Innovative Ghanaian businessman and pioneer of the slogan ‘’a loan in 48 hours”, Prince Kofi Amoabeng has shared some business nuggets on YFM’s Y Leaderboard Series.
The businessman who in the week prior had appeared on the Myd Morning Show to talk about his life story made a second appearance on the Leaderboard series to furnish keen listeners with his business life.
Kofi Amoabeng, who many believe was an overnight success revealed he was in the business wilderness for 15 years, trying and chasing business success in various ventures before finally landing in the financial services.
To make loans easily accessible to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), he set up the Unique Trust (UT) Financial Services. Bringing joy to SMEs, he supported them to expand with flexible and hassle-free loans.
Sharing the birth of the venture, he indicated that the realization of such a product for SMEs dawned on him and he knew it was a problem that needed solving and set out to do that. Gaining capital to start UT Financial Services was hard as friends who promised to invest in his venture bailed out on him except one. Not wanting money to come between their friendship, his friend, name withheld, gave him 10million cedis as seed capital for his business, a time Kofi Amoabeng needed over a 200million cedis to kick start UT. Unimpressed by the initial amount, he almost refused it but after deep thought, he took the money and changed his approach, now focusing on gaining smaller amounts from friends and family. The businessman ended up raising 250million cedis from 13 people to his amazement.
Advising young entrepreneurs, he said, “Go to the people who know you for funding. Giving up money is not easy so you need to go to people who know you and your past. When I was starting UT, I was able to raise capital because people knew me to be honest, a person with integrity and was a no-nonsense military man so they could risk with me. For startups, you should always target friends and families for business loans and if they know you’re a serious person they will invest in you,” he stated.
Kofi Amoabeng furthered that after approaching familiar people for startup loans, young entrepreneurs have to discuss the return on investment with investors. “Don’t just go for money from your friends and family. Even if it is your father or siblings, discuss with them the profit they will enjoy on the loan. They may reject the proposal or not but give them a part of the business.”
In particular about business success, he indicated that one can succeed in business if one heeds to their calling. He is of the view young people should not just get into a business venture because “some people say it’s good and someone went into it and got money so I’m also going to do same. No, don’t do that but rather listen to your calling. Find what in the world irritates you and is unfair to others. If you believe you can resolve such problems then you have identified your calling.”
As a retired military officer who never compromises on integrity, he asserts the virtue is learnt and can be imbued in employees, charging business owners to regard their policies and directives if they want staff to practice integrity.
“It is not easy to spot integrity during interviews but once you employ staff, you need to take them through the various departments of the company and infect them with the company’s culture,” he shared.
With the socialization process working perfectly in organically growing businesses, the businessman believes it is far more difficult to promote a workplace culture in a rapidly growing venture. Sharing insights into how to promote the culture of integrity in large companies, he pointed out, “it is not easy but it comes with policies. The business owner who is the number one staff needs to emulate the character and respect the policies of their own companies. If they do so, it will be difficult for staff to disregard these policies.”
Programmes Manager of YFM Accra, Eddy Blay Jnr, after the interview, expressed that it was a great pleasure to host Prince Kofi Amoabeng. He urged the Ghanaian youth to model their lives after the business mogul and pledged the brand will keep inviting guests of his calibre to the show.
