BusNavyaSingh
Navya Singh
My Business Consultant Training
Collaborated With A Business In The Developing World
Our team reviewed the economic, social, political, and environmental factors that impact our partner business to design a launch plan and identify how to bridge the gap between our business partner’s current and desired conditions.
Earned a Development Grant to Enact Solutions
In order to fund the proposed business, our team composed a detailed plan and pitched our proposal to request seed funding from the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee.
Collaborated With Business Development Experts
After researching the socio-economic conditions facing our business partners, our team worked with the Nigerian development staff to create effective solutions to the challenges our business partner was facing.
Hauwakulu Mohammad
About Hauwakulu
Hauwakulu’s journey towards achieving her dream of becoming a successful business owner began with a skill acquisition program organized by Work-track Africa in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. After graduation from university, she was selected for that program, which aimed to equip young graduates with hands-on skills that could generate income in a job-scarce environment.
Hauwakulu chose shoe making, driven by her love for shoes and her fascination with creating footwear. During the three-week training, she mastered the basics of shoemaking and received a certificate of independence, inspiring her to start her own business.
Hauwakulu Mohammad
Business Goals
Hauwakulu's foremost objective is to attain financial independence, a milestone that will not only afford her the means to meet her own needs but also help her aspiration to secure a brighter future for her family. She has a dream of upgrading her children's educational environment to an institution renowned for its superior standard of education, a prospect currently hindered by financial constraints. She envisions the expansion and elevation of her cobbling enterprise to a point where it produces premium-quality shoes sought after not only within her local community but also across other states in Nigeria, fueled by her ambition to establish a distinguished shoe brand renowned for its inclusivity, catering to individuals of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.
To achieve these goals, Hauwakulu meticulously strategizes to pinpoint key events that offer the potential to secure mass production agreements. With the sustainable operation of her business firmly established, she envisions a future where she can extend a hand to aspiring cobblers by offering apprenticeships, thus perpetuating the cycle of opportunity and empowerment she benefited from.
Hauwakulu Mohammad
Obstacles
Despite her enthusiasm and talent, Hauwakulu faced several obstacles in her journey to establish a successful shoe business. Initially, she struggled to transform her skills into a profitable venture due to the lack of essential start-up support. The high cost of raw materials posed a significant financial burden, limiting her production capacity. Additionally, her lack of financial management literacy made it challenging to effectively budget, plan, and sustain her business operations.
The competitive market further intensified these challenges, making it difficult for her to gain a foothold. However, Hauwakulu's determination and resilience kept her motivated to leverage every opportunity for learning and growth, striving to achieve financial independence through her creative shoe designs.
Hauwakulu Mohammad
Home & Family
Hauwakulu is a 35-year-old woman residing in a modest two-bedroom apartment in Bauchi State, Nigeria, alongside her devoted husband and three children. She finds herself deeply entrenched in the responsibilities of family life, wherein her daily rhythm revolves tirelessly around tending to their needs, from meticulously orchestrating meals to orchestrating the morning rituals of school preparation, homework assistance, and the diligent management of household tasks.
Hauwakulu Mohammad
Our Partnership
Hauwakulu views the partnership with Leadership Initiatives as a critical turning point for her business and family. She believes that with the guidance of this partnership, she can stabilize her business, improve financial management, and access the materials needed to expand her operations. This partnership represents a chance to turn her and her family's life around. She is excited to learn and bring in fresh ideas. Hauwakulu hopes to learn effective advertising and financial management techniques to enhance her business's profit. Hauwakulu is committed to supporting her family, achieving her dreams, and empowering other young women.
In Hauwakulu's words, “Partnering with Leadership Initiatives is a lifetime opportunity to turn my life around, I am certain this is destiny putting my family back again. We have suffered so much loss and this will be a turning point, I will not take this partnership for granted. I will commit everything into this business because I totally believe I will successful.”
My Grant
Proposal
Hanab Custom Footwear is a cobbling business focusing on crafting exceptional footwear and bags at affordable prices. The focus of the products is their combination of comfort, safety and style. Hauwakulu Mohammad, known as Hauwa, has a passion for shoemaking and improving her community.
Hauwa’s boutique has an emphasis on high-quality, custom-made footwear and bags. Hauwa’s location allows for an increase in commercial space, allowing for more retail opportunities. Advanced tools and machinery allow for production to be increased efficiently, well beyond competitor rates.
At Hanab Custom Footwear, we want to provide stylish and functional products while creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere for all customers. The focus on quality products and fair pricing makes Hanah Custom Footwear a strong competitor in the market. The wide range of products offered show how focused Hauwa is on her business and how much she cares for each customer. Hauwa is different from her competitors due to her personalized customer experience via product customization.
My Grant Proposal
Presentation
In the International Leadership and Business Internship, I worked directly with some of the world’s leading developmental experts in order to build my partners business and brand.
At the conclusion of this internship, our team pitched the final proposal to a panel of esteemed judges from the Leadership Initiatives Nigerian Development Team and the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee. This formal pitch allowed our team to practice our skills and utilize our entrepreneurial toolkit, all while showcasing our efforts to transform the business we partnered with.
At the end of the pitch, we were able to receive feedback on our proposal for our business partner. Over the next year, our business partner’s venture will be made into reality and monitored for sustained success and growth.
Internship Highlights
- Business Meeting
- Ugandan Embassy
- Embassy of Switzerland
- Expert Assistance
Our team began the business development process by having a one-on-one Zoom call directly with our business partner, Hauwakulu Mohammad, and our Nigerian project coordinator to ensure productive collaboration.
We learned more about their life, family, and desires for the proposed business venture, as well as the challenges they were facing. By discussing first-hand the challenges our partner faced, our team successfully and efficiently began to brainstorm solutions to launch their business.
Each morning we held constructive discussions about our ideas, the advice we received the day before, and the timeline necessary to begin implementing our ideas in real-time.
The on-staff project coordinators and business development experts helped facilitate the ideation process and ensured our team asked the right questions to produce tangible results.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the Ugandan Embassy, where I learned about diplomatic relations between Uganda and the United States.
The embassy serves as a hub for collaboration with partner countries and international organizations, which facilitates the creation of solutions to address global issues, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change.
Ugandan diplomats and officials work closely with local communities to identify needs and design programs that empower individuals and enhance overall societal well-being. This community-centered problem-solving is something my team and I aspired towards while crafting our business proposal.
I also visited the Embassy of Switzerland to learn about the role that Switzerland plays in domestic and international development work. We discussed critical topics including investments, international trade, and human rights.
While touring the embassy, I learned about the wide range of policy issues and gained a better understanding of the embassy’s role in international development through sustainable and inclusive initiatives.
My visit to the Embassy of Switzerland was not only educational, but inspiring. It allowed me to see Switzerland’s pivotal role in advancing international development and how I can implement their ideals into my own work.
Our team met with leading experts in the fields of business and economic development from Johns Hopkins University, the State Department, and GlobalGiving.
One such expert was Carla Brooks, Business and Development Officer at Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Program. She provided us with a crash course in advertising and marketing, in which we learned essential components of an effective marketing campaign.
Our work with Ms. Brooks was essential in preparing us for our culminating pitch deck presentation. With her and other expert guidance, we streamlined our initial ideas to further our efforts in launching the venture our business partner envisioned.
By the end of the week, we had incorporated the advice of leading experts from across the globe for our business proposal to empower and transform the life of our business partner.