Women & Business Mumpreneur Mavis Amankwah “wonderwoman” Mavis Amankwah, the


Mavis Amankwah is an award-winning marketing/PR expert and managing director of London-based Rich Visions, a company she launched in 2002. Over the past year alone, the company, which employs 10 people, secured over £2 million in business accounts, an admirable feat indeed amid the never-ending talk of economic doldrums and recession. How did she do it? Just for Nw Arcn Wmn


herself as a “wonderwoman” and has just released her first book, 44 Ways to Grow Your Business or Brand, shares her inspirational story to date.


I


initially studied IT and went on to work as an IT technician for corpo- rate companies for over six years. As time went on, I realised that I did not enjoy fixing computers and was more


interested in becoming a business owner instead of remaining an employee. Whilst keeping hold of my full time


position, I organised several events in my local community in my spare time including the Miss Ghana UK pageants, which were very successful. One of our winners had the opportunity to go to Miss World in 2004. My current business success story be-


gan in 2002, when I noticed that there was a gap in the PR and communications market. Corporate and commercial or- ganisations needed to tap into ethnic and diverse audiences but did not know how to fully engage with these communities. Language, religion and culture were of- ten barriers, which prevented them from effectively communicating key messages and campaigns to this growing audience. I founded my communications agency, Rich Visions, which assists mainstream organisations to communicate with di- verse and hard-to-reach communities in the UK and Europe.


80 | NEW AFRICAN WOMAN | AUTUMN 2011 By constantly being creative and inno-


vative when pitching for new business, I won several contracts (public and private); slowly more and more people were becom- ing aware of our brand and its services and seeing great results from the projects and campaigns which we had implemented. Today the majority of my clients are


corporate entities: HSBC, Moneygram, Home Office, NHS and government de- partments including the COI (Central Office of Information). In 2009, I realised that businesses


and sole traders in the ethnic and local community were not consistently us- ing marketing and PR to increase their profits. Terefore, I decided to launch another arm of the agency, Rich Visions Small Business, which has helped over 200 businesses across all sectors. I also began writing my business book, which was published last month. I started out as an employee, presently I go under many titles: business entrepreneur, wife, trainer, motivational speaker, and now author.


My journey’s inspirations My journey to business success has been driven partly by my vision of what could be achieved and my passion to accom-


plish my goals, but it started with adver- sity. I was born and raised in an area of East London (Canning Town) back in the 70s, where I received a lot of racial abuse throughout my childhood. I was bullied, spat on and teased constantly because of the colour of my skin. It was tough, but it made me stronger. I remember one teacher telling me I would never amount to anything, for no apparent reason. Tose words lingered in my head for years. My mother came to the UK at the age of 19 in the early 70s to marry a man she did not know, an arranged marriage. She had to endure physical and mental abuse, leaving her with no option but to flee to a battered wives home when I was just a one-year-old. She was a foreigner in a strange land but her great dignity, despite living in an era of huge prejudice and suf- fering a broken marriage, always inspired me greatly. She taught me to always hold my head high and keep it moving.


My resolve was also hardened by a cou- ple of childhood incidents which were pretty horrific, but in spite of all of these challenges, I do not regret a single day of what I faced as it has made me stronger. Since then I have always worked hard to achieve my goals. No matter what obsta-


e fia o a readers, the young mother of two, who describes


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