Braden_Gore
Braden Gore
My Business Training
Hauwa Yakubu Shehu
About Hauwa
Hauwa Yakubu Shehu, fondly known as Hanifa, is an aspiring entrepreneur with a dream to launch her own catering business in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Her vision extends beyond food, as she hopes to build a space that fosters community and highlights culinary creativity.
Inspired by her father’s commitment to quality and generosity, Hanifa plans to open Snack Shack, a modern and welcoming eatery. Her goal is to blend traditional flavors with creative presentation and excellent customer care.
She wants to offer both comfort and convenience while making her passion and purpose shine through every detail of her dream venture.
Hauwa Yakubu Shehu
Business Goals
Hanifa values integrity, creativity, resilience, and compassion. She aims to create a business that embodies quality, modern service, and cultural pride. Her vision is a welcoming space where customers feel valued, employees are empowered, and community traditions thrive through food and hospitality.
She seeks to support her community’s social and economic growth while living with purpose and gratitude. Hanifa plans to offer dine-in meals, snacks, drinks, event catering, birthday cakes, and online ordering with delivery.
Her goal is to deliver flexible pricing, premium quality, and exceptional service to office workers, families, and event planners.
Hauwa Yakubu Shehu
Obstacles
Hanifa’s catering journey began at home, learning from her mother and YouTube, followed by formal training at Zibiz Catering in 2017.
She also completed several online culinary courses. With four years of experience running her home-based business, she offers local dishes, birthday cakes, and event catering. Hanifa excels in recipe development, managing large orders, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Her biggest challenge is securing capital for a shop and equipment. She also struggles with balancing quality and affordability and standing out in a competitive market. To grow, she uses promotions, social media, and customer referrals.
Hauwa Yakubu Shehu
Our Partnership
Hanifa is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives to secure a shop and acquire vital equipment, including a generator, oven, freezer, blender, display warmers, and cookware. She also desires mentorship in financial management, marketing, and growth strategies to ensure long-term success.
Her dream is to build a thriving business that creates jobs, supports her family, and inspires young women.
She hopes to take her family on a vacation, give meaningful gifts like customized bracelets, and establish a mentorship program for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hanifa wants to be remembered as a hardworking woman who uplifted herself and others.
My Grant Proposal Presentation
As part of the International Leadership and Business Internship, I collaborated with top development experts to help grow and strengthen my business partner’s infrastructure.
At the end of the program, my team presented our final proposal to a panel of judges from the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee. This formal pitch allowed us to apply our entrepreneurial skills, showcase our strategic plan, and advocate for meaningful change in our partner’s business.
Our team was awarded a grant that will fund the implementation of our business partner’s plan, providing life-changing support that will expand operations, improve financial stability, and create new growth opportunities. Over the next year, this grant will help transform the future of their business and improve the quality of life for both the entrepreneur and their community.
My Grant Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Hauwa Yakubu Shehu to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Hauwa has leveraged their skills and years of experience to create their business, they face obstacles hindering the expansion of their work.
Guided by their vision, we crafted a proposal detailing the infrastructure materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Hauwa to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Hauwa to allocate funds toward essential materials and equipment, supporting the optimization of their services. Effective financial tracking will be crucial for managing growing profits and preserving assets, ensuring the business’s long-term growth and stability.
Internship Highlights
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Hauwa Yakubu Shehu, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Hauwa’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Hauwa gave us the insight we needed to begin brainstorming practical, personalized solutions. Each morning, our team held focused discussions to refine our ideas, reflect on expert advice from the day before, and adjust our timeline to move our plans forward efficiently.
Throughout the process, on-staff project coordinators and business development experts guided us, helping us ask the right questions and turn our ideas into meaningful, actionable strategies.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the Malian Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Mali and the United States.
The embassy functions as a center for international collaboration, working with partner countries and global organizations to address pressing issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change. Through this visit, I learned how diplomats engage in meaningful dialogue and policy development to create sustainable, people-focused solutions.
Officials from the Malian Embassy shared how they partner with local communities to identify needs and implement programs that empower individuals and strengthen long-term development. This commitment to community-driven impact inspired my team and me as we worked to develop our own business proposal focused on creating lasting change.
During my visit to the Embassy of Finland, I explored how diplomacy shapes international cooperation and development. The experience provided a deeper understanding of the embassy’s role in promoting peace, fostering economic partnerships, and addressing shared global challenges.
Embassy representatives discussed how their work supports cross-cultural exchange, advances policy priorities, and strengthens relationships between Finland and the United States. I learned how embassies serve as bridges, connecting governments, communities, and organizations to create innovative solutions for global issues.
This visit broadened my perspective on international leadership and inspired me to think critically about how collaboration, cultural awareness, and strategic planning can drive meaningful progress, principles we applied while developing our business proposal.
Throughout the internship, our team had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with top experts in business and economic development from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
One of the highlights was a session with Carla Brooks, Business and Development Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She gave us a crash course in marketing and advertising, breaking down the key elements of what makes a campaign actually work. Her insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Ms. Brooks and other global leaders, we sharpened our ideas, refined our strategy, and built a powerful pitch deck to present at the end of the week. Their guidance helped us take our business proposal to the next level creating a plan designed not only to launch a venture, but to transform our business partner’s future.