Being a woman engineer can often be challenging in Africa, and for many young aspirant women engineers, it can be a hard industry sector to break into. One enterprising woman entrepreneur is looking to change that. Puleng Pooe has founded Lina Sarah Team, a specialist recruitment and HR solutions business focused on female engineers.
Read moreAfrica needs more women innovators and change-makers, particularly when it comes to harnessing the power of technology to find solutions to key challenges. Mozambique has one such woman innovator in Gérsia Sequeira, co-founder of the Instituto de Tecnologias, Inovação e Serviços - ITIS in Maputo. She is on a mission to innovate for continuous improvement in areas such as education, e-government and entrepreneurship development.
Read moreThere is a great focus right now on socially responsible brands that not only make a statement in the world, but also make a difference. Entrepreneur Rahel Mwitula Williams and her proudly African lifestyle brand, ILAVA (which translates as IT CAN BE DONE), is passionate about making women feel empowered through fashion, whilst at the same time positively impacting the lives of others.
Read moreThere is an abundance of free information online, almost too much. Many entrepreneurs fall victim to information overload. Regardless of what business you own, you can benefit from the free or less expensive tools and technologies from the start. Author and entrepreneur, Beth Malatji, founder of Wealth Ladder Magazine, has some great tips in her new book The Bootstrapper’s Lifesaving Hacks.
Read moreWhen you decide to start your own business, there are various legalities that you will need to take into account – below is a simple checklist of factors you may need to consider.
Read moreYou know that feeling, when you are watching a sports match featuring your favourite team, and they are on a winning streak - it feels like everything is possible - leagues can be won, trophies can be lifted, coaches and players become heroes. It’s the same in the world of entrepreneurship. When a business starts to take off and it is doing well, when hard-fought contracts are won, cashflow is actually flowing, and employees feel pride in working for the business and brand, life as an entrepreneur feels good - winning feels good! Yet we all know that it takes incredible hard work, guts and determination, and bags of self belief to get to this point. Just as on the sports pitch, it’s a wonderful feeling to be on that winning streak and there is no doubt that it feels easier to solve day to day challenges when business is trending in the positive direction. The trick is to keep the momentum going when you hit the inevitable bumps in the road that will come along. Not every major sports team wins every match every time, and coaches know that a team is only as good as it’s last match. So in business the lesson is to ride with the good times and build up positive momentum that will last when times get tough.
Read moreBe innovative....
"I encourage women, especially the young women to come up with innovative products and services and deviate from engaging in "traditional" entrepreneurial opportunities."
- Helen Njoroge is co-founder of Tenders Kenya, a digital platform that provides information on the latest procurement opportunities in Kenya for women and young entrepreneurs. The government of Kenya in 2013 reserved 30% of all government tenders for women, youth and persons with disabilities. With many procurement systems online, Tenders Kenya offers a digital and cost effective and efficient channel where all entrepreneurs, and more so the youth in Kenya, can access all procurement opportunities, and not only government but also private sector opportunities.
Read more"If we support one another, we Kenyans, we Africans, we'll be able to do even bigger than what the multinationals can do."
- Tabitha Karanja is founder and CEO of Keroche Breweries. She is one of Kenya's leading entrepreneurs, a remarkable trailblazer and an example of a woman made good against all the odds. Tabitha chose to venture where none before her had dared. She took on an 87-year-old business monopoly and entered an industry with a deeply entrenched male gender stereotype. Tabitha broke the mould to become Kenya’s first home-grown beer and alcoholic drink manufacturer. Today, her company's state-of-the-art factory produces 10,000 bottles of gin and ready-to-drink vodka, as well as 15,000 bottles of beer per hour.
Read moreFollowing 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.
Read moreThe ability to build a high potential, high growth business with a sustainable heart is one that entrepreneur, Ana Alecia Lyman, founder of Bio Óleos de Miombo and Grupo Trichilia, has in huge amounts. Her vision to create world-class products that celebrate the sustainable natural resources of Mozambique and create a much needed value chain from community to consumer, is one that is making the world sit up and take notice.
Read moreIn her new book Female Innovators at Work: Women on Top of Tech, Danielle Newnham, leading tech writer and serial entrepreneur writes about the experiences of female innovators and entrepreneurs. She highlights the varied life and career stories of a number of leading women role models in the tech industry, all of which constitute an inspirational book for women looking to make their mark in STEM and tech entrepreneurship.
Read moreMulti-award winning co-founder of South African retail giant, Hirsch’s, Margaret Hirsch, together with her husband co-founder Alan Hirsch, were announced as finalists in this year’s EY World Entrepreneur Awards South Africa this week. They were recognized for their incredible achievements as entrepreneurs and major brand builders in the prestigious Master Category of the Awards.
Read moreNovember was an exciting month for Lionesses of Africa, a rapidly growing network of 250,000 women entrepreneurs on the African continent, as it officially launched in Maputo, Mozambique with the first Lioness Lean In Breakfast Event in the country. The event, which was held on the morning of 17 November 2016, was powered by Standard Bank in partnership with Shell and held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the city.
Read moreHaving an eye and flair for fashion, combined with an interest in proactively supporting women designers from around the world, led South African entrepreneur Faith Phoshoko to start her own online fashion retail business, The Flair Collection.
Read moreImagine your business was a person… What would she look like? How would she talk? What would she say? Which words would she use? Would she talk passionately, using casual language? Or would she employ a more classical and formal tone? Why would people engage with her in conversation? Would she behave consistently and therefor build rapport and trust with others?
Read moreThere is nothing quite like understanding a target market personally. In the case of South African entrepreneur, Blessing Mary Ramodisa, her inspiration came from her personal experiences of finding beautiful lingerie for curvaceous women hard to find. So, she created Hugs&Intimates, a specialist company sourcing beautiful lingerie to suit women with natural curves.
Read more“My personal mantra for success is try, try and try again. Once you’ve picked something that you’ve isolated as your passion, it must be all-encompassing. You have to stick to it. You will be met with challenges, good and bad, but the thing is to stay the course.”
- Jenna Clifford is a world-renowned jewellery designer, known for her unique designs and superlative craftsmanship. Established in 1992, her company has steadily grown its clientele and improved its profile to institute itself as a powerful force in the jewellery industry. Her bold and dramatic designs are sought after by some of the most recognised business icons and celebrities from around the world. Today, Jenna Clifford Designs employs around 70 people, including some of the finest jewellery artisans and craftsmen in South Africa.
Read moreMake it happen....
"Ask your heart. Ask yourself every single day, what is it that is most precious to you-what are you alive for? Interrogate yourself. Find all your faults and see them as unpolished diamonds. Love yourself enough to see and speak the truth. Then do everything that is possible and impossible to make it happen. Live each day as you die at any moment. Start today, in this moment-it is all you have."
- Juanita Naidoo Rea is the founder of eduSOIL in South Africa, a social enterprise that nurtures the mental and emotional health of children and adults through holistic stress reduction with mindfulness, yoga and change-making programmes, predominantly in South Africa and India. Juanita is a former school teacher, who loves trees, running, dancing, art, Doctor Who and meditation. She is passionate about children being empowered to be lead community change and global education reform.
Read moreEthel Cofie, CEO of EDEL Technology Consulting is Africa’s Most Influential Woman in Business and Government for the ICT Category, according to CEO Global. The award was conferred on her in South Africa on Tuesday November 23, 2016. The awards are the leading African recognition programme honoring excellence in the private and public sector. The programme covers 23 economic sectors and has for the past sixteen years independently recognized leaders who are at the pinnacle of their industry.
Read moreMany people see the inequalities in society, but very few make a conscious decision to do something to positively change the situation. Mozambican social entrepreneur, Sofia Cassimo founded her enterprise, SamSara Development and Investment, to do something positive to change that situation.
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