Stephanie Anyamele
Hello! My name is Stephanie Anyamele, Founder & Head Business Coach of What Next, Coach?
I'm a family woman married to an amazing man and mum to the sweetest daughter. I enjoy binge-watching on Netflix when I need to relax. I currently live in Abuja, Nigeria but previously lived in England for 12 years before moving back to Nigeria in December 2017.
Professionally, I wear many hats as a Chartered Accountant, Management Consultant, Business Coach & Social Impact Entrepreneur serving small and medium businesses. Prior to venturing into entrepreneurship, I was an auditor at Ernst & Young London for five years with clients in the Real Estate, Maritime, Construction, FMCG sectors.
I graduated from the University of Birmingham with an Accounting Degree and I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of England & Wales (ICAEW).
Tell us all about your company. What services do you offer?
What Next, Coach? is a social enterprise. We support growth-oriented entrepreneurs as they transition their micro-businesses into small and medium enterprises that contribute to the provision of productive employment opportunities, income generation, and the reduction of poverty.
By 2030, we aim to have supported 10,000 micro-enterprises into transitioning into small businesses through our:
Business Support Platform: We provide business coaching, exclusive content and a supportive community - all at an affordable quarterly or annual membership fee.
Growth Fund: 100% of our profit from the sale of merchandise and other branded products is pooled into a fund from which we provide micro-businesses with financial grants to support growth.
Micro-Business Collectives: We partner with leading service providers to offer in-demand support services (e.g. accounting, social media management etc.) to groups of micro-businesses at heavily discounted rates.
Company Name: What Next, Coach?
Location: Abuja, FCT, Nigeria
Operating since: 2017
Website: www.whatnextcoach.com
Instagram: @whatnextcoach
How did you get the idea or concept for your company? Was there anything in particular that inspired you to start at the time you did?
We actually started as a multi-disciplinary company providing coaching in the areas of life, career, and business.
In December 2016, I was so unfulfilled in my corporate career and I wanted something different. I thought of the life I wanted to have personally and career-wise and I could tell I wouldn't find it in my corporate role. In 2018, after being in Nigeria for a couple of months, we quickly pivoted and streamlined our focus and resources to best serve micro and small businesses in Nigeria based on the glaring gap in the market (as well as our personal and organizational strengths).
Since the beginning, we've always wanted to positively impact lives and we have chosen to do this for business owners by improving their businesses. It presented an exciting opportunity to use my technical hard skills to improve human lives more directly.
Growing up, did you always intend to start your own company/organization?
Interestingly enough, I never considered myself an entrepreneur. It wasn't presented as an option. I only started seeing and accepting myself as an entrepreneur over the last two years.
How have your past personal & professional experiences helped you to run your company?
Having a corporate background definitely makes a difference because I know how to optimize processes in my company for maximum results, as well as a knack for developing business strategies. My management skills are also well-honed to handle my role as an employer too. Even now as a mum, I find that the skills I use to run my home also reflect in my business because I'm able to lead with empathy and quite effectively too. At this stage, if I disappear for a week, my staff can still get on without me.
What is the biggest personal / professional obstacle you've had to overcome?
Creating something out of nothing. The vision I have for What Next, Coach? is fresh. Nothing like it has been done in the way I want to do it. It would have been much easier to copy and paste but I have to make a lot up as I go along. It's exciting but tough.
What's your definition of success? Do you consider yourself a success? If not, when will you?
I'll know I'm successful when I'm able to comfortably live in a different country for 6 months every year - so six months in Nigeria and six months in a different country every year.
Have the women around you helped you to rise? How?
Yes, they certainly have because I see my fellow female entrepreneurs beat the odds everyday and show what's possible. It gives me the courage to keep dreaming and keep building. They show me that I don't need to fit into the usual stereotypes either.
What are some of your future plans? Are you working on anything else right now?
At What Next, Coach?, we want to be able to give grants to micro-entrepreneurs when they need it so in the near future, we're looking to create events, merchandise, and get sponsorship to build this Growth Fund. We also want to deploy "access to market" accelerator programs that get the products of small-scale businesses into large retailers.
Apart from What Next, Coach?, I'm the Managing Director of Charles Ardor & Company, a fast-growing financial management firm offering Outsourced Accounting, CFO & Financial Advisory services to SMEs & Startups. Within the next 10 years, we want be positioned as one of the "Big 4" in the SME Professional Services space. So help me God!
What advice would you give to a woman starting out in your industry or starting her own company/organization?
Always start with the mindset that you're building a real value-offering company, not a side-hustle or a "let's just see how it goes". One of the main problems I see when working with SMEs is that they never viewed their businesses as ventures that could really go far and make a difference in the world and therefore they struggle to grow it beyond themselves.
Describe yourself in ONE word. Favoured
Complete this sentence: "To be a girl or woman today is..." to be a good force for change in the world.