Kwaku Ansah (not the real name) was doing well in his corporate organisation. His dedication and hard work seemed to be paying off.
Very soon, he had quite a substantial amount of money as savings, not quite sure where to invest, he decided to start a cleaning company.
Kwaku had thought through his decision, weighed the pros and cons and was certain that a cleaning company will do well.
Initially, he scheduled all his cleaning jobs for the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays while he focused on his corporate job on weekdays.
He looked forward to the weekends with enthusiasm since he always had two or more clients counting on his service.
Kwaku was making good money, sometimes even more than what his corporate job paid him.
As the years went by, Kwaku thought of leaving his corporate job to focus on his cleaning company which was fast expanding.
He employed two young secondary school graduates to support him with the cleaning since his client base was increasing.
Everything seemed to be going so well, Kwaku was also getting enough money to pay for his two workers salary and even made profit.
After about six months of focusing his full time on the cleaning job, he noticed a few things, the staff began making excuses anytime there was job to be done.
Punctuality became an issue and some of his clients started complaining that the job wasn’t done well
Kwaku made efforts to advise the staff on good practices and having a good attitude towards work but with time he was forced to lay off the workers.
Kwaku told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the most difficult part of running his organisation was the attitude of workers towards work.
He said: ” a lot of the youth seem not to be focused; they want quick money without the hard work.”
Kwaku’s entrepreneurial journey is not a one in a million example, it seems to be a common challenge that entrepreneurs in Ghana face.
A lot of people are in for the money and not the work, entrepreneurs tend to spend a lot of money on salary with very little productivity to show.
A banker who has her name only as Aunty Ama, said she established a barbering saloon as a side business but “in recent times I have had thoughts of selling the whole barbering saloon for my own peace.
” I have had to change three workers with six months of starting the business”.
There was one worker who just stopped working without any notice, another one was a drunk, he works for two days and is absent for three days due to his drunkenness, I am now on the third employee.”
The Nkulenu company in Ghana, producers of Nkulenu palm base, have trended on social media for similar reasons as stated above.
It was reported on social media that there was a worker who directed customers who came to seek their services to her personal business.
There was divided opinions on social media as some condoned the behaviour as business smart while others condemned the attitude.
Medium Small scale and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) are known to be a large contributor to any country’s economy.
MSMEs account for 90 percent of businesses worldwide, contribute about 70 percent employment and 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product worldwide.
In Ghana, a lot of the youth lament about unemployment, however, Kwaku believes that the issue is not entirely the lack of jobs but an attitude problem.
It is either the youth are looking for non-existing superficial jobs or carry with them an attitude that collapses the business that has the potential of giving them employment.
Apart from the lack of an encouraging policy environment and the tax systems that may not be entirely favourable to MSMEs, the attitude of people towards work need to improve.
Kwaku believes that money is just a by product of hard work, commitment and dedication towards one’s job.
“When you are rendering quality service to humanity, humanity will have a way of rewarding you, ” he said
