Overcoming Cultural Stigmas:
Key to Succes The
by Richard Webb
Corinne Heijn took a short break during her hectic schedule in Cape Town recently to chat about entrepreneurship in Africa with Richard Webb
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gainst the backdrop of women representing 50% of the global population and 40% of the global workforce, it is disappointing that they only have 1% of the world’s wealth. I spoke to Corinne, the founder of United Succes, the Dutch based women’s network, to find out why she encourages women to share their knowhow, time and energy in support of female entrepreneurs. Corinne was forthright about some of the opportunities – and challenges – facing female entrepreneurs and shared freely her innermost thoughts and hopes for the continent and with that the growing legion of female entrepreneurs and their start-ups. “In a South African setting, some women can – through their own poor choices – make it worse for themselves. However, key family members can often provide the extra support needed, even in difficult circumstances, and look to women’s networks. They tend to share and bond quite quickly,” says Corinne. “It’s my strong belief that deep down, everybody wants just to be themselves and trust their own intuition.” Women tend to invest the bulk of their income back into their communities, but unfortunately there can be seemingly insurmountable barriers that further frustrate their abilities to fully participate in the economy. Corinne has so much sympathy and compassion for women entrepreneurs and that passion comes across emphatically in all that she does, saying, “There is a deep longing to address the true issues, because that’s when you can accelerate business and personal growth. It is that safe space – the trusted environment – that’s so important to step into, and once you can, it’s almost addictive.” With all the challenges women face in their lives, Corinne believes many women still want to start their own business. “They want to start a business, they want to grow it, and also, have a private life that needs taking care of. It can be a struggle
Women tend to invest the bulk of their income back into their communities, but unfortunately there can be seemingly insurmountable barriers that further frustrate their abilities to fully participate in the economy. to take care of all these issues. Having no time and no-one to go to.” But how do we create a better business environment and empower African women entrepreneurs to become beacons of change in their communities? Corinne is careful to be respectful of cultural beliefs, yet also acknowledging how this plays into a women’s ability to become financially independent. “On this continent, the long-term responsibility of changing the way in which this cultural expectation operates depends upon changes in cultural beliefs,” she says. “Successful women need to teach their male children different methods of thinking about families and business. These shifts will help women to be seen as equals, which at the moment, culturally in Africa, is the biggest challenge. It’s not intended in any way to be disrespectful of the cultures on the African continent, but if Africa is to become a relevant, strong business force, then it has to allow its women to grow to their full potential.” She firmly believes that’s the only way we can challenge these stifling traditions. As she continues, “in Uganda, women were not allowed to possess land, yet land is the only collateral that banks would lend against, even though the law has changed, there is still such difficulty and they can be limited by the dynamics of the culture. Many of the female entrepreneurs are incredibly successful in their business lives and when they come home they are met with further responsibilities that can be overwhelming. This can sometimes impact negatively on their ability to grow their businesses.” Since having a safe space is critical to flourishing entrepreneurship, I asked Corinne if there was a real need to educate
fathers and husbands on how to nurture their women in this regard? The response was emphatic. “I agree, but we don’t do that. It comes out in our survey and I dare say that it’s part of my vision and why I created United Succes. Because of traveling and being in the business world, both corporate and entrepreneurial, I saw that the entrepreneurs were not being taken care of. If you mix them with corporate women, they have only 20% of common topics, like life/work balance, but a corporate woman will not have the additional fear or tension of ‘can I pay the salaries’, or ‘can I still pay my rent?” Culture runs deep. “If you look at the results of our survey, it actually shows how aware women are of their need to learn methods to balance their home life, their friends, their business and their customers. It’s a very different mindset to the way some other businesses are run.” In Africa, women are often the cornerstone of communities and are arguably this continent’s greatest assets in unlocking economic growth. “At the moment there is this dichotomy where the African continent wants women entrepreneurs to be successful, but at the same time, women have to cook and attend to the children and the majority of household functions.” “A lot of the younger entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to in Africa are making the choice to not get married. They are making that choice as a considered decision and when I have spoken to them they say ‘we don’t want to compromise our business.’ They believe marriage will, given today’s society. So the only way you are going to shift this perception in the future is for all women to educate their male children on the equality of each individual.”
Economies that are less developed tend to attract more women entrepreneurs. In an African context, we have a slightly less formal economy and we have more women entrepreneurs than we do in Europe or North America. Out of all of the entrepreneurs in Ghana – for example – 55% are women. I asked Corinne if there is still a need in Africa to have special platforms and incentives for women entrepreneurs. This is the first time I see Corinne flash a look of frustration. “I don’t pretend to have intimate knowledge of Africa, but it has been borne out of obvious necessity. They need food for their children; it’s as simple as that. We call them entrepreneurs, but it’s really about financial independence, so they can have a choice. In general, a woman starts her own business to be able to live.” Much media commentary and conversation speaks to the unique strengths women possess and can harness in the business world. What does Corinne think these strengths are, I wondered? “The ability to trust. Once women trust you they will give everything they can, this can help accelerate business. Whatever skills they have, they tend to share. These skills-transfers are a huge business benefit. They can then quickly grow their business. It’s not so much how many people you know; it’s about the information, economy and sharing. For this reason, a woman can only be ‘invited’ to be a member of United Succes”. She believes that if we are going to shift the African economy up, one of the best ways to do so is for women to share. Women’s networks in particular allow them to connect and learn from each other, to take courage and to have hope. Are the women of Africa working together across boundaries or are they too isolated? If isolated how can co-operation be promoted, I quizzed. “Shared experiences count for a lot. This is of huge importance. If we look at African women, they are often very isolated because of the geography that they operate in.” She believes that a woman entrepreneur sitting in rural Gabon only knows the elements of the world around her, and questions if she would understand the relevance of what she’s trying to do. “If they don’t really know if they can sell their product or service anywhere else so they won’t try. However if they meet others and they express an interest in selling, it can potentially open up their world. It makes them ask what are other opportunities and possibilities.” That’s what women’s networks do through the knowledge sharing. Many African governments are waking up to the potential that women can to help grow their economies. Did Corinne have any views on how they can best assist women to realise their potential? “Definitely! Legislation is often against small business. Red tape is a real problem. Not so much in South Africa, but elsewhere on the continent, interest rates are horrendously high. Dollar based economies and the weakening of the Rand and other African currencies make things very difficult. As the local currency devalues, it puts big stresses on small business.” She also believes that rentals on properties north of South Africa are complicated and expensive. Often, a payment of a full year of rental in advance is expected from potential tenants, making it a barrier to entry. “That’s a huge cash flow problem. On this continent, including South Africa, there are many empty buildings and there should be more of a push by
governments to open them up to smaller traders in the bigger towns.” Also, road infrastructure needs to reach where people need it. “Africa is essentially a farming community so if you don’t have a good road to get your product from where you create it to where it needs to be, that’s a problem. It means you can only sell it to where you can get to”, she says. Connectivity and collaboration have been the central themes of Corinne’s work with women entrepreneurs. She believes there have been great strides in connectivity. “The challenge is not bandwidth; it’s the regularity and sustainability of electricity supply. That’s a problem. It can be horrendous!” she laments. But there are skills that women need to equip themselves with to succeed in the future, and these include a thorough understanding of the business environment as well as fundamental practices. A lot do so because they are following their passion – something you want to do every day. But how do they keep their books, how do they market their products and where do they go to find customers? Those are real basic business challenges.” She believes in a strong focus for creating opportunities for the youth on the continent, and that women can empower themselves to take advantage of further opportunities through mentoring. “The male ego, in business is a little more adversarial and there can be a bit of the ‘old boys network’, whereas women can look at each other and can find a way of collaborating’. Men may connect to make money, but women connect because they want to do things more efficiently, or better and that may lead to making money. So money is not the sole outcome.” Research conducted by Business Succes shows that making money is not the most important outcome for women. Clearly, women know you don’t go into business to lose money, but there are other benefits. “They want to feel fulfilled, and to reach out and learn about other things. They want to share knowledge and financial wealth”, she says. She feels strongly about measuring women’s empowerment in the business and social realm, but believes it is inadequately measured. “In respect of mentoring, we are looking at emerging businesses and conducting a benchmark survey. Statistics are not available around the success of entrepreneurs. We have the mechanisms in place to get this underway when needed. We need to encourage women to go to their own governments and encourage them to improve the entrepreneurial landscape”. In this, South Africa’s 20th year of democracy, did Corinne have any impressions of South Africa and the opportunities afforded South African women during the first 20 years of democracy? The question elicited a deeply passionate and earnest response. “I think SA is under estimating its own potential. I am very drawn to this country because I sense an inner strength. It’s in the whole society and I still get tears in my eyes. That energy still radiates, but I feel it needs to be nurtured and directed in the right way. Crime is of major concern, and it’s a result of a lack of jobs being available.” The story of Africa has as much – or even more – to do with trade as it does aid, and this is helping to rise up a tide of passionate female entrepreneurs.