Patience is an enterprising 28 year old woman. Five years ago she started out selling chips (hard dough based snacks) and boiled eggs with pepper. Today, having used her ATE grant and the business know-how she gained to expand, she also sells second-hand clothing, pure water, bananas, avocados and tuopame (made from bean flour).
Patience at work, preparing food for her customers.
Patience explains that before she received the ATE grant her business wasn’t going well. Patience started with an ATE grant of 400 Ghc in 2013 to kick start her business. This seed capital has kept her moving till now and allowed her to try new things in her business. She had profits of 1700 Ghc by the time of the ATE workshop. Currently she estimates that she has about 4010 Ghc in savings, investment, and stock. She also has an investment with a local development investment organisation based in Nandom offering very high returns, though currently her money is locked up whilst allegations of money laundering on the part of the investment organisation are investigated. Patience recently set up a sousou group amongst a few of the market women. Using MTN mobile money they each put in 20 Ghc and after 5 weeks she receives the lump sum of 100 Ghc. She explains that this is helping her business to survive whilst her investment money is tied up. Patience is considering opening an account with the Rural Bank though their charges are so high that over the period of a month you only see your savings go down.
In terms of buying stock, Patience explains that it is better to buy the clothes down south as once they are brought to the north they will be sold at a higher price. She has an agent who she sends money to buy clothes and pays for her fare to bring them to Lawra on her way to Hamale. Patience buys eggs from the same lady. She established contacts with the woman who supplies bananas when selling pure water. As an example of how well Patience makes use of chance meetings and turns them into business opportunities, she says that she went to the bus to sell her water, saw that the lady had lots of bananas and said she wished she could sell them too but didn’t have the money at the time to buy in bulk. The two ladies came to an arrangement and Patience has been purchasing bananas from her to sell ever since. Patience explains that it is her personality and her people skills that make her business work. She welcomes new customers with delight, is responsive to their needs and ensures that they feel that nothing is too much trouble. Using her business savvy she sometimes gets new customers to become regular customers by giving away something for free, ensuring they go away happy and seek her out next time.
Patience faces some challenges in her business as some of her stock such as avocados, bananas and eggs can go bad if the market is slow. She is able to manage a loss from one side of her business by covering with a profit elsewhere.
Patience’s main location for her business is her market stall at the cross roads in Lawra town. It is on family land so she has no rent to pay. She doesn’t have a permanent spot in the Lawra market place on market days as she carries her goods on her head and moves around. She sometimes finds a good place to settle and sells from there before continuing to sell on the move.
Patience says that she makes sure that she doesn’t miss a day or an opportunity to sell; she always has stock, never lets someone down and never rests. Anywhere she goes she carries goods along with her and she always has someone watching the stall if she has to be on the move; someone from the sousou group who help each other out and support each other’s businesses.
When asked for her top-tips for others starting a business in Lawra, Patience shares her insights and advises the following:
- Don’t spend the money you make. You must save it. You may need to put it back into the business. Don’t sell and spend, sell and spend.
- When selling a certain product and it is not yielding profit, don’t keep selling it. Try new things and new ideas.
- Buy quality products. Buy good products that your customers will like as poor quality products will drive them away. You may not make as much profit but you will maintain your customer base and therefore sustain your business.
- Your location counts. You need to sit at a convenient place where vehicles are passing.
- Think about how you present yourself. Wear attractive clothes and be hygienic – if someone wants you to serve them food or peel the eggs you are selling you cannot be dirty.
Patience has been disciplined about never spending her capital despite this being very challenging at times. Her husband works as a teacher but for a long time he wasn’t paid so she was paying for their three children’s school fees and the family needs. She says that her husband is very supportive of her business as he saw her struggling to support the family when he couldn’t. Now he has taken on all the financial responsibilities so she saves whatever she makes. With some of her profits, Patience aims to buy a container in a few months’ time which will serve as a more established shop.
The difference Patience says the ATE grant has made is that it has enabled her to buy new products which she wasn’t able to before and to therefore really establish her business. ATE has also given her advice and ideas which she has put into practice in terms of opening her business up to new customers, diversifying locations to get more trade, and ways of marketing her business to make it popular. It is certainly working and is extremely encouraging to see what a difference ATE support can make in the hands of an enterprising young woman who just needed to be able to kick-start her business in order for it to grow.