Avital Drel
My Business Training
Hajara Bala Bello
Quick Facts
Hajara Bala Bello, warmly nicknamed "Nazeefa," is a resilient 27-year-old culinary professional from Nasarawa, Bauchi.
Graduated with a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, Hajara combines formal academic expertise with practical kitchen skills.
After facing a devastating divorce in 2023, she returned to her parental home, channeling her energy into building a better future for her two young children.
Inspired by her mother's hardworking nature, Hajara manages all childcare, education, and healthcare expenses independently.
Her deep family values and personal determination drive her to transform her passion for cooking into a sustainable, thriving catering career.
Hajara Bala Bello
Business Goals
Hajara aims to scale her home-based operations into a permanent commercial storefront called BB’S Cuisine.
Operating Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM in a bustling marketplace, she will offer customized catering, custom birthday cakes, small chops, and refreshing local drinks.
Targeting civil servants, families, and event planners, she specializes in personalized, high-quality event coordination, having successfully managed gatherings for over 400 guests.
Hajara expects to serve over twenty clients weekly, especially during the peak winter wedding season. Her ultimate goal is to build a highly trusted, consistently recognizable brand.
Hajara Bala Bello
Business Obstacles
Hajara successfully executes impressive, large-scale catering orders, but her business growth is severely restricted by working from home with zero public advertising.
Without a storefront sign or marketing materials, new customers have no way of discovering her services, making it incredibly difficult to attract clients outside of her immediate social circle.
Additionally, severe regional power cuts present a major operational hurdle, preventing her from safely preserving fresh ingredients in a deep freezer.
Finally, managing fluctuating, job-dependent pricing without formal financial tracking experience makes it difficult to monitor her long-term profit margins and build business savings effectively.
Hajara Bala Bello
Vulnerabilities
Hajara is collaborating with Leadership Initiatives to move out of her domestic kitchen and establish an independent marketplace restaurant.
This strategic partnership will equip her enterprise with high-visibility outdoor signs and banners to solve her advertising challenges and attract walk-in clients.
Additionally, the initiative will provide vital assets like a power generator, a deep freezer, and an industrial gas cooker.
By funding a spacious storefront, this collaboration directly helps Hajara establish a visible market presence, expand her clientele, and generate the consistent income needed to comfortably fund her children's education.
My Business Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Hajara Bala Bello 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 Hajara Bala Bello to optimize their business through a new financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Hajara Bala Bello 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, Hajara Bala Bello, 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 Hajara Bala Bello 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.