the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Ana Belmonte
Startup Story
Creating a unique service offering is always a great starting point for a successful business, and Ana Belmonte is certainly doing that with Malachi Garden Service Lda. She brings her considerable expertise and passion for gardening to every job she undertakes for her clients, and her reputation for great service is growing as a result.
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Dr Mejury Chipato
Startup Story
Dr Mejury Chipato is a Medical Doctor, a Microbiologist, a Philanthropist, and a growing force in the world of entrepreneurship through her multi-faceted business, ProMJ Incorporated Company. She is also a Pastor, a Life & Business Coach, a Mentor, a Leader, a Published Author of the Book “I’m in charge of my Narrative“, and a multi-Award Winner both in Business and as an Author. Recent recognition includes the Zimbabwean Achievers Award Winner for Fashion Designer of the Year 2021 (China Edition). She was also honoured as one of The Most Inspiring Women Awardees of 2022, won The Young Achievers Award presented by the Pride of Africa Awards and received The Leadership & Inspiration Award from Gumiguru Achievers Awards 2022. She is also the Founder of Patience of Hope Foundation which is a non-profit organization whose aim is to pay school fees for orphans and underprivileged children in Zimbabwe and across Africa.
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by Dr Langelihle Simela, Business Development Manager, Absa
Since the onset of COVID-19, many engagements went to electronic platforms such as Zoom and MS Teams. One benefit from this experience is that we learnt that we do not have to drive, fly or Uber to each and every meeting; there are some instances where it is sufficient to engage over virtual platforms and save on travel time and costs. By the same token, the downside is that digital meetings constrain the establishment of meaningful connections. The human part of the relationship is not as easy to establish across the screen. So, following the successful Business Agility Webinars and taking advantage of the decline in COVID-19 infections and the easing of social distancing measures, Absa and the Lionesses of Africa (LoA) are moving to face-to-face engagements, where authentic professional relationships can be established. After all, Absa is a relationship-driven bank.
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Book Review
Building your own business and brand in a competitive market can be intimidating and scary, but entrepreneur and author, Jeanette Sklivanou, has written Nailed It! to give you some solutions. This inspiring book is packed with practical, step-by-step strategies for breaking the cycle of fear and creating a dynamic brand that can compete with the best.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Tsitsi Mutendi
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.
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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.
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Mendy Lerato Lusaba
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.
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Joy Ezeka and Rosie Bradshaw
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.
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Maureen Ntsane
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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