Brinda Paladugu
My Business Training
Juwaira Ahmed
Quick Facts
Juwaira Ahmed, who’s affectionately known as "Maman Ahmed," is an ambitious 37-year-old university graduate and beauty entrepreneur from Kano State, Nigeria.
Raised in a disciplined household by a schoolteacher mother and a nursing provost father, Juwaira learned early on how to balance educational success with heavy household responsibilities.
After getting married, she demonstrated immense resilience by successfully completing her university studies while raising her six children through severe financial hardships.
Deeply motivated by her late father’s hard-working character, Juwaira now contributes half of her household's income to fund her children’s high school and university tuition fees.
Juwaira Ahmed
Business Goals
Juwaira aims to transition her home-based beauty services into a trendy, independent commercial parlor she calls Marmu Incense and Salon.
Operating daily from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM on a highly visible main street, her salon will offer professional hair styling, braiding, custom facials, and pedicures.
She primarily targets working women and local female entrepreneurs aged 16 to 50 who value high-quality, customized care.
Anticipating up to fifty clients weekly, Juwaira plans to utilize prominent outdoor signage and targeted WhatsApp marketing to build a trustworthy, family-friendly brand known for cleanliness and exceptional care.
Juwaira Ahmed
Business Obstacles
Juwaira is providing professional, high-quality care that satisfies her clients, but her business faces significant growth challenges.
Her primary business challenges are getting customers to keep coming back while also attracting new ones, balancing her business with her heavy family responsibilities, and dealing with a lack of capital.
Operating out of her home compound further restricts her growth, as she lacks vital equipment like hair steamers, rolling trolley carts, and professional salon chairs.
Finally, running these services without formal financial experience makes it highly challenging to track her exact profit margins or build sustainable savings.
Juwaira Ahmed
Vulnerabilities
Juwaira is teaming up with Leadership Initiatives to move her business out of her home and open a real, independent beauty salon
.
This strategic partnership will equip her new business startup with essential styling equipment, including a professional hair steamer, rolling trolley carts, salon chairs, large styling mirrors, and a reliable power generator.
By funding a spacious storefront on a prominent main street, this initiative provides the infrastructure needed to establish a distinct, cozy waiting area and a modern workstation.
This crucial assistance empowers Juwaira to increase daily client capacity and confidently support her family.
My Business Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Juwaira Ahmed 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 marketing materials necessary to support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Juwaira Ahmed to optimize their business through a new brand identity
Investments in a logo and marketing materials, such as signs and flyers, are vital for establishing a strong brand identity and expanding the customer base. These visual assets create a consistent and memorable image that builds trust and recognition among potential clients.
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 brand.
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 New Zealand
- Diplomacy Briefing At The Egyptian Embassy
- Professional Mentorship
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Juwaira Ahmed, 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 Juwaira Ahmed 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 New Zealand, where I gained firsthand insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between New Zealand 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 New Zealand 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.