Haruna is a mobile vulcaniser, fixing tyres for motorbikes. His father taught him the skills of his trade when he was still in school and he took over the business when his father died 6 years ago. 
He has built the business up by buying modern tools, a new pump, and has started setting up a shop in town. Successfully being granted a small business grant from ATE in February 2015 continues to help Haruna’s business to grow. Haruna has built up a strong customer base in spite of a lot of competition by being reliable and responding quickly to customers, and travelling out to the customers when they call. Almost everyone in town has Haruna’s phone number and whilst sitting with him at his family home, his phone seems to ring every 10-20 minutes with another job.
He has taken on an apprentice for the last two years who helps manage the volume of work. Haruna has a sizeable family to support financially which includes his aging mother, his wife, their four children, two of his sister’s children and one of his brother’s children. He plans ahead and saves towards big costs such as school fees and school uniforms. Planning is something which Haruna says he does successfully in his business too in order to increase his profits. For example, he has always has some spare parts that he carries with him. When a customer calls he checks the type of motorbike they are using, takes the relevant parts when heading out to fix the tyre and does extra work on the bike. This makes him double the profit so he can save.
Haruna describes the impact of the ATE grant on his life and his business as helping both to have “taken a step ahead”. Previously bills would pile up for months before he could pay them but now with much relief he can clear them as they arrive thanks to the additional income that his business is now generating. One of the challenges Haruna continues to face in his business is in having to manage a credit system with lots of people owing him money. This is partly due to the nature of the work. When travelling to fix the tyre of a customer stranded out in the bush the customer may not have the cash on them. The other cause is the seasonal changes. It is a lean season, there is little money around, and some customers say that all their money is currently invested in their farming till harvest time. The rainy season also affects his business as when it rains for a whole day business is slow and he cannot go out to work.
Haruna with another happy customer!
By next year Haruna aims to have fully established his shop and installed an electric pumping machine (at a cost of about 1200-1500 Ghc). He has already achieved one of his own targets as he has purchased a second motorbike for himself so that there is now one available for his apprentice to use. With support from ATE Haruna has found ways to manage his money better to be able to achieve his goals and manage his business on a day to day basis. He now records all expenses and profits and plans exactly how much money goes into his savings, how much goes back into the business and how much goes to provide for his family. Haruna is doing extremely well and ATE is proud to have been able to have provided him some with the support he has needed to take his business to the next level!