Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Today is International Women's Day, a time when everyone is called upon to come together and help forge women's equality. Collectively, the hope is that we can all #BreakTheBias, the theme for this year’s commemorative day, and celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness against bias, and take action for equality. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead, in life and in business. Knowing that bias exists isn’t enough, action is needed to level the playing field. It’s time to make change happen and #BreakTheBias that is holding women back. This year’s #BreakTheBias campaign asks everyone to actively call out and highlight gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping when it happens. International Women's Day, held on 8 March each year since 1911, was created to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and also to be a call to action to make positive change happen in the lives of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. So what better day to remind everyone that women's equality can't wait. It's going to take everyone to think and be inclusive - all the time, everywhere. So let’s #BreakTheBias! Find out more about International Women’s Day www.internationalwomensday.com

A new study published by the software accounting firm, FreeAgent, has unearthed some interesting findings about women choosing to become entrepreneurs as a result of the impact of COVID-19. Apart from those who needed to embark upon an entrepreneurial life because of redundancy or being furloughed for weeks and months during the pandemic, many more are making proactive life choices to start businesses. The experience of having to remote work, or find alternative sources of self employment from home, have created a wake-up call for many women. They have taken the time to reassess what they want from life and work; what really matters in terms of health and wellbeing; and how they want to better manage family and work life. Thirty-three per cent of the study’s participants said their need to achieve better work/life balance was the primary reason for starting their entrepreneurial journeys. It meant they could spend more quality time with their children; choose when and how to work; and importantly, manage their childcare costs more effectively. But ultimately, it seems the freedom to be able to choose what type of work they wanted to do, and how to do it, to be in control of their destinies, was the most popular reason amongst women to start a business during the COVID-19 pandemic. 41.7% of women surveyed wanted to build a work-life that would fit in with their wider aspirations and responsibilities. So the pandemic has given them the courage to take the plunge, start their businesses, and change their lives.

It’s official - this is a boom time for entrepreneurs and startups. The global pandemic has acted as a catalyst for more and more people around the world to take their futures into their own hands and to create their own businesses. This apparent surge in startups is attributed in part to many people being retrenched or furloughed at the height of the pandemic and starting their own businesses to take control back of their lives. The Financial Times newspaper looked at official statistics in various countries and found increases in startups were at all-time highs. In July 2020, the US recorded a 95% increase in the number of applications to start new businesses compared to the previous year. In the UK in the same period, there was a 30% increase in new businesses registered, and in France, a 20% increase which represented a historical maximum figure. In the post-Covid-19 economy, analysts are now predicting that the growth in entrepreneurship will continue, providing some positive relief from the negative sentiments coming from the corporate world. National and local economies need small businesses to launch and succeed if they are to contribute to the growing need for job creation. In the Lionesses of Africa community, the need to support women-owned startups on their growth journeys is being recognized by some of the new partnerships now being announced. September will see the launch of the Sunlight X Lionesses of Africa Accelerator programme, an initiative aimed at helping 300 women entrepreneurs in South Africa to grow their businesses to the next level. Partnerships such as these are making a difference, and Africa needs more of them if we are to create the vast number of jobs that are needed.

Smart businesses no longer just talk about giving great customer service. Instead, they aim to delight their customers, to give them a new standard of customer experience. But what does it take to delight a customer, what does it really mean? Ultimately, if you can delight your customers, you are giving them the highest level of customer satisfaction and an experience that goes above and beyond what they expect. Delighting your customers is good for them, and it is good for business. Why? Because delighted customers become loyal customers, they keep coming back, and importantly they tell other people about their wonderful experience. Delighted customers are likely to spend more, make more regular purchases, and talk about their experiences to other people, helping you attract new customers along the way. So at a practical level, what does customer delight look like and how can you replicate it in your own business? An example could be in the way you reward your customers for their decision to buy from you. This could be a small surprise gift with every purchase; or mailing out a free promotional product; or sending a birthday greetings email to your regular customers to show them how much you value them and their business. If you want to think about how you can delight your customers, let these words by the great Maya Angelou inspire you. She says, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” That’s what delighting your customers is all about!

As a business owner, knowing how to tell your unique business story is such a powerful skill to have when connecting with customers. But that story needs to be truly authentic if you are to gain the trust and loyalty of those customers. Customers today are much more knowledgeable about the products and services they are looking for, and they don’t need an ‘over the top’ marketing pitch to make them buy. Instead, they are interested in the business behind the brand, the maker behind the product, the specialist behind the service. Remember that your business story is unique to you, and it doesn’t need to be elaborate, just authentic and real. Customers want to feel they have an emotional connection to a brand and that it resonates with them. So a good tip is to share your personal brand journey, talking about how the business was launched, what inspired you, how you innovated to create your products and services. It is also fascinating for customers to get an insight into how your products are made, who creates them, if local materials or ingredients are used, and how local communities might benefit. Use such details to create a brand story that is both interesting and authentic to you. It’s also important to remember that as your business grows, so does your story, so keep refreshing it as you go and keep those customers interested and coming back to know more.

One of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs over the past year has been the disruption of supply chains and the challenge of getting raw materials into businesses and finished goods out and delivered to customers. Such disruption has posed not only a serious challenge but also a threat to many business operations. So what are the mainstream management consultancies recommending as a way out of this dilemma? Localizing local supply chains is being seen as the solution. By sourcing raw materials, products, services and expertise locally, everyone wins. Neighbourhood business eco-systems are strengthened; local businesses can keep their production going and get their goods to market; and local consumers have the opportunity to buy and support local business that in turn creates local jobs. This shift from global to local, and a rethink of business models that focus less on mass efficiency and more on local resilience, provides benefits for everyone along the supply chain.

With an increasing number of women entrepreneurs having to take their businesses online, it means that more of us are spending greater amounts of time in the digital world - and it could be impacting on our wellbeing. There are positives and negatives to this new way of living and working. On the plus side, entrepreneurs are able to maximize their productivity through digitized processes, with online marketing and communication meaning less travel time to promote their businesses to customers face-to-face. Another plus is that innovation can thrive, with team members encouraged to think about new ways of doing business and engaging with customers, or creating new and exciting products and services. On the flip side, spending more time doing business and working in the digital environment, often from home instead of the office, means less human interaction, more onscreen time, a blurring of the lines between home and work life. As business will continue to be done increasingly digitally as the world finds a way of working with the pandemic, it’s important to balance digital wellbeing with time to maintain health, personal relationships, and the role women play in greater society. So, have you checked your digital wellbeing lately?

As we all know and appreciate, technology plays an important tole in making our personal and business lives function more efficiently. We have become used to being digitally connected 24/7, ready to react, respond and comment to the never-ending barrage of messages, news, enquiries, and the sheer weight of visual content that is streamed to our consciousness each day. Being permanently connected, always-on, and exposed to an audience that might be interested in what we have to say, brings with it great responsibility. Acknowledging how the world has changed over the past year due to the pandemic, it has never been more important to make our digital connections count, but also to make those connections kinder, more decent. Just because we have an opinion about another person’s way of doing business, or the quality of their products and services, or the way we feel about their brand, doesn’t mean we should broadcast our thoughts to the world. So much of what is shared online to shame founders and their businesses could just as easily be solved with a direct note to share feedback. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes and think about how we would feel if our customers or stakeholders were using the power of digital media to constantly share their negative feedback instead of talking to us directly and giving us the opportunity to address those criticisms in person. The anonymity of the digital world makes it all too easy to criticize with impunity. So let’s take the time to remember that behind every business and brand are passionate entrepreneurs, trying to make a living, and let’s see a little more digital decency this year.

If 2020 taught the world anything it’s that you can only plan for what you know. Life has a way of interrupting the best made plans, and in the past year which has been devastated by COVID-19, businesses were caught unawares and plans had to quickly change. Today, women entrepreneurs know the value of being agile in their businesses, learning how to pivot towards opportunities whilst things are uncertain. Think about how many businesses you know which pivoted during the pandemic - there are those who moved from fashion design and creation to PPE manufacturing; or from perfume manufacturing to hand sanitizer production; all to meet a need and to create an opportunity to keep businesses going during tough times. Those businesses that have survived, and indeed thrived, during these uncertain and extremely challenging times are those whose founders have adapted their plans for what they know now. They have shifted their business offerings to meet market demand, taken their operations digital, and learned the value of the personal touch, even if only online, to ensure that customers feel connected to the brand. That way, when the global recovery becomes a reality, and life and business returns to some kind of normality, customers will remember that connection and return. So going forward, the lesson learned is to plan for what you know!

If you walk down any big retail high street in the world, the chances are good that you will see the impact of the pandemic reflected in the stores and the brand names that have now disappeared. Some of the familiar retail brand names that have been anchor tenants on global high streets for years no longer exist or have now taken their business solely online. As retail high streets have long been the heartbeat of local communities around the world, what can be done to rebuild them for the people who depend on them for goods, services and importantly, employment? Many retail experts are suggesting that the answer lies in independent shops run by entrepreneurs who bring their passion, energy, commitment and jobs back to local retail high streets. This is good news for women entrepreneurs in the retail sector who have previously been nudged out of the prime retail locations by the bigger players. Now, independent retail is being seen in a positive new light, and the solution to reinvigorating local communities who depend on thriving retail high streets in so many ways. Independent retailers, your time is now!

Some entrepreneurs are natural at pitching their businesses to potential investors, others find it hard and often stressful. But it doesn’t have to be if you follow some simple but effective tips. Guy Kawasaki, the renowned American marketing guru, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, suggests following his 10-20-30 Rule of Presentation if you really want to make a pitch count. He may have created this golden rule more than a decade ago, but it still works really effectively. If you are giving a pitch presentation, and using slides to get your message across, the 10-20-30 rule says you should use just ten slides, your presentation should last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. The topics for the ten slides should focus on the problem, the solution, the business model, the underlying technology, sales and marketing, the competition, the team, projections and milestones, status and timeline, and summary and call to action. So, if you want to make your pitch work for you and help you to close the deal, then remember the 10-20-30 golden rule. Happy pitching!

There is a quiet revolution underway, brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and one that is creating a new movement of women entrepreneurs globally. The latest annual Women in the Workplace study undertaken by consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, has found that at least one in four women are considering leaving the corporate world to start a business of their own. The overall consensus from those making this move was that corporate life no longer aligns with their core values, something that became more apparent during lengthy lockdown periods spent remote working. The opportunity to give up the daily long commute in traffic, abandon the suits and heels for more casual workwear, and remove the unnecessarily long meeting schedules in the office, highlighted what was really valuable on the work front. Women instead rediscovered themselves, allowed themselves to find their passions, and make the realization that taking ownership of life by starting a values based business just made sense. These women are now building businesses that work for them, and are no longer sacrificing their aspirations and needs in the corporate world, instead creating businesses that harness their strengths and passion for what they do.

Talk to any entrepreneur who is in the retail sector and they will tell you that they are hoping for consumer confidence to return in the year ahead, whether online or in-store. But what are the global retail sector trend experts predicting for 2021, and what does it mean for all those women entrepreneurs who so badly need an uptick in sales this year? Well firstly, trend forecasters are seeing the demise of the over-represented global chain store on our city and town high streets and shopping malls. Instead, niche independent retail stores are forecast to be the enterprises that will grow in the year ahead as shoppers seek a different, safer, more individual shopping experience. Another retail trend forecast is that e-commerce will continue to grow, with independent online retail brands also getting a slice of the action. 2021 is likely to see these niche brands building bigger and more loyal customer bases by tapping into the desire for more personalized service offerings. It’s all about creating retail experiences that respond to what consumers need and feel comfortable with. So how is your business responding to such needs this year?

Scaling up a business brings its own challenges for women entrepreneurs, and one of those challenges is finding the time to focus on the things that matter most to growth and handing over key tasks to others. In other words, delegation! So what are the benefits of delegating all those non-revenue generating tasks to other skilled and experienced people when you are looking to scale up? Firstly, delegating means you free up your valuable time to focus on the business growth. Secondly, you can really harness the talent and core competencies of others, allowing them to contribute fully to the business. Thirdly, you can achieve greater efficiencies in the business if you are laser focused on growth and your team is focused on operational productivity to help you get there. As a business founder, scaling is a highly strategic, time-consuming and complex process, one that requires your full attention. So it is essential that you delegate all those tasks that do not contribute directly to the leadership role you need to take in the business.

It’s that time of the year, and what a year this has been, to think about potentially refreshing our products, services, brands, and perhaps our businesses as a whole as we get ready for the new year ahead. The act of refreshing and reinventing our businesses is part of the journey, and as entrepreneurs, we are often excited at the prospect of renewal. It provides the ideal opportunity to revisit our original purpose, to make changes in order to reach our goals, to ensure we don’t remain static. After such a challenging year, preparing our business, and indeed ourselves, for a refresh can be an exciting prospect. It can present an opportunity to learn, to grow, to experiment, to reinvent. It doesn’t mean we have to change everything in our businesses and our lives, it just means hitting the refresh button and shaking things up a little. It’s not just a good thing to do for our businesses, but also for ourselves as women entrepreneurs in order to keep our passion, our enthusiasm and creativity levels high. As the globally best-selling author and luxury brand expert, Mireille Guiliano says, “Just as established products and brands need updating to stay alive and vibrant, you periodically need to refresh or reinvent yourself." Wise words indeed!

There is a key trait that is an essential for any woman entrepreneur and that is when life knocks you down, and it inevitably will on this journey, you need to get back up and start again. You need to remember all those times you have persevered in the past. Remember how you felt and how you summoned up the courage to look beyond the immediate difficulties and focus on what could lie ahead. Remember how you gave yourself positive affirmations, telling yourself ‘you’ve got this’, and how it made you feel better equipped to deal with the tough times. It’s all about developing your mental strength. As the best selling author, Sanjo Jendayi, says, “Champions don't give up; they get up!” So when your life and your confidence takes a knock, pick yourself up, give yourself a healthy dose of positive self-talk, and get back on your entrepreneurial journey.

Steve Jobs once said the now famous words, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” For many entrepreneurs, there is often an inherent dread of hiring people who on paper appear to be smarter or more knowledgeable than they are in key aspects of the business. It is often a matter of ego, or an inbuilt inferiority complex that rears its head at times like these. But look at it another way - if this were a competition, you are already the winner because you have started a successful business and they haven’t. Now you are in the position of looking for great talent to help take your business to the next level. As Steve Jobs said, always look to bring smart people into your business because they will each bring something uniquely valuable, skills and insights that you need to help you realize your vision.

Across the African continent, many countries were already experiencing a jobs crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and this challenge has now become significantly bigger. The UK’s Development Finance Institution, the CDC Group estimates that between now and 2030, Africa’s working-age population is expected to grow by forty per cent to 1 billion, which implies that the rate of job creation must increase by around 12 million jobs per year to prevent unemployment from rising. We know that job creation is probably the single biggest political and social priority across the continent. We also know that job creation is very near and dear to many of the women entrepreneurs across our community. They see the impacts of unemployment in their communities every day, and experience the responsibility and the pressure to create new sustainable jobs through their businesses. Many women entrepreneurs are trailblazers in this regard and have become an inspiration to others when it comes to job creation. Women such as Divine Ndhlukula, founder of Securico Security Services, who has long been the biggest employer of women in Zimbabwe outside of government. Divine, and other women entrepreneurs like her in Africa, live their mission of using their businesses to be a force for positive change, with job creation at the heart of that change.

We all usually look forward to it - it’s those final weeks of the year when under normal circumstances some of the best retail business sales are achieved. However, given the huge challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a rush for retailers large and small to try and make up for lost sales in these days leading up to the festive season next month. As a result, brand marketers are looking at the most effective and direct ways of reaching their customers with special offers, new product launches, tempting discounts, anything to get them into their stores, physically or online. As email inboxes and mobile message boxes start rapidly filling up with marketing mailers from brands trying to sell us every type of gift idea in preparation for the festive season ahead, it can all feel overwhelming! For entrepreneurs trying to gain a foothold in this retail madness, it’s essential to find a way of standing out from the crowd. So why not invite your customers to a free online or in-person consultation or product demonstration; organize a product launch event online or in-store; create a unique experience as a way of getting your products noticed - and importantly sold. Selling experiences, not just products, could be the way to go this year and cut through the retail noise.

Bootstrapping is a term we know all too well as women entrepreneurs. It’s the act of building a business from the ground up using personal savings in the early days until, with a lot of luck and a huge amount of hard work, those all important first sales come rolling in. Did you know that the term Bootstrapping has its origin in the early 19th century, meaning “to pull up by one's own bootstraps”, eventually becoming a well-used metaphor for achieving success with no outside financial support. Talk to the majority of women entrepreneurs who have built highly successful businesses and brands about how they financed them in the early days and the chances are good they will say they bootstrapped. Take the example of Sara Blakely, founder of revolutionary underwear company Spanx. At the age of 27, she launched her business with an innovative new product idea, a big vision, and funded it using all $5,000 of her personal savings. She even wrote a patent application and filed it herself to save on legal fees. Today, Sara still owns 100 percent of Spanx, her products are sold in more than 50 countries, she was named the world's youngest, self-made female billionaire by Forbes Magazine in 2012, and hasn’t taken a penny from outside investors to get there. She is proof positive that it’s possible to bootstrap and go big!