Lola Denga: Intensifying your Inner Beauty
As a seasoned businesswoman, Lola Denga has been in the beauty space managing her own business for the last nine years. She offers exclusive services that can be enjoyed from either her own home or that of the clients. Her services include Swedish Massages and manicures among others. Over the years Lola noticed that these beauty treatments enhanced women’s self-esteem and decided to take a step further. Instead of just focusing on external beauty she decided to write a devotional called G.LO.W (God’s love overwhelms women) to help women intensify their inner beauty. In a 7-day devotional, Lola helps women foster a deeper connection with God and in doing so, focus on their internal beauty. She believes that beauty has to come from within and by connecting to the maker, God himself you will achieve wholeness. What inspired you to open a beauty business? From the time I was 14 years and went and got my first manicure, I have always wanted to be in the beauty industry. After going to beauty school, I’d go to certain places and see the standards were not the same as those taught in school. That’s literally where my passion started; I really wanted to bring beauty’s standard and dignity back. I wanted to create an ambience where clients would feel like they are getting the best service and are relaxed. Beauty school focuses largely on the outside. Why did you decide to go a step further with your devotional? I realized that after speaking to more women, a lot of them were dealing with inner issues. Yes, they were coming to enhance their outside beauty which consequently led to a temporary sense of confidence. But, the truth is, only when the inside is in harmony with the outside, do you enjoy beauty to its maximum. What has opening a business taught you about yourself? It has taught me that I really love people. It has also helped me showcase my creativity and organization skills. I have managed to pick up a lot of other skills through this experience. What setbacks have you faced while starting and continuing your entrepreneurial journey? There’s been a couple. It has taken me longer to get off the ground as I personally finance everything. I’d be saving to try and buy equipment by doing other jobs on the side. Also, people’s attitudes have also posed a challenge. They are becoming more receptive to luxury beauty but largely it is seen more as an unnecessary indulgence rather than a necessity. It has made me see a gap in the market for education. Educating people on everything from the healing properties of beauty treatments like a massage. I also educate people on how a good regular self-care routine can help reduce stress levels and create a work-life balance. Where do you seek encouragement during those moments? I am fortunate to have a strong support system. I have my parents, my husband and my friends and definitely my relationship with God. [bctt tweet=”When I feel like I am about to give up, I remember why I am doing this in the first place. – @lolaruZW” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How important do you think a relationship with God is to an entrepreneur? Honestly, it’s very important. Number one, it will keep you sane! There are a lot of things you’ll come across that you didn’t expect to come across. Business competition notwithstanding, there are people you expected support from that disappoint you. Having a strong relationship with God ensures you know that this is not just a business idea. It is actually a gift and you need to understand that you are using it to worship Him and to impact lives. At this point, your business should have a purpose and should not just be to make money. The purpose part makes sure that you don’t give up easily. What are your proudest moments during your nine years as a businesswoman? One of them was when I published my book. I was very proud of that! Over the years I have been involved in numerous photoshoots as a makeup artist. Those were enjoyable experiences. I think overall, every day has something that makes you feel like it’s worth it. Even the small things like when a client expresses their gratitude are enough for me. Do you feel that in Zimbabwe there are enough structures put in place to assist women to open businesses? Until recently no. But so far, it looks promising. There are quite a few women in business organizations that are starting. The government is also coming in with funding. I am excited to see how this will translate for future business owners. As a seasoned businesswoman, what are you doing to support women in the entrepreneurial space? I like to host prayer lounges. During this event, I keep in touch with women in business and keep encouraging them. I also offer career guidance tests if people are unsure of which direction they should be heading in. I definitely do want to grow these ventures and I have intentions of being a facilitator and speaker in this year. How do you balance it all? I’d say time management, though I am not perfect at it yet! Prayer too, because that’s where I get my energy from. I also believe in incorporating things that you love to do even if it’s just reading a book. You need that time to distress and reflect. That’s how you balance and you don’t end up breaking down or cracking. You have to make sure you get that allocated time for just being you and not thinking about business, not thinking about being a wife and just zoning out. How do you unwind? I like journaling, sometimes I’ll just journal for no reason. Occasionally, I enjoy either reading a book or watching a chick flick with a bowl of ice cream. I’m simple like that! Definitely, I do try to spoil myself when I can. I go and get
Joy Eneghalu: Using Strategy to Conquer Social Media
Joy Eneghalu is a social media strategist. She helps businesses and teaches individuals how to leverage social media to boost their brand awareness, increase their sphere of influence and make a profit. She is also the founder of the Influencer Marketing platform called Influensah. Can one thrive in today’s marketplace without social media? Social media has taken over and has the potential to expose one’s business to a larger audience. It is highly important to have your business on social media so you don’t lose out on the goodness. However, there is the offline part that people also have to maintain. Social media has become a must-have tool for every business to thrive in today’s marketplace. So, if social media is here to stay, what are the career opportunities open to young people? There are tons of career opportunities open to young people and the beautiful thing is that some of them are largely untapped and it costs almost nothing to get started. Young people can now go ahead and become some of the following professionals: Online TV Hosts Online OAPs Social media and community managers Online event planners Influencers Data specialists and Facebook ad experts Funnel experts Website designers and social media graphic designers Content creators All you basically need is a phone, internet, knowledge, skill, and visibility. If you are wondering if people do these as actual jobs and cash out, there are many of them and they aren’t even enough for the market. What were the mistakes you made when you started out? How can others avoid them? When I started out, it was basically trial and error. Eventually, I invested in courses that helped sharpen my skills. The number one mistake I made was not documenting an agreement with a client and that cost me lots of money because of the lacking proof. This lesson was very important for my success. Before discovering the essence of a community, I played a lone game for a while. However, I now belong to about 6 communities that have provided me with immense support and knowledge. With many people coming on to the social media space, what would you advise to stand out amidst the noisy marketplace? This may sound cliché but nothing beats being authentic, genuinely caring about people and adding value. These have been my own sauce and it works pretty much for everyone you see doing great things. If you are fake, people will find out. Let your style of delivery on social media speak for you. [bctt tweet=”Overnight success doesn’t exist as a social media strategist or manager; you have to put it in the work – @joyeneghalu” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What are the myths in your line of business? Overnight success!! It beats my imagination when many say to me ‘Joy, I want to blog or I want to start managing an account. They said this thing is like oil money. If I do it like this now, by xxx time, I will have xxx amount of money’. It baffles me a lot. Overnight success doesn’t exist as a social media strategist or manager; you have to put it in the work. Some people even take 10 years! Money doesn’t grow on trees in the online world. Secondly, just because one is visible and popular online doesn’t mean the person has billions sited in their account. It can be very annoying to have people asking you for money because of your online fame. If one is being visible on social media, please understand that it is part of the journey and not the destination. Could you briefly share with our Motherland moguls on WhatsApp for business? WhatsApp for Business is a highly innovative tool that businesses can use to offer fast and efficient customer care services to their customers. With a range of different features such as analytics and labels for pending payments; WhatsApp for Business is a highly effective tool for online business. I personally advice having the ‘Click to Chat’ feature on your website or social media platform. This feature enables people to easily chat you up and maintain a human relationship with your business. Final Words You can do this. You can achieve anything you want with the right mindset. [bctt tweet=”Hone the skill of recognizing opportunities and jump on it before the crowd does – @joyeneghalu” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] I look forward to having lots of young ladies kicking butts in the social media/online space. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.
Edirin Edewor: When failure gives you wings, fly higher
Edirin Edewor is a two-time Amazon Bestselling Author, a Mindset and Author’s Coach, and an Entrepreneur. She works with three types of entrepreneurs to help them publish their books and establish their brands. Through Edirin’s Process Publishing System, entrepreneurs are helped to write their books with ease in record time get published on Amazon and become bestsellers. She also caters to the AUTHORPRENUERS who want to sell their books profitably as well as create extra streams of income through their writing. Finally, Edirin’s 5-Step Process Blueprint helps unknown and underpaid entrepreneurs in the service industry become highly influential and highly paid personal brands. How do you think your past failures set you up for success? In 2011 when I was 20, I attempted suicide. After that, I have had 502 of my job applications rejected in 4 years. I failed in 9 out of 11 business in 5 years. I battled with depression and a diagnosis of Early Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis at age 25. With all this suffering, I felt like a failure and thought my life was over. After much reflection, I began developing a growth mindset which helped me overcome all of these difficult times. I eventually wrote two books; The Productivity Checklist which became an Amazon Bestseller in 2016 and You and Your Mindset. Understanding that my failures were only learning processes, helped me eventually succeed in life and business. These lessons have helped me effectively start, scale and sustain my business in no time. So, now I help others too. [bctt tweet=”Understanding that my failures were only learning processes, helped me eventually succeed in life and business. – Edirin Edewor” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] You do a lot of great work with authors. How important is writing to establishing one’s authority in any given field? A lot of influential business people today have written books to establish themselves as authorities in their fields. From Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy, to Steve Harris, Arese Ugwu, Nimi Akinkugbe and myself. Sharing your knowledge with the public shows that you know what you’re doing. It also helps you reach a lot more people with valuable information and grows your value perception. What tips would you give our young Motherland Moguls who are trying to gain influence in business? Everyone has to start from the bottom. No one gets to the top of the mountain by falling there. Getting to the top of the mountain of success requires you to climb. It will take some time, dedication, commitment and keeping a positive attitude in the face of obstacles. One great way to growing influence is getting published and growing your own community. There are many skills and tools to help with this. Social media platforms have made it easy to grow your influence and build a community of a loyal following today. [bctt tweet=”I’d like people to understand that life is in processes and you need to master one level to get to the next one. – Edirin Edewor” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] From your experience what are the difficult aspects of being an entrepreneur in Africa? First of all, being an entrepreneur anywhere, male or female, is difficult. However, Africa presents some unique challenges. The continent is not as technologically and industrially advanced as first world nations. Therefore, there are limited opportunities available to us. This forces us Africans to be creative and create unique solutions to solve our challenges. Secondly, the African market is still not largely globalized and the ease of doing business on a global scale is still being stifled by the political and economic environment. What advice would you give other entrepreneurs on handling this? As stated earlier, we have to create unique solutions to our challenges. While we wait for certain technologies to become available to us, we should maximize on what we have. This also includes constantly seeking opportunities to partner with global businesses to create more favorable conditions to do business. Here is where building trust and fostering good relationships become vitally important. From your past failures, what would you advise a young African woman getting set to start a business or career? Being patient and intentional about learning the lessons even when you fail, helps you learn faster, fail less and fly higher. Today I have built a multi-million naira business sharing this message and helping entrepreneurs build influence so they can share their stories and impact others. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.
How to be a BAWSE: Lily Singh’s best tips on how to conquer life
Lily Singh is best known for her Youtube channel Superwoman which has over 1 billion views and has featured guests ranging from Michelle Obama to Zendaya. Her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life describes a BAWSE as a`a person who exudes confidence, reaches goals, gets hurt efficiently, and smiles genuinely because they’ve fought through it all and made it out the other side`. She emphasizes that life is not about surviving but rather taking the decisive steps to have more effective control over your life, choices, and actions. Here are some of our favorite tips from the book to get you started on your ride to be a BAWSE. Conquer your thoughts We are the products of our thoughts, what we think affects how we treat others and allow others to treat us. Conquering your thoughts put you in charge of yourself. It means being accountable for the things you say and do. So when you find yourself in a situation that challenges you or makes you feel a certain way ask yourself WHY you feel a certain way, WHAT made you perform a certain action, and HOW you could do things differently. The information you discover is powerful because it helps you to discover patterns and in turn use your mind productively and efficiently. Words lie, actions lie too, but consistency speaks the truth Now if that line doesn’t speak truth to you, I don`t know what will! Consistency is key: people determine who you are depending on what you do. If you are always late to meet that deadline or never do that task you said you would do, people will come to know you as the unreliable person. That is not the reputation you want to have. Consistency and habits breed good behavior, you begin to create patterns that show people that they can trust, rely and count on you. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to show people who you are and then keep showing them. Seek out situations that make you uncomfortable Comfort Zones: we love them, they make us feel happy and safe. When we are in a situation that we do not feel is tailored from us we tend to panic and act out. We basically do not cope because it is not the reality we know or are used to. Use an uncomfortable moment as a learning tool, what does it say about you, what are you doing to address this uncomfortable situation. What can you learn? Being uncomfortable does not mean sit back and refuse to do anything, just because its no longer the norm for you. You have to be proactive, take matters into your hands, see what difference can come out of this experience. If you want to stay in the league, keep up to date on the game Learning is a lifetime process. There is always room to further your education and skills, no matter how high up the career ladder you get. Do not become too self-assured that you do not think you have any more lessons to learn. Learning more about advances in your field can help you shape your goals, enhance your career and keep you above the rest. Do not presume you know it all or that you have become an expert whose opinion is the only one that matters. Take time to refine your skills and competencies. This does not just refer only to taking short or online courses to nurture and grow your skills, it also refers to the lessons you can learn from others around you. A brilliant quote from the book is “Being the dumbest person on your team doesn’t make you a stupid person; it means you are smart enough to select people to work with you can learn from”. This means surround yourself with people you can learn from. Asking questions when you don`t know is not a shortfall, it is dedicating yourself to learning something new. Don’t be afraid to ask for things. The worst that will happen is that you’ll be told no! Too often than not, we tell ourselves `no` before we even do what we wanted to achieve. We become the roadblocks to our own goals. But, what if you denied yourself a yes, an upgrade or a promotion? ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE. It is a famous line for a reason. If you do not ask, you will never get what you want. You do not even open yourself up to the option of getting it. Do not be afraid to put yourself out there, to request for more when you know you deserve it. Sure, we are all scared of rejection but that allows us to adjust and try again with something better that works. A Motherland Mogul knows her worth and when to ask for it to be respected. Do not talk yourself out of asking for that raise, state your case and demand your prize. You may just surprise yourself by getting exactly what you asked for. Got an article you’d like to share with us? Share your story with us here.
Vaida Odongo: You can start a business anytime with the right mindset
Contrary to what many people and businesses might think, investing in your brand online is not just about spending money on the brand. Instead, it’s about building an entity that will resonate with your customers and keep them coming back again and again—even when there’s no deal or promotion to entice them. Who is Vaida? Vaida Odongo is a young woman living in Nairobi who’s passionate about empowering women and leveraging on technology for sustainable development. She studied Gender and development studies while in university but came to love marketing after a short stint working as a trainer in the Google Digify Bytes Program that was being implemented by Livity Africa, a youth-focused nonprofit based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Vaida loves seeing businesses grow and coming up with strategies to solve various business challenges. “You might be having a challenge with selling a product online, what I do is that I sit down and look at all the possible solutions that might help solve the problem then we choose one that works. I love the adrenaline rush that comes with brainstorming”. “I have always been interested in empowering women. When I was younger, my dream was to work in an NGO that would enable me directly work with women. I hadn’t figured out yet what exactly I wanted to do when I actually landed the job, but I knew things would become clearer with time. [bctt tweet=”When you empower a woman, you empower the society – @vaida_odongo” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Fast forward almost ten years later, I have found myself working with women though not in an NGO. I now help women brand and market their products and services online. I am very passionate about helping women grow and sustain their businesses because I believe that when you empower a woman, you empower the society.” Why Digital Marketing? “The world is increasingly going digital. With more than half the population using online platforms such as social media, companies are now forced to look at how they can leverage these platforms. The social space is set to grow and there’s a need for training so that the teams which are set on marketing online have the capacity to do so”. What does your work involve? My work involves training women-led business and enterprises on branding online. This means creating a brand story that their online audience will be attracted to. I have been working on this for the last two years and I’m loving it every day. My pieces of training are conducted over a one to two-day period and tailor-made to fit a customer’s needs. [bctt tweet=” I love the adrenaline rush that comes with brainstorming – @vaida_odongo” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Whether you are in beauty, fashion, construction or advocacy, I have the right curriculum to help you amplify your online voice. I also help companies come up with strategies that will help amplify their voices online. I also offer mentorship sessions to my clients. Maybe along the road the strategy we picked might not work, I’ll come in again and we’ll come up with another one. I also offer refresher training to me customers for free. My aim is getting their businesses to grow so we do whatever it takes to make sure this happens. To empower more businesses to grow, I also offer pro bono services to customers who are just venturing into business and need some advice. I do this because at the beginning some people just need to know different ways they can market their products and services. When building your online brand, you need to: Make sure you understand your audience, their needs, and why they interact with you. Create an online persona that is fun and captivating at the same time. Be consistent. Make sure you post when you are supposed to. Take time to appreciate your customers e.g. through give away. Remember to have fun. Captivating your audience is trial and error. Have fun while at it. How do you manage your business? Being your own boss is a challenge because most of the time, you never know when to stop and take a break. I have learned to schedule myself so that I have enough time to catch my breath and relax. Also, I enjoy reading and watching animated movies and cartoons. I also love cooking and discovering how I can use different spices and herbs from all over the world in my food. What is your advice for young women who are looking to venture into Digital Marketing? My advice to young women out there is that you can start a business anytime and with the right mindset, you can take it to the next. Becoming a digital marketing expert requires you to do a lot of research to know what’s happening in the online space. Remember that deciding to be your own boss doesn’t mean lots of free time on your hands. You have to be willing work overtime because most of the time you will have to do everything on your own without a cheering squad. If you’d like to share a story with us at She Leads Africa, share your story us here.
10 ways to end a business year
In the course of the year, entrepreneurs can get consumed with loads of activities that it becomes difficult to keep track of all that’s happening. The end of the year is the time when most business activities wind down, therefore, it’s a good time to pause, take stock, plan and take a position for the year ahead. Here are 10 things to do to make that happen: 1. Review your financial statements (balance sheet, cash flow, income statement) and prepare tax returns. You need to know: If your business is profitable How profitable your business is Where all the money that passed through your business in the year was spent How much the business owns How much the business owes Exemptions you can get on taxes 2. Review business expenses. Its important business expenses are directly linked to the bottom line of the business. 3. Compare financials from the year before to that of the current year. Pay attention to any rise or drop in figures, investigate reasons for them. 4. If you have made a very good profit for the year, this would be a good time to consider buying or replacing any equipment that will directly result in increased revenue. 5. Reconcile your goals for the year with your achievements; take note of goals you could not achieve. Also, be careful not to discard these goals instead try to find out why you were unable to, and devise new ways to go about achieving them. 6. List and celebrate major accomplishments, you can share with your staff, this should motivate them and make them emotionally invested in your business. 7. Reward your employees and customers, it does not have to be much, could be in form of bonuses, gifts, personal notes… Also get in touch with your vendors/suppliers and inform them of any change in the business that might affect them. 8. Pay attention to your numbers; identify your metrics, this varies from business to business – website analytics, the source of customers, customer growth rate, customer return rate/retention, subscriber list, downloads, number of monthly orders e.t.c. Identify patterns of growth in such areas, trace down these patterns to identify much bigger opportunities and devise ways to multiply effects of these patterns. 9. Review your systems, operations, and processes. This is a good time to review and update (if required) contracts, license agreements, and technology, Identify your strengths and work on your weaknesses. 10. Create a vision for the coming year, based on this vision, set goals, write down your action plan and ways you intend to implement these plans. Hope these tips help you end the year with sufficient knowledge of your business even as you prepare and position yourself for growth and opportunities in the coming year. How are you wrapping up the business year? Share your ideas with us here.
Six Soft Skills to Help You Ace Your Next Interview
Imagine two people being interviewed for the position of customer support team manager. Both candidates have what it takes to deliver on a professional level, however one is more apt in relating with people based on his past behavior and the assessment of the interviewer. That is to say, he possesses excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Who do you think will get the job? [bctt tweet=”Assess your ability and prepare ahead before going for the interview” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] A LinkedIn survey revealed that hiring managers look for candidates who in addition to skills and experience have the potential in performing the role. By potential, they mean the candidate’s own perspective and soft skill set that enables him to do the job effectively. They ranked the following six soft skills in order of their importance. Adaptability In today’s world, the business environment is continuously changing and so are highly effective organizations because any organization who does not or cannot adapt to the constant changes in the environment will either be left behind or fizzle out. As such, effective organizations seek candidates who can easily adapt to changes so they can remain competitive. According to the survey report, the most popular question hiring managers ask in this regard is: ‘Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn?’ Culture Add Hiring managers have been advised to seek candidates who are not only like them (culture fit) but also bring a different perspective to the table. Collaboration Candidates who can work well with and in teams are what hiring managers are looking for according to the survey. No one can achieve much working alone. Do you get along well with others?The survey says one question to expect from this area is: ’Tell me about a time when you were communicating with someone and they did not understand you. What did you do?’ Leadership Not only are leaders born, leaders can be made. Hone your ability to inspire, motivate and unleash the potential in others. One popular question according to the survey report hiring managers ask pertaining to leadership is: ‘Tell me about the last time something significant didn’t go according to plan at work. What was your role? What was the outcome?’ Growth Potential It is the ability of a candidate not only to perform on the current job but also in future and more prominent roles within the organization. Hiring managers have been told to look out for candidates who are goal oriented and self-motivated. Such candidates are said to have the ability for growth potential. Prioritization Candidates who can demonstrate that they know what task comes first and what task should be put to a later date have gotten their prioritization and time management skills right. This will help you meet deadlines and also increase your productivity. Besides the aforementioned soft skills, some hiring managers clearly spell out the soft skills they expect candidates to have for the role they are applying for. Assess your ability in terms of those skills and prepare ahead before going for the interview. Do you have some special skills you use for your business and career? Share it with us here.
In conversation with creative agency JamJar about their website relaunch
JamJar was created in 2013 out of frustration with the way corporate and creative events were organised in Ghana. Many events felt poorly organised and were identical. As a result JamJars’ founding partner, Frances Quarcoopome, found the need to put her skills to work and provide the industry with a creative alternative. JamJar continues to be recognised for its innovative and forward thinking design concepts and exceptional event planning services. Their vision is to be the top African creative agency, fueled with passion, innovation and the desire to make every client happy. Tell us about Jam Jar JamJar is a creative agency dedicated to providing clients across Africa with innovative, affordable and locally relevant concepts in events, design and pr. You recently decided to rebrand and relaunch your website, why? Our website got hacked. Although this was unfortunate, we saw it as an opportunity to review the layout of our website and the elements which needed to improve; and making sure potential clients have all the information they need. Key steps to rebranding and relaunching a website Assess what you want to achieve/ goals Ensure that your website development team is on board and understands your vision Decide on your layout Create or gather all the relevant content Proof read it, and send it to your development team Launch a demo site to see how everything looks Eliminate any kinks Make any changes necessary and then you’re good to go. Why do organisations need to rebrand or relaunch? I think it’s really important for organisations to rebrand or relaunch because it gives them an opportunity to reach a new audience; and to also look at how far they’ve come, and to ensure that this is reflected in the company branding and website. Our main goal was to make it much easier for potential clients and partners to look through our portfolio and understand who we are as an agency. Hopefully creating a good enough impression that they want to hire us. What tips do you have for someone looking to relaunch their website? (1) Make sure you give yourself a deadline; (2) that your content is organized; (3) your images are high quality; (4) and remember to have fun. You need a team that can provide you with all the support to make those things come to life. Our A-team is Ronin Africa. They’ve supported us from the beginning; they understand our vision as JamJar and allow us to be creative. They are flexible and open to new ideas; therefore we can create something truly unique to JamJar. What goals do you aim to achieve through your website? With our new website we hope to reach new clients, particularly international clients. We also want to provide our existing clients with a reference point, and to use our blog to share knowledge and events. How has your new website positively impacted business? So far the website has allowed us to confidently market our services, knowing our product is represented clearly. Our plans are to expand to the rest of Africa in the next 5 years, and the website provides a great launch pad for accessing these markets. It also ensures that we keep ourselves dynamic and fresh. Website: jamjargh.com Instagram: @jamjargh Do you have an insightful story to share about your company rebrand/relaunch? Let us know here.
Lessons on Pitching: from JamJar Founding Partner Frances Quarcoopome
About Seedstars Pitch competition Seedstars World promotes, connects and invests up to $1.5 million in emerging market startups, through its exclusive startup competition, held in in 60 countries. Seedstars is one of the largest pitch competitions in the world, they hold a series of local start up competitions, a regional one and then global. The motivation to pitch I had been following Seedstars for over 3 years, and had been thinking about pitching, however I didn’t quite have the idea yet. I just knew that if JamJar was going to expand into Africa we needed something scalable and relevant. Within the last 3 years of working in the events industry, our experience has highlighted challenges that our customers face, particularly international customers who are unsure about the African market. I decided there was a solution for this: A platform which makes it easier for clients to find, book and plan events in Africa, through our network of venues and suppliers. This is what I pitched and although it was my first time pitching ever, I came second place. The whole experience of pitching was thrilling and also interesting, in terms of venturing into the tech space. The one thing I noticed was also the fact that in Accra, I was the only woman pitching. Now, some people say this would have been an advantage, but considering that all the other contestants and the judges were male, I wasn’t too sure. I did however see this as a great opportunity to stand out further by delivering a stellar pitch. Lessons learnt as the only woman pitching Don’t be intimidated, You know what you are capable of and no matter what, do what you have to Put your gender aside, let your capabilities shine through Never see it as a problem, rather an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Lessons for a successful Pitch Be clear about what your product is and what you are trying to achieve Practice your pitch, but most of all, your answers to the tough questions Get a mentor, someone who has pitched before that can guide you and give you valuable insights Sometimes it’s not about whether your product is good, but what the pitch competition is trying to achieve. You may have the perfect pitch, but if your solution doesn’t align with the goals of the fund, it may not work out. If you can find this out before hand, do so. The key here is to keep going, believe in what you are trying to create, and the problem you are solving. The biggest lesson I learnt is that, there is still a long way to go for people and companies to acknowledge the tech innovations in the creative industries, particularly fashion, events, photography, design etc. Many investors continue to focus on Fintech, agriculture, health and education, and although these may be the big industries, it’s also time to value the creative and service industries and provide them with the support they need. About JamJar JamJar was created in 2013 out of frustration with the way corporate and creative events were organised in Ghana. Many events felt poorly organised and were identical. As a result JamJars’ founding partner, Frances Quarcoopome, found the need to put her skills to work and provide the industry with a creative alternative. JamJar continues to be recognised for its innovative and forward thinking design concepts and exceptional event planning services. Their vision is to be the top African creative agency, fueled with passion, innovation and the desire to make every client happy. http://www.jamajrgh.com/ instagram.com/jamjar Do You have any tips on how to deliver a successful pitch? Let us know here.
Own your destiny and be your own boss
Entrepreneurs breathe life into ideas Entrepreneurs create their own future—they own it! Think of all the new technology and ideas that have come to life over the past few years. Those were all once just an idea but entrepreneurs brought those ideas to life. Yes entrepreneurship is Life. Entrepreneurship is a way to bring your passion to life as you help make people’s lives better. Sounds great right? Here are a few steps to becoming an entrepreneur! Action Start where you are with what you have! The distance between you and the greater you is: action! Part of starting a business is conducting thorough market and product/service offering research. Evaluate your idea; the more information you can gather about the potential demand for your product or service, about your competitors, and about the needs and wants of your prospective customers, the more successful you are likely to be. Remember: 80% structuring 20% implementation. Love and believe in what you do Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life,doing what you love is freedom and you will always do great. The biggest difference I’ve noticed between successful people and unsuccessful people isn’t intelligence or opportunity or resources. It’s the belief that they can make their goals happen. Believe in yourself and become unstoppable- nothing will work if you don’t . The first step towards action is saying ‘I can’. Adopt an all-or-nothing mentality Whatever you do, don’t give up, why go at all if you are not gonna go all the way?? It always feels better after every step because it means you are one step closer. The secret behind entrepreneurship is doing what others are not willing to do. Take small steps toward your goal Be specific about what you want to achieve and devote your time to it; draw up an action plan and follow every step. Affirm with faith and feelings that your goal has already been achieved. Check your direction, then learn from your mistakes “Life is like a compass. When you set your goals correctly it will take you to the right direction”. Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better, and experience is the best teacher. Admit it, learn from it and move forward “ The greater you awaits you” Are you an entrpreneur, let us know how you built your business? Share your story here