Lynnae_Willis
Lynnae Willis
My Business Training
Esther Sule
About Esther Sule
Emmanuel Sunday, affectionately known as Malama, is a resilient entrepreneur from Bauchi State with a bold dream and deep love for her community.
With years of experience and a passion for Nigerian cuisine, she envisions launching Malama’s Local Kitchen, a vibrant and welcoming restaurant where people can enjoy authentic, home-cooked meals.
Her goal is to support her children and mother while creating job opportunities for others in her neighborhood. Through her dedication and spirit, Malama hopes to inspire other women to believe in their dreams and build a better future through persistence and hard work.
Esther Sule
Business Goals
At the heart of Malama’s Local Kitchen are the values of hospitality, quality, community, and tradition. Her restaurant aims to create a welcoming space that celebrates authentic local flavors and brings people together.
She envisions a clean and vibrant eatery along Jos Road, directly opposite Shadawanka Barrack in Bauchi. Inside, customers will enjoy neatly arranged tables, a dedicated kitchen, and colorful traditional decor that reflects her culture.
Malama plans to serve popular Nigerian dishes for breakfast and lunch, provide home delivery, and offer employment opportunities to support her community.
Esther Sule
Obstacles
Over her four-year career, Malama has developed strong skills in preparing Nigerian dishes, managing daily sales, handling orders, and food delivery. She also keeps careful records and manages her finances to reinvest in her business.
Despite her talents, Malama’s continues to face challenges expanding her business due to limited funding. Without steady capital, she cannot secure a stable location or essential equipment like a freezer and generator. Her current roadside setup limits her growth and customer reach.
These obstacles slow the full realization of her dream, but Malama remains hopeful and determined to overcome them.
Esther Sule
Our Partnership
Malama is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives to secure a shop location, purchase essential equipment like a deep freezer, generator, cooking pots, serving trays, utensils, and furniture, and gain mentorship in marketing and financial tracking.
She wants to attract more customers, keep detailed records, and expand her services. With this support, Malama believes her business can thrive and inspire others.
Her long-term goals include enrolling her children back in school, buying a family home, and ensuring her mother receives medical care. She also hopes to create jobs and skill development opportunities for youth in her community.
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 brand.
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 Esther Sule to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Estherhas 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 marketing materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Esther to optimize their business through a new branding strategy.
Investments in a logo and marketing materials, such as signs and flyers, are also vital for establishing a strong brand identity and expanding the customer base. These visual assets help create a consistent and memorable image that builds trust and recognition among potential clients.
Internship Highlights
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Esther Sule, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Esther’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Esther 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 Egyptian Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Egypt 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 Egyptian 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 Mongolia, 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 Mongolia 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.