Founders: Hélène-Marie and Raphaël CeillierThe story behind the crèche dates back to 2016 when we started to go every week in a crèche called ‘Born2care’ in the townships of Knysna to teach and play with the little ones. As you can imagine the conditions were gregarious. So, in November of 2016 when Emma, the lady who runs the crèche, found a plot with small house, yet comparably better than the shed where the crèche was originally, for sale. She asked for our advice, She had enough money to buy the plot but it was too small. Therefore we made plans for an extension to fit 50 kids there from 0 to 5 years old. We organized and managed the renovations using workers from the community. The school opened in March this year. After that experience, we decided to create a NPO, called Sparking Minds, which aimed to improve the education and the conditions in which little kids grow up in.Our organisation’s main objective focuses on the social and educational development of the youth in South African underprivileged communities with a focal point on health and economic empowerment development in those communities.Our organisation sets-up projects such as providing safe and clean environments for young children through renovating and building crèches and dispensing crucial teaching skills to educator and facilitators, with a constant monitoring of the establishments and providing necessary equipment and other necessities required for the healthy development of the babies and younger children.

Operating a fully catered luxury chalet in the middle of the French-Swiss Alps for the season.Responsibilities include:Customer relationship building.Health and Safety responsibility and training.Prepping and Serving multiple meals a day.Chalets organisation and operations.Working closely with Team of 25 colleagues in multiple different chalets.Official Qualifications gained:Level 2 Award in Allergy AwarenessLevel 2 Award in Food Safety for Catering

• Overseeing and creating content for multiple brands. Including posts, promotions and other marketing material.• Implementation and optimization of SEO and Google strategies for various brands.• Communication and telesales skills in lead generation, cold calling and sale closing. Onboarding client and customer service. • Lead project manager for Gree Direct, a new supplier of Gree appliances in Southern African.• Building relationships with all stakeholders. Including suppliers, distributors, contractors and clients.• Managing importing logistics and distributions channels through South Africa.• Preparing and leading presentations, feedback and brainstorming sessions.• Performing Market Research and analysis to create audience profiles and targeted niche ads.• Back-end managing of website updates and UX optimization. • Developing and implementation of business strategies and rollout campaigns.• Organising experiential marketing events or exhibitions and sourcing marketing material.• Analysis of online data and compiling comprehensive reports for stats.• Warehouse stock management and pricing.• Sales: Quoting, invoicing and interaction with customers.

• Responsible for the online marketing and social media management, including content creation, website building, SEO implementing and strategy building. • Leading online strategy and built traction: 25% increase in audience on social media to date and keeping up the growth rate.• Overhauling the multimedia content for the business: through photography, post creation, edits and graphics.
• Managing various day-to-day responsibilities, such as cashing up, opening and closing procedures, upkeep and maintenance.
• Developing a pipeline of sales prospects, through forming business relationships and follow-through.• Introducing a sales sop, from pipeline level through to closing, growing my entrepreneurial abilities and sense of ownership.• Supervising food stall operations, from cooking procedures to packaging products and serving clients in a team environment, thoroughly developing my leadership and customer service skills.• Overseeing stocks and preparation steps, leveraging my business operations know-how.• Producing baked goods, following strict recipes and refining my culinary skills.

Seasonal waiter during peak season for 3 consecutive years in Plettenberg Bay.

• Developing and structuring of Website and typography.• Updating of information and site content.• SEO planning and strategizing for traffic building and lead conversion.