George Vernau
My Business Training
Felicia Joseph Joel
Quick Facts
Felicia Joseph Joel, affectionately known as "Maman Sum," is a resilient 41-year-old entrepreneur living in Bauchi State.
Born in Plateau State, Felicia overcame a deeply challenging childhood following her mother's passing, even selling kunu to support her own education. Her determination eventually earned her a National Certificate of Education (NCE).
Guided by the entrepreneurial influence of her late parents, she mastered vital business and financial skills.
Today, Felicia is a dedicated mother of four and the primary economic pillar for her household, running a small-scale home provision business to fund her children’s education and build a brighter future.
Felicia Joseph Joel
Business Goals
Felicia aims to build a thriving neighborhood grocery store, Maman Sum Provision Store, providing quick access to daily essentials all under one roof.
She plans to offer a wide variety of household necessities, including bulk grains, cooking oil, packaged foods, and toiletries.
Targeting local parents and working adults in a residential area, she focuses on family-friendly service, reliable stock, and fixed, budget-friendly prices.
Felicia plans to operate daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving around thirty customers each day.
Ultimately, she hopes to use simple branding and digital marketing to build deep community trust and lasting financial security.
Felicia Joseph Joel
Business Obstacles
Felicia runs a reliable home retail business despite working with a very limited inventory and just a small domestic refrigerator.
To keep her family afloat, she works incredibly hard, but her main roadblock is a lack of cash to buy bulk supplies and expand her inventory.
Since she currently operates from home, moving into an independent storefront and attracting new clients is a major challenge.
Additionally, local market competition and balancing intensive domestic duties create heavy stress, while an unreliable electricity supply threatens her cold storage.
Overcoming these funding and space limitations is essential for her to scale up successfully.
Felicia Joseph Joel
Vulnerabilities
Felicia seeks support from Leadership Initiatives to transition from a home setup into a proper storefront, requiring large display shelves, a larger commercial refrigerator, storage containers, and startup funding.
This partnership will provide the necessary money to fully restock high-demand items like cooking oil, flour, and soft drinks.
With this assistance, Felicia’s workspace will transform into an organized, neutral-toned, comfortable shop featuring a clear checkout counter and an easy-to-navigate layout.
This critical collaboration guarantees business independence, empowering Felicia to consistently pay her children's school fees while providing a convenient, reliable shopping hub for her community.
My Business Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Felicia Joseph Joel to develop a clear understanding of their business goals. Though they have 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 created a proposal detailing the infrastructure materials necessary to support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Felicia Joseph Joel to optimize their business through a new financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Felicia Joseph Joel to allocate funds toward essential materials and equipment, supporting the improvement of their services. Effective financial tracking will be crucial for managing increased revenue and preserving assets, ensuring the business’s long-term growth and stability.
My Business Proposal Presentation
As part of the International Leadership and Business Internship, I collaborated with top development experts to strengthen my business partner’s operation and finances.
At the conclusion 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 demonstrate our entrepreneurial skills, showcase our strategic plan, and advocate for meaningful change in our partner’s business.
Our team was awarded grant funding to support the implementation of our business partner’s plan, providing life-changing support that will expand operations, strengthen 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.
Internship Highlights
- Business Partner Meeting
- Visit To The Embassy Of Lithuania
- Diplomacy Briefing At The El Salvadorian Embassy
- Professional Mentorship
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Felicia Joseph Joel, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration. It allowed us to better understand our partner's background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Felicia Joseph Joel provided 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 offered guidance, helping us ask the right questions and turn our ideas into meaningful, actionable strategies.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the Embassy of Lithuania, where I gained firsthand insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Lithuania and the United States.
The embassy serves as a center for international collaboration, partnering with 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 Embassy of Lithuania shared how they collaborate 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 El Salvadorian Embassy, I gained insight into how diplomacy shapes international cooperation and development. The experience deepened my 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 the El Salvadorian people 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 that our team applied while developing our business proposal.
Throughout the internship, our team had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with leading 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.
My team also worked directly with a personal mentor. Our mentor provided us with career insights, project support, and feedback for our business ideas. The meetings we had throughout the week with our mentor provided critical insights from the initial business ideation phase through our project presentation.
With support from Ms. Brooks and other global leaders, including Eric Rosenstein, we refined our ideas, strengthened our strategy, and developed a powerful and polished 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.