Fear And High Risk,Lead Cause of Business Shutdown- Entrepreneur

The Chief Executive Officer of Danywise Estate and Construction, Mr Frank Aboagye Danyansah, has noted that fear and high risk are main reasons small-scale businesses blackout and undercut existing ones to grow and boost job creation.

Businesses in the country are challenged with high risk – unstable power supply, poor access to capital and market, soaring interest rate, insatiable taste for foreign goods, wobbling currency and failure of entrepreneurs to respond to competition, technology, or changes in the marketplace.

But speaking at the Entrepreneurship Clinic 2016 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) recently, Mr Danyansah attributed perpetual shutdown of indigenous businesses to unbridled fear and inability of local entreprepreneurs to withstand high risk pressure.

The 2016 entrepreneurship clinic was organised by HFC Bank in partnership with the KNUST on two topics: “identifying business opportunities and importance of networking in business.”

The Award Winning Estate Developer and Property Consultant to the Ghana-Finland Chamber of Commerce said numerous sources of ideas existed from local businesses, like franchises, that one could tap and license the right to provide the idea to start a business.

“Perhaps the most promising source of ideas for new business comes from customers, listening to customers, that is something we ought to do continuously, in order to understand what customers want, where they want it, how they want a product or service supplied, when they want it supplied, and at what price,” he added.

“Clearly, when you see inefficiency in the market, and you have an idea of how to correct that inefficiency, and you have the resources and capability – or at least the ability to bring together the resources and capability needed to correct that inefficiency – that could be a very interesting business idea.”

“My experience, having visited the places numerous times in Ghana is that people are hesitant to start new businesses, because they think they don’t have the characteristics of what would make for a successful entrepreneur, and also it’s too risky to be an entrepreneur.”

“Research that I have done, research that my colleagues around the world have done, has shown that there are no unique characteristics, or traits, if you will, that distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs, and successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful entrepreneurs.”

It is important young entrepreneurs consider venturing into growing sectors or industries in the economy, he said, citing a situation where most start-ups in India’s IT sector flourished because of huge demand where growth outpaced other industries.

He charged home-grown businesses and young entrepreneurs to capitalize on the sources of new business opportunities around, and repel fear, but take the necessary risk and adopt relevant skills to turn opportunities into successful ventures in order to cut down joblessness.

“It is no more risky to start your own business than working for conglomerates like AngloGold Ashanti whose sluggish production forced massive cut of over 6,000 jobs,” he said.

“So, the perception that working for large companies is somehow safer, is not, of course, borne out by the reality, my message is, you have what it takes; it is time to get started,” he said.