Welcome to Season 2!  If you love what we are doing, please sponsor us on Patreon! 

Making Money Moves is  brought to you by Janet’s List, hosted by Janet Oganah and Adonica Simmons. The aim of our podcast is to open up conversations about money, mind-set, and the moves people have made to build successful businesses. If you are a female entrepreneur, a high impact woman or are simply looking for inspiration, this podcast is for you. We interview inspiring guests, mostly women of colour, who are building incredible businesses. Our guests will also share tips and strategies, which you can apply at any stage of your entrepreneurial journey.

We loved our chat with Alice Gbelia, cultural activist and founder of African art e-commerce platform Ayok’a. A trailblazer of digital enterprise, Alice tells us how her curiosity has led her to discover and share her passion for culture, both in the workplace and through former events website Catchavibe. Alice talks us through her journey of planning, launching and refining her creative business, breaks down the importance of knowing your audience and reveals how she has leveraged her networks to bring about media coverage with Glam Africa, Black Ballad and BBC Afrique.

Here’s what you’ll learn this episode:

5.50 – Seeing a gap in the market beyond the clichés – creating what you’re looking for when you can’t find it
9.15 – Selling a concept without a product – gaining client trust and sign-ups
11.28 – Essential marketing online: launching an online product, promoting it seasonally and coping with the ‘January Cemetery’
12.40 – How to build an e-commerce platform on Shopify
13.50 – Knowing your customer, building an in-depth customer profile and advertising where your audience will see you
15.35 – Time management: separating your side hustle from your main hustle
18.00 – Using Instagram as a high-power portfolio research tool
18.55 – the importance of newsletters and showing your audience that your brand is alive
19.20 – retaining the customers who already have an interest in your brand, then utilising SEO to attract new customers through passive traffic
20.30 – utilising your networks for PR opportunities, compiling a media list and letting platforms know why they should cover your story
25.50 – the value of spending on PR and marketing
26.20 – balancing passion and cashflow, being realistic about money management and prioritising what to invest in (not over-investing in branding)
28.10 – Janet’s List spotlight – Beautiful by Shoko Press
28.55 Business book – Seth Godin: The Dip, and The Business Canvas

If you would like to connect with us on social media, you can find us all here:

Alice Gbelia, Ayok’a @ayokadeco Twitter – website

Janet’s List – @JanetsList (Instagram) and @JanetsList (Twitter)

Janet Oganah: @Janet_Oganah (Twitter)

Adonica Simmons: Global Style Services (Instagram)

 The overall mission of Janet’s List is to connect consumers with women of colour in business. We want to close the gap between consumers and women of colour in business and to improve diversity in the business landscape. We also have a curated edit on Janet’s List where you can buy directly from fantastic brands by women of colour.

Podcast listeners! You can get a special discount of 10% off Janet’s List using the code: JANETSLIST10

Stay tuned and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and your favourite podcast apps