Alex-Calhoun
Alex Calhoun
My Jumpstart Training
Maryam Moses
About Maryam Moses
Maryam Moses is a highly skilled and dedicated hairstylist from Jahun Community in Bauchi State, Nigeria. With over 14 years of experience, she has mastered hand-braiding and complex hairstyling techniques that distinguish her work.
Maryam’s dream is to expand Maryland Beauty Salon into a full-service beauty center that offers exceptional grooming services for women in her community. Her passion for hair care is driven by a desire to help people feel beautiful and confident.
Committed to service, Maryam aims to support her family and uplift others by creating job opportunities and empowering women through beauty and entrepreneurship.
Maryam Moses
Business Goals
Maryam’s business bases on hard work, resilience, creativity, and a commitment to empowering her community. She strives to provide services that make women feel valued and beautiful, all while upholding professionalism and compassion.
Her vision for Maryland Beauty Salon is to inspire others and become the top beauty destination in Bauchi State. Maryam plans to operate a well-equipped salon offering braiding, styling, pedicures, manicures, wig installation, and product sales.
Situated in a busy commercial area, the salon will attract many customers. She also hopes to train and employ women from her community to help uplift others through hairstyling.
Maryam Moses
Obstacles
Maryam has worked in the hair salon industry for over 14 years, mastering advanced skills like braiding, washing, pedicures, manicures, and hair extensions. Despite her expertise, she faced many challenges launching and growing her business.
After secondary school, family responsibilities delayed her career. With 200,000 Naira from her father’s pension, she opened her salon in 2011 but struggled with limited equipment, unreliable power, and financial instability.
These obstacles made business growth difficult, forcing Maryam to rely on creativity and hard work. Despite this, she is known for her intricate hand-braiding and remains dedicated to her craft.
Maryam Moses
Our Partnership
Maryam is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives to help achieve her important goals. She needs mentorship to refine her business strategy and funding to purchase key equipment like steaming machines, washing basins, pedicure machines, and more quality hair products.
With this crucial support, Maryland Beauty Salon can grow and expand its loyal customer base. Maryam dreams of building a thriving salon that combines her skills, passion, and strong community values.
She hopes to buy a family home and create meaningful job opportunities for young women. Her vision is financial independence and a lasting legacy that truly empowers others.
My Jumpstart Proposal Presentation
During the Jumpstart Program, I worked directly with some of the world’s leading developmental experts in order to expand my partner’s business and brand identity.
At the conclusion of this internship, our team pitched the final proposal to Bill Stefan, Leadership Initiatives Board Member and Deputy for Enterprise Management for the Department of Defense. This formal pitch allowed our team to practice our skills and utilize our entrepreneurial toolkit, all while showcasing our efforts to transform the business we partnered with.
At the end of the pitch, we were able to receive feedback on our proposal for our business partner. Over the next year, Maryam will utilize our proposal to propel sustainable growth of their business.
My Jumpstart Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Maryam Moses to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Maryam 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 and marketing materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Maryam to optimize their business through a new budget, financial tracking systems, and logo.
This new budget enables Maryam 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. 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.
Career Exploration
Our team began the business development process by having a one-on-one Zoom call directly with our business partner, Maryam Moses, and our Nigerian project coordinator to ensure productive collaboration.
After discussing important considerations for our marketing materials including local populations, family situations, and prior experience, we began our exploration of the business industry.
We received briefings on marketing and branding tactics from Carla Brooks and Nikki Hendricks.
Outside of the classroom, we received a personalized tour of the Embassy of Austria where we learned about Austrian culture, US/Austria relations, and international business.
To begin our exploration of the medical field, we learned about patient histories and doctor-patient interactions from Dr. Zainab of the Kidney Center of Kano State, Nigeria.
We also got hands-on training for building plaster casts. After receiving this training, we had the opportunity to build model casts and practice assessing damages and breaks.
At the end of the week, we got to put our medical skills to the test through a demo EMT scene where we used triage and emergency response.
To explore the legal field, we received a briefing on legal advocacy from Professor Sarah Stiles, an experienced educator and leader in advocacy and leadership.
I also got to meet esteemed DC District Judge, Adam Hunter. Judge Hunter taught us about questioning, data analysis, and evidence collection.
I also received a personal tour of the University of Maryland Crime Lab where I learned about forensics science, evidence viability, and how to assess crime scenes.
We got the opportunity to learn about different aspects of the intelligence community from an active government investigator, Kesha Middleton. Ms. Middleton taught us about the role of investigators, how careers in government work, and the process for entering the government and intelligence fields.
Outside of the classroom, we took a tour of the International Spy Museum. Throughout this tour, we learned about intelligence and counterintelligence equipment.
We also got the opportunity to discuss topics related to global affairs and government relations through our meetings with the Austrian Embassy officials, government officials from the NSA and DoD, and through collaborations with representatives of universities including Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, American University, and more.