The Rise of The Female Millionaire : 8 Ingredients to successful Feme-preneurship

By Patience Annan

The journey to entrepreneurship and fulfilling your dreams can be challenging, especially for women of colour. With so many social, cultural, gender and racial barriers, this makes it so much harder for the Black African Female to climb the ladder to success. Through principles and experiences shared in this book, I am hoping that this can chart a way forward and shortcut the route to success for any aspiring entrepreneur to reach their destination. I have taken liberties with the use of anecdotes, humour, facts, motivation and a unique 'edu-tainment' approach to definitely keep you entertained. This book is for you if ever you have dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur or business owner and need some inspiration and strategy of how to start up or scale up your business.
P.s you may be asking yourself
'What does entrepreneurship have to do with cakes?' I say.... Read on to find out!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patience Annan
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781838208110

Book preview

Disclaimer

Please note that the names of the characters in this book have been altered to protect their identity, hence the use of pseudonyms. Any other name match is purely coincidental.

Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s experience and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

DEDICATION

To my Darling girls and son - my future Entrepreneurs…. Always dare to dream because dreams do come true!

To that little African girl that has big dreams to conquer the world with her beautiful gifts and talents

- Know that your feminine power is limitless and this is your secret weapon. As far as you can dream and hope, that you will possess as long as you never stop believing in yourself and the power that lies within you!

To all the Fempreneurs past and present – Remain fearless and unstoppable no matter the cost!

Enjoy!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to give all thanks to my Lord God and King - without whom this book and all my life experiences thus far would not have been possible. Glory be to your holy name Abba Father.

Thank you to my four precious angels, my 3 darling baby girls - Destiny, Zara and Jasmine. You make my world so colourful and know that the world is your oyster. You can achieve and be whoever you want to be if you just dare to dream and believe.

My smart, savvy and funny darling son AJ! Keep reaching for the stars and the big dreams you always so fondly share with me – hopefully one day you will make an awesome dad to a future #Girl Boss.

Above all, thank you my loves for your patience, unwavering love and belief in your mummy’s big dream. You are my world – I love you all more than words can say.

To my love, my husband Africanus Annan - You are my rock, my pillar of strength and my encourager. Thank you for being so understanding, never complaining and being so loving even when it was tough. How would this book have been possible Odo? Misumoo nye naakpa!

Love, gratitude and appreciation to my Mum - my superhero, teacher, mentor, loving supporter and confidant. We laugh, banter and may not always agree or see eye to eye, but without you there would be no me. You inspire me daily and always encourage me to be a better version of myself– I love you so much Mummy and you are the best Nana any grandchild could ever dream of.

To my Dad, my Big-Dream ignitor and eternal flame that burns in my heart - I will forever be grateful and indebted to you for sowing the seed for the love of medicine in me. You showed me how much a fighting spirit can achieve. So much I would have loved to share with you in person, but I know that you are now our angel in heaven that watches over us. I salute you and am proud to be known as your daughter – I love you.

My siblings Tendai, Norma, Tariro and all my nieces and nephews…. my world would be empty and boring without you by my side. We laugh, we cry and we dream together and thank you for always having my back – I love you!

Thank you to my grandmothers Gogo Lucia, my super femepreneur in every sense of the word! I got my creativity and ingenuity from you - you were my greatest inspiration and through this book, my memories of you will live on forever – I love you so much.

Gogo Leah my BFF - you taught me strength, resilience and unconditional love. I am because you were. You will forever be in my heart and I love you always.

Shout out to my close friends and networks that have encouraged, inspired and challenged me in one way or the other to grow and be the best version of me I can    be. You all know who you are. You rock and I love and appreciate you.

A big round of applause and acknowledgement to this special lady with a heart of gold and her team – Ms Epi Mabika, my Book Coach! Words can not express my gratitude... You held my hand and ushered me into this wonderful world of writing and being an author. Your intellect, zeal and encouragement are exhilarating and inspiring. Thank you for helping me make my dream come true.

Finally, thank you to Mrs Made, my unforgettable headmistress who helped propel me into my destiny!

Contents

Dedication      vii

Acknowledgements      ix

Introduction      17

Chapter 1

Step 1 – A Sifting Of Mindset      27

Refusing The Status Quo      27

Journey to the Promised Land      34

Diaspora Diaries      41

War of the mind      45

Chapter 2

Step 2 – 3 Cups of Education      53

Education is key      53

Ways to educate yourself      56

Digital Literacy      62

Critical thinking      67

Chapter 3

Step 3 – Flavouring of Collaboration Ubuntu      73

Key Advantages of Business Collaboration      76

Ways to Collaborate with Other Businesses      81

Risks of Business Collaboration.      85

Chapter 4

Step 4 – A Drizzle of Networking      91

Your Network Is Your Net Worth.      91

Skills of Networking      99

Mentorship - Getting Contacts for Contracts      103

Achieving the Most From Mentoring      107

Chapter 5

Step 5 – A Mixing in of Emotional Intelligence      111

Academic intelligence is not enough      111

Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence      115

How to develop Emotional Intelligence      120

Other Soft Skills      125

Chapter 6

Step 6 – Sprinkling of Diversity      129

Diversity and Inclusion - the twin secret sauce      129

Business Diversity- the super power      136

Eradicating Discrimination      138

Cultural Competence and Adaptability      142

Chapter 7

Step 7 – One Big Scoop of F.E.A.R. – Face Everything

And Rise      151

Perception is reality      151

The choice is yours.      152

Failure is the mother of success      154

Change is the only constant      156

Taking Calculated Risks      159

Chapter 8

Step 8 – Pour in Faith and Purpose      165

Two wings on the same bird      165

The Evidence of things Unseen      168

Your catapult to success      171

How to Discover Your Purpose      176

Conclusion      180

Author’s Bio Page      186

FEMPRENEUR:

Pronounced [FEM-PREN.HER]

Noun

A word used to Describe the modern day female who innovates, organises, adopts and runs a business enterprise.

INTRODUCTION

If you want to go quickly, go alone but if you want to go far go together.

African Proverb

These are words of wisdom that seem oh so relevant to one who has dreams, ambitions and visions of a higher calling to serve a community and God given purpose.

As a young woman of African descent, who is now part of the UK diaspora, I often find myself every now and again drifting into a distant memory of the hustle and bustle of the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe. ‘Fresh tomatoes, fresh tomatoes picked straight from the farm!’, yells the somewhat persuasive woman from the corner of the market. ‘You can use them to make finger licking soup for your children’. Another voice chimes in from behind me…. ‘Fresh bananas, fresh bananas here just for you, or how about these juicy oranges they’re ridiculously cheap madam, and I will even give you a discount if you buy ten instead of eight.’ As I am about to nudge my mom to ask her to buy the delicious finger licking tomatoes. From across the street, I hear, ‘Candles, candles come and buy our long-lasting candles which are also great for making floor polish that will make your floors shine for days!’

Looking very perplexed, the 8-year-old me asks my mom what is happening? Why is everyone shouting at the top of their voices asking us to buy things from them? My mother looks at me and smiles, amused at my confusion and says ‘This is how other people