Dounia Tamri-Loeper, a Moroccan entrepreneur creating beautiful contemporary lighting inspired by her country’s traditional design aesthetic

October 29, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Dounia Tamri-Loeper, founder of Dounia Home (Morocco) — **Dounia Tamri-Loeper**, founder of Dounia Home (Morocco)

It’s often said that lighting makes a space or a room come alive, and for design entrepreneur Dounia Tamri-Loeper, founder of Dounia Home, lighting is her inspiration. She is creating beautiful, statement lighting pieces that not only celebrate the centuries-old techniques and designs that are uniquely Moroccan, but is elevating them to a whole new level.

Essential Read: How a side hustle can change your life. What if it does work out? by Susie Moore

October 29, 2017 Melanie Hawken

One third of Americans turn their talents, hobbies and interests into a lucrative side hustle, a small business that generates income and maximizes a passion. In her new book, How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life. What If It Does Work Out? author Susie Moore shares her experiences, expert advice and guidance on how others can do the same.

How to protect yourself in business

October 29, 2017 Melanie Hawken

As a business owner, you need to ensure your business runs smoothly and you need to mitigate your personal and business risk. Here are 5 ways to protect yourself in business.

Outsourcing 103 – You can outsource your marketing – here’s how!

October 29, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Ever wondered what your day would look like if you could focus only on the things you love doing and what you’re really good at? If you have quite a structured day then most probably you fit in about 2 hours of marketing each day. This is to help build the business brand, increase your social media footprint and to navigate potential clients through the first part of your sales funnel.

Quote of the Day by Mo Abudu

October 27, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Mo Abudu, founder and Chief Executive Officer of EbonyLife TV — **Mo Abudu**, founder and Chief Executive Officer of EbonyLife TV

“For the longest time, we have left it to everyone else but ourselves to tell our own stories.”

- Mo Abudu is founder and Chief Executive Officer of EbonyLife TV, Africa's first and fastest growing black entertainment and lifestyle network. This Nigerian media entrepreneur and talk show host is the first African woman to launch a Pan-African TV channel. The channel currently on DSTV Channel 165, as well as in the UK on the TalkTalk platform, providing premium, original and home-grown programming to its ever increasing viewership. She has received many awards in recognition of her outstanding work in media and her services to humanity, and was most recently honoured with an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Babcock University.

Entrepreneur Advice from Memuna Williams: Trust your instincts

October 27, 2017 Melanie Hawken

Memuna Williams, founder of Avantgarde Translations — **Memuna Williams**, founder of Avantgarde Translations

Trust your instincts....

"I would advise a woman looking to start up a business to trust her instincts, while at the same time, pay attention to and listen to the large volume of consensus advice that is out there on starting and running a successful venture. Both trusting that she is right and paying attention to advice will help move the business forward faster by avoiding second guessing and by reducing the number of mistakes that would otherwise be made."

- Memuna Williams is the founder of Avantgarde Translations, providing professional translation, interpreting and related language services, in major world languages, to businesses and to government entities around the world from their offices in the United States, Canada and Africa. Memuna has more than 16 years of experience in the translation industry as a freelancer and in-house translator and manager of multilingual projects for top U.S. and Canadian companies. She has been certified by the American Translators Association and has an MBA.

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.