Creativity, they say, involves breaking out of established patterns to look at things differently. It is exciting and at the same time astonishing to see young people in Africa constantly becoming innovative and creative, especially when they combine enthusiasm and love for nature and fashion. Read on as this week’s B&FT Inspiring Start-ups shares the story behind JClassy, a hand-made wooden accessory brand inspired by a creative young man whose love for fashion and nature made him an entrepreneur.
Joseph Oppong Asamoah, founder and CEO of JClassy, describes himself as an energetic young man who is passionate about work, loves nature – especially woods, confident about creativity, and loves to look classy.
Joseph is a business development professional with a B.A. in Geography and Resource Development, Linguistics and Tourism from the University of Ghana, Legon. He was a Marketing Research Executive and Field Coordinator at Walsbridge Limited, an Independent Market Information services company. With his working experience, Joseph is skilled in customer service, business development, market research, data collection and field work.
Beyond all this, Joseph is naturally a fashionista. He believes in the “dress the way you want to be addressed” philosophy, and for that matter loves to look good and classy. It is this sense of fashion that eventually made him an entrepreneur.
Due to his good taste in fashion, sometimes his friends would come to ask him about fashion and gift ideas. He would then suggest something unique and quite uncommon to many, which was usually made of wood, and he got good feedback from them after he made the suggestions.
So, while he was exploring his mind in search of a business idea, this readily came to him and he decided to learn by himself and try his hand at it.
“As a classy person who loves a touch of wood in his appearance, I decided to produce accessories and artworks with wood. I learned this by myself through research and YouTube videos, plus my creativity. I sat behind my computer and went about the design and how I want it to look. It took me four months to come out with something tangible.
“I worked on samples and cross-checked with colleagues. And here we are today. There was discouragement from people along the way, because what I was doing was kind of rare to them. But I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to get to so I did not give up. So JClassy was established in 2018 but fully commenced in 2019,” he said.
JClassy
JClassy consists of two businesses – that is, JClassy Ties and JClassy laser. The former deals in handmade wooden accessories such as wood bow-ties, wooden cufflinks, wooden lapel-pins, wooden flying ties, and wooden tie-clips, while the latter deals in wood artwork such as wood wall hangings, wooden souvenirs and wood gift packages.
These are done with natural woods such as Mahogany, Sapele and others which are eco-friendly.
Uniqueness
“All our wooden accessories are eco-friendly, reused and reclaimed. Our souvenirs are made of wood, very presentable and suit all occasions. During production, we pay much attention to detail to bring out the best of our work. Our designs are very sleek, and can be customised as well,” he said.
How education has helped
For Joseph, his educational background gave him the exposure and built up his self-esteem to face the corporate market.
“I would say the geography and resources development course I studied influenced my desire to use eco-friendly materials such as wood for my products,” he noted.
Vision
JClassy is working toward becoming the best wooden accessories and wood artwork brand in Ghana and on the global front in the next 5 years. Though it has a client-base outside the country’s shores, it hopes to expand and reach more with its quality, detailed and eco-friendly products.
Challenges
“As a start-up, the challenge we face is the regular increase in price of raw materials. As prices of raw materials rise regularly, it affects our cost of production and reflects on selling prices. And the more there is an increase in raw materials, the more prices rise – which decreases sales.
“Secondly, increased tariffs on mobile data and introduction of the E-levy on mobile money transactions have become a major challenge because most start-ups operate online. These are affecting business, because customers might not be willing to purchase products online due to the taxes they will incur when doing transactions,” he said.
How government can help
“If government can reduce taxes on electronic transactions and tariffs, and also subsidise the price of materials for start-ups, these will help the youth find the desire for setting up a business to reduce unemployment in the country.
“Institutes provided by government to ensure start-ups gain their strength in the market space should be equipped and embark on training and workshop programmes to educate young entrepreneurs,” he said.
He added that government should put in place institutions and funding for young entrepreneurs who have the ambition of starting up a business, regardless of their political affiliation.
Advice for prospective entrepreneurs
He said to be an entrepreneur, one needs discipline, determination and focus.
“I always advise every youth to take entrepreneurship seriously, because for a few years to come there will be limited white-collar jobs than can absorb the working population.
“One has to be disciplined, money-wise. He or she should be ready to face realities, and be very determined and have a positive mindset for the business. Also, consistency, because in business there are ups and downs. There are times the business will be good and other times when business will be worse,” she said.
Contact details
Instagram & Facebook: jclassy_1 and jclassylaser_1
JCLASSY & JCLASSY LASER on google
