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Consider when starting a business
Everyone can own a business because we are in a world of limitless opportunities — those we create ourselves and others that we chance on from time to time.
It is a beautiful thing when a woman is empowered financially. It is, therefore, important that every woman makes an effort to create or start something that will give her financial liberation.
Today, I share with you the path I followed to become a fashion retail owner and a social activist. Read through and see if you can adapt any of the tips or fine-tune them to suit your personal needs.
Passion
Before embarking on any business journey, one would have to be honest about the passion behind the establishment of the business. It is the beginning of how one feels about the whole business idea.
Certainly, there are lots of up and downs in starting and running a business so one would have to be ‘super passionate’ about what they intend to start. Don’t just wake up and do it because you think everyone is doing it or because you have some loose money. Ask yourself if you’re indeed passionate what you want to start.
Business idea
A good business idea could make a successful business. Your business idea can be what a lot of people are already doing already but it does not matter. Make sure you are willing to start and make the idea you have stand out from the rest. Get a brand name. Your brand name is what you will be identified with. Your brand name is what you will use to advertise your business, the products you sell or the services you offer.
Your brand name must be one that resonates with your target audience and one that can be identified easily. The brand name must symbolise what you do. Your brand name should stand out and must be on top of people’s minds. You can discuss or brainstorm this till you arrive at a suitable brand name.
Build a team or go solo
My Kuburah Diamonds Boutiq is solely run by me, my sales and delivery personnels . But my Zango Women Livelihood & Empowerment Programme has a team — a group of skilful and resourceful empowered women who come together to make it a successful project.
Therefore, If you eventually decide on what to do, decide if the business is something you can ran yourself or whether you will need a complete team.
Look for suppliers or vendors
If you are planning to start trading in skincare products, you need to know who and where to get your raw materials and packages. If it is clothes or accessories, find out who are you buying from?
Again, you’ll have to be concerned about t the source and the quality of the supplies you procure.
Register your business
Note that, as you are thinking of the business and brand name, a thousand and one people are also thinking along the same line so you have to act smart.
It is important to register your business formally at the appropriate quarters so someone does not go ahead of to claim ownership of your business name. Smartness is a good characteristic of a successful business person.
Grow your business
If you are truly passionate about starting a business, trust that doing all the things you will need to grow that business will come naturally and you will do it effortlessly regardless the set backs.
Here, you can grow it by introducing it to people close to you, family and friends, these are the first word of mouth ambassadors of our business. Subsequently introduce your business at places you go and the event you attend.
Carry your business fliers or portfolio around, drop business cards and fliers at front desk and reception if possible. Speak to people, introduce your business. Open a social media business page, invest in advertising or if you have the power to grow it organically, you can do that also.
I wish you all the best.
[The writer is the Founder of Kuburah Diamonds Foundation]
By Adiza Kuburah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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A path towards healing
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
