and advice along the way? Well, entrepreneur Eldari Visser knows the value of having such experts at hand, and her unique company, Picketfence Life, is providing access to information, advice and a powerful network of such experts.
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Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion and Design Week
Find your purpose and passion....
- Omoyemi Akerele founded the Lagos Fashion and Design Week in 2011 and is also founder and artistic director of Style House Files, the organising body behind the annual four-day fashion showcase. Style House Files is a Creative Development Agency that primarily focuses on the advancement of the Nigerian and African Fashion Industry. Omoyemi is widely regarded as a driving force behind the burgeoning Nigerian fashion industry. She helps brands gain essential international exposure through presenting showcases at Pitti Immagine in Italy, and through Lagos Fashion and Design Week.
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Tigui Traoré, founder of Cocostyle (Guinea)
- Tigui Traoré is the founder of the fashion and creative events label, Cocostyle in Guinea. Her companies organize thematic fashion events with a cultural character that represent the current Afropolitan trend. Tigui's Cocostyle universe is so much more than just a label, it is a unifying concept that breaks all the clichés and represents the more quirky and colourful side of fashion.
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Robyn Victor, founder of August
Starting your own company is always a big learning curve....
- Robyn Victor is a Cape Town-based designer, born in Plettenberg Bay. She moved to Cape Town in 2002 to study Graphic Design in Advertising and then Fashion Design. In 2009, after 3 years of working and designing for the retail industry, she launched her own collection under the August label. Robyn’s design philosophy is pure and sophisticated, inspired by both the resort and casual sides of the South African lifestyle, and appealing to the fashion-minded, modern woman.
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Dr. Ola Orekunrin, founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria
- Dr. Ola Orekunrin is a medical doctor, helicopter pilot and the healthcare entrepreneur founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria, West Africa’s first Air Ambulance Service. She's dedicated to bringing trauma care to the most remote parts of Western Africa and her company, an air ambulance service based in Lagos, is doing just that. She was motivated to start the company after her younger sister tragically died whilst traveling in Nigeria as a consequence of their being no medical air service available to transport her to hospital. Ola graduated as a medical doctor from the University Of York in the UK and is a member of the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine.
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Sarah Munyiva, founder of Royal Maids Cleaning Services (Kenya)
You need a team behind you....
- Sarah Munyiva is the founder of Royal Maids Cleaning Services in Kenya, a residential and commercial cleaning company in Kenya offering weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and one-time cleanings. Royal Maids gives busy individuals and families clean, comfortable homes to return to and enjoy each day. Sarah began at the Royal Maids alongside her mother and continued to build and grow the business over the past 2 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Project Planning and Management from The University of Nairobi.
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- Dr. Jennifer Riria is the Group CEO of Kenya Women Holding and one of Africa's leading women entrepreneurs who has always been on a mission to transform the lives of women and their families in her native Kenya. She is distinguished as a microfinance banker and practitioner, researcher and gender specialist. She has served in many leadership roles for which she has been recognized locally and internationally. In 2013 she was awarded the Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the year, East Africa 2013, and subsequently, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2014, at which point she was admitted to EY’s Global Hall of Fame.
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After an 11-year career at GE, Swaady Martin adopted many of the strategies and tactics instrumental to its successful African expansion to launch YSWARA, an African, global luxury brand.
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Chaymaa Rhou, founder of Nomadic Filmland Academy (Morocco)
For all those who love the idea of global travel and filming combined into one unique offering, then the Nomadic Filmland Academy has a great proposition. Entrepreneur Chaymaa Rhou and her film expert colleagues are providing the opportunity for travellers to experience not only fascinating trips to new places, but also the chance to record a film of their travels at the same time.
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On 20th October in Cape Town, South Africa, the finalists for the AppsAfrica.com Innovation Awards 2016 were announced, with a shortlist featuring leading mobile and tech companies from across Africa. The annual awards attracted over 200 submissions from 25 countries, chosen by an independent panel of leading industry experts.
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It is my pleasure to embark on this profitability series which will touch on so many aspects of an organisation’s growth and sustainability. In these series, we shall deal with all issues around company profitability, from merely having an appreciation of what it means to understanding how a failing company can return to profitability.
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