{"id":1803,"date":"2021-03-08T18:47:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T23:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2024-02-13T11:50:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T16:50:44","slug":"njeri-watkins-inspiring-the-next-generation-of-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/blog\/njeri-watkins-inspiring-the-next-generation-of-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Njeri Watkins: Inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Njeri Watkins is passionate about helping entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey.<\/p>\n

She comes by that passion honestly: As a seventh-generation member of a foundational Black community in Nova Scotia, Watkins, of Njeri Watkins Consulting<\/a>, says she grew in up a community that was steadfast in its support for Black business leaders and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to be trailblazers, because of our historical component – a lot of the Black firsts in Canada have come out of Nova Scotia. I do very much walk with and stand on the shoulders of that confidence and leadership,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I can see so many strong women in my community that have literally been the first in their industries while making amazing progress. From that perspective, I have a lot of role models, a lot of \u2018Black first women\u2019 in my community specifically. That\u2019s given me a lot of strength and foundation in my approach to the business world.”<\/p>\n

In her work as a business consultant and analyst, Vancouver-based Watkins is called upon by a broad array of entrepreneurs and business leaders for her expertise across a variety of topics. In any given week, she might be aiding businesses with their COVID pivot strategies, counseling impact leaders looking to enter the digital space, helping successful entrepreneurs transition smoothly out of the companies they helped build, and even coaching business leaders on how to project confidence in the era of Zoom calls.<\/p>\n

But Watkins also works with entrepreneurs who have only just taken that first leap \u2013 including mentoring young entrepreneurs through the Futurpreneur program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watkins first learned about Futurpreneur when a young couple she\u2019d mentored through another program put her name forward as a potential mentor. In the six or so years since, she\u2019s worked with a number of businesses in the education and technology fields. Most recently, she\u2019s mentored the entrepreneur behind Ace It Tutoring<\/a>, a coworking-style study space aimed at helping high school students complete their homework with onsite tutors in a distraction-free environment.<\/p>\n

Watkins says she didn\u2019t have formal mentors early in her career: \u201cPart of that was because in the era I grew up in, there weren\u2019t a lot of mentorship programs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

And career coaching, which was often geared at well-established individuals looking to switch careers, was expensive and difficult to access.<\/p>\n

In 2008, she completed a consulting certificate program, and positioned herself as a coach, focusing on career progression for workers in digital media, marketing and creative industries.<\/p>\n

Later, she started teaching digital marketing and data analytics at UBC\u2019s Sauder School of Business: \u201cIt seemed like a natural progression \u2013 helping people understand social media, personal branding, communications.\u201d (Today, she says, many of her students are actively pursuing self-employment and entrepreneurship as a career path.)<\/p>\n

Watkins\u2019 strong background in data analytics has helped her to steer newly minted entrepreneurs toward understanding the role data can play in growing their business – a concept she urges companies of all sizes to embrace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs face is, once they finish their business plan and start to execute, they realize digital marketing, social media, and having an engagement strategy are a lot more challenging than they anticipated,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to build a data-driven culture \u2013 you have to have everyone asking, at all levels, what is the problem you want data to solve?\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Watkins is generous with her time and expertise, she says her mentees also provide her with something valuable: Insight into the next big waves in tech and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love being able to really stay on the cusp of trends, especially with Futurpreneur and through working with tech innovators. To play a small part in providing solutions to some of the big problems we\u2019re having in society is really exciting for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also grateful for the opportunity to make an impact on the startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may not have grown a company worth $100 million, but I feel it\u2019s extremely rewarding to have made a contribution to companies that have, collectively, impacted a lot of lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal mission of supporting impact leaders, people who value ROI as much as they do return on impact, can be fulfilled through mentorship – especially through Futurpreneur. This next generation of impact leaders – millennials in particular – are really going to shape the world in a way that I am 100% behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watkins acknowledges that the more recent availability of mentorship \u2013 particularly through structured programs like Futurpreneur, which \u201chelps on so many levels\u201d \u2013 will help pave the way for more women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of colour.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s particularly important, since traditional business advice or existing supports often don\u2019t take the needs of those groups into consideration, she says.<\/p>\n

Taking someone successful out to lunch, for example, is often touted as a great way to get a mentor: \u201cThat\u2019s really great advice for a young man, but telling a young woman to go to an older man and invite him to lunch can turn into a very different situation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many social dynamics at play that won\u2019t resonate with a woman, let alone a Black woman \u2026 Not to marginalize us as women, but I do think we need to have more evolved strategies that really speak to the real world of how we will navigate the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, institutional support for Black women entrepreneurs is even more scarce. Watkins says that up until last year, she wasn\u2019t aware of a single large-scale program that catered specifically to Black women entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot happened in 2020, and I think that\u2019s opened some doors,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Watkins adds that she\u2019s heartened that the business world now seems more broadly prepared to tackle issues of gender and race: \u201cWhat I\u2019ve seen in the past year, there are so many efforts in place to just create a new normal. I\u2019m so empowered, emboldened, excited to see what I see right now taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know 2020 was a challenging year, but I\u2019ve seen so much introspection, reflection and connection on a human level, that common ground of: \u2018We want this to be a beautiful world. We want to work together harmoniously.\u2019 And we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to learn more about how Futurpreneur’s mentors can help you on your entrepreneurship journey.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Njeri Watkins is passionate about helping entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. She comes by that passion honestly: As a seventh-generation member of a foundational Black community in Nova Scotia, Watkins, of Njeri Watkins Consulting, says she grew in up a community that was steadfast in its support for Black business leaders and entrepreneurs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}