the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
by Lori Milner
Change is inevitable; it's the only constant. The question is, how comfortable are you with feeling uncomfortable? Consider that uncertainty came naturally to you in your twenties; you craved it. Very rarely did you plan your Saturday nights, the spontaneity of not knowing where you would land up was half the fun.
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Peace Samuel, founder and owner, The Virtual Paragon (Nigeria & United States)
Startup Story
Peace Samuel is the founder and owner of The Virtual Paragon, currently registered in Nigeria and United States. She is a multi-skilled entrepreneur and has been featured on a number of business platforms. The Virtual Paragon is focused on helping businesses and experts launch their programs/digital products without the tech overwhelm or losing their authentic self. She started the company 6 years ago and it’s still growing. Peace has supported many businesses and they have gone ahead to grow and scale their businesses.
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Marylou Bawden, founder and owner, Clear Path Senior & Speciality Moving Managers (South Africa)
Startup Story
Marylou Bawden is the founder and owner of Clear Path Senior & Speciality Moving Managers in South Africa. The business assists seniors to sort, downsize and move from their family homes into retirement villages. It also assists the family when their loved one passes away to sort and clear the family home. Marylou was retrenched at the start of Covid after being in the exhibition industry, and having previously been a business owner in the retail space she was looking for something new to start up. While the business is not a charity, the aspect of assisting and helping seniors in what is an enormously stressful time in their lives is the key purpose of the business and is enormously important to Marylou.
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Mylene Bosch
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
iCALC Training Academy, changing lives through training and development in South Africa
Mylene Bosch is the founder of iCALC Training Academy in South Africa, a private college that empowers individuals within their chosen careers. Specializing in Engineering, Business and IT studies, the business offers individuals quality education. What Mylene has done at iCALC Training Academy is to add to the mix a number of specialist mentoring and coaching groups. These help companies achieve the bottom line with efficient individuals that are cohesive in their workplace with qualified and certified coaches. The business was started in 2014 and today employs 23 people.
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Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
Book Review
In her enchanting memoir, Walking with Gorillas, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. She is also the defender of people as a groundbreaking promoter of human public health and an advocate for revolutionary integrated approaches to saving our planet. In an increasingly interconnected world, animal and human health alike depend on sustainable solutions and Dr. Gladys has developed an innovative approach to conservation among the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and their human neighbors.
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Carmen Miral
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
Black Khakhela, a proudly environmentally-friendly Mozambican brand celebrating natural hair
Carmen Miral is the founder and inspiration behind the growing Mozambican natural skin and haircare brand, Black Khakhela. The brand, created in 2015 by Carmen, started as a social intervention against the preconception that natural / kinky hair is not beautiful or professional. She believed that by exposing this issue and her brand message on social media, “very important people” in different areas (with local and globally impact) using their natural hair would inspire younger generations to respect and embrace their own natural skin and hair.
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Rita Da Silva, founder, Zhizha (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Rita Da Silva is the founder of Zhizha in Mozambique, an artisan ice cream business based on Italian techniques using the best local ingredients. Rita uses classic Italian ice cream processes to achieve the texture and flavor without having to resort to artificial stabilizers and emulsifiers. Each flavor is produced by Zhizha with a specially developed recipe. Rita looks for the best local solutions and believes that it’s part of her mission to contribute to the growth of other businesses, namely small agricultural producers. Zhizha wants to revolutionize the idea of ice cream in Mozambique.
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Melissa Jacobs, founder, Mel J (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)
Startup Story
Mel J (Pty) Ltd, founded by Melissa Jacobs in South Africa is a specialist business that facilitate workshops for one of the toughest exams in the financial industry - RE5 and RE1. The regulatory exams are being developed and delivered under the direction and management of the FSCA. Melissa’s business has a unique method used to teach its candidates and to prepare them for the exam. Workshops are held all over Johannesburg and candidates travel from all over South Africa. Melissa’s business has a great pass rate and its facilitators are passionate, not only about training, but about people and that is the winning recipe. Going over and above what is required is another trick to the business’s success.
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by Ashika Pillay
Do you sometimes feel that, just like your computer, you have too many tabs open? A sense of frazzle - neither here nor there. Too much needing to be done - now! As the year comes to a close, a collective sigh can be felt echoing through our communities. It’s been a tough year or rather couple of years. Change has happened at a fast pace, and many of us have needed to adapt swiftly and move quickly on all fronts - home, work, communities.
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by Felicity Cowie, The Media Relations Coach
In my earlier blog for LoA, 'What Exactly is Media Relations?', I said there are at least eight mega benefits of media relations for any business to consider…
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by Laura Camacho
There are conflicting statistics about how many emails people receive at work every day. It’s at least 100 emails. While we’re not sure how many we get each day on average, what we can agree on is that we get too many. Because emails tend to reach larger audiences than texts and phone conversations, rethinking the way you respond to an email is a good investment of your brain power. It’s a way to contribute more value to your company.
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by Sharon Castle - Lifestyle and Wellness Coach
At the time of writing this blog, I had recently experienced my 64th birthday. I say experienced because it really wasn’t a celebration. My attention and focus were on making myself available for my niece and her family to enjoy her time in South Africa while celebrating her 50th birthday and the very important task of sifting through her late mother’s belongings (my sister). My sister passed 2.5 years ago and Covid prevented her daughter from attending the memorial service or visiting to complete the difficult task of deciding what to do with her belongings. Therefore, my birthday was just another day and all my energy was around holding space for my family.
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Book Review
The SOS - A Survival Guide for Women at Work is a new book currently being co-authored by four inspirational women, Chantal Korteweg, Marijn Wiersma, Tessel van Willigen, and Lidewij Wiersma. This important book discusses topics such as impostor syndrome, female leadership, role models, networking, negotiating, conflict, guilt and parenting. Each of the four authors writes from their own personal experiences, combined with research on each of the topics, and interviews with global leaders. The book provides an SOS framework with solutions and suggestions for Self, Others and the System. A crowdfunding campaign has been launched for the book and can currently be found on Publishizer - the authors are asking women around the globe to show their support by pre-ordering the book to get it published on https://publishizer.com/sos-a-survival-guide-for-women-at-work/
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Lizl Naude
Lioness Launch
Cape Town Designer and founder of Lilly Loompa, Lizl Naude (from Paarl), is known far and wide for her quirky, upcycled décor items. But more than that, she is known for her purposeful and environmentally-consciousness approach to design. In 2020, during the pandemic, she launched her “My Africa Lap Desk” made with discarded, waste material. It is currently their most popular product. In November 2022, Lizl decided to make the evolution from wood to recycled plastic for the next generation of the desk and launched it to market.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
Last weekend we gave you some homework for the holiday period - to check up on and if necessary re-find your ‘WHY’. To give it a dust down, a service, to bring it back into the centre of your business, to never forget that it is the Soul upon which your business is built.
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by Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho
As 2023 approaches, Board Members, executives and founders like you are usually busy with strategizing and planning for the new year…and one area that needs close attention is your organisation’s brand. Bella Ikeme and I recently hosted a Masterclass titled How to Build Brands for High Performance and Sustainability — which focused on strategic brand building, common brand challenges and how to get your brand ready for 2023.
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by Anja van Beek
Many South Africans are currently concerned about the energy crisis and the impact of load shedding on the economy. An even bigger concern is the global trend of exhaustion and low energy levels of the workforce. When I speak to leaders and managers, there are a few words that continue to be mentioned in conversations and they are: “fatigue / exhaustion / burnout”. This isn’t surprising.
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by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie
As we move through the month of December and begin to wrap up 2022, now is a great time to take a moment to pause and reflect on the year that was. It’s something we can easily skip over in the busyness that typically descends on us this time of year, but I encourage you to create some space for yourself to reflect on what went well, what you achieved, what you want to celebrate, and what you want to release before you begin 2023.
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by Lori Milner
You don't manage time; all you can do is manage your decisions about how you spend your time and the headspace you experience this time in. A time warrior stays focused, calm and present during challenges, chaos and overwhelm. They do not let distractions and sabotaging habits like multitasking, procrastination or overwhelm derail them from their task.
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Georgina de Kock, founder, Munch Innovation (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)
Startup Story
Georgina de Kock is the founder, product developer and a director of Munch Innovation (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. She is a seasoned entrepreneur who has won many awards and she is a devoted business leader. Georgina was a financial advisor and owned a photographic, design and screen-printing business, Georgi 'D". She made a career change to follow her passion to something she believed in which is to help disrupt plastic waste to help save our environment making a difference that matters. Today, her business also employs 7 people, creating local green jobs.
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