Hajiya Sa’adatu Abdullahi is the C.E.O of Business Women Networking Ltd. Sa’adatu is a hardworking business woman, advocate, and politician with a highly discipline personality. With proven leadership qualities over the years, her enormous amount of experience demonstrates her ability to manage a mixed and multi task oriented portfolio.
What motivated and inspired you to start your own business?
It took me a while before I ventured into establishing Business Women Networking Ltd. I had tried quite a number of other businesses and jobs. I worked as a nurse, contested for the Federal House of Representative election in Nigeria, and worked with various other businesses and NGO’s, and now I am a management consultant.
The idea for my business came to me when I was in the UK studying for my Masters degree. I saw so many products and businesses that could actually be developed in Nigeria that would attract huge markets. Upon returning after my studies, I set out to help women “especially our Nigerian women” excel by creating a platform to help us compete favorably with other brands in the global market.
Tell us about your business.
My organization, Business Women Networking Ltd is an independent business development and networking organization. We develop, empower and connect women businesses with modern and global resources. We are a reference point for business women and companies who are gender friendly to work in diversity and inclusion.
We run workshops, seminars and exhibitions led by experts on topics that improve self-confidence and the capability of business owners to help them be inspired, encouraged and motivated in developing their ideas, skills and talents. Our motto for our clients is – just ‘think it’, we’ll ‘create it’.
Are you currently running any promos/contests/giveaways that you would like our readers to know about?
Being a networking business organization that encourages women to do business, we offer a series of promotions such as start-up capital, interest free funds, seed money to invest in residual income, and 30% off our network membership fees.
Where is your business based?
Central Business District of Abuja – the Federal Capital City of Nigeria.
What were the first few steps you took to get your business up and running?
- Registered the company with the Corporate Affairs Commission (the place that gives permits for businesses to operate in Nigeria)
- Acquired office premises
- Purchased all office equipment, stationeries and gadgets
- Developed the organization’s website and social media sites
- Employed new office employees
That was all we had to start with, our first client was a friend of mine who enjoyed our services and from there helped spread the word about us to the community.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
We host lots of seminars, workshops, conference exhibitions, and events so we use lots of flyers as well as social media platforms. We are on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram and have a website and a blog so that our loyal customers can refer their friends and family.
What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Challenges are a large part of owning a business. I am always on the look out for challenging opportunities that would benchmark me objectively to achieve success. However it can be unpredictable because it is an on-going thing that can pop up at any time. We have lots of challenges in finding target clients with the right combination of qualities to understand and value our kind of services, especially in an environment where people easily copy without recourse for consideration that services are intellectual property.
How did you overcome these challenges?
From the start I knew exactly what services I wanted to offer so I was able to position my organization with those values and mission in mind. I am very much involved in running the operations of every sector of my organization to make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks, both in employee morale as well as client satisfaction.
How do you keep motivated through difficult times?
Knowing that many entrepreneurs also face challenges like ours (if not worse) helps me remain focused on solving problems with a positive attitude and strategy, which in turn re-energizes and motivates me to keep going.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
For me it’s all about the right strategy in what we do, the way we do it and how we position and package our services conveniently for our clients to develop all while providing great value to our customers. We operate under our motto; “you think it, we create it”.
What is the best advice you have received recently?
- Be consistent and remain focused on your vision.
- Do better than what’s expected.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
- Believe in your dreams and find a way to make them reality!
- Do not let anyone or anything discourage you. Most successful business people become successful by networking and building a foundation of people to help them. If they feel lost, they now have a net of people to help them!
What are your favorite business tools/resources?
- Laptop
- Website
- Social media
- Flyers
- Projector
- Calendar
What is a good article or book you have read recently?
I love reading articles, I read lots of articles on ladybossblogger.com that are all so inspiring! In fact, I was so inspired when I was asked to be interviewed! Also, recently I read a book called “Ladies Who Launch”. The book shares what it means to be a woman on the entrepreneurial path. It is a book that informs women about the indomitable female spirit combined with how to get started when launching an idea into a business. It has very easy-to-approach techniques and provides a mentorship program as well!
What are you currently learning about for your business or looking for help with?
I am learning a lot about how to understand my competitors and make my business more professional. Knowing who our competitors are, and what they offer, can help us delivery services that can make us stand out.
What are your goals for the next few months and how are you striving to achieve them?
Our goal is to remain focus and achieve more than we had so far achieved, our growth indices are the number of clients that we’ve been able to provide value of comparative advantage that delivers desired benefit.
What social media outlets do you use? List them below.
Website www.businesswomenetworking.co.uk
Blog www.businesswomenetworking.blogspot.com
Twitter @BWNL1
Facebook www.facebook.com/businesswomenetworking
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-women-networking-ltd-hajiya-abdullahi
Email businesswomenetworking@gmail.com, businesswomenetworking@googleplus.com
Hashtags #businesswomenetworking #womeninbusiness
Khadijah D Abari says
A very good idea