Prince Ackuaku, a Business Development Coach, has encouraged the youth to seek support from coaches and specialists to have sustainable start-ups and Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Businesses (MSMEs). 

He noted that business planning, research and hands-on training were very key in business survival apart from finance.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mr Ackuaku, who is also a banker, indicated that MSMEs constituted about 85 per cent of businesses in Ghana.

“As such their sustenance is critical to economic development and employment creation,” he said.  

Mr Ackuaku was concerned that most MSMEs tend to fizzle out in a brief time due to a myriad of challenges, including access to finance and market, lack of proper bookkeeping and inadequate research. 

Mr Ackuaku, however, said those challenges could be surmounted when young people in business or those who intend to operate MSMEs seek assistance from business coaches. 

He said: “A business coach is helpful in setting goals and developing a strategic plan over a certain period to achieve set targets. The coach will assist you get direction about your goal and clarify all the issues to be able to stay in business. 

“The coach also helps you to avoid the pitfalls…What the University gives you is a broad understanding of the business world and operations, but it doesn’t automatically make you, a business graduate; that’s why mentorship is important,” he added. 

Mr Ackuaku encouraged young and start-up entrepreneurs to seek the assistance from business coaches, and not to sit back with the intention of getting a consultant to do things for them.  

The Business Development Coach called for the right environment to be created by the Government for MSMEs to thrive. 

“MSMEs employ a lot of people, contribute to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and production in the economy, and enhance the living standards of people.

So, government policy and business regulations should be geared towards helping them,” he said. 

He added that: “If it is business registration, we can say that when you’re starting-up a one-page business registration can be done, then after six months or a year, then more elaborate registration can be done.”  

He also called on the Government to support business incubation centres, whose work has also become critical for start-ups in recent years. 

Among others, the incubators, he said help people with bookkeeping, marketing, financial strategies, operational scale up, which is critical to business survival, therefore, must be encouraged. 

The Business Development Coach noted that there were opportunities to be explored in the agricultural sector, and the post Covid-19 period was bringing up more businesses in the hospitality, pharmaceuticals and travel and tour businesses, among others.