Chloe Lee
My Business Training
Usman Sa'idu
Quick Facts
Usman Sa’idu, nicknamed "Abu-Sawwama," is a highly resilient 36-year-old entrepreneur from Bauchi State.
Displaced by childhood conflict in Jos, he returned to Bauchi and persevered to earn a university degree in Building Technology, teaching to fund his studies after his father fell ill.
As the eldest male in his household, Usman serves as a vital anchor, supporting his mother, guiding his younger brothers, and providing for his wife and three children.
Having mastered document formatting, design, and advanced printing through a five-year apprenticeship, Usman is deeply driven by faith and family to establish his own independent business center.
Usman Sa'idu
Business Goals
Usman strives to establish a leading digital print and graphic business, delivering quality banner printing, corporate letterhead design, and professional document formatting.
Targeting young professionals, business owners, and academic researchers in a bustling marketplace, he prioritizes neatness, technical accuracy, and flexible, affordable pricing.
Usman is planning to take on around 150 clients per week, operating six days a week.
Generally, he intends to expand into specialized promotional items like custom shirts and mugs, leveraging a creative brand identity to inspire customer confidence and trust while maintaining standard-setting reliability within the local printing industry.
Usman Sa'idu
Business Obstacles
Usman maintains an exceptional standard of design and technical execution despite currently owning zero professional equipment or raw production materials. Relying entirely on his employer’s machinery limits his independence, making rapid commercial growth difficult.
Because printing demands majorly increase during research and ceremonial seasons, his lack of independent computers and industrial printers creates a severe operational setback.
Additionally, frequent regional power outages threaten workflow continuity and document safety, while a lack of formal bookkeeping training complicates resource management.
Overcoming these machinery and infrastructural setbacks is essential for Usman to secure a true competitive edge.
Usman Sa'idu
Vulnerabilities
Usman seeks support from Leadership Initiatives to launch his independent print media business, requiring computers, commercial printers, lamination machinery, and a power generator. This partnership will provide the necessary startup funding to stop his reliance on external workshops and secure a spacious twenty-square-meter facility in a major commercial space.
With this assistance, Usman’s workspace will transform into a professional digital studio featuring organized display shelves, vibrant exterior murals, and a comfortable reception seating area.
This important collaboration ensures operational success, enabling Usman to handle large-scale corporate contracts while providing long-term financial success for his household.
My Business Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Usman Sa'idu 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 Usman Sa'idu to optimize their business through a new financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Usman Sa'idu 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 Serbia
- Diplomacy Briefing At The European Union's Embassy
- Professional Mentorship
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Usman Sa'idu, 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 Usman Sa'idu 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 Serbia, where I gained firsthand insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Serbia 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 Serbia 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 European Union's 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 European Union's 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.