“Which handbag are you?”

Naadiya Moosajee challenges women founders to rethink value and positioning

Early-stage media entrepreneurs need to stop trying to serve everyone and start building businesses with clear value, focus and positioning.

That was the clear message from Naadiya Moosajee, co-founder of WomHub, at the opening session of the fraymedia Foundation’s Mentorship Booster Programme, a new initiative designed to support women building media and communications businesses.

The session, Build the Business, is the first of a three-part webinar series aimed at helping founders move from freelance work to sustainable enterprise. It combines practical skills development sessions with structured one-on-one mentorship for a cohort of 12 selected mentees, with the intention of scaling the programme in future.

Opening the session, Paula Fray, co-founder of the fraymedia Foundation, framed the challenge: “We’re not talking about how to be better communicators or journalists,” she said. “Most people here already are. What we are talking about is how to build businesses and how to shift from doing the work to actually building something that can scale.”

A candid view of entrepreneurship

Moosajee, a serial entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience building both non-profit and for-profit ventures across multiple sectors, positioned herself as “an open book” for participants navigating similar journeys.

“I’ve spent the last 20 years building enterprises,” she said. “Starting a business is always easy. Scaling a business is hard. Maintaining a business is much, much harder.”

Her remarks grounded the session in the realities of entrepreneurship in Africa — a context shaped by both constraint and opportunity.

“There is no shortage of opportunity,” she noted, pointing to the rapid evolution of digital tools and the growing demand for specialised services. However, she cautioned that opportunity alone is not enough.

“The real question is, ‘where is the need, and how do you align yourself to that need’?”

Technology is changing the game

Moosajee highlighted the transformative role of technology - particularly artificial intelligence - in lowering barriers to entry and accelerating productivity.

“You can actually get to the end goal much, much faster than you needed to five years ago,” she said, describing how tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude enabled her to complete a full restaurant design concept in a fraction of the time it would previously have taken.

“You don’t even need a big team any longer,” she added. “You’ve got the opportunity to train AI agents to do a bunch of things while you’re sleeping.”

Yet this shift also introduces new uncertainty for founders.

“It can be a very scary place,” she said. “People are asking, how am I going to develop my niche? Where am I going to play?”

The “handbag” test for business clarity

Perhaps the most striking moment in the session came through a simple but powerful analogy. Moosajee asked participants to consider two handbags: a low-cost retail option and a luxury Louis Vuitton equivalent.

“Functionally, these two handbags do the exact same thing,” she said. “They carry your stuff.”

And yet, one sells for a fraction of the price of the other.

“Somebody will stand in a queue and pay 35,000 rand for the Louis Vuitton handbag,” she said. “Because there’s perceived value.”

Her challenge to participants was direct:

“Which handbag is your business?”

The problem, she argued, is that many entrepreneurs do not know.

“The worst entrepreneurs are the ones that don’t know which handbag they are — and they’re trying to sell to everybody.”

The lesson: pricing, positioning and perceived value must align.

“If you say you are bespoke and custom, people expect to pay a premium,” she explained. “If your price doesn’t match that, it creates confusion.”

Clarity over hustle

Throughout the session, Moosajee returned to the theme of clarity, particularly in defining niche and value. Too many founders, she suggested, remain trapped in a cycle of hustle, taking on any available work without building a coherent business.

Fray reinforced this in her facilitation. “You can be busy and visible and still not have a business,” she said. “Visibility does not automatically translate into income.”

Instead, participants were encouraged to define:

• who they serve

• what problem they solve

• and how they generate revenue
  

“Doing the work gets you paid once,” Fray said. “Building a business creates something that sustains you.”

A highly engaged and practical Q&A

The session’s Q&A reflected the immediacy of these challenges, with participants raising questions about pricing, pitching, team structure and balancing multiple business roles. Concerns about inconsistent income, unclear positioning and managing multiple service offerings were common.

Moosajee’s responses consistently returned to disciplined decision-making.

“Not every opportunity is your opportunity,” she said. “Part of building a business is deciding what you will not do.”

The exchange underscored a shared reality: many founders are navigating similar uncertainties and are looking for practical ways to move forward.

10 things we learned from Naadiya Moosajee

1. Starting a business is easy, sustaining it is the real challenge.

2. Opportunity exists, but you must align yourself to real market needs.

3. Technology, especially AI, is accelerating what’s possible for founders.

4. You don’t need a large team to build effectively today.

5. Many entrepreneurs are underusing tools like AI.

6. Clarity about your niche is essential to growth.

7. Your pricing must match your positioning.

8. Perceived value is as important as actual function.

9. Trying to serve everyone weakens your business.

10. Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do.

Building a pipeline of support

The Mentorship Booster Programme combines these open webinars with targeted mentorship, pairing selected participants with experienced mentors - including fraymedia Foundation board members and industry professionals - for structured one-on-one sessions.

The current cohort of 12 mentees will receive tailored support, with plans to expand the programme in future.

The webinar series continues with Grow the Business in April 2026, focusing on clients, revenue and partnerships, followed by Lead the Business in May 2026, which will address leadership, resilience and sustainability. Read more about the upcoming sessions and register now to attend, here.