Peyton_Turnbull
Peyton Turnbull
My Business Training
Hassana Abubakar
About Hassana Abubakar
Hassana Abubakar is a passionate and resilient young woman from the Jahun Community in Bauchi State, Nigeria. For the past eight years, she has devoted herself to mastering the art of hairstyling, driven by a dream to open her own salon.
Inspired by the memory of her late mother and a desire to uplift her family, Hassana envisions a welcoming space where clients feel beautiful, confident, and valued.
Her business, Habeeba's Hair Salon, named in her mother’s honor, will offer top-quality services and serve as a beacon of hope, empowerment, and opportunity for women in her community.
Hassana Abubakar
Business Goals
At the heart of Hassana’s business are the values of resilience, community care, modesty, and excellence. She believes in lifting others as she climbs, using her salon to mentor aspiring stylists, especially young women with limited access to opportunities.
Her goal is not only to beautify clients but to build confidence and inspire empowerment through entrepreneurship. With each hairstyle, she tells a story of strength and hope.
Hassana envisions Habeeba’s Hair Salon as a vibrant, modern space in Gida Dubu, offering braiding, pedicures, waxing, and treatments. The salon will blend tradition with elegance, creating a full beauty experience for all.
Hassana Abubakar
Obstacles
Over the years, Hassana Abubakar has developed an impressive range of hairstyling skills through formal training and hands-on experience.
In 2015, she completed a three-month workshop in Gida Dubu, where she excelled and was recruited by a local salon owner. Since then, she has mastered braiding, hair washing, pedicures, hair extensions, and the use of professional equipment. She currently manages her employer’s shop and serves at least 15 customers each week.
Despite her talent and dedication, Hassana faces major financial barriers. Without capital to rent a shop or buy equipment, her ability to offer premium services remains limited.
Hassana Abubakar
Our Partnership
Hassana is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives through funding, mentorship, and training to help bring her salon vision to life.
She needs essential tools such as a hair dryer, standing dryer, steamer, sauna machine, pedicure machine, towels, and a power generator. She also hopes to learn money management, bookkeeping, and marketing strategies to run Habeeba’s Hair Salon efficiently and professionally.
Her long-term goals include owning a successful salon that supports her family, sends her younger brother back to school, and trains young women in her community. One of her greatest dreams is to buy a home for her family.
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 Hassana Abubakar to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Hassana 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 Hassana to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Hassana 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, Hassana Abubakar, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Hassana’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Hassana 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 Swedish Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Sweden 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 Swedish 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.
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 Gerald Gangaram, a decorated Apache helicopter pilot & leadership expert. He gave us a crash course in leadership and decision-making, breaking down the key elements of what makes an effective leader. His insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Mr. Gangaram 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.
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.