Just when you thought prices would return to normal…

March 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

By Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

Lionesses of Africa prides itself on being apolitical as our central role is to guide, train and create a safe community for our incredible and inspirational membership where they can work with, and learn from, each other, but sometimes world events overtake and impact us in a way previously never imagined. The terror of war, any war, be it (as recently seen) in Syria, Ethiopia or now Ukraine is simply unimaginable for those of us sitting safe in other countries watching on CNN.

Ask for feedback!

March 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Laura Camacho

If there’s one thing you can do to make things better for your employees and your company, it’s asking for feedback. But asking a general, “Do you have any feedback for me?” can be overwhelming for an employee because the question is too broad. One principle of excellent communication is the proactive practice of making it easy as possible for others to do what you want them to do.

The One Habit That Can Free You From Overwhelm and Anxiety

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Life has not been the same since March 2020. We are in ‘the new normal,’ which seems to change its rules every few weeks depending on the latest statistics or new variant of Covid emerging into our lives. As you feel like you are getting the hang of remote work, your lounge suddenly becomes a school. Although you know what to expect, you are still walking on eggshells, wondering when things will change again. Impermanence and change are part of life; it’s what keeps it exciting. However, you like the surprises that you know about. How can you create certainty for yourself and minimize those anxious, ruminating thoughts about how you are meant to get it all done in a constantly fluctuating world?

Taking the steps to a more focused you!

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Carla Wasserfall

You are the CEO of YOU before any role in family, business or sport. As the CEO of you, you give yourself daily instructions to go in a direction, what you will focus on, and what you give your energy to.

Hustle Culture…is hard!

March 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Zodidi Gaseb

How many cups of coffee does it take you to run your business daily? On average, an entrepreneur who drinks coffee doesn’t even have time to count the cups of coffee they’ve drunk per day. Why am I bringing up a delicious, caffeine filled drink and what does that have to do with entrepreneurship? Exhaustion has become an integral part of running a business and we have come to accept that in order to make it in life and be successful, you have to hustle…hard!

100 Lionesses Digital Transformation Playbook for Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs offers first-person hacks, tactics and strategies for building businesses back from Covid-19 pandemic

March 25, 2022 Melanie Hawken

PRESS RELEASE

Report produced by Lionesses of Africa and financed by African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative

The COVID-19 pandemic has made businesses, large and small and across all industry sectors, start thinking about Digital Transformation as a priority, pushing it to the top of their agendas. However, for many women entrepreneurs on the African continent, the challenge is knowing where to start. So as a practical response to the challenge, the 100 Lionesses Digital Transformation Playbook has been launched, the first in a series of practical digital tools for Africa’s women entrepreneurs produced by Lionesses of Africa, with the support of The African Development Bank through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA). The 100 Lionesses Digital Transformation Playbook provides peer to peer insights for women enterprises to kickstart their digital transformation journeys. It features 24 leading African women entrepreneurs who share their personal digital transformation playbooks and experience for improving efficiency, building resilience and speeding up recovery.

As mulheres empreendedoras de Moçambique aprendem a colocar as suas empresas na zona de crescimento

March 24, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Relatório de eventos

O primeiro evento da popular série Lioness Lean In Webinars de 2022 teve lugar a 23 de março de 2022, em Moçambique, atraindo uma audiência de cerca de 145 mulheres empreendedoras em todas as fases das suas jornadas de construção de negócios. O evento foi realizado pela Lionesses of Africa em parceria com o Standard Bank Mozambique e a Embaixada do Reino dos Países Baixos. O objetivo era que as empresárias do país estabelecessem uma ligação virtual entre si, inspirando-se mutuamente com as histórias das suas jornadas empresarias para alcançar o sucesso empresarial.

Lutea Magaia, a Mozambican entrepreneur contributing to environmental education and the green ecosystem

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Startup Story

Lutea Magaia Alberto, an Environmental and Agribusiness professional, is the founder and manager of Mentes Sustentáveis (Sustainable Minds) in Mozambique. She has a degree in Agronomic Engineering, from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique and more than 7 years of experience as an Environmentalist dedicating herself to areas such as Environmental Education, Waste Management and Ecosystem Recovery. She founded Mentes Sustentáveis in 2019 and has over the years been a pioneer in raising awareness of Mozambique’s environmental problems and bringing practical, ecological and sustainable solutions. Since then she has been dedicated to the development of eco-business models, development of eco-friendly products and carrying out environmental education activities, contributing to the green ecosystem in Mozambique.

Unstoppable Women: Female Entrepreneurs' Stories to Inspire and Motivate by Griselda Togobo

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

In her book, Unstoppable Women, Griselda Togobo has set out to inspire and motivate female entrepreneurs of the future by sharing the stories of the many successful female businesswomen of today to show how you, too, can gain the strength, wisdom, determination and resilience you need to succeed in what is still largely a man's world.

Rachel Kobo, a South African natural hair care brand builder

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Startup Story

Rachel Kobo, founder of The Fro Avenue in South Africa, is a devoted natural hair care lover. With a background in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, her brand, The Fro Avenue, was born from her love for and interest in natural hair care. This led her to start up her business in 2020 which is aimed at natural hair care education and product manufacturing. She truly enjoys learning and sharing her knowledge base about natural hair with fellow naturalists and anyone starting out on their natural hair journey. Her aim is to promote a community that embraces their natural hair while learning to understand and love it for the beauty it is.

Lioness Launch / South Africa’s Job Crystal launches new AI recruitment tool to support SMEs and job seekers

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Launch

Kelly and Sasha, the owners of Job Crystal in South Africa, found that in their experience with starting businesses, the process of finding staff took far too long, and that this was often the breaking point for many businesses. After further research they found that for smaller companies, agencies were often too expensive and didn’t provide realistic payment plans. In short, there was no specific agency support tailored for SMEs. This led into the core drive of Job Crystal, their new AI recruitment tool to support SMEs and job seekers. They have a passion for helping people find jobs, combined with a focus on the SME market, with an agency who understands cash flow and an AI tool that understands time.

Relatable AND Reliable? Sounds like a Lioness!

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

By Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

So much of our membership is B2C that we tend to concentrate all of our attention on that, and assume that new ways of doing things, all really great ‘touch points’ and omni-channels for customers are driven by the B2C customer wants. Yet this is not so it would appear…B2B uses many of the same touch points as B2C but with differing needs these touch points, or as some call them ‘Omni-channels’, are often used with different emphasis. For our many members in B2B, this weekend we turn to you!

Growth and sustainability for women entrepreneurs

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Impact Partner Content / by Dr Langelihle Simela, Agribusiness Development Manager, Absa

Women entrepreneurs are business people like their male counterparts. As such, any factors that affect business growth and sustainability, affect their businesses too. These factors include understanding the opportunities and challenges in the sector in which they operate, how the prevailing socio-economic environment impacts on these, and the ability to ride the opportunities and tackle the challenges. For example, in South Africa, one of the biggest challenges is the inconsistent supply and escalating cost of electricity. Absa provides insights and content that focuses on the technologies, available resources, financial considerations for investment in these technologies, suitable implementation, as well as regulatory issues that must be kept in mind. This information is available to all businesses and the opportunity to gainfully use the information is equally open to all businesses. So why would there be special focus on women entrepreneurs in terms of achieving growth and sustainability?

The Importance of Developing a Timeline For Your Business

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lizl Naude

Do you keep a timeline of the history of your business? Have you ever thought of doing it? What is a timeline you ask? According to the Oxford dictionary, a timeline is…

Radical Selfcare as the Gateway to Overall Wellbeing

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Emily Kandanga

I love that we now live in a world where prioritising your physical, mental & emotional well-being is being celebrated and encouraged because for far too long people who so boldly chose their happiness over others, were labelled as selfish.

Focus on Strengths, Partner for Weaknesses

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I was recently reminded of an exercise I did in around 2009 when I was struggling to adjust to having a child and a career. It’s called Gallup’s Strengths Finder. I bought the book, did the online test and digested the findings eagerly. According to the test, your main strengths don’t really change over time. So revisiting them now was quite meaningful. These were my top five:

Staying In Line

March 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Brigette Mashile

Apparently the first step to a solution is to realize you have a problem; then recognize the problem and finally make a plan to change it. Some of these issues take us a long time to realize, or to accept. I realize my issues fast, but I need to see the pattern it is creating before I do anything about it. It is that stubborn scientist part of me that needs proof first! Definitely a time waster, but this is how I have been. And that too needs to change.