“Your life has a purpose. Your story is important. Your dreams count.”
Agnes Chikukwa Hove, founder, Sequor Consulting (South Africa)
Read moreQuote of the Day by Agnes Chikukwa Hove
Agnes Chikukwa Hove, founder, Sequor Consulting (South Africa)
Entrepreneur Advice from Celine Uwineza / Surround yourself with the right people
Denise Umunyana and Celine Uwineza, founders of RightSeat (Rwanda)
Siwela Sweetness Masoga, a South African wine producer creating quality accessible wines
Siwela Sweetness Masoga
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Siwela Wines, a new generation, trail-blazing female black-owned wine business.
Siwela Sweetness Masoga is a biotechnologist, wine maker, and founder of Siwela Wines, a South African wine company focusing on the production of quality accessible wines. Siwela also runs a wine academy focusing on education and training within the wine and hospitality industry. Siwela Wines is currently amongst the few youth female black-owned wine businesses in South Africa and was launched in 2018.
Read moreNidia D’Almeida, a Mozambican entrepreneur helping businesses protect their intellectual property
Nidia D’Almeida, founder of API - Agência de Propriedade Intelectual (Mozambique)
Startup Story
So many businesses wonder if you can protect your Intellectual Property Rights in Mozambique, and the answer is yes, you can. Entrepreneur Nidia D’Almeida, founder of API - Agência de Propriedade Intelectual, is there to show you how.
Read moreJosefa Amélia Massinga, a Mozambican entrepreneur taking floral decor to a new level
Josefa Amélia Massinga, founder of Florista Flor Khyathu e Servicos (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Every great event needs great floral decorations to create memorable occasions, and it is the same with creating the right impression in a home or office. In Maputo, Mozambique, entrepreneur Josefa Amélia Massinga, founder and CEO of Florista Flor Khyathu e Servicos, has just the floral decorations and expertise to turn any event or space into something truly special.
Read moreCharlene Shapiro, a South African entrepreneur supplying the hospitality industry with quality food products
Charlene Shapiro, founder of CNC Products (South Africa)
Impact Partner Content - Absa
Charlene Shapiro is the founder and Managing Member of CNC Products in South Africa. She is an all-rounder entrepreneur and has 29 years’ business experience working in the hospitality industry. Charlene's business is focused on providing high quality service and affordable food products to the hospitality industry, corporates and home users at large. Her experience in sales and marketing come from her years spent in the newspaper industry. She is proudly continuing a family legacy of service and is proud to have her daughter, Kerry, continuing with the same passion at CNC Products.
Read moreMove the Needle: Yarns from an Unlikely Entrepreneur by Shelley Brander
Shelley Brander
Book Review
People always ask Shelley Brander, author of the new book Move the Needle: Yarns from an Unlikely Entrepreneur, what possessed her to leave the successful advertising firm she founded with her husband to open a local yarn store. And then they wonder how that one storefront grew into an e-commerce business, and from there into a global movement to Knit the World Together. In Move the Needle, Shelley shares stories from her life to show that you can pursue your life's passions, both personal and professional, no matter how quirky or impossible they may seem to everyone around you.
Read more“Mola Mia…”
By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
January, just the mention of that month brings high hopes and expectations of greater things. Given the low base that was 2020 (although as we pointed out in our last Blog, 2020 was a year of such incredible opposites, not only of terrifying lows but also for many Lionesses, incredible highs), 2021 for the entire world from a health perspective has to be better!
Read moreConsulting is a hungry beast
by Thembe Khumalo
Many people dream of a career in consulting; working the hours they want, with only the people they like, and being in charge of how much money they earn, as opposed to being at the mercy of some rigid salary scale. It almost sounds too good to be true, and in many ways it really is very, very good.
Read moreThe Best Feeling In The World
by Eldari Visser, founder of Picketfence Life
This bee is loaded with the future of his nest. The stuff that yummy honey is made of for the existence of that nest. Bees need this as a crucial part of their future. After and during the time of COVID-19, many people still do not have the slightest idea of where to even start to look for their own juicy extras to make sure their families are ok or will be ok! They have lived by doing the same thing week to week or even day to day. Unfortunately, this has happened to even the most seasoned, experienced bee entrepreneurs. In the blink of an eye, their nests were empty and the panic set in.
Read more5 Steps To Silence Your Inner Critic
by Usha Maharaj
Do you often hear a negative inner voice that makes you doubt your decisions and your self-worth? You are not alone! This inner voice, your inner critic, may act as an invisible barrier to trying new things, reaching your full potential, or enjoying your life.
Read moreManaging performance in the New Distance Economy
by Marjon Meyer
The future is not what we used to think it would be…our world is literally infected with new ways of thinking and working. With so many staff members working remotely, the way organisations manage performance has to be adjusted. There should also be a bigger focus on re-skilling and constructive feedback to build confidence amongst staff. Problems and challenges need to be solved differently and creatively.
Read morePower Your Profits by Susie Carder
Susie Carder
Book Review
Power Your Profits by Susie Carder is a comprehensive, bulletproof start-to-finish plan for taking your business from startup mode to the multi-million-dollar mark, straight from the inventor of the Predictable Success Method™.
Read moreEsta van Heerden, a South African biotech leader in environmental clean-up
Esta van Heerden, founder of iWater Pty Ltd (South Africa)
Startup Story
Many women entrepreneurs in Africa are driven to start their businesses because of an identified need. For Esta van Heerden, founder of iWater Pty Ltd in South Africa, she is passionate about the environment and wants to ensure that all citizens have access to clean water in the future. She also believes that companies that have contaminated the environment MUST clean it up! Her business is now offering companies a solution to this clean-up need, harnessing the best of technology solutions to aid the process.
Read moreAgnes Chikukwa Hove, an entrepreneur educating South Africans in financial wellness
Agnes Chikukwa Hove, founder of Sequor Consulting (South Africa)
Startup Story
Helping people to make the right financial life and business decisions is what drives entrepreneur Agnes Chikukwa Hove, founder of Sequor Consulting, in South Africa. Today, her company provides specialist financial training and money management coaching that also builds the confidence needed to make smart financial choices.
Read moreLucia Molefe, a South African entrepreneur baking her way to success
Lucia Molefe, founder of Mokgalaka Creations (South Africa)
Impact Partner Content - Absa
Lucia Molefe is the founder of Mokgalaka Creations. She was always good with her hands and had a passion for making cakes and cooking, as she would make the occasional cake and platter for friends and family. In 2006, Lucia embraced this skillset and registered Mokgalaka Creations as a business. Immediately, she began taking cake designing and decoration classes after working hours to sharpen her God-given talent. During this time, she began growing her home-based business part-time. In 2008, Mokgalaka Creations had begun taking off. It was in this year that she resigned after 15 years of service with the Department of Social Development to focus full-time on her passion and her business.
Read moreSimple steps to golden results
by Catia Mondlane
One thing I have learned from the experiences I have had so far is that clients don’t really care about your problems and whatever you are going through that might create delays or bad services, because they just want the product or service. Trust me, I’m a customer too and when I’m not I have to see things from the clients’ perspective to understand them, and this is why it is so important to know your customers.
Read moreJoycee Awosika, an award-winning wellness and luxury spa brand-builder
Joycee Awosika
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
ORÍKÌ Group, Nigeria’s unique luxury spa chain and farm-to-skin product range.
Joycee Awosika is an award-winning entrepreneur, energy economist and speaker. She has a history of running companies, mainly ORÍKÌ, the first and only all natural farm to skin brand to operate a fast-growing premium product and wellness spa brand in conjunction. Launched in 2015 and today employing 37 people, ORÍKÌ has developed 6 spas in four years and distributes products globally. Joycee’s work has been featured in several global publications including: CNBC, The Huffington Post, Ebony Magazine, The Guardian. She has built a reputation for her expertise in creating structure for businesses and homes and provides, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and templates through her platform, SOAR. SOAR is growing into a leading structure and strategy and development consultancy that works closely with small and medium enterprises and individuals to help them scale by leveraging systems and structure. She is avidly passionate about impacting SMEs to be sustainable and scalable realizing that they form the backbone of the economy.
Read moreLight during the dark…
By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The year 2020 was the 250th anniversary of the world’s greatest composer, Beethoven. Many consider Mozart to be the greatest, but his abilities came too easily, he never had to struggle, his music flowed as if from the heavens. Beethoven was mortal, he was human, he struggled. Mozart found composing easy, as if he had a ‘hot line’ to the angels, and indeed if you see his original manuscripts, there are no corrections, he wrote everything down once (when was the last time you wrote an email with no corrections?) - this was an orchestral work with 20 different parts! Beethoven, however, struggled and with errors, scribbles, corrections, angry lines crossing out, starting afresh many times, he forced incredible music out, finally accepting (begrudgingly) that he had gained immortality on paper.
Read moreWhat really matters?
by Jess Mostert
Life has a funny way of keeping us extremely busy and, in doing so, distracting us from what really matters. How many times do you find yourself wishing the week away, just to get to that weekend? Or wishing the weeks away to get to that long-awaited trip? Or even wishing the months away to our favourite time of the year- Christmas! All while missing the moments in between - missing the moments that really matter and count.
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