I never tire of reading and sharing each day the truly inspirational stories of women entrepreneurs in the Lionesses of Africa network who are building great businesses and brands across the African continent. Everyone’s story is very personal to them, but their experiences (good and bad), personal insights, challenges and solutions when shared, can benefit all of us as entrepreneurs. Building a business requires us to be open to learning new things constantly, and therefore being able to share with others who are undertaking similar entrepreneurial journeys can be invaluable. It also helps us to know that we are not alone. So this month, I encourage all of you to share your startup story and connect with the 930,000+ other women entrepreneurs in the Lionesses of Africa network who are just like you. That’s the power of sharing!

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!

I don’t know about you, but I find comfort in certain routines, both in my personal and my business life. I like knowing that my early morning routine is the same, no matter where I am travelling in the world. It sets the right tone and gives order for my day ahead. That sense of routine is like an anchor that keeps me grounded, no matter how busy or chaotic my life might get. And trust me, when I am travelling across different time zones and keeping up with a ridiculously busy schedule in different cities and countries, knowing I have a routine to stick to makes life so much easier to manage. I’m not on my own in this respect - my love of a good early morning routine is shared by such well known entrepreneurs as Jessica Dilullo Herrin, founder of online fashion merchandise store Stella & Dot, who gets her day started by caring for her mind, body and soul with meditation and exercise; or Ariana Huffington who sets her intentions for the day with yoga, meditation, and Bulletproof coffee before starting work. The bottom line is that whatever works for you, it’s good to have a routine.

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.

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!

There is something very powerful about seeing other women entrepreneurs who have made it on their journeys. I know that from a personal perspective and after more than  three decades of being an entrepreneur, I am inspired by and still learn each and every day from my fellow women business builders around the world. So it’s always fascinating to hear from many women that they find themselves constantly monitoring and benchmarking themselves and their businesses against their peers, and getting frustrated in the process. It’s the nature of competitive spirit in business to constantly look at what others are doing, but it can also have a downside when it hampers your own progress. Success comes when you keep your eye on the ball and on your own business at all times, and not on your competitors. There is a great quote from one of our wonderful Lionesses of Africa, Ngyenzi ‘Nunu’Mugyenyi, cofounder of BOLD Kampala in Uganda, who says on the subject, "Mind your own business. Focus your energy on how you can better your business, rather than on how the businesses of others are better than yours. There are enough entrepreneurial journeys to go around." Great advice!

There is a great saying that goes, ‘ Motivation without desire is hollow’, and as we all know in the world of entrepreneurship, motivation is a critical factor for success. But it can often be hard to stay motivated during those difficult, energy draining and stressful times (and we all have those in business), when we try and keep everyone around us motivated, but as founders, who does the same for us? Is there a secret to staying the course when the going gets tough? Well, according to many successful entrepreneurs out there, one of the best ways of keeping those motivation levels high is to find your desire. And it’s not necessarily a desire simply to make money, although every entrepreneur wants to have cash in the bank. It’s more about finding that inner desire that drives you - your motivation could be to give your children a secure future; or to retire young so that you can do the things you really want to do; or to leave a business legacy for your family. Remembering that inner desire that made you want to become an entrepreneur in the first place will keep you motivated through even the roughest of times.

Being in business can sometimes seem like we are continually climbing a mountain, seeing the summit in the distance, but never quite reaching the top. It can often feel exhausting, and more than a little dispiriting at times. As human beings, we are pre-conditioned to set big goals for ourselves, and it’s natural to want to achieve those goals as quickly as possible, but often we give up when the going get’s tough and that mountain simply seems too big to climb. So how do we get over this hurdle? Well, often it starts with acknowledging that our big goals are not going to be achieved overnight, it’s a journey - and often a long one!. The trick is to celebrate all the small wins along the way, to keep us going. With each small win, our confidence builds, our energy levels rise, our feel-good-factor returns, and we are then much better equipped to keep going, to keep motivated, to keep the big end goal in sight. So if you feel that your own big goals are like that mountain, just too daunting, then remind yourself to keep going by  celebrating all the small wins along the journey. It will keep you on track.

I am a great believer in the power of collective action, and as women entrepreneurs if we each take small, daily actions that will strengthen Africa’s pride of women entrepreneurs, we can make a big difference. Have you thought about where you shop, what you buy, where those products are made, and how you are supporting other women entrepreneurs who are making products and creating services that you might need? As a collective of women entrepreneurs on the African continent, we have the power to support one another in so many ways, helping each other to thrive and grow, simply by the actions and decisions we make each day. By making conscious decisions to buy from one another, to mentor one another, to bring each other’s businesses into our own supply chains, we are individually taking one small step for women’s entrepreneurship, but collectively making one giant leap for economic change for women in Africa.

If you are one of those women entrepreneurs who is constantly striving to be at the top of her business game, but who also underestimates her ability to succeed, or worries about not really belonging to the ‘successful entrepreneurs club’, then you could be battling Imposter Syndrome. It’s that fear of not believing you are worthy of the success you have achieved, or thinking that you have got to where you are today more by luck than management. If that resonates with you, then you are not alone. I was re-reading Valerie Young’s book, The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, this past weekend which is a fascinating read on this subject which afflicts many women entrepreneurs, and many successful women in general. Did you know for example that Oscar winning actresses Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep have both experienced nagging feelings that their awards and accolades were somehow not deserved? However, it appears there is a way of looking at Imposter Syndrome from the flip side. The author suggests that our fears of being inadequate pale into insignificance when compared with our fears of being extraordinary, and that if we embrace a can-do attitude and envision success as a hard won and well-deserved badge of honor, life will look a whole lot different. 

Pick up any newspaper and magazine, or read your daily online news, and chances are you will see stories of some economies globally and on the African continent really flying, and others taking some considerable strain. Big companies and start-up businesses alike have to constantly take the time to re-evaluate their strategies and goals to manage these often severe economic fluctuations and replan where necessary. During such times, a creative approach to business is often needed, particularly when banks and other financial institutions become much more conservative around access to finance, just when you need it most. Women entrepreneurs, in fact women in general, have always traditionally been better at mastering the art of doing more with less, finding creative ways to stay afloat and thrive even through the most uncertain economic times. And it’s interesting to see that those women entrepreneurs who focus on profit over revenue and frugality over ostentatious consumption, typically build more sustainable businesses and create more jobs in the long term. In these uncertain and often wildly fluctuating economic times, it’s a sensible approach to take.

This past weekend, I was reading an article about the life of author Paulo Coehlo, and he said something that might resonate with many women reading this article. He said, “When you say yes to others, make sure you aren’t saying no to yourself.” I was thinking about this in the context of a conversation that comes up often when speaking to women entrepreneurs. Women have often been raised to be “people pleasers”, which can lead to seeking the approval of others, and as a result, they often have a harder time saying “no.” This can lead to them under-charging for their products or services in the marketplace, or being too giving of their time and help in general at the expense of their own needs, business or otherwise. It’s important to remember that it’s impossible to please everyone all the time, and in business trying to be everything to everybody is a potential recipe for failure. So, cut yourself some slack and stop trying to please everyone, instead please yourself!

As entrepreneurs we talk a lot about the need to be fearless in business, but it’s easier said than done. Often, we talk ourselves into being afraid to take the leap, to try something new, to push the boundaries of our comfort zones. But this tentative approach because of fear could be holding us back. However, the solution could be easier than we think. I was reading a great article by Huffington Post founder, Ariana Huffington, who had some interesting insights on the subject. She said, "Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it, the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.” It sounds simple but it’s a good way of conquering this sense of fear and the unknown in business. So, why not take Ariana’s advice, just look fear in the face and push through anyway.

Success means different things to different people. Whether it’s building a substantial business or product that has gone global, or a business that has scaled into multiple locations, or a business that is making an impact in its chosen field, success comes in many forms. So in the world of entrepreneurship, why do we find ourselves sometimes trying to measure up to other people’s ideas of what success looks like? Perhaps it’s time to think about what success really means to each of us individually, and to create our own, very personal definitions that we can work towards, instead of trying to emulate other entrepreneurs’ notions of success. We each have our own entrepreneurial path to follow, and part of the journey is understanding what success means to us. It’s not about chasing a life that is unattainable. It’s about creating a vision and a path for ourselves to follow that means something very personal to us as individuals. And each step we take towards achieving our goals, and each milestone we reach, brings us closer to the success we have defined for ourselves.

I read a great quote this week which should resonate with all those women entrepreneurs who spend their lives pitching their businesses and trying to make the next sale - it says,“You may need 100 'nos' to get one 'yes,' but that one 'yes' will make you more successful tomorrow than you were today.” How true is that? We all know how much work and effort it takes to make that all important sale, and it can be discouraging when you seem to go through a phase when all you hear are no’s from the companies and individuals you are pitching and marketing to. It can inevitably lead to moments of self doubt - and talk to any fellow woman entrepreneur and they will tell you they have been there too. The truth is, we’ll never completely get rid of self-doubt, and we shouldn’t try to. In fact, these feelings can be good for us - they drive us to keep doing better, to change the way we do things in order to get a great result, to question ourselves in order to improve our chances of converting that sale. The trick is to immediately let go of any feelings of doubt that come with every no, and instead just focus on the way you feel when you eventually do hear that yes. It will keep you going and keep those self doubts in check.

So here’s an interesting fact! Did you know that the artisan sector is the second largest employer in the developing world, behind agriculture, worth around $32 billion every year? Millions of people, particularly women, in developing countries around the globe are key drivers of the artisan economy - and that’s certainly the case on the African continent. They are producing handcrafted goods often utilizing traditional skills of all types to build businesses that can sustain themselves, their families and their communities. The artisan sector is significant and growing - international trade in artisan goods more than doubled in recent years. Yet ironically, these very same artisan businesses are seldom recognized as drivers of real economic growth. But it’s important to remember that countries in the developing world have a competitive advantage in the artisan sector because of their rich cultural traditions, diverse artisanal skills, and unique raw materials. And that is certainly the case on the African continent. So it’s perhaps time to start acknowledging the truly important role played by women artisan entrepreneurs in driving Africa’s future economic growth, and at the same time, ensuring that traditional craftsmanship skills are both preserved and taken to the next level.b

Being in business can sometimes seem like we are continually climbing a mountain, seeing the summit in the distance, but never quite reaching the top. It can often feel exhausting, and more than a little dispiriting at times. As human beings, we are pre-conditioned to set big goals for ourselves, and it’s natural to want to achieve those goals as quickly as possible, but often we give up when the going get’s tough and that mountain simply seems too big to climb. So how do we get over this hurdle? Well, often it starts with acknowledging that our big goals are not going to be achieved overnight, it’s a journey - and often a long one!. The trick is to celebrate all the small wins along the way, to keep us going. With each small win, our confidence builds, our energy levels rise, our feel-good-factor returns, and we are then much better equipped to keep going, to keep motivated, to keep the big end goal in sight. So if you feel that your own big goals are like that mountain, just too daunting, then remind yourself to keep going by  celebrating all the small wins along the journey. It will keep you on track.

I am a great believer in the power of collective action, and as women entrepreneurs if we each take small, daily actions that will strengthen Africa’s pride of women entrepreneurs, we can make a big difference. Have you thought about where you shop, what you buy, where those products are made, and how you are supporting other women entrepreneurs who are making products and creating services that you might need? As a collective of women entrepreneurs on the African continent, we have the power to support one another in so many ways, helping each other to thrive and grow, simply by the actions and decisions we make each day. By making conscious decisions to buy from one another, to mentor one another, to bring each other’s businesses into our own supply chains, we are individually taking one small step for women’s entrepreneurship, but collectively making one giant leap for economic change for women in Africa.

I’ve had several conversations recently 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.