… learnings from a 10 year journey
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney
Once upon a time, two young women onboard the Titanic of the time, jumped of the ship as it began to sink. Penniless, but full of courage, a passion for Public Relations (PR) and Communications, a determination to succeed and with unflinching faith in God, they swam unto dry ground and started their own business; a PR Agency called Mahogany Consult.
Ten years on, this agency ranks among the top PR consultancies in Ghana. Esi Asante-Antwi and Baaba Cofie,Managing Partners of Mahogany Consults share ten lessons on their entrepreneurial journey so far.
Passion and drive
It is the fuel that keeps and sustains the dream alive in your heart, especially when things get tough. Entrepreneurship is a life long journey. Does this statement ring a bell? “ … for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part”. This is the life! The passion and drive, the strong belief in that business solution, the willingness and heart to sacrifice in the midst of challenges, should not die. You cannot quit!
A Call to National Service
Yes, you are not permitted to quit because the significance of your decision to become an entrepreneur lies beyond yourself, beyond the realization of your personal dreams and aspirations and assumes societal relevance! Why? Because that idea which birthed the business is the solution to a pressing need in society. It also creates employment and a livelihood for the people you employ and their families and friends who are dependent on them. The taxes you pay are critical to government’s revenue generation and consequently, nation building and development. For us in Ghana, one sure path to securing our economic future is to build resilient and thriving local businesses for wealth creation and deliver on employment opportunities for our teeming youth. The beauty of growing successful, indigenous, made in Ghana businesses is that our profits are not repatriated abroad, but plowed back and invested in the country, creating real wealth and worth for the nation. Your business is a national asset! And that is why we strongly believe that entrepreneurship is about patriotism, a call to national service! Let all Ghanaian entrepreneurs value their contributions to our national development. Ghana needs you.
Build your capacity
If we are to succeed and refute the commonly held belief and which has been supported by data that most start-up businesses do not survive beyond the first five years, with only 25% of such businesses making it to 15 years or more, then we need more than passion and a sense of patriotism to weather the storms! We need to build our capacity as entrepreneurs to understand every facet of the business we run. It is easy to get immersed in running the business at the detriment of personal and professional development. While learning on the job is important, professional training brings all that into good focus. So, let’s learn about business administration, new trends, improve our people management skills, understand finance, get mentorship and coaching in leadership to scale our business along its milestones.
Who is the boss’s boss?
No matter how well we build our capacity as entrepreneurs in leadership and business management, it becomes imperative at a point to constitute a board or an advisory committee to ensure accountability, good governance, inject new ideas and a clearer focus for the business beyond the ideas of the entrepreneur and business owner. And importantly to hold you, the entrepreneur to account!
A jack of all trades?
As an entrepreneur and business owner, you have expertise in your field of business. By all means, have a solid understanding of the various aspects of the business but avoid being what we popularly call in Ghana, “a one man thousand” and learn to rope in as quickly as possible the support of ancillary services such as Human Resource, Finance, IT, Operations into the business for complete growth. Just as your customers come to you for a unique business solution, seek the expert counsel of these other professionals to growth of your business professionally.
Streamline your startup Business
Endeavour to do legal business! If you want your small business to grow into a successful big business, then ensure that you comply with all the necessary regulatory requirements. Register your business. Pay your tax obligations. Pay your employees social security benefits. Research indicates that many SMEs in Ghana are not tax compliant. Choose to be different. Mustering the discipline to fulfil these obligations, positions you to attract big contracts, both locally and internationally, as well as enhances your access to capital. It gives your employees a sense of security and builds trust.
Your people are your greatest asset
Invest in your staff! Finding the right employee can be challenging. While a CV continues to be a key and indispensable tool in determining qualification for a role, we have learned and observed that the attitude, values system and soft skills of the applicant are equally essential in determining if someone is the right fit for the role and also the right team member. Learn the right balance.
And after you have taken on the employees, endeavour to treat them well but also learn to sanction where necessary so that together, you create a working environment that enables them to give off their best. Remember, without them you cannot serve that cherished customer!
Network
Don’t be an island! Proactively make friends with other entrepreneurs in your line of business to benchmark, share knowledge, and to learn new business trends. Joining other relevant social, business groups and associations, both locally and internationally, will ultimately create opportunities for business leads, make you and your business visible and expand your connections beyond the members of the groups. Learn to build and use your social capital to the max!
Innovate, change, reinvent.
The world continues to change by the minute. Our survival instincts as humans push us consistently to find new, better and efficient ways of doing things. Brainstorm with your staff, clients, vendors on how you can improve your service delivery. Technology is one key driver of change and innovation. How digitized is your business? What software and applications can you incorporate into your business to make work easier? Can you diversify? At what point in the business? Ask these questions often.
Tell your story
Finally tie everything together; what you’re doing personally as an entrepreneur, in your business: with your staff, clients and customers and other strategic partners, experiences, successes, milestones, innovations and failures, beautifully with strategic communications. It is the key to building a strong brand. This will give your business the needed visibility, shape positive perceptions about your business and ultimately contribute to building a robust reputation to drive your business’ success.
