Samanvitha_Badhe
Samanvitha Badhe
My Business Training
Ummu-Salama Mustapha
About Ummu-Salama
Ummu-Salama Mustapha, affectionately known as Salma, is a passionate and skilled makeup artist from Bauchi State, Nigeria.
With a deep love for beauty and a desire to help women feel confident and radiant, she is working toward her dream of opening her own makeup studio, Salma’s Makeup Studio. Her vision is not just to offer beauty services but to create a peaceful, elegant space where women feel valued, celebrated, and transformed.
After five years of working under a mentor and perfecting her craft, Salma is ready to bring her dream to life and build a business that reflects her values.
Ummu-Salama Mustapha
Business Goals
Salma’s business is rooted in values of excellence, care, and empowerment. She believes in using high-quality products, treating each customer with kindness and respect, and creating an atmosphere where women feel truly celebrated.
Her vision goes beyond beauty, as she hopes to inspire confidence, support independence, and build a business that tells a story of perseverance and community upliftment.
Salma’s Makeup Studio will offer professional makeup services, gele tying, and a relaxing, customer-friendly atmosphere. It will stand out for cleanliness, comfort, and professionalism while serving brides, celebrants, and everyday women seeking enhanced confidence and lasting beauty.
Ummu-Salama Mustapha
Obstacles
Salma has five years of experience in the makeup industry, gained through an apprenticeship and continuous hands-on learning. Under her mentor’s guidance, she has built a strong foundation in technical skills and customer service.
Specializing in bridal, casual, and event makeup, as well as gele tying, she has earned a reputation for quality work and professionalism. Her attention to detail and patience make her highly sought after.
Despite her skills and loyal customers, Salma’s biggest challenge is lack of startup capital. She cannot yet afford tools, furnishings, or a suitable shop space, but she remains determined and continues saving.
Ummu-Salama Mustapha
Our Partnership
Salma is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives through funding, mentorship, and business guidance. She hopes to acquire essential tools and materials for her studio, including makeup products, LED mirrors, professional chairs, and display shelves.
Eager to improve her business strategies and ensure long-term sustainability, Salma dreams of building a successful, reputable makeup business that brings financial stability and personal fulfillment.
She plans to move out of her parents’ home and build a peaceful house for her and her son. Salma also wants to support her mother and empower young girls through training and mentorship in makeup artistry.
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 Ummu-Salama Mustapha to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Ummu-Salama 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 Ummu-Salama to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Ummu-Salama 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, Ummu-Salama Mustapha, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Ummu-Salama’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Ummu-Salama 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 Swiss Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Switzerland 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 Swiss 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 Guyana, 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 Guyana 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.