…Safe-haven Exclusive Foods shows how
One author, Peter Drucker, once said an entrepreneur is “someone who always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity”. This clearly describes the story of Gifty Dede Tetteh Badzi – a mother who in the quest to get her baby the right nutrition birthed a business idea that is making waves in the cereal food space.
She shares her story with this week’s Inspiring Start-ups. Read on!
Background
Gifty Dede Tetteh Badzi describes herself as a prolific young lady who is versatile and loves to make herself useful in every field she finds herself. Gifty grew up in Tema Community One (1), a suburb in Greater Accra. She narrated that growing up she seized every opportunity that came with reading, research and volunteering. She is a product of the Chemu Senior High School in Tema Community Four and the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), where she studied General Arts and Public Relations Management respectively.
Completing UPSA in 2013, Gifty worked with several corporate organisations before discovering her entrepreneurship path. Her business, Safe-haven Exclusive Foods, started in her quest to get a nutritious meal for her new baby. Just like other mothers, it is worrying when one’s baby suddenly refuses to eat.
“I found this new trend quite challenging, and because I believed in ‘you are what you eat’ I didn’t want to leave my family’s nutrition to chance,” she narrated. This ordeal however led to her entrepreneurial breakthrough as she took an interest in sampling cereals, fruit and other foods in interesting ways for the baby.
“My business unofficially started in 2016 after I had my daughter the previous year, and this was a child that ate one particular food until she no more had interest; and looking at how my first child used to eat everything without stress, I found this new trend quite challenging.
“So I started getting creative by putting together cereals, fruit, staple foods and combining them in most interesting ways to get my daughter’s attention. In my quest, I noticed she enjoyed it; and not only that, she had lots of nutrients from one meal and gained weight beautifully and became always ready to eat. My husband, who was not a fan of porridges – especially in the mornings, joined the train,” she narrated.
Gifty’s efforts yielded positive results, and so she decided to explore more to help other parents facing similar ordeals. She shared her recipe with friends and neighbours and noticed they came demanding more of the products.
“The constant demand however brought the idea of commercialising it. I did that alongside my regular work until I resigned in 2019 and then officially registered the business in 2020; and to date, we have improved massively over the years,” she noted.
Gifty also took it upon herself to embark on market research, sampling similar products on the market. She then took courses to better-position her business to remain competitive and meet demands.
“I had a fair idea of who my competitors were, how to get in touch with them and learn, and also how to be able to meet the expectations of consumers. This helped me as I had customer reviews, criticism, training and workshops to make my products top-notch,” she said.
Products
Currently, her products include yummy rice mix, tasty millet combo, soya exclusive, oats crunch, smooth maize mix, milky tiger nuts mix, wheatee and gari mix.
“These products are perfect for porridges and are not limited to babies. They are also good for diabetics and lactose-intolerant clients, as they are made in variants for all these groups. Our products are all organic with no preservatives or additives.”
How education and experience have helped
Responding to how her education and working experience have contributed to the business’s stability, she said: “With my Public Relations background, I have a better understanding of human behaviour, their preferences and decision-making; hence, I incorporate them in my production process.
“Keeping to appointments, time-management, meeting deadlines and good communication skills have been some values I picked up from my corporate work which helped my business immensely. That aside, it builds trust, loyalty and commitment between the business and clients.”
Vision
The business seeks to be among the leading agro-processing company in the next 10 years. It is aimed at not only feeding the tummies of clients but also meeting their nutritional needs with cereal and legume mixes, with different variants and specifications to allow customers many options to choose from.
Challenges
Some challenges Gifty said are affecting the startup ecosystem and when addressed could boost growth are the unavailability of raw materials and difficulties with acquisition of the needed machinery and equipment for production and packaging.
Support for businesses
Gifty believes making grants available and investing in startup businesses will benefit them. In addition, empowerment training and workshops will be useful.
Advice to young entrepreneurs
“My advice to young entrepreneurs is for them to stay focused, be consistent, develop passion, be ready for uncertainties, take risks, face their fears – and that quitting is not and shouldn’t be an option. Most importantly, pray and understand what started to motivate you to forge ahead,” she advised.
Contact details
WhatsApp: 0240365770/0243368170
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