Ross Pickett-Summer 2013

We have just finished teaching in Sankubenase.  It has been a great experience.  Our students turned in all of their homework and business plans on our last day of class.  For part of our due diligence we decided to visit each student at their business site.  We had seen many of the business sites previously but this time Douglas was able to accompany us.  It was great having Douglas there because he helped us understand in better detail how each student would run the business.  The businesses we are evaluating vary quite a bit.  We have a carpenter, soap maker, paint seller, palm oil extractor, a few ladies who want to start a chop bar (restaurant/café) and many other businesses.  It has been fun to see how each person performs his or her trade.

For a better understanding of how a standard business works in Ghana I’ll explain about one student in our class.  Frank is a carpenter and he lives in Sankubenase, has a shop in Abomosu to sell, and does all of his carpentry work in Asoum.  Asoum is close to a one hour drive from his home.  Frank specializes in making doors for businesses in the three towns.  As we visited Frank’s site in Asoum with Douglas, we were better able to understand how he manages his business and calculates his profit.  Frank purchases the wood and has it delivered and stored at the site in Asoum.  He then has to pay rent to a machine owner for any usage of the carpentry machines.  Once the doors are completed he will pay his apprentice for the work he did and pay to have the doors delivered to the customer.  Frank sells the doors at 75 GHC and normally gets a profit of 22 GHC for each door (about $11 USD).  If a customer wants the doors to be polished or painted, Frank has to travel to another town to pay for the usage of a spraying machine. 

A few weeks ago we were talking to a very successful businessman here in Ghana.  He spoke to us about the many opportunities Ghana has for business.  He mentioned that if you have a little bit of money you can make a lot more in Ghana than in other places.  The owner of the carpentry workshop that Frank uses is a perfect example of how a little bit of capital can earn you a lot of money.  The workshop is owned by one man who rents out each machine to the carpenters in town.  The man who owns the workshop has a very good business set up for himself.  Because of the lack of capital and machines he is the sole provider of this service to carpenters in multiple towns.  After he has purchased the machines, he charges rent to each carpenter every day to use his machines.  Through quick profit, the machines can be paid for in just a few weeks.  Once the machines are paid for he is pretty much making pure profit every day the carpenters work.  Profit will continue over the life of the machine.