Tailors and Dressmakers of the Ahodwo Community in the Ashanti Regional Capital Kumasi have begun exploring modern business solutions to maximize their returns.
These baby steps in book keeping, social media marketing and customer service was spearheaded by the annual MTN 21-Days-of-Yellow-Care outreach.
The CSR drive allows staff of the Telco to move into communities to offer free community service to residents and identified groups in its four major pillars of Health, Education and Economic Empowerment.
Senior Manager in charge of Northern Ghana Sales Simon Amoh expressed worry the artisanal sector has largely remained informal and removed from the developments of technology and professional business development skills.
“The business landscape has changed and these are key variables that should be focused on by anybody who wants to make progress. If you don’t have good book keeping practices, what happens to your working capital; if you don’t know how to manage your customers, what happens to your business?” he queried with concern.
“Business has moved from what we used to know, to the digitalized space so you need skills and devices in those spaces to be able to access information and to stay relevant,” Simon added.
Staff of MTN were boots on ground in the Ahodwo Nhieso Community providing free data; offering practical skills in the local language and volunteering direct support to the artisans at no cost to them.
For many of the tailors and dress makers, it was the first time they were introduced to using social media tools to market their services.
A good number of the businesses had operated for several years neither drawing budgets nor observing the business entity concept of keeping personal and corporate accounts separate.
Ahodwo Zonal Chair of the Ghana Dress Makers and Tailors Association Nicolas Amisah was particularly appreciative of the financial literacy skills capable of helping his members better manage their finances.
“Many of my members are fond of just dipping their hands into their revenues to make impulse purchases but we have been schooled on how to separate our finances from that of our businesses and this is so helpful,” he told Ultimate FM’s Ivan Heathcote – Fumador.
The artisans resonated actively with the customer service management lectures specifically in the areas of customer satisfaction, consistency and truthfulness in meeting deadlines, an area their fold has been flagged for poor compliance.
By: Ivan Heathcote – Fumador