I often hear discussed that there are not enough women-led high growth businesses in Africa. That women are reluctant to scale. That women are risk averse. That women lack the ambition to go big. So I put these questions to a panel of successful, high growth women entrepreneurs at the recent Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Africa Conference that we cohosted with Harvard University’s Center for African Studies. Each of my panelists were already great examples of women entrepreneurs demonstrating the counterpoint to all these questions, having successfully taken their ambition for their businesses and scaled them to enviable heights. However, they all had interesting insights to share on the subject of scaling. The consensus of opinion was that, although many women entrepreneurs today start out with a big dream for their businesses and with growth on their minds, the reality is very different. Often the barriers to scaling a business can be just too great, meaning that all too many women owned businesses never fulfill their growth and impact potential. The flip-side to this situation is that there are also many women entrepreneurs who are quite content with staying small, building a business that fits around their family life, without necessarily a vision to take it bigger. This is particularly the case with women solopreneurs who choose to build a business that employs just themselves and not other people. The fact is that growth and ambition mean different things to different women entrepreneurs, and there is room for everyone to follow their own individual path to success, however that looks to them.

I never fail to be impressed by my fellow women entrepreneurs who passionately share my belief that we can change lives through our businesses in so many ways. I regularly share a cup of tea and a chat, now virtually over a Skype or Zoom link of course in these challenging times in the world, to talk not just about business but also about philanthropy. I really do believe that for the majority of women entrepreneurs on the African continent, philanthropy is in their DNA. They may not recognize it as such, but they are passionate about giving back and committed to creating social and community impact through their businesses. They also recognize the opportunities that their entrepreneurial experience creates for them to personally make a difference to other people’s lives. They do this through their philanthropic initiatives, the foundations they launch, and the lending of their voices to causes they believe in. It reminds me of a great quote by Melinda Gates who says, “If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.”

Don’t you just love it when you see women entrepreneurs who are bucking the trend and managing to grow and thrive, despite all the challenges surrounding them? I know I find it personally really inspirational, and it sends a clear message to everyone that opportunities for growth can present themselves, even in the most difficult times. So here is some encouraging news for all women entrepreneurs to take note of. Recent data published by Beauhurst in the UK indicates that female-led, high-growth companies have been disproportionately impacted throughout the pandemic. However, despite this impact, more than 60 per cent of female-founded, equity-backed businesses are now operating with minimal disruption to their business, showing that female-led businesses are fighting back. How are they doing this exactly? Well, it appears to be a combination of factors including: rethinking business models; harnessing the power of technology and digital platforms to reach their customers and undertake their work; and also embracing remote working for their employees. It seems to be working, so let’s see how more of us on the African continent can buck the trend by rethinking our strategies, pivoting our business models, and looking at the way we utilize our people.

Some women entrepreneurs are born collaborators, whilst others need to be persuaded. But the one thing I can say with confidence is that when women entrepreneurs do collaborate, creativity wins. During one of our exhibitor group chats at the start of the Absa Lionesses Xpo last week, I was encouraging everyone to use the platform as a way of getting to know one another, to build new friendships. Importantly I also invited all the women entrepreneurs there to think about ways to collaborate, to share their considerable expertise and experience to innovate, to get creative. It was an invitation taken up quickly and with great enthusiasm by many. One of the first to step forward and express interest in a possible collaboration was Vicki Bain, founder of the South African/Belgian artisanal chocolate brand, Chocoloza. She was inspired to reach out to Sarah Kennan, the award winning distiller and founder of Leonista, who turns South African grown agave into a unique product similar to Tequila, or Mezcal. At Lionesses of Africa, we are now waiting in eager anticipation to see if this potential creative collaboration results in a new limited edition range of Leonista spirit filled, handcrafted luxury chocolates. Watch this space Lionesses!

This past week, I found myself thinking about the well-known proverb, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” meaning that no matter how challenging things might seem to be, there is always hope or something good to be found in every negative situation. I was reading an article on how it is always possible to find sources of strength, things that bring you joy, or a greater a sense of clarity, even during the hardest of times. So, I thought I would share some of these insights with you this morning, just in case you need to find your own silver linings right now. Firstly, when a situation or period in your life is difficult, you might be tempted to think you can’t get through it - but the reality is that we are more resilient than we think we are and eventually we will emerge stronger for the experience. Secondly, when you experience difficulties in your own life, you become more compassionate towards others, because you feel their plight too. Thirdly, you discover who your real friends are when times are hard and it allows you to develop a greater sense of gratitude for those who stand by you through the good and bad times. So, you see how it really is possible to find that silver lining, even in the toughest of times.

I am a great believer in the idea that if you put a group of like-minded women entrepreneurs together, you make things happen. Ideas are shared, challenges find solutions, business gets done. On Thursday last week, you may have seen that we launched to the public an exciting new impact-driven initiative - the Absa Lionesses Xpo. This virtual, interactive exhibition platform aims to showcase and connect 117 South African women entrepreneurs from a wide range of business sectors with corporate buyers and decision-makers. It couldn’t have come at a better time. The aim is to provide a tangible and innovative way of addressing the challenge for women to access new market opportunities, particularly after so many businesses have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic this year. However, what was really interesting to see unfold was these 117 women entrepreneurs coming together as a mini-community before the Xpo actually went live to the public. They started reaching out to one another, doing business with each other, assisting one another with social media marketing, and finding ways to collaborate on new products and services. It was wonderful to see, and again reinforces my belief that when women entrepreneurs come together in a community, things happen. After all, that was my philosophy when starting Lionesses of Africa six years ago, and it is why we are still growing today!

As I have got older, I find myself becoming more curious, in stark contrast to my childhood. I am becoming more open to possibilities outside my usual field of vision or experience. I am interested in finding new ways of doing things, or building my knowledge banks on a wealth of different subjects, or trying new things that can enrich my personal life and business experiences. It is all too easy for us to get into a rut, particularly when we are busy building our businesses. We have a tendency to focus simply on the day to day challenges and tasks that need to be done. We get used to doing things the same way out of habit or unwillingness to change. We often want to achieve a different outcome, but intrinsically know that unless we step out of our comfort zones it is not going to happen. Personally, I find that the more curious I become, the more new ideas flow, the more ‘aha’ moments I experience, and the more interesting my entrepreneurial journey becomes. It reminds me of the well-known quote, “The future belongs to the curious.” I couldn’t agree more!

Talking to so many successful women entrepreneurs over the years about what drives them on their journeys, one of the responses I hear most is it’s their clear sense of purpose that motivates them. I often speak about how important it is to know your “why” as an entrepreneur, and ultimately that ‘why’ is your purpose. The reason I am personally so inspired by my fellow women entrepreneurs who really know their purpose in life and in business, is that it makes them supremely focused. They know what they want to achieve, they have key goals, they understand what it will take to realize those goals, and they are prepared to do the hard yards over many years to get there. That sense of purpose keeps driving them through the good times and the challenging times, such as those we are going through now. Purpose driven entrepreneurship, although it has been around for a long time, seems now to have found its moment in the world. As we deal with the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we adapt to a much-changed business environment, our personal sense of purpose will help to carry us through. In the words of best selling author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur Jack Canfield, “If you can tune into your purpose and really align with it, setting goals so that your vision is an expression of that purpose, then life flows much more easily.” Wise words indeed!

I am a great fan of other successful women entrepreneurs, particularly those who build solutions to challenges or problems that we can all use as consumers to make our lives and businesses better or more efficient. When reading about these women or meeting them in person, and hearing at first hand their unique business building stories, I learn something from each of their experiences that I can apply to my own entrepreneurial journey. I firmly believe that we are never too old to be inspired by others, or to learn something new, we just need to be open to new ideas and ways of doing things. So this week, I loved reading the story of Julia Hartz, the co-founder with her husband Kevin of Eventbrite, the highly successful event ticketing platform, which incidentally we use every day at Lionesses of Africa. She shares a philosophy that resonates with me, and that is to not waste precious time theorizing about life and business, but instead to go with ‘gut feel’ and just start building. It worked for us at Lionesses of Africa, and it certainly worked for Julia - she launched the business whilst pregnant with her first child, worked in cramped conditions in the early days to get the business off the ground, and learned all aspects of the business as she went along. The approach paid off and in 2018 the company filed for a US$ 200 million IPO. Proof positive that seeing a gap in the market and then building a business solution to fill that gap from the bottom up, works.

My own personal leisure habits, like so many other people’s, have had to adapt to the Covid-impacted world we live in. Whereas in the past, I would have spent my precious leisure time visiting an art gallery or attending a concert to see a performance by a favourite artist or composer, today all my leisure experiences are virtual. One thing I have noticed is that this virtual world has made me more open to trying new things. For example, so far this month I have attended a virtual masterclass by a leading author; a classical concert; and a contemporary dance performance, all streamed to my laptop. As much as I miss the thrill of the live performances and can’t wait until I can attend them safely again in person, I have become a big fan of live streaming and the virtual experience. From a business perspective, our recent collaborative “Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Africa” Conference in partnership with Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, which was streamed via Zoom and Facebook Live, was a great example of making an important event accessible and available to everyone in our community as it happened. It is a reminder to all of us, as entrepreneurs, that it is easier now than it has ever been to create memorable experiences that connect our businesses and our brands with our customers.

The jury is out on the subject of multitasking! Today, there are many women who are seriously re-thinking the pros and cons of multitasking, and I have to admit I am one of them. But as an entrepreneur, I have practiced multitasking as a critical skill for most of my life. When our children were growing up, I remember all too well trying to juggle the demands of building a business with taking care of a family. The constant global travel schedules, the long working hours, at the same time fulfilling all those other essential roles that are important to making family life work for the children - step-mom, sports supporter, school lunchbox creator, costume designer, chef, homework advisor, daily crazy life planner. Sound familiar? But it turns out that having to wear so many different hats on a daily basis to meet the demands of family and business life is a really useful skill to have as an entrepreneur, particularly in the early startup phase. One minute you are selling to a customer, the next you are doing admin and preparing invoices, and the next you are testing new products to go to market. So whether you like it or not, multitasking is a really useful skillset to have when you are building a business and building a family at the same time.

“If you can’t sell yourself, you cannot sell your product, service, company, book or idea.” Those are the words that literally leapt off the opening page when I was delving into Jeannette Seibly’s book ‘It’s Time to Brag! And, how true those words are! As an author and a business coach, Jeannette says people remember that opening line, it sticks in people’s heads - because it’s a basic principle in business. So why is it then that so many women entrepreneurs find it so hard to sell themselves, to appreciate that they are the most powerful brand ambassadors they have for their businesses? Is it because they see self-promotion as bragging (as in Jeanette’s book title), and that doesn’t sit comfortably with them? That is certainly a sentiment I hear often when talking to women entrepreneurs, often accompanied by a comparison to their male counterparts who would never have a problem with selling themselves as part of their business pitches. For me, I think it’s all about balance. As women entrepreneur founders, we need to appreciate our personal brand power and see it as an asset for the business and its future growth. Instead of seeing self promotion as bragging, perhaps we need to view it as simply being our own best salespeople, building confidence in our brands by being visible to our customers, and ensuring our business ethos and messages resonate with those who matter to us.

I was in a meeting this past week where the conversation turned to how women entrepreneurs are perceived to be much more risk averse than their male counterparts. It’s something I hear often, particularly when talking about scaling and taking on investors or growth capital. But one of the highly experienced women entrepreneurs taking part in the discussion made an interesting comment - she said, “It’s not that we are risk averse, we just want to make sure that any scaling or investment decision fits into a rational, well thought out plan for our business and its long-term future. It is not something to be rushed into without such a plan in place supported by the right data and insights.” This is an approach and an attitude towards growth and investment that I hear often amongst women entrepreneurs. Some may choose to call that being risk averse, but others will see it as a desire to have a well defined plan in place that has fully assessed and mitigated against inherent risk factors with any new venture or investment path. Is that what is meant by the saying ‘taking a calculated risk’?

Everyone has setbacks in life and in business, it goes with the territory. I can’t think of a single entrepreneur I have met throughout my own personal journey who hasn’t had to deal with setbacks of varying magnitudes over the years, and that goes for me too. It’s how we build our resilience and how we deal with those setbacks that matters. When I experience a setback and something doesn’t go according to plan, Richard Branson’s words always come into my head - he says, “A setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.” How true that is, but it doesn’t mean it is not really tough to go through at the time - it can be energy sapping, emotional, stressful and anxiety filled. How we learn and bounce back from these setbacks is what is important, and as strange as it may seem, usually something positive can be pulled from any negative situation. Personally, I use a setback as motivation and it gives me the energy I need to power me through to finding a solution. Also, I make myself think ‘out of the box’ to find a different way to achieve the end goal. I have gained the wisdom over the years to really take the time to learn from any setbacks, to really question what I could have done differently or how I could have dealt with a challenge better in order to obtain a better outcome. My setbacks in life and in business over the years have definitely helped to shape my character. They have encouraged me to try and find the positive in every situation, and importantly to keep some perspective on where that setback fits into my overall life plan. Perhaps that’s one of the benefits that comes with years of life and business experience.

Did you know that Africa only accounts for 1.9 percent of global value added in manufacturing? It’s a statistic that, unfortunately, has remained unchanged for decades. Cocoa, coffee, tea, cotton and many other agricultural commodities leave the continent in a raw state to be processed by big global companies elsewhere in the world. The end result is that Africa doesn’t get to reap the economic benefits of the raw materials it produces. There has long been a recognition by those in business and government that there is an urgent need for diversification in the commodities and natural resources sectors on the continent, but the COVID-19 pandemic has now brought this need to the fore, with calls to accelerate the push for economic diversification, processing of commodities and raw materials, and industrialization. This diversification is critical for Africa’s future economic growth, and it’s also critical for women entrepreneurs who are now emerging with businesses that are focused on creating higher-value products from these commodities. I have spent over a decade travelling across the African continent, visiting women entrepreneurs who are building high growth potential businesses focused on creating higher-value products and jobs. They are part of a growing trend of women entrepreneurs creating newer, more dynamic, and higher value agro-products such as chocolate, beauty products, botanicals, teas, and coffees. You may already know know such names as Flora Mutahi, founder of Melvin Marsh International in Kenya, famous for Melvin’s Teas; or Kimberly and Priscilla Addison, co-founders of ’57 Chocolate in Ghana, or Lorna Scott, founder of Inverroche in South Africa, famous for its luxury gins. These powerhouse women are proof positive of how Africa’s commodities can be transformed into value-add enterprises and globally recognised brands. Africa needs more pioneers like them!

For me, this time of the year has always been associated with launching new passion projects - and I am a great believer in following your passion in life and in business. I think it’s because, as we enter the final quarter of the year, I start to reflect on what I have personally achieved so far against my personal goals, but importantly, on what I still want to do. Lionesses of Africa started out as my life’s passion project when it was officially launched almost six years ago now, and even though we breathed life into it with a big vision and equally ambitious goals, we had no idea how it would change our lives in so many unexpected and wonderful ways. When I look back, I appreciate perhaps even more today, just how important it is to take a chance on a passion-driven idea and to bring it to life. In my case, my motivation came from a deep-rooted desire to make a difference in the world, and more specifically to positively impact the lives of women entrepreneurs in Africa. I took a leap of faith, I followed my passion, I went all in, and today, Lionesses of Africa, the fastest growing community of women entrepreneurs on the continent, is the end result. Being on this passion driven journey has changed my life and the lives of so many others over the years. So, I encourage you bring your own passion project to life, whatever that might be.

Last week, I hope you took the opportunity to follow the truly inspirational conference we co-hosted with Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, on the theme of ‘Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Africa’. It was a powerful gathering of leading women entrepreneurs from across the African continent, together with senior academics, business decision-makers and influencers who all have a vested interest in this important subject. We may not have been able to gather in person due to the challenges we face in this Covid-19 world, but the power of technology brought us together digitally to share, inspire and connect. The robust debate and exchange of ideas was honest and refreshing, and reminded me once again of the positively transformative effect that takes place when you surround yourself with like-minded people with shared ideals. Our ability to talk about and debate important issues such as how we improve access to growth funding, or access to new markets, or access to mentoring, was stimulated by having like-minded women sharing their experiences and knowledge - and telling it like it is! I certainly learned a lot from the exchanges, and importantly, also felt uplifted in the company of so many women entrepreneur peers who are making a real impact on the continent and globally. We all need to surround ourselves with like-minded people if we are to keep our ideas continually fresh and our energy levels high.

We have all done it - sat for hours reading the autobiographies of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, trying to glean all those invaluable insights into how to achieve success in business and in life. I was reminded of this recently as I was doing some research for an article I was writing, and I went back to read the story of Steve Jobs and the global business phenomenon that became Apple - now there is a success story constantly worth revisiting! He said something really interesting on the subject of what makes some entrepreneurs successful and others not that stuck with me, and it is something I have noticed myself over the years when meeting so many women entrepreneurs who have achieved success in their lives. He said, ”I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” I think he is right - the women entrepreneurs I have met who have achieved success have persevered despite all the challenges they have encountered, all the failures they have experienced, all the hardships they have endured - they have persevered until they realized their vision. Success is hard to achieve, that’s why perseverance is such a necessary trait to help you get there.

Standing in my kitchen preparing my ritual morning fresh orange and ginger juice and enjoying the fresh bitter orange aroma that always fills the air from grating the orange zest into the glass, that wonderful expression ‘zest for life’ came to mind. It reminded me of just how many women entrepreneurs I have been privileged to meet over the years who personify this expression. These are women who leap out of bed in the morning, keen to start the day and to squeeze the most out of every moment. They genuinely see challenges as opportunities to make them think differently and find more innovative solutions. They have enthusiasm for new ideas and new projects, and throw themselves energetically into making them work. Importantly, their positive approach to life and business has an energizing effect on all those around them, improving productivity and commitment to achieving key goals. Having a zest for life is a trait that perhaps every woman entrepreneur should embrace - not just because it is a life affirming experience, but because when we realize just how precious life and time is, it seems a waste not to live it to the full.

Everyone talks about how lonely this entrepreneurial life can be. Over the years that I have travelled across the African continent, talking to women who are building independent businesses and lives, many of them first generation entrepreneurs with no family business mentors to rely on, this is a sentiment often shared. It is why we need our friends, other women in business who understand what we are going through, to walk this entrepreneurial journey with us. I was reading a quote recently from one of my favourite ancient Greek philosophers, Epicurus, which really resonated with me on this subject of the importance of friends in our lives, and it is relevant to their role as support systems to us personally as women entrepreneurs. Epicurus believed that people were best able to live and enjoy a self-sufficient life when surrounded by friends. He said, “It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confident knowledge that they will help us.” How true is that - often we just feel better knowing that we have someone we can rely on if we ever need advice, or a sounding board, or a shoulder to cry on when things get tough. Just knowing they are there is a comfort and gives us confidence to keep going. So keep your fellow women entrepreneur friends close to you, and be there for them when they encounter their own challenges or anxieties. After all, that’s what friends are for!