Jo-Ann Strauss Media entrepreneur and international speaker

❝Entrepreneurship is a great opportunity for mothers. It’s creative. And then there’s the flexibility. ❞

Jo-Ann is a mother of two, and one of the things she’d like to instil in her children is an entrepreneurial mindset. ‘I’ve always looked up to people who bring new solutions instead of regurgitating the same old ideas with a little bit of fat on them. I like the idea of venturing somewhere where there’s no GPS. I hope my children will come up with their own ideas for business and that they’ll look for solutions to the problems particular to this continent!’

Jo-Ann and her husband intend to raise their children in this country, even though he is from Europe. ‘There are so many opportunities here because it’s not a mature economy,’ she says. And Jo-Ann also sees entrepreneurship as a great opportunity for mothers. ‘It’s creative. And then there’s the flexibility. For me, it also means I’m able to work from project to project. When I had my second child, I was able to wind down on work for a bit.’ But, she notes, you often have to work longer hours, and it’s vital to learn to work smarter, not harder.

You also need to be very clear about what your goal is, she says: ‘A business starts with a proposal, but I think that often prospective entrepreneurs lack clarity about what it is they want to achieve. We need to teach people how to pitch, to be able to explain to others what they do in two minutes. You need a foot in the door and then you’ve got to dazzle them with how much effort you’ve put into your idea and your business plan.’

Jo-Ann believes that it is crucial to cultivate entrepreneurship, and in order to do that, she says, ‘we need to be more open to venture capital, angel investors and investment in startups’.