Although Covid definitely did not make things easy, and we really missed travelling and visiting entrepreneurs, we still can look back at some brilliant highlights:
19 women entrepreneurs gained more confidence because of knowing their talent. 14 out of the 19 participants managed to achieve their planned business targets. Although the programme was only 3 months, the entrepreneurs already felt a difference in dealing with team members, leading to stronger teams.
From the start in 2015 until 2019 Brilliant Entrepreneur was a programme that was implemented the companies of Yvette and Karen. We decided that it was time to make it official and established the Brilliant Entrepreneur company.
The start of a great programme with 24 women agricultural entrepreneurs. Knowing their talents provided them with new insights. They also identified talents of team members, leading to stronger teams. We are in close contact with the participants and partner organisation WEAC and continue to make new plans and take new initiatives to further assist the participants.
Nine female judges from the Middle East and Northern Africa identified their unique talents and received tools how to employ their talent to further increase their leadership.
On Instagram we present women entrepreneurs, their businesses and their talents from our network. We also share inspiring quotes and pictures of the different types of activities we do.
On LinkedIn we share interesting articles, tips and advice, and funding opportunities.
We were so much looking forward to visit Zambia again, but then it couldn’t happen because of Covid. Instead of waiting, we designed a series of Zoom meetings and we met the group online every first Thursday of the month. We were positively surprised by the possibilities and the lively interaction.
15 Dutch professionals in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility defined their unique talents. Their learnings were shared with their whole network of 1,500 professionals, so they all know that talent gives focus and is an important source of creativity and innovation.
Through our work with Brilliant Entrepreneur it was confirmed that it is really hard forSME entrepreneurs to get a loan or other financing. Too big for microcredit, too small for the banks and venture capital. Karen’s solution for this, connecting individuals with some spare money to SME entrepreneurs, was published in the reader of the SME Finance Forum.
In November we started a trajectory with social enterprise Susamati, active in sanitation.We identified the talents of the whole team and train part of the team to become talent trainers themselves.
We had an individual session with each participant of the Africa Food360 programme, that we implement together with our partner WEAC in Zambia. We were moved by all the feedback that we received and how talent has helped them to strengthen their teams, and how this helps to survive the Covid crisis.
It made us very happy and satisfied to read such a list and look back at all the good things that happened. We can really recommend to do this exercise. Do you wish to share your highlights with us? We are more than happy to receive them.
