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Career Profile – Helene Tynah

Who are Helene and Tynah?

Helene Rodger and Tynah Matembe are both Saltire Fellows and Co-founders of Passion4fusion an organisation which supports Ethnic groups to integrate better in Scotland. Through our work with Passion4fusion, we identified a gap in financial literacy and Enterprise Education among people of African origin.

How did you go about filling this gap?

In order to fill this gap, we identified that we had to overcome certain challenges.

Firstly, we did not understand the Scottish business scene. Secondly, we were also not clear about how to profitably and sustainably bring an idea to fruition. To overcome these challenges we identified that we needed to plug into the Scottish ecosystem and get validation from the business community.

To this end we applied and secured two spaces in the world class Saltire Fellowship. This is a six month leadership MBA style programme.

It was the best decision we took as it equipped us with in-depth knowledge, a sounding board for the our idea and an understanding of what the business world requires. Most importantly it connected us to a network of people in Scotland and beyond who could mentor and guide us as we brought our business idea to life.

What is your business idea?

We have since created MONEYMATIX, a social enterprise driven initiative that is set to change people’s mindsets and habits with money. MONEYMATIX targets people of African origin and culture

It provides financial education workshops in schools, communities and online. We are developing digital tools starting with an app with our technology partner university of west of Scotland.

Another challenge we needed to overcome was validating our authenticity and what we are doing. Basically the question of “Why You?” We have dealt with this by forming great reputable partnerships which make us worth listening too. We have engaged University of West of Scotland as technology partners and are currently working with them to develop an APP. The university’s involvement in MoneyMatix tells the world that this is not just a whim, it’s something that has Academic research and input behind it and therefore likely to be worth its weight in gold.

Throughout this journey we have grown so much and learnt several things. To paraphrase our learning we will leave you with 3 insights.

What are three key things you have learnt from your journey so far?

1. You need a great team of people behind you supporting you and cheering you on.Choose the people you associate with wisely. You must have supporters not hoovers if you are going to succeed.

We are a part of a six pack family at our current organisation (Passion4Fusion) and the other four people supported us immensely. They supported us financially, looked after our five children for ten weeks and supported us morally by visiting us while on the program.

2. To use an analogy in the animal kingdom, If you are going to be a shark, don’t waste time swimming in a pond. You need to get yourself into the ocean swimming with other sharks to learn what sharks are about. In order words position yourself in the environment that will shape your growth.

3. Network, Network Network. Go out and meet people, you never know what they can do for you.

You can “like” Moneymatix and “follow” them on Facebook and Twitter at @moneymatix

 

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