Adérójú Ope-Ajayi, a Nigerian entrepreneur with a passion for fostering positive change in the sports industry

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Startup Story

Adérójú Ope-Ajayi is the Founder and Lead Instructor at Dolphin Swim School and Dolphin Aquatic Center in Nigeria. She is also a Sports Development Advocate with a passion for fostering positive change in the sports industry in Africa. Her mission is to help develop the sports industry in Nigeria by partnering with the right stakeholders, helping to build sustainable sports businesses, and providing knowledge to new entrants in the industry. She founded her business in 2017 and has over 15 team members. She brings over 17 years’ experience in sales and business development expertise gained in the corporate world to the business.

Doreen Michelo, a Zambian agripreneur addressing food security through affordable locally grown farm produce

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Doreen Michelo, Founder and Managing Director, Mzala Enterprise Ltd (Zambia)

Startup Story

Doreen Michelo is the Founder and Managing Director of Mzala Enterprise Ltd in Zambia, a business founded in 2018. She is a serial entrepreneur and business leader focusing on enhancing local community capacity growth and sustainability by growing and producing high quality farm produce for the local market that is not only accessible but very affordable. Empowering the local community through Agriculture Skills training and knowledge dissemination through the skills hub/centre is another major focus of the business as it aims to leave a lasting positive impact on the community supporting its operations. The business has employed 9 permanent workers and 20 seasonal workers. Doreen has 9 years business work experience as a professional in various industries.

Sewela Setshogoe, a South African growth-focused engineering entrepreneur

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Lefata Engineering, a growing specialist engineering and maintenance services and construction business

Sewela Basetsana Setshogoe is a South African entrepreneur operating in the traditionally tough and highly specialized engineering industry sector. She is the owner of Lefata Engineering, an engineering services and construction business which operates mainly within the mining and manufacturing industries. The business has been in operation for six years having launched in 2016, and harnesses the management team’s personal extensive engineering experience. Lefata Engineering currently employs 11 people, and has grown to undertake turnkey and high quality projects for large corporates and businesses across different sectors with a focus on the mining industry.

The impact of bias in women’s lives

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“The pen has been in their hands…” - Jane Austen.

We have recently been drawn to the brilliant book by the award-winning author, Caroline Criado Perez, entitled INVISIBLE WOMEN: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’, ‘IW’ (here). We assumed it would contain many of the statistics we have seen in the world of finance (such as only 2% of VC funding going to US Start ups in 2021 and 82% to all-male founding teams here and not much better in Africa where there is a far greater ratio of women entrepreneurs to male). Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised to note that this book deals very much with the mundane, our day-to-day lives and how bias, indeed any bias (unconscious or otherwise), makes a huge difference in the long run (as any Casino knows too well). However, as we shall show through her investigations and other studies, this is far from mundane, instead deadly serious and is something we all must take very seriously indeed for our businesses and most importantly, our employees.

The Happy Hermit: how to thrive as an introvert entrepreneur by Brigitte van Tuijl

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

For all those naturally introverted women entrepreneurs who have been told to change in order to find success, Brigitte van Tuijl’s book, ‘The Happy Hermit: How to thrive as an introvert entrepreneur’ could be just the counterpoint needed. She believes that you should never have to change who you are just to grow a successful business, in fact just the opposite is true.

My ABC of Business - 10 Things I learnt after 10 months in our first retail shop

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lizl Naude

Having a retail space is a huge responsibility and not one I thought I would get so soon. But in October 2021, I was offered a great deal on a small space, and I decided to take the leap of faith and open up shop! I was both terrified and excited at the same time! After a few weeks of renovation, we officially opened on 19 November 2021.

Inside Customer Care

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Helena Naitsuwe Amadhila

Our businesses exist to serve customers. As entrepreneurs, we should know our customers inside out to be able to serve them better, and to meet their diverse and unlimited needs. Customers are unique people and this calls for entrepreneurs to care for their customers in a unique and individualized manner. This will ensure provision of tailor-made services and products to customers which will results in customer satisfaction and retention. These customers could also share the exciting customer care received and recommend the business to other people and as a result, there will be increase in customer base. Entrepreneurs should also know that customer care requires patience, discipline and the ability to learn, adapt, adopt, adjust and implement.

Let’s trade, shall we? Part 3: Family structures in business

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Tsitsi Mutendi

This week, we continue on our journey with Ms. Olivia Simbajena. Ms. Simbajena is a businesswoman whose business falls under the category of SME and MME. Hers also falls under the category of Family Business. As we have defined before, a Family Business is a business started by an individual for the benefit of his or her family and is then run by the individual to serve the interests of their communities as well as those of their family. The Family Business’s main characteristics is that a family owns the majority shareholding of the business. However, from the characters and their situations, although fictional, we are starting to see that there are dynamic intricacies that affect Family Businesses. Laying down a foundation by introducing our fictional business owners will help to establish context when we go in-depth and unpack more problems and solutions for Family Businesses.

The ultimate goal is to outgrow bad habits, not break them

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

A bad habit is a pattern of behaviour that sabotages you somehow. The language associated with habit change is that you want to start a good habit and break a bad one. Breaking a habit assumes that the problem is with the habit, but really, it's about your beliefs, triggers and actions about what this habit will give you.

Lionesses of Africa launches it’s new Portuguese portal for women entrepreneurs in Africa and the Diaspora

October 16, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Launch

We have some exciting news to share with you!

Lionesses of Africa has launched its new, dedicated Portuguese portal for women entrepreneurs in Africa and the Diaspora. The new portal gives Portuguese speaking women entrepreneurs on the African continent the opportunity to raise their voices and create visibility for themselves, their businesses and brands, connecting them to one another and to new markets.

100 Lionesses ‘The Future of Work’ Playbook for Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs offers personal hacks and insights on how to transform business models, workplaces and workflows for future success

October 16, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Press Release

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

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Africa’s women entrepreneurs to smartly rethink the way they run their businesses, organize their workspaces, and manage their employees. They have had to think out-of-the-box, innovate, and pivot their existing business models to adapt to new, often restricted and challenging market realities. The future of work now includes remote working, increased digital business and e-commerce, and the introduction of a whole raft of new technology, tools and platforms to connect effectively with customers and employees. For many women entrepreneurs, preparing their businesses for the future of work can be a daunting prospect. As a practical response, the 100 Lionesses Future of Work Playbook has been launched, the second 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).

Alexina Phiri, a global women’s rights change-maker in Africa and the world

October 16, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Alexina Phiri, founder and ceo, Adona Foundation

Startup Story

Alexina Phiri is the founder and ceo of Adona Foundation, a global women’s rights organisation that aims to inspire, empower and educate girls and women across the world.. She is a lawyer with over seven years of experience in implementing international-level policy to tackle issues such as human rights, governance and counter terrorism. Her most recent role was with the UK’s Department for International Trade. As a British Diplomat at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Alexina spearheaded international summits including the Africa Investment Summit in 2019 and COP26 in 2021. She is a former Acting British High Commissioner to Zambia (2019) and Acting Deputy British High Commissioner to Botswana (2020).

Elizabeth Adeshina, an entrepreneur improving healthcare access in Africa

October 16, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Wazima, a Nigerian Health Tech company providing care through smart diagnostic devices and telemedicine

Elizabeth Adeshina is the founder and ceo of Wazima, a Health Tech company based in Nigeria but with a Sub-Saharan Africa focus. She is an avid entrepreneur with a medical background who has over 18 years’ experience with building businesses in the UK and Africa. She successfully set up and for over 12 years ran and grew her own brand pharmaceutical wholesale business targeting 7 Sub-Saharan African countries with several high quality ethical and OTC products in various markets before exiting in 2016 to launch Wazima. She is passionate about health and improving the access to and delivery of quality healthcare services. She has worked on various projects in the UK NHS and with the UN and WHO in Africa.

‘Partnering’

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“What is more important - the journey or the destination?”

To which there is only one answer - “The Company”.

Steve Jobs famously encouraged people to pick up the phone and call people from whom they wanted help (you can see his interview here). He says that he never found anyone who did not want to help him when he asked. Indeed we are often encouraging this, simply asking what is the worst that could happen? Pointing out that if you don’t ask it is an automatic “No!”, but if you do ask, the worst is that they say “No!” and they might say “Yes!” and from our experience and certainly it seems from Steve Job’s experience, this is very rare. For those who are thinking that no one would have turned down Steve Jobs (fair point), his story starts as a 12 year old when he called up the owner of Hewlett-Packard, a Mr Bill Hewlett at his home, to ask him to help him build a ‘frequency counter’. Mr Hewlett said yes and sent over all the necessary bits and pieces, following which he offered a job on a production line to the young Steve.

Level Up Your E-commerce Business/ Road Map To Financial Wealth by Cyndi Zlotow

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

Cyndi Zlotow is an e-commerce entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building online businesses, and in her new book, Level Up Your E-commerce Business/ Road Map To Financial Wealth, she shares that experience. If you have sold anything online and are ready to build an online business that will bring you financial freedom, this book is for you.

How emotionally intelligent is your team?

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek

As we enter year three of the pandemic and confront global difficulties that force us to live in a state of uncertainty, empathy in the workplace is now taking on a new level of significance and necessity.

Stepping-stones to your goals

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Dr Alison Hofer & Angelique Adcock

When students ask me how they should go about achieving their life goals, my answer is always “Work Backwards”. Sometimes you are fortunate enough to have wise people around you to support and guide you. Sometimes you must figure it out yourself, and this is where the “Work backward’ method is just genius.

3 Steps you can take to live by design, not default

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

Think about a personal goal you would like to achieve – it could be getting fitter, eating healthier, reading, starting a course or a new hobby. The typical pattern is you begin on a Monday, you manage to keep it up for about two weeks and then fall back into old ways. You probably have attributed this pattern to a lack of willpower. The good news is that the solution to keep the promises you make to yourself has nothing to do with motivation.

It takes courage to be yourself

October 15, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Kathy Mann

I’ve been thinking about how we become so conditioned by other people’s expectations of who we are and who we ought to be. I attended university in Cape Town and I had to wait a year because my father didn’t want me to leave home. I wonder what the cost of that year of earnings equates to, compounded over my career? Anyway, in my wisdom, it was worth the wait and I found a good career path, nice and respectable. I’m learning now that I have other talents that could be used to make a more fulfilling career path for me in future.

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