the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Tatenda Rungisa, co-founder, Twin Connect Solutions (Zimbabwe)
Startup Story
Twin Connect Solutions, founded by entrepreneur Tatenda Rungisa and her sister Tafadzwa, is a catering and event management business in Zimbabwe, specializing in creating special celebration cakes and event memories for clients. They are also involved in charity work, motivational speaking, blogging and mentorship programs.
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Anja van Beek, founder, Anja van Beek Consulting & Coaching
Startup Story
Having an agile mindset in business and life is one of the keys to success, something that specialist business coach, Anja van Beek, founder of the Consulting & Coaching business that carries her name, knows all about. She has built a business that helps both individuals and companies to achieve their ambitions and fulfill their potential, helping them to lead fulfilled lives and make an impact.
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Tigist Kebede
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
habeshaview Technology and Multimedia, a fast-growing entertainment and multimedia business in Ethiopia
Tigist Kebede, co-founder of habeshaview Technology and Multimedia, is an experienced entrepreneur specializing in the media, entertainment and telecommunications sectors. Throughout her career she has been driven by a passion for the Arts and Culture and combining this with emerging technologies and the best possible user experience for customers. Tigist is responsible for leading habeshaview, one of the fastest growing entertainment services in Ethiopia and with the Ethiopian diaspora community worldwide focusing on promoting and developing the culture and skills of Ethiopian content creators and bringing them to the global community.
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Elaine Pofeldt
Book Review
In her book, Tiny Business, Big Money: Strategies for Creating a High-Revenue Microbusiness, small business specialist and author, Elaine Pofeldt, has written the entrepreneur’s complete guide to making it big while keeping things small. She offers her blueprint for getting a running start with your microbusiness―that is, a business with no more than 20 employees, including yourself.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept.
Last week we looked at some of the questions that will be thrown at us when in front of Private Equity Investors, indeed any investor will have those same concerns so be prepared! Look at your business as if an Investor, and start to think like one.
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by Catia Mondlane
A new year indicates the beginning of a new cycle and certainly the renewal of hopes and positive expectations. On the one hand, it’s an opportunity to take advantage of the natural inclination most of us feel, to start the new year with new goals and aspirations both professionally and personally. On the other hand, one can consider how the business is doing so that one can implement some changes in terms of purpose and steps to take.
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by Claudia Folgore-McLellan
It quite aptly feels like January and February are one long, drawn out month and I’m sure most of us are suffering latent fatigue from having had to push that much harder in the past year. As solopreneurs and freelancers, the demands on us are just that much greater, it’s literally a permanent no work, no pay situation. The ‘holidays’ also often feel like an extension of the year that casually morphs into a new one with the only change being the date. With Covid fatigue we’ve all felt the exhaustion from being hyper virus vigilant. The easy option is to simply give up (even just a bit to have a rest) – the better option, though, is to KEEP PUSHING!
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by Marjon Meyer
The psychology of spending money…Do you sometimes fill a virtual or a real trolley of goods to deal with a hole in your soul? Making purchasing decisions can help reinforce a sense of personal control over our environment. It can also ease feelings of sadness. A study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that retail therapy not only makes people happier immediately, but it can also fight lingering sadness. The problem is, we spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need …(often to impress people we don’t like).
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by Nontobeko Mbuyane
I have been told on several occasions, “you always land gracefully on your feet,” even from people that are close to me. If gracefully landing is defined by falling forward, becoming flexible in the face of turmoil in my life, being pushed backward and then standing in the uncomfortable truth of the reality of it all before landing one toe at a time, then that’s fine, you can in fact say, I land “gracefully”. Have I cared what people thought at times? Well, absolutely not at all - I am continuously working on how not to give energy to thoughts that do not add value to my life. If it’s thoughts that are not positive or meant to push me further in life, sadly I do not give even the slightest energy to those? My constant interactions with the great women and men of this world through their books are my drive. You are a product of your thoughts and what literature you read. So, if you are continuously going to be infiltrating your mind with negative thoughts, I honestly implore you to start positively affirming your life today. Begin each day with great prospects of how it will turn out, align yourself with positivity, surely the universe shall hear and your life shall be minus the constant negatives you always think of, or rather express.
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Violet A. Amoabeng
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Skin Gourmet, a raw handmade skincare brand inspired by the West African bush
Violet A. Amoabeng is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skin Gourmet Limited, a Ghanaian innovation that creates Raw handmade skincare sourced from the Wilds of Ghana and so pure you can eat it. Violet created Skin Gourmet on 9th October 2014 when she realized there was need for unadulterated high quality body and skincare that was safe for human consumption. In other words, the rawest, purest and wildest skin care sourced from the heart of the West African bush – Raw edible skincare!
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Yolanda Matine and Sheila Loonat
Lioness Launch
For all those people who love nothing more than getting outdoors into the fresh air with family, friends, and colleagues, then a picnic is the way to go, and in Mozambique, entrepreneurs Yolanda Matine and Sheila Loonat, cofounders of Azura, have just what you need. Their business specializes in selling and renting picnic hampers with the objective of offering unforgettable experiences for all occasions.
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Jane Finette
Book Review
In her inspirational book, Unlocked: How Empowered Women Empower Women, author Jane Finette reflects on how, according to the World Economic Forum, women lost thirty-six years of progress in 2020 alone, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's an entire generation lost. But by empowering one another, women can help each other to realize their potential and make the biggest impact on society as a whole.
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Sofia Maquile, founder & CEO, Smaqs (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Sofia Maquile is the founder and CEO of Smaqs in Mozambique. She is a young entrepreneur and Digital Influencer. Sofia's business is focused on making high quality digital pictures and videos for the international and pan-African market. She founded the business in 2017 and now employs and trains over 10 interns, 70% of them being from local communities. She has over 10 years of social media experience as a manager and influencer. Sofia strives for growth and motivates the young people to follow her path.
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Startup Story
Princess Adeyinka Tekenah is a Mom and Coffee Entrepreneur, and the founder of an indigenous Nigerian coffee brand and company, Happy Coffee. She is a pacesetter in the Nigerian Coffee Industry. She remains an integral member of the nation building process and enjoys travelling. She also believes that Human Relationships are crucial to the overall optimization of our human experience and existence.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
We were fortunate enough recently to be invited to listen to various Lionesses as they pitched their fabulous businesses to different Private Equity firms we had introduced. We say ‘fortunate’ because firstly the pitches we heard were absolutely perfect, with the right blend of ‘story’ with detail, and secondly the various PE Firms came back with questions that not only showed their interest, but also their concerns which the Lionesses each answered clearly and with conviction.
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by Mandisa Makubalo
“The greater the adoption the wider the experience divide.”
Today’s temperature is a scorching hot 35 degrees, the kind of weather that is unbearable for most households, especially those in the townships due to the quality of the housing structures. Most people are sitting outside their houses, children are playing in the streets, throwing water at each other, and some residents have made their way to the beautiful beaches of Cape Town in an attempt to escape this rather unbearable heat.
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by Eldari Visser
This time of the year is when writers like to look back and reminisce on the year just gone and to get new ideas. Let’s get it clear - this past year was like flat green cold tea! Yuck. We can all do with something new.
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by Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho
One of my mantras is “go where your customers are”…. and inboxes are one of those places you will find them! Studies have shown that people working in corporate environments easily spend between 4–6 hours every day doing their emails. Whether you are focused on a B2C segment within a specific income bracket or offer B2B services, do you really think that you are doing your bottom-line any favours by not prioritising Email Marketing if your target audience is spending this much time on their emails?
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by Laura Camacho
You are surely familiar with email drama. Perhaps you got involved in one yourself, where the misinterpretation of a message, or one that got sent to the wrong person, spun off into a totally unproductive soap opera segment.
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Impact Partner Content / Absa
We recognize Africa’s vulnerability to climate change, and together with like-minded individuals and organisations, we will contribute to creating sustainable, value-creating solutions to some of Africa’s greatest environmental challenges.
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