Archive for female entrepreneur

Italian Graphic Design Entrepreneur

Do you ever wonder how you can make your social media look appealing? 

    Antia D’Alisera is not merely a successful YouTuber. Born in Rome Italy, and now a freshman at Kings College in London, she was raised by her father who is a movie producer and her mother who is an interior designer in Rome. Her older sister recently graduated from Parsons School of Design for fashion. Anita is surrounded by excellent taste and a beautiful eye for aesthetics. While on vacation, Anita and her family frequently travel to their house on an island off of Greece called Patmos. From growing up surrounded by her parents and sister’s excellent taste in style, art, and design, Anita has found a passion and deep interest for graphic designs, film, beauty and exquisite aesthetics. She is gifted with ideaphoria and can easily put her ideas into practice, since she currently has her own YouTube channel and her own graphic design business.   

    Anita D’Alisera, known as AniDali on Youtube (and for all her social media platforms), is currently a content creator for more than 6 years reaching 26.4 thousand subscribers. She is a young entrepreneur since she gets paid by YouTube, and also started her own graphic design business in 2020. The purpose of her business is to help Youtubers create aesthetic intro, outro, and banner templates for their Youtube channel. She customizes people’s needs based on what their YouTube channel is about and her prices are very affordable. There is a demand for having YouTube channels be pleasing, since the more the effort in regards to how one’s presentation looks the more people will subscribe to it. This is understandable and what a person says in their videos matters as well. 

   On the Fiverr website, an online marketplace for freelancers, Anita mentions that in addition to helping YouTubers create graphic designs, she customizes beautiful templates for clients’ social media as well. Anita has an entrepreneurial mindset because she realizes that not everyone is a YouTuber so she has branched out to help people make their other social media platforms look attractive and beautiful. Anita’s talent for design at her young age promises a lifetime of inspiration to create beauty and make it known.

Here is additional information on Anita D’Alisera: 

https://www.fiverr.com/anidali/create-graphics-for-your-social-medias 

https://www.instagram.com/anidali/?hl=it 

https://www.youtube.com/c/AniDali/featured 

Nannies by Noa: The Unique Nanny Service

      Noa Mintz is a fascinating and truly inspiring millennial entrepreneur, who is currently a senior at Brown University. She grew up in the Upper West Side in Manhattan; at the age of 12 she created her own business, “Nannies by Noa”, which is currently a member of the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies. Her business serves affluent NYC families seeking well-educated and well-trained nannies on a regular basis. There are many different positions for the nannies ranging from part-time after school babysitting, to full-time 40 hours per week, Monday through Fridays.  

    According to a CNN Business article, Mintz’s idea came to her after her mother told her to “find a better babysitter.” Since Mintz didn’t like her own babysitter, she started looking for another one and later helped her friends find nannies too. She designed a thorough application process and started interviewing people for nanny positions. 

    Nannies by Noa’s application process is extensive. Understandably the application process requires multiple background checks, drug testing, but also includes three years in-home childcare experience requirement, two childcare employment references, a resume, an interview, and the requirement to be able to commit for at least one year. For example, there are a couple of active positions where some families have requested the nannies to speak French fluently. In many instances healthcare is also paid for by the families, which is unlike other major nanny services in the New York City area. Also, some families make arrangements for the nanny to have four weeks off for a vacation as well as the major federal holidays. Mintz has created a variety of different positions and services to best accommodate nannies as well as the families. 

   Nannies by Noa continues to thrive; even as Mintz is finishing up her last year studying Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University, she continues to manage her childhood business. 

To learn more please check out…

https://www.nanniesbynoa.com/about/

https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/06/smallbusiness/nannies-by-noa/index.html

CEO, Grace Beverley — Where Fitness Meets Sustainability

Grace Beverley is a 23-year-old Oxford University graduate, as well as the founder and CEO of three fitness brands that emphasize sustainability and eco-friendliness: TALA, an athletic wear company, Shreddy, a fitness and workout planning app, and B_ND, a gym equipment shop.

As an 18-year-old heading to university, she was a fitness and lifestyle-type YouTube and Instagram personality, where she has since amassed 500k subscribers and 1 million followers (as of September 2020). During her second year of pursuing a degree in music at Oxford, she launched B_ND, and in the spring of 2019, TALA, with Shreddy to follow soon after. Now, her legitimacy as a young CEO is rising quickly beyond owning three brands that have received zero funding from external investors; she was named #1 in Forbes 30 Under 30: Europe 2020, with TALA earning £6M, or roughly $7.6M, in the first year of business. Despite her successes thus far, however, she has expressed struggles with her self-perception and validation due to her beginnings being while she was in school, her background in the “influencer, YouTuber area,” where it is difficult to be taken seriously, and also being a young, woman CEO in a competitive, crowded, and challenging industry. While some of her success can be attributed to her internet presence, she does not consider herself an influencer — a title she is trying to get away from — but a fitness entrepreneur who uses social media.

Beverley is passionate about and driven by her belief in a competitive business model that incorporates sustainability, and in her case, fitness inclusivity as well. She believes that in order to truly move towards a more sustainable world, venture capitalists, investors, and private equity firms must be encouraged to make money in the world of sustainability so that the future of the industry is able to “survive alongside traditional business.” With these innovative concepts in mind and her interest in fitness, she developed her brands.

B_ND sells vegan-friendly workout equipment and TALA boasts that 92% of products are made from recycled materials such as plastic bottles. TALA is unique in this aspect, as they are one of few brands to make eco-friendly and ethical athletic clothing that can be purchased for a similar, if not better price as other “fast-fashion activewear [pieces]” that are not eco-friendly. In terms of “fitness inclusivity,” TALA and Shreddy are very intentional about relaying to consumers their understanding of the various different body types and people they are selling to, and that they are not trying to overly promote transformations or weight loss. At the same time, Beverley does not like the idea of advertising and marketing with “body positivity” on the forefront; as she believes the fitness world wrongly invaded the movement and is in actuality “one of the most fatphobic and non-inclusive industries there is.”

Beverley’s successes in this new niche have been inspirational to many, as she often posts productivity advice and tips on her social media stories, and is set to release a book in April 2021 titled Working Hard, Hardly Working: Redefining Productivity in the Modern World. Overall, Beverley is making a meaningful impact in the fitness world by being able to create and sell ethical athletic wear and equipment for affordable prices — a demand and industry that had not yet been discovered as profitable or possible.

 

 

A Buzzing Business- Mikalia Ulmer & Me and the Bees Lemonade

Bees, they’re pesky, buzzing, and can cause a pretty painful sting. Lemonade, it’s a tasty, cool, refreshing drink on a summer’s day. The two don’t have much in common but, Mikaila Ulmer decided to bring these ideas together with her business Me and the Bees Lemonade. Mikalia Ulmer was born in Austin, Texas to parents who inspired her to be innovative.

When she was four years old, they encouraged her to sign up for a children’s business competition, where she had to come up with an idea for a business and pitch it to judges. Before the competition, a big idea came to her after two surprises happened.

The first surprise came in the mail when her great grandmother sent her an old family cookbook from the 1940s. This cookbook contained a particularly delicious recipe for Flaxseed Lemonade. 

The second came from a less exciting surprise, a pretty painful one to experience as a kid playing outside in the summer, a bee sting. There were two bee stings, to be exact. Mikalia was scared at first, scared of bees and their hurtful sting. Yet, something about bees captivated her, she wanted to learn all about them. She learned how crucial bees were to our ecosystem, why even though they bring a painful sting, they also bring beautiful things, like flowers. She knew that wanted to help them. 

That’s where she brought her ideas together, bees and lemonade, and started with a lemonade stand. This lemonade stand led to her business Me and the Bees Lemonade. Here, she sells Flaxseed Lemonade sweetened with honey and donates 10% of the money that she makes to organizations that help the honeybees. She started her own non-profit, the Healthy Hive Foundation, which works to raise awareness and to create more safe environments for honeybees.

Since, then, her business has grown from a lemonade stand and a recipe in her great grandmother’s cookbook. Makaila went on Shark Tank when she was 9 and got a deal with Daymond John for $60,000. The business has grown over the years, Me & The Bees Lemonade has expanded from the website and small grocery stores to grocery chains like Whole Foods and Wegman’s. In 2017, she was named as one of TIME’s most influential teens. She’s used her experience to help out others who are interested in entrepreneurship. She travels with the Dell Women Entrepreneurship Network and helps out with their youth program, where she taught with a Finance 101 class in Cape Town, South Africa. 

She’s currently writing a book on story and how she came to be the CEO of her own company. Mikalia says to young entrepreneurs, “You’re never too young to start a business. ” She wants to inspire kids, and adults, to create something based on their passions. On her own future, she says, “I definitely have a lot of goals, but as my dad always said, it’s important to work step by step and take each little goal at a time.” Mikalia really is an example of a young entrepreneur taking steps to grow a business, one goal at a time.

Innovating Socially and Agriculturally – Brigite Faustin

The Tanzanian economy is challenging to navigate, particularly for a young female “agripreneur,” one who is making entrepreneurial innovations related to agriculture. Small businesses are supported little by the government. However, since spotting a gap in the agricultural business, 30-year-old Brigite Faustin has worked hard to innovate the business. Most edible oils are imported at high expenses from other countries, with local companies failing to meet quality standards and independent farmers struggling as a result.

In response, Faustin’s business OBRI prioritizes value and quality through the manufacturing of edible oils while supporting local farmers and working to improve the agricultural conditions for better product quality and quantity.

The initial three months were a challenge for Faustin, who doubted her brand would stand out. However, she managed to overcome the challenges and has become immensely successful in her field. Regarding what brought her success, she reflects that “I chose to shed my illusions, understood the core value proposition in my business model, and demystified the workings of the business world.” Faustin sees new opportunities for similar success for Tanzanian women like her in the future. She describes women today as being “ready to work for it” instead of just being satisfied with what is handed to them.

In a changing society, modern African agriculture has become more commercial-oriented, leading to far more opportunities for women, and young entrepreneurs as a whole, to jump on board and launch businesses of their own.

Learn More: https://sheleadsafrica.org/brigite-faustin/

Solar Schoolbags

When Thato Kgatlhanye was 18 and fresh out of high school, she knew she wanted to do something for the underprivileged communities in South Africa where she grew up. She and her friend Rea Ngwane immediately founded the social enterprise ‘Rethaka’ without a single clue what they were going to do. 2 years later, they found the idea that would impact thousands of children across South Africa.

At age 21 in 2014, Thato Kgatlhanye founded the social enterprise Repurpose Schoolbags which takes plastic bags, upcycles them into durable schoolbags, and installs solar-powered lighting on the outside. The bag charges in the sun during the day, and turns into a portable light for the children to study with at night. It is also made with reflective material so the children are easily visible to traffic on their way to and from school.

The idea was inspired by Thato’s mother and the local impoverished communities of South Africa. Thato’s mother studied by candlelight when she was a child, and usually the candle would only last until Wednesday of the school week, meaning she couldn’t study on Thursday or Friday. Currently, many children in South Africa use plastic bags as schoolbags, and don’t have adequate lighting to study after school. Thato wanted to provide a sustainable solution, and so Repurpose Schoolbags was born.

Thato plans to light up 24 African nations, and has won over $40,000 in business competitions to sustain the enterprise. Her business’s impact is growing, and she was featured on the front of Forbes in February 2016. In the future she plans to expand the concept of solar lighting to raincoats for children, but for now her organization’s focus is on getting the solar schoolbags to as many children as possible. Her work has inspired many others, and I hope to see her company featured more as her influence expands across Africa.

Photo courtesy of repurposeschoolbags.com