Leonilde Melembe Bene, a Mozambican artisan entrepreneur creating handcrafted accessories

July 16, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Leonilde Melembe Bene, founder Paphalati (Mozambique)

Startup Story

Leonilde Melembe Bene, is the founder of Paphalati, a handicrafts and handmade jewellery small business in Mozambique. She has a passion for accessory designs, recycling materials and home décor articles. Paphalati also restores old pieces of jewellery, giving them a second life. She founded her business 15 years ago, first it was only her and now she employs 3 people, one of them a local community seamstress. Professionally she also works as a Communication and Public Relations Manager. From a very early age she became interested in the world of arts and culture. She made her directorial debut with this short film and was the winner of the 2nd Edition of the Maputo Shortcutz competition (2022).

Zola Mhlongo, a South African entrepreneur building an exciting contemporary shape-wear brand

July 16, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Zola Mhlongo, founder, Undefined Shapes (South Africa)

Startup Story

Zola Mhlongo, better known as Zola Zee Lovin’, is an actress, singer and media personality turned businesswoman with a contemporary shape-wear brand, Undefined Shapes, based in South Africa. Born and raised in Durban, and pursuing a degree in Drama at the University of Cape Town, the stage has been her office until Undefined Shapes awakened her entrepreneurial spirit. In just two short years since its inception, Undefined Shapes has achieved remarkable sales success, consistently selling out multiple times. The business continues to thrive, cultivating a rapidly growing community of loyal customers.

Helen Keleta, a game-changing healthcare entrepreneur

July 16, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

East Africa Hafeshawi Medical Centre, a high-impact business providing affordable healthcare to refugees in Uganda

Helen Habteslasie Keleta is the Founder and CEO of East Africa Hafeshawi Medical Center, a well-established health centre that was started in January 2018 in a convenient and highly accessible location in Kampala, Uganda. She is a mother of four, and an Eritrean Refugee living in Kampala since 2016. By profession she is an engineer and up until 2016 has been working with different family construction companies. After she came to Uganda she started living among the refugees in Kampala and noticed there is a language barrier amongst them and Ugandans. Especially when it came to health, this language barrier made it worse because 'right patient-right information-right care-at the right time' works well in life. This idea triggered Helen to invest in the medical care industry by getting different native professional doctors and nurses.

Lioness Launch / South Africa’s one-stop language shop, EditA Services, launches its new venture, Jomi Books

July 16, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Mignionette Fair, founder, EditA Services (South Africa)

Lioness Launch

South Africa’s EditA Services, a one-stop language shop for business, has announced the launch of its new product arm, Jomi Books! Founder Mignionette Fair says there is so much more to discover about her business under this new venture, with the first "discovery" being a children's ebook called ‘It's Time’. This colourful story is the perfect addition to bedtime and especially for families who are expanding. There are hopefully many more books to come from Jomi Books, so watch this space!

The Pocket Guide to Product Launches: Get Confident, Go to Market, and Win by Mary Sheehan

July 16, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

If you and your business need to take a new product launch from zero to sixty in no time flat, then you need to get some essential insights from The Pocket Guide to Product Launches: Get Confident, Go to Market, and Win by Mary Sheehan. Written by one of the industry’s leading product marketers—for product marketers, The Pocket Guide to Product Launches sets you up for success whether this is your first launch or you’re a seasoned pro.

To truly understand what the Lionesses of Africa is - You have to understand the heartbeat of our ‘Why’

July 15, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Director

And so the 5th of our Global ‘Start-up Night Africa’ events came and went. Having been to London, Berlin and New York, here at last we had found a home in Den Haag, The Netherlands, to celebrate the opening of our new European Office and of course to showcase some of our incredible Lioness community members.

A surprisingly simple take on personal branding

July 15, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Thembe Khumalo

For ambitious executives, personal branding is like the stock exchange. Some stocks are valued higher than others, and the goal of every owner/investor is to see the price of his shares go up and stay up. Highly valued stocks mean more money and a better return on investment.

How to automate for success

July 15, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Kathryn Main

What is automation, and why do I need it in my business? Automation simply means that you take some of your business processes and automate them. Automation is an important concept in business. It allows you to, for example, automate many functions in your business, such as finance and sales. By reducing the risk of human error in common daily tasks, automation enables you to manage configurations in a predictable and repeatable way, resulting in increased consistency and increased speed of change. Automation gives us more time to work on the business and less in the business.

Resolving Disputes: Choosing Collaboration over Conflict

July 15, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw

Disputes and conflicts are inevitable in human interaction, often arising in both personal and professional settings. In business, resolving disputes in a timely and amicable manner is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships and fostering long-term success. Traditionally, conflicts have been addressed through the adversarial process of litigation. However, an alternative approach that has gained significant recognition is mediation. In this article, I explore the key differences between resolving a dispute in court versus mediation. I argue that mediation offers a more favourable approach to maintaining good relationships, which is essential in business.

Are you pacing in your own cage, not knowing how to get out?

July 15, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Eldari Visser

At a typical game farm in Africa animals roam free, well free within boundaries that is. This means the owner has a piece of land or property that allows his animals to experience life in a carefree way. Many animals have to be kept like this due to human activities and urbanisation, herds for homesteads and unfortunately poachers. These animals are not really free, they have boundaries or fencing, even cages. They see electric wires and gates. There are timestamps, branding, chips and permits that gives you this “freedom”. They are free to move around within limits of the boundaries. The big cage.

Unleashing HER: Redefining Success for Female Entrepreneurs by Dr Kimberly Olson

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Book Review

As a seasoned coach in the online space, Dr Kimberly Olson, author of the new book Unleashing HER: Redefining Success for Female Entrepreneurs, saw a trend emerging. She noticed that women were setting unrealistic expectations for themselves and getting stuck in the comparison game. In order to truly shift this paradigm, she decided to gather 40 amazing female entrepreneurs together in one book so they could share their stories of what unleashing your potential can look like.

10 Exciting women-led businesses from Africa set to be showcased in The Hague

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Weekender Cover Story

Start-Up Night Africa on 11 July 2023 in The Hague, The Netherlands aims to stimulate investment and international market access for Africa's women entrepreneurs

With support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands and the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank (FMO), Lionesses of Africa has set up the Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague, taking place on 11 July 2023. This initiative aims to showcase high-growth, women-owned businesses from Africa and connect them to investment and market opportunities in The Netherlands. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liesje Schreinemacher, will deliver the opening remarks at the event, together with Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken. The Start-Up Night Africa event will also celebrate the opening of the European office of Lionesses of Africa.

Vanize Da Natividade Teixeira, a Mozambican entrepreneur recycling Capulana fabrics to create dolls and clothing

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Vanize da Natividade Teixeira, founder, Muyana and Arts (Mozambique)

Startup Story

Vanize da Natividade Teixeira is the founder of Muyana and Arts in Mozambique. The company uses recycled materials, transforming them into dolls, bags and other products for the home, through sewing skills and empowering women who want to embrace this artform. Vanize has two interns who work with her, and who are currently being trained in specific skills. She is still running the company herself because it's small, but her dream is to be big and international one day. Vanize has a degree in accounting from high school, and was the commercial director of the company Mocinter lda that was in the field of service provision, and also of the business, Marumadi Planeta Mozambique, a guesthouse.

Sylvia Wambui, a Kenyan social impact entrepreneur helping businesses to grow

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Sylvia Wambui, Founder, Mursly Digital Group LLC (Kenya)

Startup Story

Sylvia Wambui is the Founder of Mursly Digital Group LLC in Kenya. She is a mentor, virtual assistant, and business consultant to entrepreneurs. She has spent over 6 years in marketing, across local and international clients where she has been a marketing lead, managing multiple brands and large tech brands. After COVID struck, it called for a restructuring of the business. That’s when Mursly Digital Group Limited was launched and has just recently been incorporated in March 2023. Mursly Digital Group offers business consulting services that cover strategy across business structures specifically marketing, social media, personal, and leadership development to ease the load of idea generation. It also does consulting and virtual assistance work, both in Africa and internationally, having worked with community and tech-driven brands like Black Women In Clinical Research, Blaze Group LLC, and Bauce Magazine. As a mentor, Sylvia has worked to support entrepreneurs and professionals by providing knowledge on capacity building and upskilling for scale / professional growth.

“…ESG…it’s been entirely weaponized…” (and what we can do about it!)

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, and so when its boss Larry Fink speaks, the world listens, and who are we to argue with his comment above (see here). He has a point and especially in the United States where the discussion, as sadly with so much in many countries these days, has become polarized along political lines.

You have to be in it to win it!

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Margaret Hirsch

“You have to be in it to win it!” The saying came from a discussion with a person who always wondered why they didn’t win the lottery and every week they would complain that other people won something and they didn’t until eventually one day someone said to them, “well if you want to win the lottery, the first thing you must do is buy a ticket”.

Empowering the Future: The Crucial Role of Human Oversight in AI

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Sasha Knott

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), one thing remains clear: humans are essential. AI is advancing, and for it to keep being an aid, human oversight is needed to ensure that it remains ethical, that biases are detected and addressed, and that AI decision-making remains transparent. As the world latches onto the idea of AI making our lives easier, we need to be harnessing its potential through human intervention, thereby mitigating risks and safeguarding societal values.

Personal Growth Is Not About Adding but Editing

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lori Milner

What if you approached personal growth like decluttering your wardrobe? If you want to add new items more suitable to your current style, you want to free up space first and let go of the items that no longer serve you or are not aligned with who you are. Instead of reading another personal growth book or attending another workshop, what can you edit out that is no longer aligned with who you are first?

How to keep your business resilient through change and uncertainty

July 9, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Catia Mondlane

The key to keeping your business resilient through change and uncertainty is to have a flexible business plan. This means creating a plan that can adapt to changing circumstances, whether it's a sudden shift in the market, unexpected challenges, or new opportunities. Start by identifying the core values and goals of your business. These should remain consistent even as your strategies change.

The Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague “connecting Africa’s high-growth women entrepreneurs to Europe”

July 2, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Start-up Night Africa - The Hague

The Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague on 11 July 2023 will celebrate the opening of the European office of Lionesses of Africa. The focus of the event will be on the critical role of investment and the power of partnerships to address the gender finance gap for women entrepreneurs in growth mode in Africa.

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