The Struggle is where greatness comes from

September 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

We have been reading far too much bad news from the global economy recently. So in an attempt to lighten our load, we reached deep into our collection of reading material thinking there must be something brighter. Sadly it seemed as if fate was working against us as nothing light and entertaining appeared, rather an article by the legendary investor and co-founder of the massive tech investing firm ‘a16z’ Ben Horowitz appeared. This was guaranteed to be serious stuff from a business guru who never lets a fear of telling it straight get in the way of any positive mood he might have at the time - so much for our wish for a bit of light reading! He is the author of one of our favourite business books - ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ (here) which is described as follows: “There are lots of people talking about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one.” Note the ‘brutally honest’ - you have been warned!

3 Ways To Enhance Your Customer Experience Using Augmented Reality

September 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by FutureSoft Team

We can all agree that tech has become an integral part of our lives, especially with the COVID-19 reality. Many brands have been forced to rethink their strategy and infuse tech in almost every step of the way. When we hear about new tech developments, it’s easy to get excited about what’s coming next; often, though, these inventions have little impact on our lives. Most turn out to be fun party tricks, while only a few are real game-changers.

4 Ways to Say No Without Saying No

September 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Saying no is challenging; most of us dread it because it questions our identity as being a good person. We fear saying no because we are afraid people won't like us or will let them down and disappoint them. We attach so much guilt and dread to this little word that we end up giving away our yes too quickly.

The key to success

September 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Elizandra dos Santos

I don't know what your dream is. But even though I don't know you, I know that there are some things we have in common that end up being non-absolute truths. I would venture to say collectively: we all want to be happy, and we seek to have results in some area of our life. For some, it’s in the areas of love, health, professional, spiritual, financial, physical appearance, intellectual, and so follows an infinite list of things in common.

Breathe

September 4, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie

Deep, slow, rhythmic breathing is a powerful tool when it comes to stress, anxiety and overwhelm. And I get it. Your life is complex, and you have demands being batted at you from all corners of the universe, figuratively, and now thanks to the internet, literally as well. [Thank you Internet]

Transforme as suas ideias em oportunidades!

September 1, 2022 Melanie Hawken

por Josefa Massinga

Estamos a viver tempos dificies e novos, onde da noite para o dia as nossas vidas e actividades mudaram. É tempo de cada um de nos pensar em desenvolver alguma actividade e comquistar boas oportunidades de negócio. Encontre a seguir algumas dicas de como desenvolver um MINDSET EMPREENDEDORA e conquistar boas oportunidades com o seu negócio?

Auto-confiança

September 1, 2022 Melanie Hawken

por Altina de Jesus Lisboa

É bem sabido que nem sempre temos dias bons, há aqueles dias ruins. Dias que parecem que nada vai dar certo, uma pilha de trabalhos por fazer, aquela ligação por atender e um monte de problemas por resolver. Sim há aqueles dias, dias em que nos sentimos um completo fracasso, dias que surgem com pensamento de querer retroceder, dias que parecem que os negócios não vão a frente. Para esses dias: Relaxe e acredite.

Desafio...

September 1, 2022 Melanie Hawken

por Mircea Neto

É uma palavra que todo mundo conhece que tem cerca de 39 sinónimos e que carrega um significado imenso, porque sem apercebermo-nos todo novo dia há um desafio a ser enfrentado.

Tsitsi Mutendi, a Zimbabwean entrepreneur passionate about business legacy

August 28, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

DanTs Investments, a multi-faceted business group focused on family business and legacy planning in Africa

Tsitsi Mutendi is a family business and family office advisor, and the Founder and Lead Consultant at Nhaka Legacy Planning in Zimbabwe. She is also Co-Founder at African Family Firms (A non-profit Africa Family Business Association). Tsitsi is a well-versed, award winning business woman with over 12 years’ experience building her own successful software development, publishing and education businesses. During this time, Tsitsi developed a passion to assist family businesses in building multi-generational businesses which translate into multigenerational legacies. Tsitsi is recognised globally for her business acumen and world class delivery.

Jazeera Suwani, a serial entrepreneur creating vacation bush experiences in Kenya

August 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Jazeera Suwani, co-founder, Drunken Elephant Mara (Kenya)

Startup Story

Jazeera Suwani, a serial entrepreneur and previously the founder of Say it with Chocolate, is now the co-founder of Drunken Elephant Mara in Kenya. She has been featured in Africa's Top 40 under 40 in 2018. The concept behind Drunken Elephant Mara, is to provide a complete vacation for the individual looking to disconnect from the world of technology and immerse themselves in Nature. The business was launched in 2021 and today employs 7 people.

Mendy Lerato Lusaba, a Zimbabwean entrepreneur creating opportunities for domestic workers

August 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Startup Story

Mendy Lerato Lusaba is a social entrepreneur and a decent work advocate with special interest in the domestic work sector. She is the founder of Chris and Geo Placements a domestic placement agency based in Zimbabwe. Chris and Geo recruits and places marginalised and economically disadvantaged persons as domestic workers. To date, she has placed over 2000 workers whilst impacting over 4000 families. Mendy also runs a team of 19 contract domestic workers. She is also the founder of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe a network of Zimbabwean domestic workers working in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and United Arab Emirates. DWAZ runs the first domestic worker training centre in Zimbabwe offering trainings in housekeeping, cooking and baking, gardening and care work. They also have a domestic worker netball team for the mental health of domestic workers.

Lioness CoLab / New UNafraid limited edition rug collection launched to celebrate Women’s Month in South Africa

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness CoLab

New UNafraid limited edition rug collection launched to celebrate Women’s Month in South Africa

A collaboration between South Africa’s ZURI and IMANI, a passion-driven surface and textile design studio, and decorative flooring specialist, Airloom Decor, has resulted in the launch of a limited edition rug collection. The 'UNafraid' limited edition rug collection is a collaboration between ZURI and IMANI founder, Joy Ezeka and the founders of Airloom Decor, Rosie and David Bradshaw. This collaboration was launched on 1 August 2022, in honour of South Africa Women's Month, a celebration of resilience - as communities, as individuals, and particularly as women.

Relationship Bankers in Profile / Absa / Maureen Ntsane

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Impact Partner Content / Absa / Relationship Banker Profile - Maureen Ntsane

In this week’s edition of Lioness Weekender, we are publishing the fourth in a series of regular profiles featuring Absa Relationship Bankers whose role it is to support entrepreneurs. The fourth of our profiles introduces Maureen Ntsane, Regional Head: Sales & Service Enablement - Central Region.

The Founder's Survival Guide: Lead your business from start-up to scale-up to grown-up by Rachel E Turner

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

Rachel E Turner, serial entrepreneur and author of the new book, The Founder's Survival Guide: Lead your business from start-up to scale-up to grown-up, understands all too well that start-up leadership skills and experience will only get you so far. The founder path is isolating, stressful and overwhelming, and few founders survive the scale-up journey unscathed. If you don’t scale your leadership as you scale your company, you’re unlikely to survive.

The Problem with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

We were in London this week, the global centre for Insurance, in discussions with a seriously senior insurance guru in charge of major Financial and Professional Lines. What that means is that he insures major financial and corporate customers (the Fortune 500/FTSE100 types) for (amongst other things), securities lawsuits (those bought by shareholders) and external class action suits. Heavy duty stuff.

Don’t do more, do better

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Tapiwa Matsinde

Busyness and working hard are often aligned with an assumption of making progress. That, however, isn’t always the case. In fact, they could be doing just the opposite by lulling you into a false sense of productivity and distracting you from nurturing the specific tasks that are moving your business forward.

Manage expectations to manage stress

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

In my book Harnessing Stress, I wrote about how expectations can be a source of stress. What we expect of others can lead to disappointment, what others expect from us can lead to stress and what we expect of ourselves can lead to a great deal of unhappiness if we don’t manage it.

Your personal vision ignites greatness

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Carla Wasserfall

The power of a personal vision is it helps you direct your energy to what you want, it gives you focus, and clarity and it helps you make wiser decisions when you reach a conflict of priorities. You go in the direction of your vision instead of being misaligned to who you really want to be. What do you see and how far do you see? Both questions relate to your personal vision. Every great founder, leader and entrepreneur who has made a difference started with a personal vision.

The last-minute.com procrastination syndrome

August 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Marjon Meyer

Procrastination can become a lifestyle. A very unsatisfactory one, in fact. It makes us feel guilty and unaccomplished. Are you a last-minute.com expert? To be honest, I have been delaying – thus procrastinating – writing this article. My life has a renewed sense of busyness after living slow during the pandemic. There are several tasks on my to-do list that evade getting done … they even haunt me at times.

6 Passos para ser uma mulher empreendedora

August 24, 2022 Melanie Hawken

por Josefa Massinga

Eu sou uma mulher empreendedora há cinco anos.

Na minha opinião, acho muito importante que a mulher desenvolva alguma actividade. Não que seja fácil pois até que cada uma de nos tenha a certeza de que seja capaz e que vai conseguir.

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