WELCOME TO FAIRLADY SMART WOMEN
This course is designed to empower and inspire you to start your own business – or take your existing side hustle onto the next level. 7 Steps to your Start-Up will give you all the tools and skills you need – at a fraction of the cost. Sign up now.
SO YOU WANT TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
Of course you do! Whether it’s a small hustle you want to run on the side while you pursue your corporate career, or something you’re hoping will become your primary source of income, we’ve got you – you’re in exactly the right place!
At FAIRLADY we’ve always believed that women can only be properly free to make our own choices about our own lives when we’re completely financially independent, which is why we are so in favour of women starting their own businesses.
Welcome to our Smart Women website! This is all about getting the groundwork done to help your new business fly, or to give your already-existing small business the little push you need to really get it going.
7 STEPS TO YOUR START-UP
7 Steps to your Start-Up is a business course based on the powerful Over the Rainbow course, a high-impact online programme designed for start-ups and small businesses by successful entrepreneurs. They’ve been there – they know exactly where you’re at and where you need to get to. Even better, they’re South African, so not only do they understand business, they understand the nuances of the economic climate of the country we all call home. Over the Rainbow is a combination of proven business strategies and practical paradigms that actively facilitate growth and learning.
THE 7 STEPS TO YOUR START-UP COURSE WAS DEVELOPED BY DAWN NATHAN-JONES AND LESLEY WATERKEYN, AND EDITED BY SUZY BROKENSHA.
SUZY BROKENSHA
Influential editor, thinker and trend-spotter Suzy Brokensha has had a long and distinguished career in South Africa’s media industry. Before starting out in magazines, Suzy lectured semiotics and sociolinguistics at the AAA School of Advertising. She is currently editor in chief of FAIRLADY, ‘The Smart Read for Smart Women’, South Africa’s biggest English language women’s title.
Suzy’s writing has garnered many prestigious awards and she is often asked to speak at local and international events. ‘What fascinates me about editing,’ she says, ‘Is that you’re really looking at undercurrents in society and where they might lead. There’s a bit of magic about it, because if you read those undercurrents properly, they show you how your publication or business should adapt to meet your customers where they’re headed. It’s like arriving at the right station to meet their train – before they even know they’re on it.’
DAWN NATHAN-JONES
A well-known South African business leader and entrepreneur and, more recently, a professional speaker and co-author of Hope Stories, Dawn started out as one of the early pioneers of the Imperial car rental group. Along with two colleagues, she spent more than three decades building this fledgling car rental company into the giant business it is today. When she stepped down as CEO in 2016, she debuted on M-Net’s reality TV show as the only female shark in Shark Tank.
Dawn is so passionate about inspiring new business in South Africa that the following year she joined Lesley Waterkeyn to found Over the Rainbow, a social enterprise focused on developing and uplifting small businesses through training and mentorship.
As a successful businesswoman herself, Dawn has an innate ability to understand the challenges women face in business right here, and right now.
LESLEY WATERKEYN
Founder and Chairman of Happy Friday Advertising Agency, Lesley is a natural rainmaker whose generous and infectious entrepreneurial spirit uplifts and inspires others to do more than they imagined possible. Lesley steered the transformation of Colourworks from a small print agency into Happy Friday, a fully integrated through the line agency. She is currently Chairman of the Happy Friday board, devoting her energy to the running of Over the Rainbow with Dawn Nathan-Jones.
An award-winning entrepreneur and businesswoman, Lesley believes in unlocking the potential of South Africa’s entrepreneurs. As co-founder of Over the Rainbow, she’s committed to empowering small businesses, especially women-run small businesses, with the knowledge, skills, support and, critically, the connections to succeed.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
Using the colours of the rainbow, this innovative program takes you through the various business stages of the entrepreneurial journey with carefully designed segments that form the backbone of this comprehensive course.
RED: Discovering your purpose
ORANGE: Marketing and digital strategy
YELLOW: Sales
GREEN: Financial management
BLUE: Leadership
INDIGO: Key steps to your pot of gold
VIOLET: Mentorship
To achieve sustainable business success and continued momentum, Dawn and Lesley’s experience has taught them that these critical stages each need to be mastered consciously and with intent.
They understand that lack of knowledge and experience in business planning, legalities, finance, branding and marketing, combined with lack of access to networks are the most common reasons why the failure of SMEs (small to medium enterprises) in South Africa is higher than the global average.
