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Philip Udeh was born with sickle cell disease. Due to his condition, Udeh endured a painful crisis during his childhood. While in college, he suffered a life-threatening kidney failure but luck was on his side as he made a full recovery.

Having gone through this tumultuous experience through childhood to adulthood, Udeh set out to find solutions for his condition. He started researching into ways he can improve his health condition and implemented a plant-based diet, nutritional herbs, and physical activities including yoga and tai chi, according to Forbes.

His breakthrough came when he made smoothies using natural ingredients such as Ginseng, Ashwagandha (also known as Indian ginseng), and Spirulina. He gave what he had made to a few friends to try. Based on their feedback, Udeh realized his mixture had a positive influence on their health.

That was how Udeh founded Füd Vitamin Energy to help people born with sickle cell anemia get on with their lives. He then took steps to formalize his product to ensure that the formula for his product was right and meet all the legal requirements. He established contact with a food technologist and they worked together on creating a product that could be brought to market.

He also solicited the assistance of some freelancers to help in the branding of the product. “Whilst things were moving along I realized to make it work and take it to the next level it needed an injection of capital and to go full time,” Udeh told Forbes.

To get funding to scale up the production of his business, he applied for an accelerator program but his application was dismissed. Many entrepreneurs would have given up at this stage but Udeh persisted and through networking, he met an angel investor.

After receiving funding in 2018, he started producing Füd drinks in scalable quantities for sale in corporate markets and college campuses. He later secured a distribution deal with national retailer Sainsbury in May 2019.

He subsequently received an offer from entrepreneur Peter Jones at Great Britain‘s version of Shark Tank but he declined the offer. Udeh chose the route of using crowdfunding to raise funds from his loyal customers. He was successful with the crowdfunding and channeled the funds into a reformulation and sleek rebrand.

The rebranding has helped the Füd Vitamin Energy drive up sales despite COVID-19 driving down sales of businesses and resulting in the collapse of Black-owned businesses.

Meanwhile, Udeh is starting another crowdfunding this month so as to allow more of his customers increase their stake in the company.

Finding an attorney to represent you in court can sometimes be hectic and costly, particularly among small business owners, where many cannot afford legal services. An estimated 80 percent of small businesses in Africa cannot afford a lawyer.

To break the barrier, a group of Zimbabwean entrepreneurs have created online legal services that allow you to get instant legal assistance from dozens of lawyers at a reduced rate through low cost add-on legal protection insurance products which are delivered and marketed through established insurance companies. LawBasket provides a new way of financing and delivering legal value to small businesses in Africa.

LawBasket also works with co-working spaces, tech accelerators and hubs across Africa to deliver free in-person and online law clinics using a network of lawyers who deliver practical legal content to help startups grow, it says on its website. Through its lawyer-on-demand platform, LawBasket also enables small businesses and startups to hire lawyers at a predictable price when they need them.

The company was founded in December 2018 by a group of entrepreneurs who had previously run Lexware Inc, a local tech company. The founding team has two lawyers, each with four years of experience in top Zimbabwean law firms, a finance person and a software engineer.

“LawBasket presents a credible alternative to traditional law firms, providing solutions to getting legal help for the ever-increasing crusade of small businesses and start-ups in Africa,” co-founder Nyasha Makamba told NewsDay. “Through LawBasket payments, the company also declutters the process of creating and managing bills for lawyers, as well as provide a simple portal to process multi-jurisdictional payments for legal services.”

Although LawBasket originally started in Zimbabwe, it is also available in 15 other African countries. In fact, the majority of the lawyers on the platform are from Nigeria, a development Makamba finds exciting. On its websites, LawBasket says its lawyers have expertise in areas like intellectual property, motor vehicle accidents and real estate.

“What we are doing is to create a virtual law firm which anyone can access from anywhere in the world through one platform,” the founders told Tech In Africa. “It’s a business that is exciting to scale, and our journey so far has shown that we can scale the business.”

The growth of the company has been organic, Makamba said in a 2019 interview, adding that they were exploring the option of further expanding their footprint though they would need some funding. “We have been talking to organizations across Africa and in the US, and we are confident that we will raise the funding we need to this on a larger and profitable scale,” Makamba told Tech In Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced entrepreneurs around the country to pivot their businesses in order to stay afloat through the public health crisis. For one Washington D.C. private chef, quarantining with his family, which includes his young daughter, inspired him to start a new venture by creating a health-conscious cookbook for children.

Like many business owners, chef Anthony Thomas saw his usual traffic began to drastically slow down due to COVID-19 restrictions. As a result, he found himself spending more time with his daughter, Ashlyn, who served as his muse for the project.

“She lights up when we are in the grocery store,” he said in an email interview. “I can recall spending a whole morning in the grocery store, literally explaining every fruit and vegetable to her. I thought to myself, I’m sure many parents find themselves explaining the entire grocery store to their child, so what better way to do it than having a book that touches on everything.”

The Little Vegan is a colorful collection of easy recipes to do with kids during quarantine. Thomas who says he’s been a vegan for some time and that these easy meals can help others practice a healthier lifestyle while they are at home.

“I studied different foods and recipes. When I hear customers say they want to change their eating habits but refuse to, the options are disappointing,” he says. “Some of the best dishes I have created have been vegan, and I wanted to share that experience with anyone thinking of changing their diet or are loyal to the vegan lifestyle.

The Little Vegan cook is available for purchase on Amazon. 

A Black-owned bakery was forced to close its shop after a number of racially charged threats targeted the business this past weekend. 

The co-owner of Bake Me Happy in Columbus, Ohio, says out of an abundance of safety for her employees, the business closed its doors. The decision came after someone called in several times inquiring about the gluten-free bakery and then preceded to go on a violent and racially charged tirade, saying people need to get out of the building.

Letha Pugh, the bakery’s co-founder explained to affiliate NBC affiliate WCMH–TV, “That’s a threat, essentially,” she said. “I called the number back and the person answered the phone and just kind of went into saying a bunch of racial slurs.”

Pugh alerted police and decided to talk to the Columbus City Council. According to Black leaders, the incident is just one of several they have noticed in the area.

“It is incomprehensible that respected entrepreneurs and community activists felt it necessary to close their beloved business because of threats from an extremist racist demagogue,” Stephanie Hightower, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, said in a statement. “What’s just as unbelievable is that other Black business owners reportedly also are receiving similar threats. Federal, state and local authorities should immediately and thoroughly investigate these issues, protect the intended victims and ensure that swift and sure prosecution is pursued against these criminal acts.”

Hightower went on to say, “As we witnessed during the debacle in our nation’s Capitol last week, we should never underestimate the capacity for violence by those who appear to be the 2021 version of a lynch mob.”

Word circulated about the incident on social media, generating an outpouring of community support.

“The staff was freaked out,” Pugh said. “We’re trying to figure out what our next steps are, but I’m not into predicting what people are going to do these days. So we’re going to close it down, regroup.”

The bakery says it plans to reopen on Tuesday.

Mosibudi Jo Mathole and Khomotso Ramodipa are two South African sisters who quit their jobs as an investment banker and an optometrist respectively, to start a diamond polishing business, at a time when the price of the commodity was so low and unattractive to investors.

In 2019, while speaking to the VOA, Mathole and Ramodipa said their love for diamonds drove them into the business. The industry in South Africa is still male-dominated and has actually shrunk. Once a booming business, diamond polishing has shrunk from 4,500 polishers 25 years ago to 250 polishers in recent times.

Despite the gloomy picture of the sector, the two sisters were unfazed and opened Kwame Diamonds in 2008. The shop in Johannesburg offers the cutting and polishing of the precious stone.

Interestingly, the company is the only firm in South Africa run by sisters and according to Women in Diamond, the sisters manage the only women-owned polishing business in the world.

“The barriers to entry go beyond just being a woman or being a man because the difficulty boils down to having an outfit like this, you really need a proper capital outlay,” said Mathole, who is the company’s director. “And for women, it becomes a bit tricky because this has always been a very male-dominated industry.”

The year they set up Kwame Diamonds, Mathole and Ramodipa became qualified diamond valuators and have since carved a niche for themselves in the polish and cutting of diamonds. Aside from that, they also ensure that they sourced diamonds responsibly and ethically.

According to co-founder Ramodipa, they are accredited to cut and polish world-renown De Beers Group’s branded diamonds. 

“To be able to produce a Forevermark diamond, which according to them, it’s 1 percent of the world diamonds that are produced. … If you are able to polish that kind of diamond, then you are among one of the best,” she said.

The South African sisters employ and train other women in the industry, a move seen as part of their own contribution of increasing female participation in the sector.

Grace Tshego is a diamond polisher at Kwame Diamonds.

“Now I can go out there and say, ‘I’m a diamond cutter,” Tshego is quoted as saying. “I’m even specializing with ‘fancy cut’. It’s something that is so wow, because other people they don’t know it.”

Mathole and Ramodipa have received commendations for their innovation and staying afloat in an industry in decline. “They’re looking at the diamond industry from a different perspective,” says the former president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), Ernie Blom.

“They’re thinking out of the box. And maybe they’re ticking all the right boxes that is giving them the success that they have. And maybe that’s what a lot of the older diamond industry can learn from.”

The coronavirus pandemic lockdown was a blessing in disguise for many even though there were a few others who did not find that period favorable. Some lost relatives to the virus while others lost their jobs.

London Warrick decided to send positive vibes to her family, neighbors and friends with every cake she baked during the lockdown period.

The 11-year-old kidpreneur discovered her love for baking during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. So, on Mother’s Day, she baked lots of cakes and wrapped up huge slices for mothers in her neighborhood to bring some cheer to them.

Little did she know seven months ago that she had just sent out samples of what will be her new cake business, Lovely London Delights.

“I started baking in May for Mother’s Day. I made a whole cake and I sliced it and I delivered it to mothers to make them happy,” the Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, native told local news outlet WPVI.

The cake was so lovely that many mothers wanted to order whole cakes after they tasted the slices. “When I got back home, they were asking for whole cakes,” she added.

London rose to the challenge but her mother, Tramaine Warrick, was worried people might not want to go through with their orders if they knew an 11-year-old baked their cakes.

Interestingly, that was not a deterrent as, according to Traimaine, people began hitting her family up for more cakes. “I explained to them that London is 11 and they said, ‘We don’t care. We just want a cake!'” said Tramaine

Just like that, news of the new cake sensation spread by word of mouth and recommendations. “From there so many people we didn’t know were finding out from other people, and they just started to ask us to order cakes,” she added.

The classic Bundt cake with two secret ingredients has been the best seller since the business started and she has sold over 200 cakes and counting. The Upper Moreland Intermediate School fifth-grader makes multitasking look so easy. She has good time management skills and has allocated weekends and school breaks for her budding baking business.

“I do my cakes on the weekend and when I’m on break,” London said.

London still has time to do little girls’ stuff like her other hobby, dancing. She also takes classes very seriously, with math being her favorite subject. She already has her eyes set on Lincoln University and with her tenacity, it will be no surprise that she gets in.

According to ABC6, the kidpreneur is also philanthropic at heart. London donates proceeds from her sales to Gift of Life to honor her grandfather, who had lung disease.

It was a journey that started as a hobby for Semhal Guesh. While in the university training as an architect, she started making hand bracelets from leather waste which later led her to start Kabana Leather, a firm that produces a wide range of bags mainly targeting foreign markets.

“My hobby became a business when I employed someone and saw the impact it made on their life. I quit my job at an architectural firm to run Kabana full-time,” she told.

Guesh produces under her own brand and also has a division that produces for international labels. Since the establishment of the firm in 2017, it has focused on the international market. However, following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the firm made adjustments so as to focus on the local market in a bid to water down the effect of the pandemic on its business operations.

In addition to producing leather bags, Kabana leather now produces PPEs and other preventive materials with support from the MasterCard Foundation albeit temporarily.

The bulk of its products are sold in the U.S. and Europe and a small consignment sold in Rwanda and South Africa. Guesh said her brand tries to have launches twice a year. “Design starts with a mood board with colors, material concepts and design. Usually, I work with my team to develop patterns and designs. We make samples and get feedback on these. We then manufacture our selection for the launches,” Guesh said.

The architect-turned manufacturer attributes the success of her firm to its niche for functional bags made locally instead of concentrating on seasonal or fashionable products. “We focus on training and investing in our team, so we have close to zero staff turnover,” she said. What’s more, 80 percent of the workforce are women.

Also, Guesh’s business has largely grown as a result of recommendations from satisfied customers. “We have not spent a lot on marketing. We have also found some level of success at trade fairs,” she added.

However, there are some challenges she occasionally deals with. One of the challenges is sourcing quality leather and accessories for the bags. She also struggles to access finance which limits her working capital and makes it hard to move from a small to a medium enterprise or expand operations.

The effect of COVID-19 was another challenge she had to confront head-on. Initially, she laid off some of her temporary staff but with support from the Mastercard Foundation, the firm has recovered and saved some workers.

Guesh, in her spare time, trains young women and girls living on the streets of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. These young women, many of whom are refugees from South Sudan and Somalia, do join Guesh at her company. Others go on to start their own businesses, she said in an interview. “Nothing is more satisfying for me than seeing former employees or the women I’ve trained spread their own wings and start their own businesses,” said Guesh, who grew up hearing a phrase many young girls did not: “You can do whatever you want.”

The coronavirus pandemic not only disproportionally affected Black-owned businesses, but it has also delayed the opening of many companies led by Black people.

In the midst of all the uncertainties in the business world, particularly over concerns whether existing and new businesses could make a profit, three Kentucky brothers have defied all odds in a pandemic era to roll out their own distillery.

Known as Brough Brothers Distillery, it is the first and only Black-owned distillery in the state of Kentucky. It was founded by brothers Victor, Bryson, and Christian Yarbrough who were born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Their ambition was fueled by their desire to operate a Black-led distillery in a sector that has been widely dominated by Whites. Their distillery will provide job opportunities and economic growth for the community of Park Hill, a historically underserved area of Louisville’s West End, according to a press release announcing the commencement of operation of Brough Brothers Distillery.

“Brough Brothers has an opportunity to not only provide employment opportunities for our local community but also design an experience for locals and tourists in the heart of one of Kentucky’s cultural hubs,” Brough Brothers CEO Victor Yarbrough said. “At a time in history when there is much attention on Louisville, we are excited to represent positive change and hope for and on behalf of our city.”

Currently, Chris and Bryson serve as the company’s chief marketing officer and chief operating officer, respectively.

The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau first approved Brough Brothers Distillery in August 2018 and was recognized by Kentucky’s Senate as the state’s first African American-owned distillery in August 2020. It was subsequently approved by the Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in September.

Meanwhile, its bourbon shop will be open for business to bourbon enthusiasts by appointment only in spring 2021. So far, customers have praised the product for being one of the smoothest on the market.

“I hope people are able to come to the West End and see a rose in the concrete, and are able to see there’s beauty there, there’s people willing to improve the community there, and we would like to see other businesses come in, as well as tourists and other supporters, to not just support our business, but surrounding businesses in the area,” CEO Yarbrough said in an interview.

Brough Brothers currently has major distribution partnerships in five states, including KY, FL, TN, IN, and CO. It will expand its distribution to another 20 states in early 2021, the release said.