I was reading an interesting article this week about how women around the world are less likely than their male counterparts to become entrepreneurs because they simply don’t have enough role models around them. And it’s not a case of being able to see superstar women role models to look up to, but instead ‘everyday women role models’ that they can really feel a connection with and aspire to be like. It’s why we share the inspirational start-up stories of ordinary women entrepreneurs doing extraordinary things from our Lionesses of Africa community each and every day - to show what’s possible. The article went on to suggest that women need to see on a regular basis people just like themselves successfully building businesses and brands, creating great products and services, and become fulfilled entrepreneurs, as it shapes their view of what is possible. The bottom line is that we need more everyday, successful women entrepreneur role-models in our lives to encourage us on our own journeys.

As entrepreneurs, if we sat down to think about how much time we actually spend looking ahead, planning, visualizing where we want to be in our businesses 2, 5 and 10 years into the future, we would realize we are missing something pretty fundamental. We are not actually living in the moment! We can plan all we like, but if we don’t take the time to enjoy the small things that make life so special; or to celebrate each small (or big) win that happens in our businesses; or to just have fun with like-minded people on this crazy business building journey we are on, then we are not really living our best lives. It’s about being present, taking the time to enjoy the journey instead of constantly looking at the destination ahead. It’s about seeing time differently, as a series of moments to be relished and enjoyed, rather than stressful reminders of how much there is still to be done. Life is precious, let’s live more in the moment and really enjoy it!

Wherever I travel in the world, to host or speak at events to raise awareness of Africa’s women entrepreneurs and to open up business opportunities for our Lionesses of Africa network, I always get the same feedback from audiences. They are truly inspired by the personal stories we share of women entrepreneurs in our community from all corners of the African continent who are building great, often impact-driven businesses. These stories resonate and make a real, meaningful connection with audiences who are listening and reading. As a result, it creates greater interest from global market decision-makers who may want to explore business opportunities with more women entrepreneurs on the continent. So let’s get our stories working for us, let’s share them with the world and get people talking positively about Africa’s future economic growth, driven by entrepreneurial women game-changers.

At Lionesses of Africa, we believe that as women entrepreneurs who share, inspire and connect, we are stronger together, that’s the ethos of our community. But I am also a firm believer that we are stronger together if we work with like-minded visionaries, companies and organizations who understand what we are trying to build and achieve, and who want to be part of our journey. We need to constantly connect and work with our global impact partners to fund the development of our products and programmes, and to scale their distribution and impact across the continent. We collaborate with influential Impact Partners who share our commitment and vision for advancing Africa’s women entrepreneurs, and we see our Impact Partners as change-makers. They put their money where their mouths are and become our genuine partners, sharing our mission to build meaningful impact for the most underserved women entrepreneurs on the planet. Working with our Impact Partners, we can practically support the development of a new generation of women entrepreneurs who can become the change agents Africa so badly needs. So to all our valued Impact Partners, a big thank you from all of us at Lionesses of Africa, your support helps us to make the difference.

Have you noticed that when women entrepreneurs meet and support one another, great things happen - business is done, collaborations start, and mutually beneficial networks are opened. But it’s so much more than that. I have noticed through our Lionesses of Africa network and at our regular Lioness Lean In events around the continent that not just professional relationships grow, but also long-lasting friendships are formed. And that has certainly been my personal experience as an entrepreneur. I am a great believer in the power of women entrepreneurs to go much further in life and in business when they have great support systems and networks, and strong friendships to support them through the good times and the bad. So in addition to the business benefits that can be gained from building working relationships with your fellow women entrepreneurs with whom you share so much in common, the added bonus is that they can translate into great friendships! What could be better!

As an entrepreneur, if you have reached the point where you’re stressed by constantly having to multitask and keep all the balls in the air; or it feels like the days are just getting shorter and you can never get everything done; or you feel like you work constantly but never get any further; or you are struggling to grow your business because you are bogged down by too many admin tasks; well, it could be time to call in some help. And, before you yell out, “I’m a startup I can’t afford to hire people yet”, it’s worth remembering that help can come in many different forms. It could be a smart business decision to outsource certain parts of your business that require specialist knowledge or expertise, leaving you to focus on what you are really good at. Perhaps you need to outsource your sales, or certain parts of your admin process, or your marketing? In today’s Gig Economy, it’s easier than ever to outsource key tasks to specialist freelancers who can provide that additional help just when you need it, removing some of the stress in the process. So perhaps it’s not a case of saying “I can’t afford help” but in fact acknowledging that the business can’t afford not to bring in that external help when it needs it most.

You know that old saying, ‘first impressions count’ - well, it’s still true today, especially in business. I was reminded of this again at a recent conference where I met with a large number of women entrepreneurs in a networking session. I was struck by just how many of those women didn’t take the opportunity to make a memorable, lasting impression when meeting with their fellow conference goers. Firstly, many of them didn’t have business cards to exchange, and secondly, few of them had their ‘business pitch’ at the ready. Studies show that first impressions are made within the first 17 seconds of meeting someone new. This means that before we even get sufficient time to demonstrate our abilities, the first impression is already cast. In life and in business, we often only get one chance to make a great impression on the people we meet, we need to make it count.

Let’s be honest, it’s exciting but often slightly daunting when you try and break into a new global market with your business. And it can seem literally a world away from what you know and are familiar with. So it’s always best to take baby steps in getting to know that market at a personal relationship level before you make the leap with both feet. Going global means recognizing and getting to know different business cultures and ways of doing things; it means getting to know people on the ground who can make your experience easier and much more enjoyable; and it means doing your market homework well in advance of any visit. It’s one of the reasons we originally launched our Lioness Lean In events across the African continent and our Start-up Night Africa! events around the world. They provide a women entrepreneur a friendly, supportive and safe community in which to put a toe into the water in each marketplace and build relationships before you go out there on your own. Check out which cities we will be visiting next here.

When I travel around the African continent visiting our Lionesses communities in each country, I often speak about how women entrepreneurs can leverage the power of the network to open up business and collaborative opportunities in different countries. But just looking at our Lionesses of Africa network and seeing the increasingly large numbers of users in countries and cities around the world, it becomes clear that women entrepreneurs in the Diaspora are interested in contributing to the continent’s success. And there is an important role they can play. At our recent Start-up Night! Africa events in London and Berlin, meeting and talking to highly experienced and knowledgeable women from the African Diaspora opened up opportunities for collaboration, for business, for investment and mentoring. Such connections emphasized the important role women entrepreneurs in the African Diaspora can play in bringing their global business smarts to the table and helping to shape the future of the continent through great collaboration, business building, and information sharing.

There is a great quote from the inspirational soleRebels founder, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, who said, “You’re not in a dynamic business if you’re not experiencing challenges.” How true! This quote came back to me as I was chatting to two wonderful women entrepreneurs in my network, both in the retail sector, but one a start-up and the other the creator of a mature, market leading company. Both were in the midst of taking their businesses to the next level, expanding their product offerings and trying to break into new markets. And, both were experiencing significant challenges along the way, notably in the access to funding and access to global markets environments. Often we may be tempted to think that the longer you have been around as an entrepreneur, and the more businesses you have built, the easier it gets and the fewer challenges there are to be overcome. These conversations were a great reminder that when we build dynamic businesses there will always be challenges, it’s part of the journey. 

Women are natural collaborators. You only have to look at successful entrepreneurial communities around the world and through recent history to see that some of the most interesting and sustainable businesses are the result of like-minded women entrepreneurs pooling their resources and expertise. I am a great believer in the power of women collaborating to get things done. In fact, if I look back at why we launched Lionesses of Africa, it was inspired by the realization that, just as for the prides of lionesses that live and hunt on the plains of Africa, life is often a daily battle for survival for women entrepreneurs. We can learn a lot from lionesses in the wild and their pride dynamics. How they hunt as a group to bring down the biggest prey; how they raise and coach their young; how they protect the group; and how they collaborate in order to survive even the harshest environments. It is these lessons that have shaped Lionesses of Africa's belief in the power of community. And, our belief that Africa's women entrepreneurs can achieve more and go 'Further, Together.’

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you are with a group of people talking about a very successful product that has been launched to market and someone says, “Oh, I thought about something similar to that years ago but never did anything about it.” I hear it often and it always brings about a wry smile, because in that sentence is the difference between entrepreneurs and everybody else. Entrepreneurs have an idea, but then importantly they test that idea, they develop a business model around it, they run with it, and they execute it. Ideas are easy, but it’s the implementation that is sometimes difficult to achieve. As Apple founder, Steve Jobs, once famously said, “To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.”

Life as an entrepreneur has its ups and downs, and there’s a reason why we often refer to it as a roller-coaster. There are times when you experience real “highs”, when everything seems to be going right and everything seems possible, and then there are those inevitable low times that inevitably knock your confidence. One day you sign a big contract you have been working on getting for months, you read a great article about your company in a leading magazine, and life seems great. The very next day your new prospective investor backs away from the deal, and you lose your biggest client to a competitor. But the test of a successful entrepreneur is how to ride these crazy ups and downs without giving up. The path to success is never a straight line. The trick is to enjoy the highs when they happen, but keep your eyes on the end goal and find your inner resolve when life throws you that curve ball and you are back on that rollercoaster again.

As women entrepreneurs, many of us share the perpetual challenge of how to manage our time better, as we try and juggle all the various aspects of our lives simultaneously. And often we feel severely time pressed and this can have serious implications on our business and our personal productivity. But there are steps that can be taken to prevent problems with productivity occurring too frequently. A simple solution is to focus on what we do best and acknowledge that we really don’t need to try and do everything ourselves. It’s about knowing when to delegate and what to delegate to others, freeing ourselves up to focus on those things that really do need our personal attention and skills, and that ultimately we do best. There is a great quote by Virgin Group Founder, Richard Branson, who is the ultimate delegator in business. He says, “You must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.” So, if you are feeling as though you are constantly battling time in your life and business, make a conscious decision to focus on what you do best, and delegate the rest.

When I speak to women entrepreneurs each day, one of the things they feedback probably more than anything else is how valuable they find it to hear the inspirational startup stories of other women entrepreneurs - told in their own voices and often with great honesty and frankness. These stories remind them that they are not alone, and the challenges they are facing are not unique, but shared amongst all those women who bravely go out there each day and build their businesses. There is something really powerful about finding your voice and using it to engage others on your entrepreneurial journey. I often talk about the fact that as business founders, we are our own best salespeople, and our voices count when we are trying to get our businesses and brands seen and heard above the noise in the marketplace. Increasingly, customers want to know the backstory of the products they buy and the brands they give their loyalty to, so every woman entrepreneur’s voice and story counts. Finding your voice and writing your startup story is part of the journey to becoming the author of your own successful life.

If there’s one thing I have learned over the years as an entrepreneur it’s that to succeed in business we have to excite others in the products we create, the services we offer, and the solutions to key challenges that we find. It’s the same when we have a new idea for a business or a new offering to our customers. If we can’t excite people about our ideas, then often they remain just that, ideas on paper. That’s why it has been exciting to see the women entrepreneurs from the Lionesses of Africa network in action, pitching their new product and services at our Lioness Lean In events across the continent. The ones who get results are those that most excite potential customers and partners in the audience. They turn their passion for what they do into pitches that resonate, that fire up the imagination. It’s worth spending quality time on getting your own pitch techniques perfected, so that when you have a new business idea to launch, you are ready to win over those customers and investors.

I love nothing more than seeing women entrepreneurs in action, passionately pitching their businesses to potential investors, selling their products to interested customers, or nailing that all important, life-changing deal. It’s great to see! After all, business is about selling, in all its forms, and some people are naturally better at selling and feel more comfortable with it than others. I was chatting to an amazing young woman entrepreneur recently at her studio and she was talking about how she loves the creative process in her business, developing the products and getting them launch ready, but literally dreads the sales process. Yet in business, especially when you are a startup, it’s a skill that’s essential to develop, and importantly, to perfect. So the bottom line is, we need to find a way to fall in love with the art of selling and not just creating, as sales are the lifeblood of our businesses.

Life as an entrepreneur has its ups and downs, and there’s a reason why we often refer to it as a roller-coaster. There are times when you experience real “highs”, when everything seems to be going right and everything seems possible, and then there are those inevitable low times that inevitably knock your confidence. One day you sign a big contract you have been working on getting for months, you read a great article about your company in a leading magazine, and life seems great. The very next day your new prospective investor backs away from the deal, and you lose your biggest client to a competitor. But the test of a successful entrepreneur is how to ride these crazy ups and downs without giving up. The path to success is never a straight line. The trick is to enjoy the highs when they happen, but keep your eyes on the end goal and find your inner resolve when life throws you that curve ball and you are back on that rollercoaster again.

I have had several conversations this week with women entrepreneurs in the Lionesses of Africa community who are going through a range of challenges right now, and one word kept coming up repeatedly - persistence. And listening to their stories and experiences, those challenges will be familiar to so many others as each day they fight to keep their businesses going, or to take their businesses to the next growth level and into unknown new territory. Starting a business in the first place takes courage, but keeping it going, keeping it relevant and ensuring it grows, takes persistence. So this morning I would like to celebrate all those women entrepreneurs who are chasing their dreams, pushing through the inevitable difficulties, and getting creative in the face of adversity. Let’s learn from each other and never underestimate the power of persistence, it is an essential trait to develop as an entrepreneur.

We all have those days when we need to summon up the courage to keep trying, keep going, keep believing in the businesses we are building and the products and services we are creating, even when it’s really challenging. And that courage can take many forms. At the weekend, I was doing some reading on just this subject, hearing what other well known career women and entrepreneurs alike had to share on how they found their own sources of courage during tough times. I came across a fabulous quote that really resonated with me and which I feel compelled to share. It’s by the author, artist and inspirational speaker, Mary Anne Radmacher, whose books Lean Forward Into Your Life, Live With Intention, and Life Begins When You Do, are wonderfully uplifting. She says, “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” Wise words indeed!