Let’s talk about payment, late payment or non-payment issues

September 13, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Teboho Seretlo

All in the day of a small business owner in South Africa.

It’s been a minute and my creative writing juices dried up while I was chasing some business opportunities and non-paying clients out there. So, these past few weeks, I have been finalizing some projects, dealing with good news of funding applications I submitted on behalf of clients being successful and all sorts of other things. My spirits have been high after landing these successes and I was excited at the prospect of my bank balance swelling, if only a little bit.

Of Love, of Respect, of Water…and slippery Fish!

August 20, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

London, February 2020 and a few days before, Melanie had just given her closing speech at our ‘Start-Up Night Africa - London evening at the UK/Africa Summit (said to have been the best event at the summit by the well respected Chatham House - no surprise to us. As usual, Melanie had brought together an incredible group of inspirational Lionesses to showcase to the UK Government and their closest 400 friends from the business and finance world), and together as a team we had started to notice a strange lack of handshakes taking over our follow-up meetings. We had even been introduced to the by now familiar ‘elbow-bump’ in one international bank’s boardroom, but by then all knew of the shock, speed and horror with which Covid was racing across Italy and rushing fast to all international airports and capital cities.

Loyalty Programs. Everyone seems to be doing it, so it must be easy…

April 2, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

Loyalty programs are all about one thing - keeping and increasing your top value customer base whilst avoiding the race to the bottom through cheaper pricing (which as we know, has no winners, although Walmart would probably beg to differ). If through skillful marketing you are also able to persuade customers that they are ‘saving up’ for the free cup of coffee or flight or… in the age of inflation and high interest rates, then that’s a serious home run!

Self-employed & Retirement: A Stumbling Block for Many

February 19, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Ronel Jooste

Are you self-employed and feeling stressed about not having sufficient retirement savings? Plenty of business owners are still seen to be actively working years after reaching retirement age. They really love what they do, or they don’t have somebody reliable to take over or they don’t want to let go of their ‘baby’ are the common reasons provided to explain this situation. Yes, these can be valid reasons or reasons contributing to the situation, but for many business owners the harsh reality is that they cannot afford to go on retirement.

5 Ways to get your business to run without you

November 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Nthabiseng Maidi, Principal Director, MMCP Wealth and MMCP Business Advisory Services

Some owners focus on growing their profits, while others are obsessed with sales goals. Have you ever considered making it your primary goal to set up your business so that it can thrive and grow without you?

Checklist for Healthy Finances in 2023

November 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Ronel Jooste

Many people set New Year resolutions at the beginning of a new year. Some people aspire to lose weight, to exercise on a regular basis, to eat healthier, to spend more time with their loved ones or to start a new business. We all have more energy, new ideas and new goals at the beginning of a new year. It is also the perfect time to get your personal finances in order for the remainder of the year. Definitely a resolution that you want to turn into reality, because it will create financial security and stability for you and your family.

‘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.

Triggered? What You Should Do Instead of Reacting

August 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek

It is often said that culture is the competitive edge for any organisation. Culture is also referred to as the personality or character of the business. So it leaves us with the question: “Where does emotional intelligence (EQ) fit in?”

My ABC of business: How to gain the support of your clients, even though you disappoint

June 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lizl Naude

Recently in the span of 48 hours, I received complaints from two individual customers about product breakages. Because I am so pedantic about delivering a quality product, I was initially completely stunned. It felt like a barrage coming my way. I remember a heat rush going to my head, as I tried to make sense of it all. I took a deep breath and took a 5 minute walk before I replied.

Growth Comes in Many Forms – Are You Ready?

May 28, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek

One thing we know for certain is that we can’t solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s wisdom. We need to choose a growth mindset. What I have seen in my coaching practice is that if we don’t stretch ourselves, we are often nudged by some external event to be stretched to grow. But what does this mean? How do you embrace a growth mindset?

Why a safe and healthy workplace matters

May 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”

This quote was used by President Obama in his eulogy for Senator John McCain and was written by Ernest Hemmingway in his book, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. Although the book was based in the Spanish Civil War, the title of this incredible book was taken from John Donne's series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness (written after a near fatal illness). If one accepts the spelling that was used at the time (and as usual the use of the gender-specific pronoun to describe all humans, common throughout history), this is one of the most powerful thoughts on our place in this world. Written in 1624, it will be forever true:

Do you eat your own Dog-Food?

May 7, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

The year was 1988 and a manager at Microsoft called Paul Maritz was fed up at the glitches being found by software customers of theirs purely because although being tested before release, the software simply wasn’t being used in the real world under real life conditions by themselves. He wrote a memo about the need to trial new networking software internally - not just test, but really use in a day-to-day environment. In the subject line he wrote “Eating our own dog-food” and this was picked up by a testing manager who named a test server ‘Dog-food’ and from there the phrase grew through Microsoft and then on into the industry (see here).

10 Reasons why you need a business plan

April 3, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Ronel Jooste

A business plan is considered the most critical document for any business, whether you are starting a business or have an established business. There is a general perception that business plans are only required for funding purposes which is not true. A business plan provides the foundation layer of any business and can be effectively used for operational and strategic planning purposes.

Fear, risk and being human

February 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by the Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.” — Pythagoras. “…if prosperity, adversity” or put another way, ‘if profit, there is risk’. Risk is there, it may be hidden, but it is there… you cannot have one without the other.

Tricky Situations – 10 Tips to Handle Them Eloquently

February 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Anja van Beek

As an entrepreneur and a Chief People Officer (CPO) you may have faced/experienced various challenging scenarios. One of my coaching clients shared this specific dilemma with me: She has recently been appointed as the HR Director, and within the first few weeks at the company, one of their clients contacted her. The client attended a social event hosted by their company and the client made a complaint against the CEO and stated the CEO consumed too much alcohol and was inappropriate and out of line. How’s that for a tricky situation? Where do you start this discussion with your CEO? How do you address this in a respectful yet candid way?

Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Real Estate environment

December 12, 2021 Melanie Hawken

by Pam Snyman

What does it mean to be a real estate company that maintains a sustainable competitive advantage? At REDZetc we endeavour to do the following: Add value for our clients, i.e by delivering ongoing superior performance ...easier said than done… What do we need to maintain that advantage? Constant positive change and adaptation. We need to be a Learning Organisation where continual learning takes place in order to gain sustainable excellence, i.e. be means of constant organisational learning.

'Divinely Discontent!'

October 17, 2021 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static – they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’. I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before – in only a few seconds and with a couple taps on their phones, customers can read reviews, compare prices from multiple retailers, see whether something’s in stock, find out how fast it will ship or be available for pick-up, and more. These examples are from retail, but I sense that the same customer empowerment phenomenon is happening broadly across everything we do at Amazon and most other industries as well. You cannot rest on your laurels in this world. Customers won’t have it.”…and so wrote Jeff Bezos in his 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders. Since then the world has just got significantly faster, customers more demanding for higher quality, lower prices and more speed, until Covid hit the reset button and the world stopped for breath.

Concentrate on what you do best and ‘EaaS’ the rest!

October 9, 2021 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept

There was a time when if you wanted to travel from Kenya to New York, the only option was a boat. Telegrams were the fastest way to get a message any distance and if a child left to study or live and work in another country, an occasional letter would be all that one could hope for. These days we have got as close as possible to Teleportation (moving from A to B instantaneously), without actually climbing into a machine and being transported to another place, as Zoom/Teams have become commonplace. We are now suddenly ‘transported’ into the office or living room of another with such ease. Indeed perhaps teleportation is not so far off - they have recently invented the ability to have a hologram placed in front of you that you can touch and the sensation will be just as if you are shaking their hand - incredible! Of course not everything is changing - on the subject of letters home (or occasional zoom), to be fair in this area - plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Let’s keep it simple…

August 29, 2021 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

When times are tough, when times are uncertain, indeed, when times are frightening, let us not make our lives anymore complex - let’s just keep it simple.

Control the Controllables!

August 8, 2021 Melanie Hawken

By Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

During the last three weeks we have written about our frightening and ever changing world. One in which life will never be the same again (it seems) and one in which changes happen not only with increasing size, but with an ever increasing speed. How this will impact in the long-term for some of our businesses remains to be seen, although for many of us, we have already felt at first-hand the immediate results.

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