A bridge across the continent for start-ups – Minister Zypries opens the Start-up Night! Africa

October 26, 2017 Melanie Hawken

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Berlin, 26 October 2017

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Brigitte Zypries is today opening the Start-up Night! Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The Start-up Night! Africa is the latest event to take place as part of the successful series of Start-up Nights!, a string of business-matching events hosted by the Federal Economic Affairs Ministry designed to bring young businesses and established companies together – this time with a focus on Africa.

Quote of the Day from Vere Shaba

October 26, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Vere Shaba, founder of the Shaba & Ramplin (South Africa) — **Vere Shaba**, founder of the Shaba & Ramplin (South Africa)

"If your 'why' for looking to start-up does not compel you, it will not compel anyone else."

- Vere Shaba is the founder and Director: Green Buildings & Certifications at Shaba & Ramplin Green Building Solutions in South Africa. She holds a BScEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town and is a Green Star SA Accredited Professional with the Green Building Council of South Africa, a Green Star Accredited Professional with the Green Building Council of Australia and a LEED Accredited Professional with the United States Green Building Council. In 2013, she was selected as one of SA's Top 100 Women in Business in the "Top Women in Business and Government 10th Edition" publication, featuring as one of the ten Top Women in Engineering. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Inspiring Fifty women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in South Africa by the Kingdom of Netherlands and as one of Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans for Environment.

Quote of the Day by Josephine Marie Godwyll

October 25, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Josephine Marie Godwyll, founder of Young At Heart in Ghana — **Josephine Marie Godwyll,** founder of Young At Heart in Ghana

"Success is not Gender Biased. It is not more prone to a particular gender at the expense of others. Being a woman does not limit you. That means you are capable, all you need is to figure out how."

- Josephine Marie Godwyll is the founder of Young At Heart in Ghana, a social entreprise bringing the world of learning to young Ghanaian children through digital platforms. Josephine has developed a Digital e-learning platform driving computer literacy for rural and deprived communities in Ghana; and the Ananse the Teacher App to help young children to learn through animation. Josephine Marie is a young enthusiastic engineer and a passionate Social Entrepreneur. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow and in 2016 won the Tigo Digital Changemakers Competition globally.

Entrepreneur Advice from Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu: Fair Trade practices enhance your brand appeal

October 24, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Fair Trade practices enhance your brand appeal....

“At soleRebels we believe that people around the world want much more from their brands. They want to see that the company that makes the products cares as much about the people who make their products as they do about reducing their footprint on the world. We believe that concern for our workers is real style and something that never goes out of fashion!”

- Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is founder and Managing Director of soleRebels, the world's fastest-growing African footwear brand and the only Fair Trade-certified footwear company in the world. Growing up in a poor suburb of Addis Ababa, Bethlehem decided that there was only one way to defeat poverty – use local craftsmanship to make products that can compete in the global marketplace. She decided on footwear and today 70,000 pairs of shoes leave her factory every year. soleRebels has been expanding rapidly and today exports to no fewer than 45 countries and is targeting 50 stand alone soleRebels retail stores across the United States by 2018 and 500 worldwide by 2022.

Quote of the Day from Johanna Mukoki

October 24, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Johanna Mukoki, co-founder of Travel with Flair — **Johanna Mukoki**, co-founder of Travel with Flair

"All the experiences I have had, have made me into the strong woman I have become. It was a journey I needed to take to be the leader that I am. All the good and bad experiences, I take them as they come."

- Johanna Mukoki is the co-founder of Travel with Flair, a company she started 18 years ago with her two partners. She started with only 3 employees and one office in Pretoria. Currently her company employs 800 staff country wide and they have offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. She is the first person from the African continent to sit on the Global Tourism Board (ACTE) - Association of Corporate Travel Executives where she represented the Middle East and Africa.

Entrepreneur Advice from Tabitha Karanja: Value your relationships with people

October 23, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Always value the people around you - it is they who help you succeed....

“I have my family to thank for motivating me to succeed, in addition to many Kenyans who have continued to stand by us. My employees have also believed in my dream and helped me accomplish it and without them I would not be where I am today”

- 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 production facility is targeting 20% of the Kenyan market.

Botswana’s leading women entrepreneurs gathered to inspire and connect at the first Lioness Lean In Breakfast event in the country

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

October has been an exciting month for Lionesses of Africa as it officially saw itslaunch in Gaborone, Botswana with the first Lioness Lean In Breakfast Event in the country held on the morning of 20 October 2017. Co-hosted by Stanbic Bank, this unique event aimed to showcase the game-changing women entrepreneurs who have built some of the country’s most successful businesses, and to inspire a new generation of young women entrepreneurs who aspire to follow in their footsteps.

The art of knowing when to let go in business

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Roka Roko was started from passion. I simply wanted to make dresses. What an easy idea, right? No! I love making clothes, specifically dresses; hence the name Roka Roko (sew a dress in English). I am not quite sure when this obsession started, but my sister tells stories of me making dresses out of boxes for our dolls. I then managed to hone this love as the years went by, getting better each year. Then one day I decided I am going to make this business idea a reality.

Vere Shaba, a South African entrepreneur harnessing the power of engineering to minimise the environmental effect of construction

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

As cities across the African continent grow, and the construction of new buildings on city skylines also grows in tandem, so too does the need to create greener buildings. And, that’s where multi-award winning engineering entrepreneur, Vere Shaba, founder of the Shaba & Ramplin Green Building Solutions, comes in. She is advising companies to think and plan differently using an Integrated Green Design approach to design energy-efficient, water-efficient and low waste building engineering systems.

Essential Read: Bricking It - From Stay at Home Mum to Millions in Property by Nicole Bremner

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Want to create a stunning property portfolio and still have time to go to the kids’ school plays? Want to get started now and learn while doing it? Bricking It, the brand new book by successful property entrepreneur Nicole Bremner, takes you into the world of property development from first purchase to scaling up the business and growing an internationally-known brand.

Own your people skills

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Our people skills come down to how well we interact with the people around us, and the strength of the relationships that we build. We already know that performance alone doesn’t count for everything. Of course, our ability to do our jobs well is critical to our career success, but often it’s our overall image that plays a bigger role in determining how successful we will be. And central to that image is how we handle our interpersonal relationships.

Lessons from Kilimanjaro

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Establishing a business is really not for the faint-hearted. It requires faith, stamina, and perseverance. In essence...it is more of a mental challenge to overcome than anything else.

Your money and your mind

October 22, 2017 Melanie Hawken

A healthy mind is as important as a healthy body. If not more so! October has been declared national mental health awareness month in South Africa, and it is virtually impossible to talk about mental health without talking about money. There is often a very close link between financial stress and poor mental health.

Entrepreneur Advice from Messaynesh Geberesilassie: Follow your dreams

October 20, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Messaynesh Geberesilassie, founder of Mela — **Messaynesh Geberesilassie**, founder of Mela

Follow your dreams...

"... follow your dreams. It can be hard and it takes time and energy. If you have faith and believe in yourself you will find a way. Talk to people, share your idea, you never know what happens next."

- Messaynesh Geberesilassie is the founder of Mela, a small scale, family-owned enterprise providing employment to a handful of artisans who produce beautiful traditionally hand woven 100% Ethiopian cotton scarfs and leather products. She is passionate about creating viable markets for artisan crafted goods in order to preserve the ancient traditions of craftsmanship.

Quote of the Day by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

October 20, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder and Managing Director of soleRebels (Ethiopia) — **Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu**, founder and Managing Director of soleRebels (Ethiopia)

“It took me a decade to employ 400 people but it shouldn’t have taken that long — and it wouldn’t have either if I’d had access to the right partners.”

- Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is founder and Managing Director of soleRebels, the world's fastest-growing African footwear brand and the only Fair Trade-certified footwear company in the world. Growing up in a poor suburb of Addis Ababa, Bethlehem decided that there was only one way to defeat poverty – use local craftsmanship to make products that can compete in the global marketplace. She decided on footwear and today 70,000 pairs of shoes leave her factory every year. soleRebels has been expanding rapidly and today exports to no fewer than 45 countries and is targeting 50 stand alone soleRebels retail stores across the United States by 2018 and 500 worldwide by 2022.

Quote of the Day by Divine Ndhlukula

October 19, 2017 Melanie Hawken

"My advice to women all the time is: If you want a certain future, go out and create it. Conquer your fears as that is what enslaves most women. Opportunities are now galore. We just need to roll up our sleeves, lift our feet, and walk through the door as no one will carry us."

- Divine Ndhlukula founded SECURICO Security Services from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe in 1998. Divine identified a need in the market for a quality oriented security company and she has driven SECURICO to become the market leader in Zimbabwe. She has tackled a previously male-dominated industry head on and her business success story is nothing short of remarkable - marking her as one of Africa's most tenacious and inspiring women entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur Advice from Lucy Worsley: Do it! No one else will do it for you

October 19, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Lucy Worsley, founder of Empire Experiential Marketing (South Africa) — **Lucy Worsley**, founder of Empire Experiential Marketing (South Africa)

Do it! No one else will do it for you....

"If you are really serious and passionate about something - do it! no one else will do it for you. Remember these wise words: “IN ORDER TO BE IRREPLACEABLE, ONE MUST ALWAYS BE DIFFERENT”. ― Coco Chanel"

- Lucy Worsley is the founder of Empire Experiential Marketing in South Africa, a female driven experiential agency that prides itself in creating unforgettable and flawless experiences that resonate with women of all ages and races. They achieve this through specially curated events that start the conversation between brands and the female market. Lucy is a 26 year-old creative, a lover of food, an under cover nerd , a fashion fundi, and an experiential extraordinaire.

Entrepreneur Advice from Tariro Makina: Savour the process

October 18, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Tariro Makina, founder of Twenty47 Virtual Assistant (Zimbabwe) — **Tariro Makina,** founder of Twenty47 Virtual Assistant (Zimbabwe)

Savour the process....

"Savour the process. There are going to be a lot of flavours you are going to taste from working on your startup. Bitter, sweet and everything else in between. It is this process where you draw your lessons and experiences. Regardless of how you finish, always live to fight another day. It could be in the same venture or a completely new one. Whatever it turns out to be, remember it is the process that takes you where you desire to be. Live it. Savour it. Enjoy it."

- Tariro Makina is the founder of Twenty47 Virtual Assistant in Zimbabwe, a company that specialises in providing flexible business support solutions to small and medium sized businesses across the world. Tariro's experience comes from years of working in event, internet service and finance industries and she held several roles including management in the Information Technology space.

Quote of the Day by Adèle Dejak

October 18, 2017 Melanie Hawken

"Passion is the driving engine for anything you want to achieve in life."

- Adèle Dejak is founder of the Adèle Dejak brand which creates handmade fashion accessories for the modern, sophisticated and multidimensional woman. Adèle cut her teeth in the world of typographic design in England and Italy before moving to Nairobi, Kenya in 2005 and turning her attention to accessories design. She found herself intrigued by the natural beauty of horn and begun to experiment with techniques of creating unique shapes and fashioned pieces. Her flair was noticed and spurred on by an admirer of one of her creations who encouraged Adèle to set up shop creating unique shapes to wear. Dejak’s Nigerian roots begun to merge perfectly with European influences and she set out on her never-ending quest for that essential artefact that allows you to express your own style.