Darci Mckiernan
My Business Training
Sandra Mohammed
Quick Facts
Sandra Mohammed, affectionately known as "Latifa," is a resilient 30-year-old university graduate and fashion entrepreneur from Gombe State.
Orphaned at a young age, Sandra was raised by her grandmother, a primary school teacher who ran a small provision store to survive.
Watching her grandmother work tirelessly instilled a powerful work ethic in Sandra. Now a devoted mother of two young children, she manages all household responsibilities while contributing to her family's stability.
In 2023, after extreme financial hardships forced her to sell personal belongings, she successfully revived her household economy through a major custom bag order.
Sandra Mohammed
Business Goals
Sandra aims to scale her home-based tailoring into a dedicated commercial boutique called named Sandralia’s Vision.
Operating Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on a bustling main street, her enterprise will manufacture premium handbags, travel bags, school bags, and event souvenirs.
She targets fashion-conscious women aged 20 to 40 who love trendy, durable, and highly functional accessories.
Anticipating five major custom orders weekly, Sandra plans to leverage prominent outdoor signage and active Facebook promotions to establish a highly professional, recognizable brand inspired by the luxury identity of elite global fashion houses like Louis Vuitton.
Sandra Mohammed
Business Obstacles
Sandra delivers exceptional custom craftsmanship, but her business expansion is completely blocked by severe technical and resource shortages.
Her primary operational challenge is operating straight out of her home using only a single manual sewing machine, which drastically slows down her production speed.
She is heavily restricted by the lack of a dedicated shop space, an industrial sewing machine, proper chairs for customers, and a sturdy work table.
Furthermore, running electronic equipment without a reliable power generator stalls her work.
Finally, dealing with a total lack of additional capital makes it impossible to grow her inventory.
Sandra Mohammed
Vulnerabilities
Sandra is teaming up with Leadership Initiatives to leave her home-based setup and open a fully equipped bag manufacturing workshop.
This strategic partnership will provide her startup with essential industrial assets, including a high-speed industrial sewing machine, a heavy-duty power generator, customer chairs, and a professional cutting table.
By funding a spacious storefront on a main street featuring wide display doors, this initiative also helps her attract walk-in clients and display finished items on wall-mounted shelves.
This critical support empowers Sandra to increase her production speed, build customer trust, and secure her family’s financial future.
My Business Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Sandra Mohammed 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 Sandra Mohammed to optimize their business through a new financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Sandra Mohammed 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 Mongolia
- Diplomacy Briefing At The Egyptian Embassy
- Professional Mentorship
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Sandra Mohammed, 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 Sandra Mohammed 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 Mongolia, where I gained firsthand insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Mongolia 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 Mongolia 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 Egyptian 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 Egyptian 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.