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Managing Employees While Protecting Your Business

by She Leads Africa

Running a business comes with a huge burden of managing people. After all, every business problem they say, is a people problem.

The demands of a growing business are burdensome and health draining in some cases where the business owner acts as the finance manager, marketing manager, procurement manager, customer service representative, and so much more.

Doing all these and hiring the wrong team members puts you at the risk of losing the business in its entirety. But, when done right, employee management can actually unlock an enormous amount of human potential. Below, we’ll look at some tips on how to set your business up for
success.

1. Create functional systems (it’s not as difficult as it sounds). The temptation to micromanage employees can be strong, especially for entrepreneurs who are accustomed to having complete control over all aspects of their business. However, I recommend establishing a set of standards and expectations so that constant supervision is not required.

When on boarding and training new employees, your priority should be to halt your input as soon as possible thereby ensuring proper training to help them succeed. That means having clear expectations and channels of communication with people who don’t necessarily need you to function is critical.

Set up standard operating procedures for the entire business, beginning with the DOs and Don’ts that form your policy, the expected standard of production and service delivery for each department documented on paper, your mission, vision, and values, your target for the year, month, or quarter, your product description and in-depth value for knowledge selling, and a documented job description. (For example, tell your employees to write down what they do on a daily basis, review them, and add things you want them to do on a daily, monthly, or
quarterly basis). The advantage of standard operating procedures is that they allow you to control your service
standards, see your business in writing, and make adjustments as things change.

2. Be the type of leader you want to see in your employees

Employees look to their leaders for guidance on how to think and act in the workplace. Try to model the behaviours you want to see in your employees and be consistent. Modelling consistency and integrity will earn the respect of your team and show them how they can earn
your respect.

Your responses to customers, vendors, and employees shape their behaviour, especially when things don’t go as planned. Reacting angrily or inconsistently to customers implies that employees can do the same. Your management approach must be consistent before it can be effective. Employees know when management fails to act consistently or fails to hold themselves to the same standards as
their subordinates. Don’t forget, your employees reflect your personality and character.

3. Help your Employees grow
The skills that your employees bring to you are merely generic and basic, not streamlined to your business. You owe them training, direction, feedback, and assistance.

If they were the best, they just maybe somewhere better. Involving them in the big-picture goals of the company helps them feel like they can grow at your business, no matter how uneducated or inexperienced they are.

Don’t be concerned about them leaving after you train; what matters is the quality of service they provide while they are with you. Learn to promote high-performing employees. Keep no one on the same level for too long. Help them see career advancement in your small business
and don’t take them for granted.

Don’t undervalue what your employees already know about your company and what they can contribute or even do after they leave.

4. Create a workplace culture. Forget the English, Let me explain…
When it comes to employee management, developing a strong workplace culture is your best bet for attracting top-quality applicants, retaining great employees, and increasing productivity.

It starts with implementing your core values and ensuring compliance. Don’t just pick an employee of the month based on the amount of gossip given to you, or how they are protecting the wrongs of the business. When you present awards, tell all of the employees exactly what
the employee did and how it relates to the milestones you want your company to achieve. Make it a habit, and other employees will see how they, too, can make meaningful contributions. Hiding performance metrics because you believe they aren’t paying attention is
risky for your business. If there are milestones, let them know, if It’s a difficult time, let them know. Don’t just say it verbally show them evidence. You’re likely to have more committed employees this way. There’s a lot of things you can do: Reimburse people when they spend their money, provide them with tools and resources needed for the job. Buy lunch when you can and sponsor office hours’ activities. These show employees that you don’t just care about the work they do but that you value them.

5. Know the business you’re in charge of
Only expertise can win authority. I’ve seen business owners cry because a certain employee took their trade secrets and customers with them. You must understand the business you manage. Be the best hairstylist or nail technician in your store while you have others. This will
allow you to review what other stylists have done and retain your customers regardless of what the rest knows. Don’t limit yourself; learn everything, or at least a portion of what you manage, and your employees wouldn’t take you for granted.

6. Protect your business
Have you been a victim of your employee leaving with your trade secrets, database, confidentiality information and more? Either converting them for personal use or giving to a competitor? This is a regular situation with small businesses of course MSMEs are not left out but its prevalent with smaller businesses. What can you do? Decentralise your business. Never have one employee take charge of production, operations, finance and customer relations etc.

I know you have a slim budget, but you’re safer in the long run with a more structured workforce. Let your accountant focus on income and expense, Reconciliation and other regulatory issues. Have your customer service rep take orders only without preparing them. Your admin can manage the logistics and procurement, while operations focus on doing the internal work without many contacts with clients., This way, an employee will need a lot to get hold of your entire business. Most importantly protect your trade secrets, database and control who has access to what. In some cases, have a non-compete agreement with employees according to business practice acceptable to your region.

Conclusion
I understand that not everything can be accomplished overnight, and that initiatives may differ depending on factors such as company culture, industry, and even financial capabilities. It takes time and consistent effort to develop strong leadership and talent practices.
Luckily, FMR Agency is the first consulting company to offer end-to-end HR services to small businesses directly without the cost of an entire HR team! FMR AGENCY brings elements of big-company human resources support to start-up, growing, and small companies.
From contracts and policies to recruitment and training to performance management, management advice/ payroll, leave management, conflict management, etc.

FMR ensures your business has experienced human resources support that allows you to keep your focus where it needs to be – your business. FMR will match you with a dedicated Human Resources Business Partner who gets to know your business, its goals, and challenges and supports you all the way! Unlike self-serve HR consultants who provide templates, FMR supports you with dedicated, value-added HR support.

Find out how we can get you the results you need and reduce your HR costs.
Call us: 09028896663.
Email: hroutsourcing@fmragency.com
Website: www.fmragency.com
Written by Thelma Ibeh
Follow for more tips @thelma_ibeh on IG

5 Tips to Effective Time Management

by She Leads Africa

Time management is one of the most valuable skills you will need in life. We all have 24 hours in a day, but some people get the most out of their time while others don’t.

Working as a content marketer has taught me to manage my time wisely.

It gets crazy sometimes as projects are thrown your way. Which one do you focus on or delegate?

I like this quote from Zig Ziglar:

“Lack of direction and not lack of time is the problem. We all have 24 hours in a day.”

There are a lot of people juggling multiple jobs and when I ask how they do it, they laugh and say, “It’s not easy.”

Below are some simple steps you can take to manage your time wisely:

Let’s dive in…

Complete the most important tasks first

Some people leave the most important for the last. But if you want to be better at time management, you should complete the most important tasks first.

This way, even if you fail to get all your work done at the end of the day, you still conclude the day as being a success.

Prioritize wisely

Group your daily tasks into each category. This will tell you where to spend more time and less time.

Important and urgent – tasks that must be done. These, you must do right away!

Important but not urgent – tasks that look important but really aren’t. They can wait!

Urgent but not important – these are tasks that appear pressing but have little or no value. You can delegate these if you can!

Not urgent and not important – these are not urgent and they’re not important either.

Learn to say “NO”

A lot of us are guilty of this. Out of the goodness of our hearts, it’s almost impossible to say “no”.

Want someone to run an errand? They come to you. Need someone to edit and proofread a doc? You’re the go-to girl.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with helping a colleague BUT, saying yes to everything and everyone eats into your time.

It’s okay to decline every now and then. And no, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart, it simply means you value your time.

Organize Yourself

There are so many time management and productivity resources you can utilize. Tools like Asana, Trello and Wunderlist help track and manage your projects.

Distractions steal your time. When distractions are managed well, it can lead to a balanced life but when not managed, they can keep you from accomplishing your goals. - Judith Abani Click To Tweet

Create a timeline for a particular project

I had to learn this. I’ll just dive in and get to work but now I’ve learned to allocate a specific amount of time to a task. Let’s say there’s a blog to write among other things.

I tell myself “I’m going to work on this for 2 hours.” What this ‘time constraint’ does is that it pushes you to focus and be more efficient.

Time management isn’t something you learn at once. You cultivate it over time. It’s one skill that can help you make the most out of your day. Follow these 5 tips and you’re on your way to working smart.

Your turn,

What are your best practices for managing your time?

Interested in contributing for She Leads Africa? Click here.

Performance Appraisal: A death sentence or a means to do better

by Veronica Alfred

I remember my first ever performance appraisal calendar invitation and the 35-page document I was asked to fill out before the chat with my manager.

I can tell you for a fact that I had a mini heart attack upon receipt of that email; primarily because I was convinced that I would complete that document and still get fired.

Recent trends, however, include a less formalized process focused on more feedback and coaching, rather than a time-consuming paper trail. This article debunks the myth that performance appraisals are a death sentence and provides you with tips on how to measure performance in an effective way.

Performance appraisals include setting clear and specific performance expectations for each employee and providing periodic informal and/or formal feedback about employee performance relative to those stated goals. A well-structured performance appraisal should do the following:

Provide adequate feedback to each person on his or her performance
Serve as a basis for modifying or changing behaviour toward more effective working habits
Provide data to managers with which they may judge future job assignments and compensation.

There is a great deal of evidence to show how useful and effective performance appraisal is to any employer. If your appraisal system does not serve any of the functions listed above, then these tips will be of great value to your team.

Effective goal setting

This is a process of establishing objectives to be achieved over a period of time. It is the performance criteria an employee will be evaluated against keeping in mind that each goal should align with the organization’s goals.

Types of goals include:

a. Job description goals: Goals expected to be accomplished continuously until the job description changes.

b. Activity goals: These goals may be based on the achievement of a project or objective. They may be set for a single year and changed as projects are completed.

c. Personal development goals: Goals can be based on certain behaviors. These goals are expected to be accomplished continuously. Behavioral goals are “how” things need to be accomplished.

d. Stretch goals: Goals that are especially challenging to reach and usually used to expand the knowledge, skills, and abilities of high-potential employees.

In addition to the above, effective goals should be Specific, Realistic, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Most importantly, both managers and team members should be involved in the development of goals to ensure understanding and commitment.

Goals should be documented, available for review, and managed continuously by providing regular feedback. Goals should be flexible enough to account for changing conditions.

Feedback!

An effective performance review process should include a feedback process that is continuous and timely throughout the review period so that team members know how they are performing and what is expected.

Also, there should be a process for acknowledging the outcomes of the performance review process (checklist) that is documented between the manager and the employee. Regular one-on-one sessions that allow for feedback, coaching and mentorship cannot be overemphasized.

I would recommend using collaborative tools that allow for transparency, keeping information in one place, scheduling regular calls and tracking progress. Tools such as Slack, Google Calendar, Google Docs/Sheets, Trello and Zapier.

Include the Performance Improvement Plan

Many employees see this as a step to getting fired but what I see this to be is a progressive discipline process regarding performance level, a guide to improvement and an opportunity to do even better than before.

The first step in planning a PIP chat involves creating a document used to guide the process. This will help in facilitating performance discussions, recording areas of concern and ways to correct them, and serve as legal and decision-making documentation.

The format of the PIP should contain the following components:

a. Employee information.
b. Employment start dates
c. Description of performance discrepancy/gap.
d. Description of expected performance.
e. Description of consequences.
f. Action points and timelines for review
g. Signatures of the manager and the employee.

Some of the most common problems with appraisal systems these days include:

a. Lack of top management support
b. Perception of the process as time-consuming “busywork”
c. Failure to communicate clear and specific goals and expectations
d. Lack of consistent and constructive feedback

Oftentimes, the performance review process can be viewed as uncomfortable, unfair and uninspiring. In order to improve the fairness factor and ensure employees accept the feedback, managers must accept that we all have a role to play when it comes to the overall performance of the organization.

There are intentional and unintentional biases inherent in appraisals and being aware of them and training managers may be useful in dealing with some of them.

Meet Sonwabise Sebata: The woman fighting to make sure that Africans get equitable access to future COVID-19 vaccines

by Munodiwa Bore

This is the second part of “Inside Global Citizen”, a limited series this August. We pull back the curtain and highlight members of Global Citizen staff who are key parts of the organization’s advocacy, impact, and more. Be part of our community of outstanding women by joining today.

“I went into public relations to help women realize their greatness. I saw PR as a way to drive women’s potential and to show the world that women aren’t fickle nor do they speak based on emotion. Women are intelligent, ambitious and their voices count.” – Sonwabise Sebata

Sonwabise is not your average PR girl. She is the Senior Manager, Global Policy and Government Affairs at Global Citizen and the (Acting) Chair of the Board of Directors for the South African Women in ICT Forum.

Sonwabise is passionate about helping governments and companies bridge the global inequality gap through the use of technology. She attributes this drive and penchant for leadership to her background and how she was raised.

“Being a firstborn Xhosa daughter, I [was] part of the elders in the family and got consulted on things that matter – big decisions within a family. And from a young age, I’ve had to make big decisions. I’ve had the opportunity for my voice to be heard,” Sonwabise says.

The drive behind her quest on economic inclusion

“My life’s work is improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged based on their identity to take part in society. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind.”

-Sonwabise Sebata

Years after entering the workforce, Sonwabise was surprised to learn that a lot of women felt the need to have men validate their ideas and opinions. This realization sparked her commitment to fighting for equality and inclusion in all areas.

She finds the exclusion of women in the workforce revolting and wasteful. A 2018 World Bank paper estimates that Africa alone lost $2.5 trillion in human capital due to gender inequality, and 11.4% of total wealth in 2014.

Sonwabise says, “At the individual level, imagine the cost of exclusion – the loss of wages, lifetime earnings, and poor education. At the national level, the economic cost of social exclusion can be captured by lost gross domestic product (GDP) and human capital wealth, imagine that!”

Exclusion robs individuals of dignity, security, and the opportunity to lead a better life.

As a continent, governments, organizations, and individuals must work towards “leaving no one behind” to help countries promote inclusive growth and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sebata takes on COVID-19 issues in Africa

Thrust into the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sebata explains that she finds that her work is even more important than ever. The pandemic has amplified existing systemic inequalities from gender-based violence to unemployment and systematic racism.

Focusing on access to good health care, Sebata and her team have been working to support the World Health Organisation’s efforts to make sure everyone has equal access to future vaccines.

“We ran the Global Goal: Unite for our Future summit. We were calling on world leaders to commit to equal access to treatments, tests, and vaccines for all. This was part of supporting the accelerator which was formed by the World Health Organisation, to ensure that all the global resources and finances are pooled into one fund so that there’s equal access and equal distribution when we finally do find a vaccine.” – Sonwabise Sebata

With kids out of school, families struggling to put food on the table, and some communities disproportionately dying, the most vulnerable people are losing the most in this pandemic. Sebata is hopeful that her work will help reduce the suffering of the most vulnerable.

“Ultimately, the campaign raised $25 million and the commitment by ECOWAS which will be used to develop resources and ensure all people in West Africa have the opportunity to reach their full potential,” Sonwabise states.

Sonwabise Takes the Fight to South Africa’s ‘Second Pandemic’

Globally, lockdowns have succeeded in “flattening the curve”. However, in South Africa, a frightening number of women have become victims of gender-based violence while locked in their homes. Not one to tolerate inequality and injustice, Sonwabise rallied her team to create another campaign.

“We started another campaign where we got a lot of male influencers, male allies that support the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to take up pledges to say they will not keep quiet. That they will stand up to any sort of GBV and GBV activities that they see amongst themselves and amongst their friends, whether overt or covert.”

As a result of the campaign, the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide was completed and delivered to the President of South Africa. Sonwabise believes this milestone is a step in the right direction and hopes to see ground policing improve.

Advice on how women can fight daily systematic inequalities at work

As economies continue to try to wade through the effects of the global pandemic, Sebata warns that women should be prepared to deal with systematic inequalities at work more than ever. She advises that women collaborate and form mentor-mentee relationships to share intergenerational insights.

For women who are not yet in the workforce, she advises that “It is very important to go through some kind of either gap filler or internship between your graduation and the beginning of your career. Going through an internship program will take you through a real induction [so you can see] what the job is like, the corporate culture, communication, and the ways of working within corporate. An internship will help in educating yourself on laws and salary information.”

Sonwabise encourages young women to seek out mentors. A mentor would be someone who helps put your career path into perspective and to see what milestones you hope to achieve.”Mentors are great! They guide you in terms of what to read, who to talk to and how to navigate certain challenges; as well as things not often spoken about like, ‘what do you do when you’re in a meeting and you feel awkward because your male counterpart is making you feel inferior?’ ”

Interested in making an impact in your community like Sonwabise? Learn more about how you can take action at globalcitizen.org or Global Citizen Twitter page.

5 Reasons Why Your Budget Is Not Working and How You Can Fix It.

by Ifeoma Nnewuihe

Sis, let’s be real. Since you created that budget, you probably haven’t used it more than once or twice. If you are like me, you sat down when you were extra broke and created that “wonderful” budget that accounted for every single thing- including chewing gum. Once you got a little money, you forgot all about it.

I know it is tempting to spend. Most of us have the spending bug somewhere in our systems but we must learn to control it, especially now that Ms. Rona is out and about.

Here are 5 budget mistakes and tips on how you can fix them.

You made it too generic

So, remember how you went online to download xyz’s budgeting template and never bothered to make it suit your own spending habits? Yeah, this is a common budget mistake. On a general level, we may have the same basic needs- food, housing, transport- but Akosua from Ghana’s expenses can never be the same as Sheryl’s from Houston.

You have to modify your budget according to your location, lifestyle, and personal needs. Should you be budgeting for a gym membership when you work out at home right now?

You do not have your day planned

“What is the connection between planning my day and budgeting my expenses?” You may be wondering.

Planning your day helps you recall those activities that will eventually require you to spend. Create a daily plan around work, chores, cooking, and transport and see if that impacts your budgeting.

Your budget is set in stone

Ah, this one. I’ve been guilty of this too many times to count. I would piously create the most frugal budget known to man and then wonder why I was so miserable after. See babe, budgeting like every other planning endeavour, ought to make your life simpler. Create a realistic budget that factors in enjoyment. That aspect of your life is hella essential too!

The danger of creating a frugal budget is that at 2 AM one day, you may snap and treat yourself to natural hair products you don’t even need. At the beginning of each month, add a treat to your budget- a book you want to read, fancy skincare stuff, bralettes, etc. Pick one thing and treat yo self!

Budgeting like every other planning endeavour, ought to make your life simpler. Create a realistic budget that factors in enjoyment. That aspect of your life is hella essential too. Click To Tweet

You have not adjusted your budget in forever

You still have the same budget since last year and you wonder why it is not working for you. If you work from home or you are bored in the house, bored in the house, bored, I am guessing that certain expenses are on pause while others (like grocery expenses) are being incurred.

If this is true for you, then you obviously should not budget the same amount that you did for transportation last year. Evaluate your budget at the beginning of each month to see if it is realistic to your current lifestyle.

You have barely used it since you created it

This is another common budget mistake you could be making. What is the use of having a budget if you won’t use it?

If you barely use the budget after creating it, consider setting a good ol’ reminder for checking your budget. And girl, when that alarm goes off, make sure you check, okay?

Join our community of young, ambitious African women to step up your budgeting AND money game!

4 Ways You’re Losing Money Without Realising It

by Adedamola Olabintan

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Money is such an inexhaustible topic – we talk about earning it, investing it, spending it, and even sometimes losing it. We’re usually focused on the first three and barely pay any attention to the likely ways we have been losing cash.

Most of us don’t have trust funds waiting for us, so every naira counts. Being on the lookout for money-sucking expenses can go a long way in increasing your disposable income.

I’m going to let you in on things you’re doing too much of or not doing at all that could cost you some dollar bills (or whatever currency you spend).

Tracking your expense schedule, asking for a discount and buying items in bulk can help save up cash and thereby reducing the risk of losing money - @adeyojuwon Click To Tweet

1. Bank Charges

It’s so funny that the banks are starting to do the exact opposite of what they’re meant to be doing- helping people save money.

The Fix

You probably have more than one bank account/debit card. Each account attracts individual maintenance costs.

A simple solution to ridiculous bank charges is trying as much as possible to have one savings account and one debit card. This will help eliminate charges that may arise from owning multiple accounts.

You can reduce constant cash transactions and erase the need for unnecessary bank fees by having a budget that’s restricted to how much you’ll need for a week.

2. Delay in Paying Off Debts

While taking a loan isn’t a big deal, delaying pay-off is quite a big deal. Especially when it has interest attached to it.

Interest accumulates over time so delaying your debt pay-off inevitably increases the amount you’ll pay eventually. This means you’re gradually losing money.

The Fix

Once you have an inflow of cash probably due to holiday bonus or a salary raise, it is advisable you pay off your debt as soon as possible.

This could give you a little extra to spend on other things and potentially save you a lot in interest payments.

3. Avoiding Negotiation

Another money-draining factor that might not have ranked high on your list is negotiation.

A lot of market vendors on this side of the world rarely quote the actual prices of their products. Most of the time, you’re expected to bargain and beat down the prices a little bit more.

This negotiation rule also applies to the professional world. You’re expected to negotiate your salary and not simply accept what you’re initially offered when you apply for a new job.

According to a paper by Harvard Business School, women are most likely to agree to the first offer on the table and lose money in the process, as well as better chances for career growth. It is time we change the narrative.

The Fix

Weighing other options available to you by knowing what prices other vendors are offering will go a long way when it comes to saving money. This also applies to knowing what other employees earn before you take a new job.

This similarly applies to online stores, when I was buying my new phone, I checked a couple of online and physical stores to get the best price and avoid being overcharged.

Always remember that avoiding negotiation comes with a price!

4. Subscriptions

Technology comes at a cost. There is a cost attached to watching an endless stream of movies and listening to your favourite music. There’s a long list of other subscriptions- magazines & newsletters, fitness groups, diet plans and a whole lot more.

It’s easy to forget what you’re subscribed to when payments are done automatically.

The Fix

You should only subscribe to plans you use regularly. This will help you avoid wasting money on plans you don’t get the most from.

Certain subscriptions can be done with a group of people to save money on the total cost.

Other significant ways you might be losing money includes wasting food, cancelling your Uber or Taxify rides, and impulsive spending.

Interested in contributing for She Leads Africa? Click here.

How to find a mentor online- without leaving your house!

by She Leads Africa

Since Covid-19, we’ve all been in search of new ways to do things from the comfort of our couches. Figuring out how to find a mentor online can be a bit challenging because successful people are usually booked and busy but it’s very doable!

When you’re looking to find a mentor online, sending a bunch of emails or LinkedIn messages requesting that they take you under their wings may not be the best way to go. If you’re looking to have someone to mentor you, they probably get tons of similar requests every day. You’ll need a strategy that helps you stand out.

Here are some hacks to help you find a mentor online and possibly a friend for life:

Find relevant people

If you haven’t already, make a list of people in your field who inspire you. You can then boil it down to 3-5 people. When you have your list, make sure you find out as much about these people as you can. To find a mentor, you can also use the LinkedIn Career Advice feature, a great tool for finding new mentors.

Make yourself visible

The next step is to make sure your LinkedIn is popping with your work experience and accomplishments. The CEO of a company is not very likely to reply to a message from an account with no bio and 5 connections. Apart from LinkedIn, you want to make sure your presence on social media is clean and reflects who you are in the best way possible.

Hit them up!

Now it’s time to send a message to your mentor. Don’t say who you are and then go on to ask for them to mentor you. What you want to do is show that you respect the work they’ve done and talk about how this has also impacted your own life, you can then go ahead to ask if they can help with a specific area of your career.

Once you do this, don’t forget to give a reasonable time for a reply, preferably a week. Make it easy for them to contact you by providing your contact information.

What can you do for them?

Don’t forget that mentors are people too so what you want to do is gain their friendship. One of the best ways to get a mentor is to build a personal connection.

Volunteer to help them with a project, help out with a cause they’re passionate about or offer to help with some research. You can even interview or write an article about them – this is a great way to get to know who they are and connect with them in the process.

Why your business strategy needs to include women by design – Beatrice Cornacchia, SVP Marketing & Comms, Mastercard (MEA)

by Beatrice Cornacchia

Beatrice Cornacchia is Mastercard’s Head of Marketing and Communication for the Middle East and Africa and the creative force leading the company’s brand strategy across the region’s 69 markets.

In this op-ed, she shares her expert opinion on the benefits of a woman-centric approach to business strategy.

As a marketer, I appreciate when creativity meets great insights and data to deliver an approach that achieves its objectives. As a woman, I also especially love seeing these kinds of successful activities share commentary on the way our world interacts with women, or shed essential light on how much of our world was designed without women in mind.

From Ariel’s powerful #ShareTheLoad campaign to Dove’s inclusivity campaigns, there are some fantastic examples of brands actively shifting the conversation to include women and expand on their contributions to the world we live in. But it’s not just about recognizing changing times or joining a social impact drive, it’s about much more than that.

There is a clear business rationale for brands that adapt their business strategies to include women by design. – Beatrice Cornacchia, SVP Mastercard MEA Click To Tweet

By incorporating the diverse perspectives that women bring, championing female role models as ambassadors, designing fit-for-purpose products that meet women’s needs, and creating content that encourages women to pursue their passions, brands can effectively tap into the spending power and influence of women.

Take sportswear apparel for example.

We took note when Nike put the spotlight on tennis star Serena Williams through its ‘Dream Crazier’ ad encouraging women to dream big and aired a TV spot calling for acceptance and respect, featuring the tenacious South African Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya. These are just some of the prominent and provocative content from multiple brands that put women at the center of the conversation. The sports industry clearly understands the business growth opportunity that exists when we incorporate the true – not imagined – perspectives of women.

By drawing attention to the strength, unique shapes, and differentiated athleticism of women, and showcasing real role models in better designed active-wear clothing, the women’s sports apparel industry has done just that – tapped into a significant consumer base: women. How significant? According to the ‘African Women’ Ipsos Study, women represent the most significant consumer base — 89% of African women are the decision-makers or co-decisionmakers for household purchases.

When we design products, services, experiences and solutions for women, we need to envision them through the viewpoints of women – Beatrice Cornacchia, SVP Mastercard MEA Click To Tweet

When it comes to products and services, are we meeting the actual needs of women? Do we have insights that can help us incorporate women’s experiences into the design and innovation process? We must consider the functionality and practicalities of women’s interaction. In short, we have to help design and develop a world with both women and men in mind.

To do this, we need women to be part of the design and innovation process, especially in this age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We need to inspire young girls to consider and pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) through initiatives like Girls4Tech. As part of this program, Mastercard has committed to reaching one million girls globally by 2025, including thousands in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.

So, what exactly is the value of a world that includes women by design?

In addition to the humanitarian benefits, it’s a considerable amount. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank estimates the loss in global wealth from gender inequality at $2.5 trillion. And while five Sub-Saharan countries feature in the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs’ global top 10 countries with the highest number of women entrepreneurs, the IFC says that more than half of SMEs in Sub Saharan Africa with one or more women owners lack access to finance and puts the financing gap at $42 billion. Clearly, there are huge opportunities for finance.

Global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman agrees. It estimates a global revenue opportunity of $700 billion is currently being left on the table by the financial services industry not fully meeting the needs of women consumers.

Think of the increased speed in which we can close the gender gap in terms of financial inclusion if we design better, more helpful digital financial products for women – Beatrice Cornacchia, SVP Mastercard MEA Click To Tweet

As a payment technology leader with global insights, Mastercard has invested significantly in understanding women’s financial priorities, and mapping out those priorities across different life stages. After all, a specific position in time often influences our need for specialised support and ingenious innovations – in sportswear as much as financial solutions.

Just think of the more than 10,000 female unbanked informal traders, street-side vendors, and township salon owners who can safely accept payments through QR code as a result of Mastercard’s partnership with uKheshe, a financial inclusion platform in South Africa.

Indeed, for the large population of excluded women, financial inclusion is about more than getting access to a bank account. It also means helping level the playing field for the women farmers who are growing Africa’s food, by providing access to buyers, pricing and speedier payments. It’s about hope for the future through financial payment solutions such as Kupaa – which facilitates school fee payments in budgeted amounts – increasing the ability of remote families to keep girls in school.

By making a conscious decision to integrate women’s perspectives into our business, marketing and innovation strategies, more women will benefit from solutions specifically designed for their needs. More companies will see revenues climb. More societies will experience elevated productivity. More economies will grow and thrive.

After all, a world that works better for women, creates limitless possibilities for us all.

This woman-led startup bets it can help African businesses grow faster

by She Leads Africa

As Sub-saharan Africa lags behind in the World Bank’s 2020 ease of doing business report, one woman-led startup thinks it can help entrepreneurs grow their companies in this tough environment.

After years of mentoring startups and running businesses in Ghana and Nigeria, Munachim Chukwuma started IB Consulting in February 2019 to help founders overcome operating challenges she also had to face as a young entrepreneur.

Munachim and her team believe they’ve found the recipe to help African business grow quickly with their innovative and affordable service model.

"Never have a business with NO business structure" #RedFlag – @consultingibobo Click To Tweet

Why Nigerian startups are struggling to grow.

According to experts from Harvard University, startups that want to stand the test of time must learn new ways of operating and behaving. This is difficult for a lot of entrepreneurs because these new ways tend to be completely different from their start-up roots.

Most startups struggle to grow and scale either because they do not know how or lack the proper structure and strategy. This is where we come in.
Munachim Chukwuma – Founder, Ibobo Consulting

IB Consulting believes that African entrepreneurs struggling to grow their businesses must realize they are in a different phase of their business life cycle, and therefore must change.

IB Consulting’s growth recipe for startups.

To help entrepreneurs struggling to scale, Munachim and her partners created a service model that combines strategy consultation, negotiation, and content creation.

IB Consulting bets its 3 service tentpoles are what entrepreneurs need to grow faster despite the difficulty of doing business in Africa.

We decided to focus on strategy consultation, negotiations and content creation as a company because we realized most of the challenges most businesses face in today’s society are tied to those three areas in one way or another.
Munachim Chukwuma – Founder, Ibobo Consulting

In addition to its unique service model, IB Consulting promises clients efficiency, personalization, and great service.

Why you should watch out for IB Consulting.

In less than a year, IB Consulting is proving it is not just all talk. The company reports that since February, it has helped over 10 business owners rebuild their structures and execute action growth plans.

It’s also not just about the money for this company this woman-led company. They have done some pro bono work for new entrepreneurs who could not afford to pay for some of our services.

In 2020, the company plans to expand aggressively to reach, help and educate help businesses across Africa.

We intend to grow over the next year of business and reach more people across the continent, as we also reinvent our business and launch more products that can meet the needs of our prospective clients.
Munachim Chukwuma – Founder, Ibobo Consulting

Visit https://iboboconsulting.com/ for more information on how IB Consulting can help your business.

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SHEAMOISTURE SPOTLIGHT ON HEALTHY LIVING QUEEN: LYNDA ODOH – CEO HEALTHIFY AFRICA

by She Leads Africa

SheaMoisture is the enduring and beautiful legacy of Sofi Tucker. Widowed with five children at 19, Grandma Sofi supported her family by selling handcrafted shea butter soaps and other creations in the village market in Sierra Leone.

Sofi became known as a healer who shared the power of shea and African black soap with families throughout the countryside.

She handed down her recipes to grandson Richelieu Dennis, who founded SheaMoisture and incorporated her wisdom into the brand’s hair and skincare innovations.

SheaMoisture products and collections are formulated with natural, certified organic and fair trade ingredients, with the shea butter ethically-sourced from 15 co-ops in Northern Ghana as part of the company’s purpose-driven Community Commerce business model.

SheaMoisture has partnered with She Leads Africa to support and showcase Nigerian women who support their communities.

Meet Lynda Odoh

Lynda Odoh-Anikwe is the CEO and founder of Healthify Africa.

She is a Medical Doctor from the University of Nigeria and started Healthify Africa. Healthify Africa is an enterprise that strives to tackle the dietary risk factors for non-communicable diseases.

In the course of her daily interactions with patients, she realized that people were most driven by convenience and availability when making healthy lifestyle choices.

Lynda decided to start a fruit delivery service. She hopes this will create an enabling system for busy urban dwellers, to conveniently meet the World Health Organization’s daily fruit recommendation for a healthy life.

Her vision is to see an African continent where adopting a healthy lifestyle is easy, practical and sustainable.

You can connect with Lynda and her business on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Tell us how you started Healthify Africa.

When I began to practice as a medical doctor, I saw that there were so many instances of non-communicable diseases that could have been avoided by a simple dietary change.

I started Healthify Africa because I wanted to create a solution to the problem of non-communicable diseases. My goal with Healthify Africa is to address dietary risk factors.

I do this by providing a service that helps busy people adopt healthy eating habits. This is done through a simplified system and healthy lifestyle advocacy.

At Healthify Africa our focus is on increasing the consumption of fruits for busy urban dwellers through a delivery platform. By providing affordable fruit boxes, fruit cups, fruit and dip platter to school children, homes and offices, we’re building a healthier Africa one person at a time.

What was your motivation for finally starting your business?

For me, it was because I had been in similar situations and I understood the challenges people face in trying to adopt and sustain healthy dietary habits.

I grew up in a health-conscious family and I grew accustomed to having a very healthy diet. However, when I became a young adult and my schedule became tighter especially during my internship, it became extremely difficult to eat the right things.

It was a situation of knowing the right thing to do, but being unable to do it. I knew then that there must be other busy young people like me, men, women and even mothers who wanted their children eating fruits but were pressed for time as I was.

"I realized that just like myself, people were most empowered by convenience and availability rather than just knowledge." – dr_lyndah Click To Tweet

That for me was a huge community need that I passionately wanted to see addressed. So I made the decision to become the change I desired by creating an enabling platform. A platform that supports healthy food choices so as to help myself and others with the same challenge.

What makes your brand stand out?

Healthify Africa is not just another food company, that caters to only satisfying hunger. Instead, my brand is particularly focused on ensuring that everyone has access to the daily consumption of 400g of fruits, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The vision is to create a world where healthy eating is most practical and the dietary risks of non-communicable diseases reduced to the barest minimum.

That, as well as our commitment to healthy lifestyle advocacy, has been a huge attraction for our clients because they can see it.

What are three things you struggled with when your business kicked off and how did you overcome them?

When I first started my business, a lot of people did not understand what we were trying to do and that equated to zero orders. We had to create a lot of awareness about the health benefits of patronizing our convenience-based service.

Also, through our follow-up and feedback system, we tried to encourage our clients to make referrals and this has continued to help our brand.

Secondly, being a fruit delivery service, food hygiene, presentation and safety during transit were some of my topmost priorities. It was a challenge finding the ideal packaging that met all the criteria and would still fit into our production cost.

I did my online research and eventually was able to find a reliable supplier that we now work with.

Finally, it was important that our fruit packs get delivered in a cold temperature range for a great client experience. This was a challenge when we had to deliver long-distance orders. This was an issue because there is currently no thermostat equipped delivery services operating in Abuja where we operate from.

To overcome this, we currently partner with a reliable express delivery service and improvise with ice packs in the chillers for long-distance deliveries. Hopefully, in the near future, we can have our very own thermostat equipped delivery bikes.

How do you stay above the noise in your industry?

We made sure to implement a system of receiving and acting on feedback, from early on in the business so that we know what exactly our clients want and tweak our approach to offer them that.

This has been really helpful in building a business that our clients love and customer retention as well.

Did you have any personal experience that taught you a business lesson?

Before I started my business, I had a few unpleasant experiences with logistics. On one occasion, I was to make a trip and I had made an earlier arrangement with a cab driver. However, on the morning of the trip, he was a no show, which made me have to find another one. To cut the long story short, I ended missing the bus I was to get on.

When I began my business, I took that experience with me and created a better delivery structure. I ensure that all delivery arrangements are made on time to avoid communication-related challenges. As a second step, I also make backup plans to ensure that I don’t disappoint my clients.

Can you tell us of any impact have you made in your community since you started your business?

As a medical doctor, I am really passionate about helping people live healthier lives and I made sure to infuse this into my business.

Through my brand, I have been able to raise awareness about the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Also, we have encouraged people to sustain a healthy lifestyle by organizing health and fitness challenges.

Most recently, we actively participated in the 2019 global week for action against Non-Communicable diseases. We engaged in a social media awareness campaign (#enoughNCDs #healthifyafrica) and an educational video series with a team of Doctors.

It is of great value to me that my clients are enlightened and empowered to make the right decisions for their health. – dr_lyndah Click To Tweet

Can you share your 2019 goals with us and what you’ve done so far to achieve them?

Since we had already introduced our business, our 2019 goal was to broaden our client base. Our method was to strictly implement feedback from clients. Also, we started building partnerships that will ensure quality product delivery and unforgettable customer experience.

After doing this for some time this year, we have recorded an increase in the number of clients that have requested for our service. This is something we are going to keep doing since it’s bringing positive results.

We believe it has laid a great foundation for more successes with so many growth possibilities ahead and we are optimistic about that.

What are three interesting things about you?

The first is that I love DIY’s. I have actually painted my room from start to finish on two different occasions just for the fun of it. The last is that I love the power bikes but I’m too scared to get one yet.

What’s your favorite self-care routine?

I like to get soaked in a warm bath after a stressful day. I simply light my candles and toss in some petals. After that, I take a mental trip to wherever the CALM Meditation App takes me to, preferably the waterside.

How do you feel about this opportunity to promote your brand on SLA, sponsored by SheaMoisture?

I feel absolutely ecstatic! When I first saw the email from SLA and SheaMoisture, I was so excited. I had to read it over and over again to make sure it was really for me. Thank you so much She Leads Africa and SheaMoisture for this opportunity.

What is one word that should come to people’s minds when they think about your product/ services?

Authentic!

You can find SheaMoisture products at Youtopia Beauty stores nationwide and on Jumia.

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