CELEBRATING 10 OUTSTANDING WOMEN
ON WOMEN'S ENTREPRENURSHIP DAY
Today, on Women Entrepreneurs Day, we at Anne Ruth Marie pause to celebrate something extraordinary: the courage, creativity, and resilience of women entrepreneurs everywhere.
We see you. The late nights perfecting your business plan. The moments of doubt you pushed through. The times you chose to bet on yourself when the easier path was to play it safe. The way you’ve turned your vision into reality, one bold decision at a time.
Why This Matters to Us
As a women-focused social enterprise, empowerment isn’t just what we talk about—it’s woven into everything we do. We’ve built our ecosystem specifically to help professional women and virtual assistants thrive because we know firsthand the unique challenges women face in business. The funding gaps. The confidence battles. The balancing acts that sometimes feel impossible.
But we also know the magic that happens when women support women.
The Entrepreneurs in Our Community
We’re fortunate to know incredible women entrepreneurs—each with their own story of transformation. Women who left corporate jobs to chase a dream. Mothers who built businesses around their families. Experts who turned their knowledge into thriving enterprises. Virtual assistants who evolved into sought-after strategists.
Each one started where you might be right now: with an idea, a spark of possibility, and the courage to take the first step.
Tena Boloma
One sentence about how you got started:
I started my journey as a Tech & Marketing VA helping coaches and course creators behind the scenes, and over time fell in love with the strategy and psychology of email marketing . This led me to becoming an Email Marketing & Funnel Strategist.
One specific challenge you overcame and how you did it:
One major challenge I faced was feeling “not experienced enough” to fully own my expertise, especially when transitioning from tech support to strategy. I overcame it by doing the work anyway: taking on projects, learning through implementation, improving my systems, and leaning into the results I helped clients create, not the title I carried. Once I embraced my unique blend of tech, messaging, and strategy, my confidence and clarity grew naturally.
My top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneur:
Start where you are, with what you have and build momentum through clarity and consistency. You don’t need a perfect plan to begin. You just need to show up with intention, refine your craft, and trust that every small step compounds into confidence, clarity, and clients.
Olayimika OMOTAYO
One sentence about how you got started:
As of late 2022, I saw the challenges that people with digital skills go through to monetize their skillsets on freelance platforms and that prompted me to start the Olayimika’s Freelance Hub in 2023. The best decision I made for freelancers!
One specific challenge you overcame and how you did it:
How to encourage students to implement what was taught and land gigs. We were able to navigate this by giving assignments, sharing testimonials of those that are winning, organising frequent monthly community sessions, and a proposal challenge.
Your top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Write down the vision, study the target market and their needs, get a mentor, and start anyway because the perfect time will not perfectly come.
Blessing chukwu
One sentence about how I got started:
I started after realizing that amazing visionary leaders were constantly drowning in the ‘Chaos Tax’ (lost in unfinished daily tasks) —the hidden cost of poor systems—and I knew my purpose was to help them build the blueprint for operational clarity.
One specific challenge I overcame and how:
Early on, I was paralyzed by perfectionism and imposter syndrome, stuck for days just trying to decide on a brand colour. Coach B came to the rescue and gave me one line of advice: ‘Just start.’ I ran with that single line, realizing clarity comes from action, not waiting for perfection.
My top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Stop waiting for confidence, the perfect moment, the perfect colour, or the perfect system. Just start. You can’t fix chaos until you define it, and the best way to define it is to move forward, learn, and build the system as you go.
Folake Olaniyi
One sentence about how you got started:
I started BMVirtuals from a desire to help busy business owners stay organized and visible online through professional virtual assistance and social media management.
One specific challenge you overcame and how you did it:
One major challenge was gaining confidence in my skills when I first started; I overcame it by investing in learning, serving my early clients wholeheartedly, and allowing results to speak louder than self-doubt.
Your top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Start with what you have, stay consistent, and don’t compare your journey, there are people waiting for your unique skill set and voice.
Folusho adaba
One sentence about how I got started:
I started with a desire to merge my love for creativity and purpose —and that birthed Bethoria, now expressed through two vibrant arms, Bethoria Creativity & Bethoria Business Support Services,
One specific challenge I overcame and how:
One of my biggest challenges was juggling both the creative and administrative sides of my business without feeling scattered. I overcame it by giving both arms a clear identity under one name — Bethoria — and by staying rooted in the vision: to build tools that serve, inspire, and empower.
My top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Start with purpose, stay consistent, and allow your work to evolve. You don’t have to do everything at once —grow with grace, and let your values guide you.
olabisi folarin
One sentence about how you got started
Well… I simply got the relevant training and certifications in Counseling and niched down to Marriage and relationship counseling and coaching which is my forte and area of specialization.
One specific challenge you overcame and how you did it
Getting people to separate my calling as a pastor from my vocation as a Marriage coach and pay for professional services as counseling was also a part of my spiritual calling
1) I Simply overcame that by getting Professional Certification to be able to work with people and individuals outside of my religion and the four walls of my local assembly.
2) Got my Marriage Counseling and Coaching practice to have a formal and separate identity form if identity from my spiritual roles and calling as a pastor by doing things like branding logo, vision and mission statement, Automated systems that doesn’t allow direct negotiations with me like linktree and selah set up to view our different service packages and payment details for the different packages.
Your top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
I) Get your vision and mission statement right. What’s your WHY, WHAT and HOW
2) Be clear on who your primary and main target audience are
3) Put Systems and Structure in place. You won’t grow that business beyond the systems and structures you put in place.
4) Know when to tweak things according to developing and emerging new frontiers in your sector.
5) Be discerning enough to know when to pivot or scale that business so you don’t get stuck and remain in a rut!
siju yusuf
One sentence about how I got started:
The subject of purpose has always intrigued me — through different life seasons, careers, and experiences it became clear that purpose isn’t an arrival point but a journey, and as I began defining it for myself, I realised I could support others using the same tools.
One specific challenge I overcame and how:
Like many people, I’ve had to navigate different life seasons — transitions, uncertainty, reinvention — and they often arrived like clockwork. But each season taught me something new about resilience, clarity, and growth. Over time, I learned to look back with hindsight, extract the lessons, and evolve. That’s why my quiet motto has always been: ‘where there is a will, there is a way.’ Every season can shape you, not break you.
My top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
You will question yourself — many times. It’s part of the journey. Keep your why in front of you. Before launching anything, make sure your why is clearly articulated. It will steady you, guide your decisions, and hold you during the inevitable moments of doubt. Your why will evolve, but define it early.
Sefunmi Iloba
One sentence about how you got started
How I got started: I was looking for something I could do to enable me cater to my daughter and still be able to contribute to the economy of my family.
So I paid for a coaching session. While on the coaching session, the coach asked me if I have heard something called virtual assistant and she asked me to go and research more about it and the rest is history
One specific challenge you overcame and how you did it
The major challenge was work life balance was really hard. I sometimes found myself working late into the night, I had to come up with my NDA stating my work hours and that helped me create work boundaries
Your top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
the world is your oyster so long as you keep improving on your skills
temitope aderibigbe
One sentence about how I got started:
Freedom and security is a core value for me and my finances is a major component of this, hence my intentionality in building a chain of businesses that aligns with my purpose, value, family, career and essentially provides a solid sense of fufillment.
One specific challenge I overcame and how:
Making my first sale was my biggest challenge, I did a lot of sponsored ads and all and yet, I caught nothing. Marketting is not my strength so I had to learn from my network, entering DM’s telling them about my rest retreat, talking to husbands to sponsor their wifes, talking to my husband to tell his colleagues, posting on whatsapp status and all. Suddenly, selar sends a mail, you made a sale, I screamed for joy in excitement, the spell has broken, I came out of my shell told my network who know me, like me and trust me what I do and gbam someone made a purchase through my status. This my third year of curating rest events and it’s been sales upon sale.
My top piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Resilience, Consistency, Ask for Help, Stay Excellent, Seek for opportunities through intentional visibility. Can every contact on your phone clearly say what you do/sell. Be clear and bold
Your Journey Matters
Whether you’re just starting out, scaling your business, or somewhere in between—your entrepreneurial journey matters. Every service you deliver with excellence, every client you serve with heart, every boundary you set, every risk you take—it all counts.
You’re not just building a business. You’re creating opportunities, inspiring others, and proving what’s possible when women dare to dream big and work hard.
Here’s to You
Today, we celebrate you. Tomorrow, we keep building the tools, resources, and community you need to thrive. Because when women entrepreneurs succeed, we all rise.
To every woman entrepreneur in our community and beyond: Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for showing us what’s possible.
Keep building. Keep dreaming. Keep inspiring.
Happy Women Entrepreneurs Day from all of us at Anne Ruth Marie.
Want to connect with other professional women building their dreams? Join our community and access the tools and support you need to take your expertise to the next level. [Link to your community/platform]