Sabina Ali, a Mozambican entrepreneur advising organizations on their business strategies — Lionesses of Africa

What inspired you to start your company?

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always had a passion for technology. It was not difficult to choose what I wanted to study and which career I wanted to pursue. As I finished university, I did my internship and remained in the same company for 8 years as a senior business and its consultant, I really enjoyed what I did there and I am so grateful for all that I learned and the personal and professional growth achieved in those 8 years. However, as time went by it just stopped being challenging for me, and I started searching for new jobs and in the process I remembered that since I was a little girl I always wanted to have my own office when I grew up, just like my father. So I decided to open my first company, which survived for 2 years because I didn´t have the experience in managing a business and had not yet learned anything about persistence and resilience. I was then confused between accepting a job offer or persisting in venturing again on my own, and, in search of an answer, I did more courses, read several books, talked with experienced people for advice and decided to try again on my own, and that’s where SAB Consulting was born. And it’s been five years of constant growth.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

My goal with SAB used to be “make money” to accomplish my dreams. I realized over time that my dream was to inspire and make a positive impact, and so I reviewed my intention and switched to “make a difference” wanting to help the growth of others and consequently my growth. And this is what makes my business special, I wish to impact and change lives positively by influencing mindsets and business management strategies to make it easier, creating more space to flow and accomplish “our dreams”.

Tell us a little about your team

My team are my business partners and my clients. I am the only employee in my company, and I embrace projects along with my partners and together we surrender to a project or client and are fully committed as a team until the client declares satisfaction.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

My family always ran their own retail businesses so yes, my biggest inspiration was my family’s entrepreneurial background. Regarding my entrepreneurial journey, after I failed my first company, the second one, SAB was for me a renaissance, with new thoughts, strategies and models of business, I share below just a few great impacts for me:

1. In the first year I had only two clients, but I didn’t give up. I came from a multinational where we worked with medium and large companies. I wanted the same goal for my small company that was just born. That’s when I decided to switch my segment to startups, small and micro-enterprises, and that has changed the whole landscape to a more positive and abundant business.

2. My goal with SAB used to be “make money” to accomplish my dreams. I realized over time that my dream was to inspire and make a positive impact, and so I reviewed my intention and switched to “make a difference,” wanting to help the growth of others and consequently my growth.

3. To this day, I’m the only employee in my company. I adapted a model of business involving partnerships and outsourcing that has been a success until this day.

4. With my involvement and inputs with startups and small businesses, I gained my reputation and have accepted the invitation of strategic partnership with two companies with the same purpose of small businesses growth.

5. As I gained more experience, I also learned how to manage my time better, giving space to fulfill another dream that is the development of an App, Dr Moz, a digital platform in the health and wellness industry for Mozambique.