As more and more startups are appearing on the scene in Africa, many of them led by women, in particular millennials, the idea of co-working spaces to locate those startups is also gaining traction. Silicon Valley may have kickstarted this trend originally, but Africa has definitely embraced the concept. Co-working spaces are heralded globally as trendy, open spaces conducive to networking and brainstorming, but in Africa they also serve a far more practical purpose, with many co-working spaces mitigating the exorbitant costs of setting up and running an office in those early startup days. For many women entrepreneurs just starting up in business, particularly those going it alone as solopreneurs, co-working spaces can offer something much greater, however. Acknowledging that it can be a lonely process being a solopreneur, co-working spaces create a feeling of community, bringing like-minded people with similar goals and aspirations together to share ideas and experiences, and to provide an informal support structure. Importantly, these co-working spaces can also dramatically reduce the initial operating costs of a startup in those critical early months. 

It’s a fact - building a strong entrepreneurial network can help you to develop valuable relationships with other business owners and entrepreneurs, which can in turn lead to possible future business, collaborations and new ideas. Such networks are also really helpful when it comes to asking for advice from fellow entrepreneurs who have been there, got the T-Shirt, and know how to get over the many hurdles and challenges that are part of being in business. So, here are five practical ways to help you to build a great entrepreneurial network of your own, particularly if you are in the early months of your business startup. Firstly, get to know your local business community - chances are there are lots of entrepreneurs just like you in your local community, you just have to look in the right place to connect with them. So, check out all the local meetups for entrepreneurs, the events and conferences, the business networking sessions, and introduce yourself. Secondly, make sure you have an active presence in online communities, as this will introduce new people into your network and open up new connections. Thirdly, meet and get talking to new people you encounter each day, each one of them could be a potential future business contact, who knows? Fourthly, be active on social media and make sure you are fully utilising all your social networks to connect and network with other entrepreneurs. Finally, continuously engage with your network, finding ways to stay in touch and stay connected. Happy networking!

Adesina Akinwumi, the president of the African Development Bank, believes there is more work to be done to fully unleash the potential of Africa’s women entrepreneurs through access to finance. Speaking at the World Economic Forum last week, he said: "To turn the ideas of women entrepreneurs into viable businesses requires a fundamental change in the financial markets to better address the needs of women. A financial sector revolution for women businesses is needed.” Akinwumi said the push for access to finance provoked the African Development Bank to create the Affirmative Finance Action for Women (AFAWA) - a new initiative with the goal of creating an enhanced financial environment for women-owned businesses. "Our goal is to leverage $3 billion specifically for women owned enterprises in Africa. We must turn this demographic asset into an economic dividend for Africa,” he added. Initiatives such as these by the African Development Bank send a clear signal to the world that if the continent is to economically grow and thrive, then women entrepreneurs need to be supported on all business fronts in order to fulfil their real potential.

As the 2016 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year Awards for Africa were announced in Kigali, Rwanda last week, with eight of the fourteen winners being women, the power of social entrepreneurship to drive real and lasting positive change was acknowledged to the full. Rwanda’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, speaking at the event said social entrepreneurship can be one of Africa's most befitting avenues for economic transformation of the continent. Social entrepreneurs, similar to business entrepreneurs, build sustainable organisations that are either set up as non-profit or for-profit social enterprises, aimed at driving social innovation and transformation in various fields, including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, harnessing innovative business methods, and demonstrating the courage to try new approaches in order to find solutions to key challenges. "We live in a world where wealth disparities are still very evident, and as such, one can see the importance of cultivating a spirit of solidarity and care for the less fortunate...Whatever the means used by their organisations for this purpose, be it new technologies to provide wider access to jobs, innovative solutions to energy challenges, or tools that support literacy... these special entrepreneurs have in common a strong desire to change things for the best, around them," the First Lady added. We couldn’t agree more!

By 2050, the vast majority of the world's population will be concentrated in cities, which means that new ways of thinking will have to be developed to create new economic ecosystems in those cities that will support these rapidly expanding urban populations. Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton wrote an interesting article on this subject suggesting that their data tells us that for cities to meet these growing economic needs, the focus will need to be on creating a culture of entrepreneurship. He said: “City leaders must place entrepreneurship at the heart of their economic and policy agenda. The old ways just won't work. So as we look at the horizon over the next 50 years, the playbook has to change.” The bottom line is that these cities of the future will need not only to attract innovators, but they will also need to identify and develop entrepreneurs who can turn those innovations into successful businesses.

Africa’s future lies in the hands of its youthful population. But, while the region’s start-up businesses are gaining confidence and scale with a growing number of innovations achieving recognition beyond the region’s borders, much more must be done to create an enabling environment that allows entrepreneurs to flourish. This is especially the case for women entrepreneurs, whose potential is far from being optimized. This was the reason for a World Economic Forum challenge to find Africa’s top women Innovators. The criteria for the challenge required entrants’ companies to be less than three years old, be earning revenue for at least a year and have proven innovation and positive social impact. TheWorld Economic Forum has just announced the winners of the Africa Top Women Innovators Challenge 2016: Natalie Bitature, Musana Carts, Kampala, Uganda: Musana Carts has used frugal innovation to develop environmentally friendly, solar-powered vending carts. Audrey Cheng, Moringa School, Nairobi, Kenya: Audrey Cheng established Moringa School to enable a whole generation to gain the skills they need to compete in the digital economy. Lilian Makoi Rabi, bimaAFYA, Tanzania: bimaAFYA offers mobile micro-health insurance for the low income and informal sector, enabling healthcare services by drastically reducing costs. Nneile Nkholise, iMED Tech Group, Bloemfontein, South Africa: iMED Tech Group uses additive manufacturing to design breast and facial prostheses for cancer and burn victims. Larissa Uwase, CARL GROUP, Kigali, Rwanda: CARL GROUP is improving the health of the nation by innovating new food products from a staple crop, the sweet potato. Congratulations to each of these women innovators.

The World Economic Forum is taking place right now in Kigali, Rwanda and amongst the topics on the packed agenda is a discussion on the digital revolution underway on the African continent. Technology is playing an increasingly significant role in Africa’s emergence as an important player in the global economy. In a recently published research report ‘The Next Africa’ by Aubrey Hruby and Jake Bright, it highlights the existence of roughly 200 African innovation hubs, 3,500 new tech related ventures, and $1 billion in venture capital to a pan-African movement of start-up entrepreneurs. While new technologies might be the driving force behind the digital revolution, it is Africa’s most important resource, its people, who can determine the direction it will take. Take for example brilliant young minds such as Ory Okolloh and Juliana Rotich, two Kenyan women digital activists behind Ushahidi, a crisis-mapping tool, which is making waves globally. If Africa is to make the most of the opportunities offered by this digital revolution, it needs more bold, innovative women tech entrepreneurs just like them to make their mark too.

I read a great article in the UK’s Daily Mail yesterday that really resonated with me, as a fifty-something social entrepreneur myself. It was talking about how midlife can be a really exciting time to start a business for women. And, women who start businesses after they've become mothers are more common than you'd imagine. The average age of female entrepreneurs in Britain for example is 48, and the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show the 'mum economy' - businesses run by women with children under the age of 19 - contributed £7.2 billion to the nation's economy last year, supporting 204,000 jobs. But this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Launching a business later in life makes complete sense - you have a wealth of fine tuned skills gained over years of corporate experience, you have an extensive business contact book, you have much more time to focus on building a business, and the chances are you have a renewed passion for making a difference in the world. So, this morning at Lionesses of Africa, we are celebrating all those women entrepreneurs on the continent who are experiencing the excitement of building businesses, brands and social enterprises in their 40s and 50s.

Many of the women entrepreneurs we interview and speak to each day at Lionesses of Africa are focused on the current opportunity to tap into the growing global interest in products that are proudly made here on the continent. But it goes further than that - they are also highly conscious of the need to create African brands — brands from Africa for Africa, and brands that the world can also appreciate. The challenge is to create brands that are both world-class and distinctively African, whilst at the same time appreciating the importance of adapting and marketing to local, global and country-specific economies and markets. Ultimately, the goal for many of these women entrepreneurs in Africa is not just to create a great product that will appeal to the widest audiences, but to create a brand with a distinctive African identity. A brand that says it is proudly African, for Africa, and for the world - a brand that has an African soul but with a global vision.

Are you one of those entrepreneurs who sets goals at the beginning of the year and then constantly revisits them throughout the year to keep your vision on track? It’s so important to have clear, well-defined goals in your business and there are so many tangible benefits to goal-setting, not just at the start of a new business year but throughout your entrepreneurial journey. Here are 5 good reasons why you should set goals.

1. Setting goals helps you to define your end game - what are you ultimately trying to achieve and in what timeline?
2. Setting goals gives direction to your life - knowing where you want to go will make sure that you maximize your chances of success by taking the appropriate choices. 
3. Setting goals empowers you - when you set clear goals you send a strong signal to the world around you that you are fully focused and take inspired actions to move closer and closer to those goals each day. 
4. Setting goals changes your reality - being totally open-minded while setting goals can have a huge impact on your reality, because it helps you to forget about what you can do and what you can’t, and simply focus on what you really want.
5. Setting goals (and achieving them) increases self-esteem - the more you will achieve your goals, the more you will gain confidence in your abilities and increase your chance of success.

Being an entrepreneur brings with it many benefits in our lives - we get to build businesses we are passionate about, we get to structure our working hours in a way that makes sense to us, we get to create a working environment that is stimulating to us, and ultimately, we become our own boss. All of these factors make entrepreneurship a very rewarding, fulfilling, and lucrative choice for many of us - but it can also be a very frustrating, overwhelming, and isolating experience too, particularly during those years when many of us are solopreneurs. It’s important to maintain a positive and optimistic outlook and attitude during the challenging times, so here are four things to practice each day to help stay on track. Firstly, cultivate a positive mindset. Secondly, schedule time in your day to focus on yourself and your wellbeing. Thirdly, surround yourself with like-minded people who understand what you are going through and are empathetic. Finally, remember each day why you became an entrepreneur in the first place and celebrate the fact that you are living your dream. At the end of a tough day, utilizing even just one of these strategies may be all that you need to refocus, regain your composure, and keep going. 

Talk to any successful entrepreneur and one of the key traits they will share on their journey is the need for resilience. Having the ability to confront the numerous challenges and hurdles that inevitably come with being in business, push through the pain, and emerge the other side stronger than before, is the mark of resilience. Being able to overcome obstacles in business takes perseverance, courage and the belief that what you’re doing truly matters. As an entrepreneur, you need to have a real passion for your business, and believe that your idea or your vision are worth fighting for, no matter what life throws in your way? With each challenge you overcome, you’ll get stronger and each time find new ways of turning what some might perceive to be a disaster or crisis into an opportunity. Ultimately, resilience is something you can only learn by experience through testing your abilities to the full in navigating delicate or complex issues and finding the solutions.

It has been suggested that social entrepreneurship could represent the face of development moving forward in Africa, according to a recent report published by the organisation Reach for Change, which surveyed over 100 social entrepreneurs supported through its accelerator and incubation programmes last year. Social entrepreneurs across the continent are making significant contributions to advances and developments in the fields of education, healthcare, environmental protection, financial inclusion and other important social issues. These game-changing entrepreneurs are bringing innovative solutions to many of the social challenges being faced on the continent and are being seen as an alternative to traditional development projects and approaches. What makes them different is that they are taking a grassroots approach to creating solutions that are economically viable, scaleable, financially sustainable, and have the potential to make real change happen. They are empowering local people and communities by creating business models that work and can grow at a local level - high impact, high potential social entrepreneurship in action!

There is an interesting trend emerging globally right now that could mean good news for Africa’s women entrepreneurs who are creating new and exciting products inspired by the wealth of natural resources on the continent. It appears that Natural is back in vogue -  health and environmentally conscious consumers are beginning to reject the cynically mass produced, environmentally harmful, manufacturing processes that appear increasingly toxic and damaging to health, instead turning toward natural products as a solution. Raised on digital culture, this new generation of conscious consumers no longer see nature and technology as mutually exclusive, and are combining the best aspects of both to build New Natural lifestyles. They seek products that have an ethical footprint and are gentle on the environment, particularly those that also have a socially impactful backstory. Current product trends include natural waterless washing products that use less water and detergent; natural beauty products that are ethically sound and which harness the natural properties of indigenous plants and other natural ingredients; farm to face products which have an ethically and environmentally friendly provenance; bio-cleansing products that are toxin and synthetic ingredient free; bio-packaging inspired by nature; and natural feminine care which embrace natural alternatives to menstruation management. This increasing trend towards New Natural lifestyles opens up opportunities for Africa’s women entrepreneurs producing high quality, ethical and environmentally friendly natural products.

Talk to any entrepreneur and they will tell you that the journey is not easy, and there are times when life throws you a real curve-ball. At times like these, it’s all too easy to become self critical and to spend too much time agonising over all the things that are wrong. But focusing on perceived personal failure, putting yourself down and looking at all your weaknesses is not the way to go at tough times like these. Instead, you need even more to believe in yourself and your abilities, boost your self esteem, and subdue your vocal self critic. Emotional balance is what you need during these challenging times, so here are a few steps to take to give your self compassion a boost when you most need it.

1. Dismiss the negative thoughts. Remind yourself that everyone experiences difficulties and setbacks on their entrepreneurial journey. Instead of beating yourself up emotionally, dismiss those negative thoughts and focus on learning from your mistakes.
2. Be kind to yourself. Remember that you are your own best friend at times like these, so be more forgiving and accepting of the challenges you are going through.
3. Adopt more positive self-talk. Each day, you need to reaffirm your strengths, skills, talents, achievements and potential, and give yourself positive reinforcement and motivation to keep you going.
4. Put a plan together to solve those problems. It’s better to tackle a problem head on and find practical solutions by breaking it down into small steps and putting an action plan together for each of those steps. It makes it much easier to cope with.
5. Set realistic goals. Often entrepreneurs strive for perfection, but this can lead to unattainable goals that cause even greater stress when they can’t be reached. So, set goals that are high, yet at the same time realistic, flexible and tangible.

Knowing where you want your business to go in the future, and what you want to achieve for it to fulfill its potential, is all about having vision - and that vision is key to success. In the KPMG survey ‘Women Entrepreneurs: Passion, Purpose and Perseverance’, almost 60 percent of the women entrepreneurs questioned said that vision is an ”extremely important” trait to possess—almost triple the number who cited “financial resources,” and nine times more than those who cited “education.” Successful women entrepreneurs consistently marry that vision to a broad set of core personality traits and business skills in order to succeed—not only to capitalize on today’s climate of disruption, but in many cases, to be the disruptors. 

The 2016 BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneur Report, based on one of the largest international surveys ever carried out, polling almost 2,600 multimillionaire entrepreneurs in 18 countries, reveals some really interesting insights. Not only have women entrepreneurs been more successful than their male counterparts over the past year, but they are expected to grow or achieve stable profits within the next 12 months. What is fascinating are some of the predictions for the year ahead in terms of the top industry sectors where these women entrepreneurs globally are set to shine. The top 3 wealth creation sectors identified are retail (16.5%), professional services (11.2%), and fashion (6.0%). The top 3 sectors if they were to switch businesses include E-Commerce (9.3%), Travel, Hospitality and Leisure (8.6%), and Social Media (6.3%). What is really interesting is that these women entrepreneurs surveyed suggest that the top 3 criteria for success are making a profit on their initial investment (35.2%), passing the business on to the next generation (12.3%), and making a social impact (11.2%). So there you have it, women entrepreneurs make a bigger impact at a societal level and perhaps there is a direct correlation with their success at the end of the day.

As customers ourselves, we all know that feeling when we visit a favourite shop, restaurant or hotel and we are reminded about why we love it when we receive great service and attention. By the same token, we are all able to recall those moments when we go to a shop or restaurant and the cashier was surly or the waitress rude or indifferent. Each of these interactions, good or bad, is etched in our brains, reminding us how we felt at the time receiving such service. As entrepreneurs, we need to ensure that we are building businesses, brands, and customer experiences that make them feel special, appreciated, and valued. It takes a very long time to build up a great relationship with a customer, but it can take only one bad service experience to break it. Creating the ‘feel good’ factor in our businesses is key and we need to ensure that it’s an ethos that is believed in and practiced by every member of staff, if it’s to be a cornerstone of our brand promise to our customers.

As entrepreneurs, we can often get too caught up with dealing with the day to day challenges of business that we lose our ability to have perspective, to keep focused on the‘bigger picture’, or to think creatively in order to grow the business. At times like these, collaboration may be the key, and that collaboration could take many different forms. Perhaps you need to find a creative collaborator to take your fledgling concept for a new product or service to the next level? Or maybe you need to bring in a technical specialist to help you to develop a new process, app or tool to improve your business systems. It could be that you see your business growth coming from a new market segment that you have no existing foothold in, and therefore collaborating with an existing player in the market to develop a new product may be the way forward. The important thing is to keep your mind open to collaboration, find like-minded companies and fellow entrepreneurs that could share your vision, and importantly help you to realise your objectives. Collaboration can often be the key to growing your business in a new direction.

Many entrepreneurs think that if they have new ideas for businesses, products or services that they should keep them locked away for fear of them being stolen or copied. But the fact is that ideas cannot develop and fulfil their potential if they are kept away from essential critique, testing in real-life scenarios, and possible collaboration with those who can provide the missing pieces. Nilofer Merchant, author, CEO and a Silicon Valley leading authority on creating business strategy to achieve success, has a great take-out on this subject. She says: “Ideas may be born of you, but they are not yours. Like children - your job is to get them ready for the world”.