Take a look at some of the most successful women entrepreneurs in Africa and they share a number of traits which have undoubtedly contributed to their achievements in business over the years. We need to be open to constantly learning from these women who are making it in the competitive world of business and brand building, so this morning we are sharing some of the traits that differentiate them from the pack. Firstly, they tend to be ambitious and have clear goals they are aiming for in their businesses - this helps to keep them focused and on track. Secondly, they have a clear vision which permeates every aspect of their businesses and in particular helps their employees and customers to engage with their brands. Thirdly, they are innovators prepared to constantly think ‘out of the box’ and to create new and exciting products, services or ways of doing things. And finally, they have the ability to turn a challenge into an opportunity, a great attribute to have given the twists and turns that will inevitably happen along the way to building successful businesses.

For the majority of startups, self funding rather than relying on external financial support is the trend, according to an interesting new UK survey by FreeAgent which interviewed 500 micro-businesses. Although this was a UK report, the findings are just as relevant to entrepreneurs here in Africa. It points to the fact that most freelancers and micro-business owners are self-funding rather than relying on external financial support, with 43 per cent using their personal savings to launch their business ventures. Additionally, the research shows that just 4 per cent of micro-businesses say they had used a loan from a friend or family member to get their business idea off the ground, while as little as 2 per cent use their credit card or secured a bank loan, and only 1 per cent used government assistance. While getting started does not seem to be the problem, the research finds that life can be more of a struggle once those businesses actually get off the ground, with 41 per cent of micro-businesses saying they do not make enough money to cover their costs, or ‘only just’ make enough to cover them. Many micro-business owners are also focussing their attention on their business at the expense of taking time off; nearly half of respondents (44 per cent) say that they had not felt in a position to be able to take a week or more of holiday during the last six months. So the challenge seems to be not so much getting started from a finance perspective, rather it’s a case of ensuring operating costs for the first year or two of the business can be covered as part of the early planning stage. Something to think about carefully before launching that dream business.

There’s no doubt about it, millennials are the most mobile, engaged and socially networked segment of the population, and that makes for interesting challenges when it comes to reaching them from a business marketing perspective. Traditional advertising doesn’t work for them, in fact they are fairly sceptical of the well-worn, conventional approaches to selling them products and services. As a truly mobile generation that is permanently connected simultaneously to a range of mobile devices, content marketing becomes an effective means of engaging in conversation with millennials and getting their attention. As entrepreneurs trying to tap into this increasingly influential market segment, this means getting a whole lot more creative in the type of information you put out there to reach them. It’s about entertaining, informing, engaging in conversation and presenting content in a highly visual way. Just look at the rapid growth of platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, both highly visual, personal and connected. So when it comes to marketing your products and services to millennials, think mobile. 

Have you ever wondered how some of the biggest and currently most successful businesses in the world, particularly in the online space, manage to maintain their market position? Ask entrepreneurs like Jeff Bizoz, ceo of Amazon, and he will tell you that communication is key - but not just any form of communication - storytelling! He believes that if you want to make a connection between your brand, your investors and your customers, it isn’t about spending vast amounts of money on high profile events or expensive websites, instead it’s all about telling a powerful story. He says: “You can have the best technology, you can have the best business model, but if the storytelling isn’t amazing, it won’t matter. Nobody will watch.” Every entrepreneur can learn this lesson from one of the best in the world, understanding that everyone has a story that’s unique - the power comes from how you tell it and how you connect with your audience through that story.

Talking to many women in the corporate world who are toying with the idea of fulfilling their entrepreneurial dreams but are scared to leave the security of their current job to take the plunge, there is no doubt it’s a very scary proposition. And, let’s be honest, it’s not one that everyone can afford to take. So perhaps the most pragmatic approach to take, and many would-be women entrepreneurs around the world have done exactly this, is to put a toe in the water by building a business whilst they are still employed. It’s particularly common amongst millennials who have branded the term ‘side hustle’ as part of their day to day existence - in fact, google ‘side hustle’ and you will literally read thousands of stories of millennials who are out there creating businesses, products, apps, all manner of things, whilst at the same time working a day job. So, if you are one of those people who are not quite sure if they are ready to make the full-on leap into the world of entrepreneurship, then consider launching your business whilst you are still working. It could be the solution for all those passionate, creative working professionals who long to start their own business whilst keeping the security of their current job.

If you want to stay ahead, get a hat! Old joke, but staying ahead of the pack in business is no laughing matter. It’s competitive out there, no matter what industry sector your business is operating in. So it’s essential to know what those around you are doing, what new trends are emerging, what customers are saying they want - you name it, keeping informed and up to date is critical. You need to be ready to tweak your product or service offerings to capitalise on a new market trend or in response to your customer feedback. You might need to pivot a little (or a lot!) if you spot a new opportunity or a gap in the market. Staying ahead of your competitors is not just a matter of survival, it’s more about being responsive to your valued customers, being innovative, being engaged with your marketplace, and above all, staying relevant and fresh. So, keep yourself informed, get lots of feedback from your customers on your products and services, and stay ahead of the pack. Your business will thank you for it!

Any busy entrepreneur knows that feeling - you open your email in the early morning, or after a long flight from a business trip, and your inbox is literally screaming at you, bursting at the seams with unanswered new mails. A full inbox is a reflection of time constraints, and if you let those emails pile up unanswered, it becomes a pressure point and ends up taking more time out of your day playing catch up. There is also the possibility that lying somewhere in the midst of that huge email backlog is a new business client, news of a new business win, or a new and exciting opportunity opening up for you. Time is often of the essence in responding to these opportunities, so time constraints or not, the trick is to keep on top of those emails and turn them into great conversation starters. Personally, I’m a great believer in tackling groaning email inboxes early in the morning and last thing at night, given that we work across multiple time zones, and when one marketplace closes the other one is still opening. I actually quite enjoy that quiet time in the early hours of the morning to catch up with emails, start conversations with new people coming in to my network, and chat to the amazing women entrepreneurs in my network. It’s a great way of turning what could be a chore and a stress point, into a positive networking time.

The legendary saying that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ holds true, particularly when it comes to the world of entrepreneurship and building a new business, brand and product range. The journey always takes longer than you plan - usually much longer. But you can take encouragement from the fact that some of the most successful, new generation companies and brands that we all know and admire so much today, such as Snapchat, Uber, or Facebook, all evolved over time and were not overnight success stories - much as they might seem like it. Growing a business takes time. It takes continual work to build a great product or service; it takes time to get the essential feedback and market reaction needed to evolve; it takes considerable time and effort to build that critical social following; and it takes a huge amount of marketing to build that customer base. So, it’s okay to enjoy the journey no matter how long it takes, and if you don’t enter the world of entrepreneurship expecting an overnight success, then it will be all the more rewarding when you finally achieve it.

Entrepreneurs are never short of people around them willing to give advice, or offer an opinion, whether it is wanted or not. It comes with the territory. However, it can be a little overwhelming and often confusing. The trick is not to listen to those who tell you exactly what to do, and instead to listen to those trusted people who encourage you to make the decisions that you intrinsically know in your heart are the right ones. Surround yourself with people who can help you on your journey to becoming the person and the entrepreneur you aspire to being, and who themselves reflect the person you want to be.  Choose friends, confidants and advisors who you are proud to know, people you admire, people whose own entrepreneurial journeys can be respected. Ultimately, the people in your life make all the difference to the person and the entrepreneur you are capable of being. Life is just too short to spend time with people who don’t make a positive and life-affirming difference to you and your journey. 

Ask any woman entrepreneur about the challenges and obstacles they face when first starting up and they will tell you they are considerable - from fear of failure, to getting products and services to markets, to finding financing for new ventures - to name but a few. Yet one of the keys to success lies in having supportive ecosystems that can provide the right support, advice, encouragement and, above all, environments where fellow women entrepreneurs can network and collaborate. The Kauffman Foundation, a research organisation focusing on entrepreneurship, found that nearly every one of the more than 360 major metropolitan areas in the United States had such a network in place, helping to drive a new wave of women entrepreneurs in the country. Here in Africa, we also need to work towards creating such positive ecosystems for women entrepreneurs in every major city across the continent, providing an environment where women led businesses can grow and thrive.

Mention the word ‘bespoke’ and it immediately conjures up images of personalised luxury products, created with the personality of the wearer or user in mind, produced in small quantities and using the finest ingredients. I was reminded of this last evening when I was treated to a luxury perfume blending experience, and given the opportunity to create my own signature fragrance. It reminded me of a recent interview I read with the incredibly talented Tammy Frazer, a proudly African luxury perfumier and founder of Frazer Parfum, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Speaking about the notion of bespoke in the context of the world of perfumery, and explaining exactly what a bespoke perfume is, she said: ’It is a unique, signature scent designed for an individual, and based on in-depth consultation and learning. The bespoke journey is a series of private consultations charting the client’s scent history and influences, and exploring the true essence of both frequently used and rare botanicals.” As the world becomes increasingly more aware of, and interested in, AfroLuxe products, proudly produced on the continent, the market for producing bespoke luxury products for individual clients that reflect their personalities, will surely also grow. 

It’s quite amazing how many times when women entrepreneurs get together, the subject of fear comes up in conversation. Fear of moving from a corporate career to becoming an entrepreneur, fear of the unknown when starting up a business, fear of not getting the balance right between business and family life, and fear of failure, to name but a few. Yet the important thing to remember is that no one is without fear; it’s what you do with that fear that separates you from those who succumb to it. There’s a great quote on the subject by the seemingly fearless Arianna Huffington, Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post. She says: “Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It’s the mastery of fear. It’s about getting up one more time than we fall down.” What a great way of putting fear into context - something to think about when you next get one of those fear-ridden, anxious moments on your entrepreneurial journey!

What do you get if you combine the ‘out of the box’ thinking and innovative ways of doing things of a millennial entrepreneur (18 to 35), with the vast experience of an encore entrepreneur (50+)? You potentially get a new business or product being launched that has a new competitive advantage in the marketplace. It appears that this whole movement towards creating collaborative communities (look at any great business incubator, innovation lab or tech hub), has unearthed an interesting dynamic. If you harness the wisdom, skills and life/work experience of older people and combine them with the energy driven, tech-savvy millennials in the spirit of mutually beneficial collaboration, you build better startups, businesses, and entire societies. Intergenerational experience is the new competitive advantage, something to remember when you are out there looking for the perfect partner to create the next game-changing business success story. 

It can be pretty daunting starting a new business - you do all the research, all the hard work getting your product, services and brand ready for market, and then you have to get it out there in the public domain and actually launch. Yet, learning from so many of the startups that go on to becoming successful businesses, the trick is to soft-launch in the first few days and weeks, using social media as a great way of testing the water and the market reaction to your new business. By harnessing the power of personal social networks to announce a new business, it means you can see your first ‘friendly’ users signing up or reacting to what you are launching from day one, getting a feel for what the greater reaction would be to a full-scale market launch. If a few things don’t work exactly as planned, it allows you to fine tune and tweak as you go, or fix minor problems that inevitably emerge. By not going ‘big’ on your launch from day one, you can make mistakes and learn from them without much downside. The lesson to be learned? Sometimes it really is good to start small and take baby steps in the initial launch phase, growing as you go.

Have you noticed how quickly an innovative idea can become a global game-changer and, as a result, change the way people live and interact? Just look at Uber, a disruptive idea that has revolutionised the way people get around urban environments, particularly millennials, becoming a colloquial ‘verb’ in the process - to Uber. And, who is behind these disruptive ideas? - ‘out of the box thinking’ entrepreneurs such as the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick. What is fascinating is that these game-changers are often sitting on the outside of the business sectors and industries they are looking to revolutionise. Travis Kalanick was not a taxi driver or a transportation company owner - he was simply a customer, needing a ride and frustrated at not being able to conveniently take control of a reliable and safe transport sourcing and booking process using a smartphone. One individual, one idea, one disruptor = change-maker and market game-changer. You have to love them!

How many times do you hear women entrepreneurs talk about building their businesses from behind the scenes, not wanting to be in the limelight and preferring to focus on the business mechanics instead? But the reality is that the founders of any startup business  are the startup, and as such, it’s vital to be seen and heard. In the early days, when you are just launching your business, products and services, and particularly when resources are stretched, it’s critical to invest as much time as possible connecting your personal brand with your company’s brand - they are intrinsically linked. Remember that people do business with people, and you need to put a face to your company and its work. Customers, investors and partners all need to know the people who make up the startup team behind the business, so proactively get out there and introduce yourself to the world as a creator, an innovator, an entrepreneur with a vision. Putting a face to the business is particularly key for early adopters who tend to make buying decisions from startups based on the story and personality behind the brand.

If like me you have trouble sleeping because there is just so much going on in your mind to let you switch off at night - action lists, deadlines, meeting planning, speech writing - the list is endless. I was comparing notes on this subject recently with some fellow women entrepreneurs, and it appears I’m certainly not alone on this issue. Let’s face it, as entrepreneurs there’s so much constantly going on, requiring us to multitask in an effort to get a million different things done in a minimal amount of time. It’s not surprising that so many entrepreneurs have trouble sleeping - and less sleep means less productivity the next day and possible exhaustion eventually. So, the consensus of opinion following our discussion was that it is essential to mind dump before going to sleep at night. Try making quick notes on everything that is going on in your brain, from business concerns to those never ending ‘to do’ lists, get it out of your head and onto a notepad or your laptop or cellphone, and then put them away and relax - hopefully a good night’s sleep follows. 

Remember the Pareto principle? The standard rule is that 80% of your business is likely to come from 20% of your customers, in other words, repeat business from loyal customers. These customers are the lifeblood of your business, so its critical that you look after them, make them feel valued, give them reasons each day to stay the course with you. As a business, it’s all too easy to keep focused on trying to attract new customers each day, but it’s even more critical to ensure you keep the ones you have. So, what’s the trick to making sure that your customers stay loyal to your business and your brand? Well, it’s all about relationship building. Each day, you need to go the extra mile to deliver great customer service. You need to keep communicating and engaging them proactively. You need to demonstrate that you are worthy of their trust and that you deliver what you say you will. You need to deal with any difficulties that arise, both swiftly and efficiently. And finally, you need to be able to take feedback and constructive criticism, and use it to improve your service delivery. Follow those key steps and you should be able to retain those valued, loyal customers.

If your friends and family have ever used the phrase ‘get a life’ when talking to you about the amount of hours you put into launching and growing your business as an entrepreneur, then this morning’s Edit Daily is for you (and me, because I’m great at giving advice, but terrible at taking it myself!). Here are some great tips from several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have somehow managed to try and balance a personal life with building a business. 

1. Know the difference between what is urgent and what is actually important to the business and focus your time and efforts on what will move it forward. The rest can wait.
2. It’s a marathon being an entrepreneur, and the trick to working more efficiently is knowing what it takes to maintain your peak physical and mental abilities over long stretches of time - optimise your time within those peak periods, you’ll get more done.
3. Set boundaries for yourself on your work hours and leave time for yourself, friends and family.
4. Make more efficient use of the time you have and learn to work smarter by streamlining and automating routine tasks.
5. Set your own pace for building your business and try not to give in to pressure to build it as fast as possible, which might be unsustainable in the long run.
6. Don’t lose sight of why you became an entrepreneur in the first place and reconnect with the original buzz you get from building a successful business.

If you’re a passionate and highly committed female entrepreneur looking to push your business to the next level but lack funding and expert advice, then read on! The prestigious Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards is a business-planning competition and it’s open to all women entrepreneurs leading a creative, for-profit start-up with financial sustainability and social impact, across all countries and industries. This year brings exciting updates to the programme, where the Award grant has increased from US$20,000 to US$100,000. Each Laureate will be offered a place in the six-day INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program (ISEP). Past winners from Africa include the inspirational Achenyo Idachaba of Mitimeth in Nigeria (2014 winner), and Chinwe Ohajuruka of Comprehensive Design Services in Nigeria (2015 winner). The programme is celebrating its 10 year anniversary, having been created back in 2006, with the aim of contributing to the global economy by seeking out audacious female entrepreneurs from around the world. To enter, all you’ll need to do is submit a short business plan using the online application form by 31 Aug, 2016. More information can be found at the official website.