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Featured Moms

How my daughter made me an Entrepreneur- Story of Myda Foods

Today we share the story of a young lady who diverted her dreams of becoming an accountant to a food processor after she gave birth to her daughter…She is a Mother and an entrepreneur.

Erasung Hadijah, the CEO of Isshad Plus Enterprise, producers of Myda Foods- a local cereal made with rice, soya and moringa  was born on March 5, 1990.
She had her basic education at St. Andrews Catholic School. She then continued to Wa Senior High School and went on to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

Hadijah, from her childhood had a passion for selling. So even in primary school, she used to sell mangoes, toffees to her friends in class. But along the line, as she grew up , Hadijah developed an interest in becoming an accountant so she took a course in accounting at UPSA where she graduated with a degree in Financial Accounting in 2014.

Before her degree, she had taken a two year course in Diploma in Business. Just after completing her diploma she got married.

According to Khadijah she wanted to remain focused in life and she felt getting married will help her overcome so many pressures. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl after marriage and that was when her entrepreneurial journey began.

The arrival of her baby turned her into an entrepreneur !

My journey into entrepreneurship is quite an interesting one, Hadijah explained. After breast-feeding her baby for about 3 months she observed something unusual about her baby. She realized her daughter was constantly reducing in weight. Her baby would not eat anything. As she explained , ” I tried some of the common baby formulas available in the market but I wasn’t seeing any positive results.”

Naturally this situation will cause every new mother to worry , even the experienced ones. That is when Hadijah decided to try her hands on something new for her baby.

” I decided to try my own baby formula. So I researched on the ingredients I had in mind to make sure it will be healthy for my baby to eat’ , she stated.

Then she tried out a mix of brown rice, carrots and sometimes added some eggs. After giving her the formula for sometime I saw some improvement in her weight. Then I was motivated to continue the formula till she was a year. I was really impressed with the way my daughters weight had become stable now. “She had become “obolo”, Hadijah stated.

Hadijah then saw a business opportunity in there. She reasoned that if this helped her child, then there could be other mothers out there facing the same problem. She decided to take this on as a business. She launched her first product in 2014 at the UPSA Auditorium. There were three brands namely
Morin Cart which is a mixture of rice , carrot and a little bit of moringa. The other product, B-Soya is also made with brown rice, soya bean and a bit of spices. The last product which is the super mix is a mixture of brown rice, soya, carrot and moringa.

 

HOW SHE MARKETS HER PRODUCTS

The uniqueness of Hadijahs product mix makes people wonder for the first time if it tastes good.  In view of this she has adopted a strategy to answer all who have such reservations about her products.

“When I go for exhibitions, I prepare a sample of the products and take it along. I pour some out for prospective customers n cups for them to taste.  After they sample, they realize how nutritious and tasty it is and the orders start flowing in.,”she explained.

Hadijah’s business is located at Madina, a suburb of Accra . Her distribution channels are mostly around that community and its environs.

Due to the health benefits of the ingredients, a health facility known as Herbal Technology takes some and recommends it to its diabetic and stroke patients.

Her cereals can also be found in some SHELL shops.

She also gives a lot of free samples to people to test .Even though the initial cost of that is high, she argues that it reaps benefits as people make orders after trying the products.

But she mentions also that no business goes without challenges, especially start ups…

CHALLENGES

The most common challenge which affects all start-ups is usually the battle with capital . Hadijah had to rely on her mother to lend her some money to start her business when she convinced her she would take it up.

But after her mother’s support sustaining the business financially has not been easy for her.

Hadijah also wanted her products to look very unique in the market, so she also put in a strategy to help her achieve that. She invested heavily in branding and used an attractive and quality package for her products.

I took time to visit the market to survey the packaging of some of our local formulas, and I also sampled products from the foreign markets and then decided to follow the foreign packaging. That appeared very attractive and neat. Her products have gone through several re-branding to arrive at its current look.

Another challenge she faced also was getting the right kind of cereal for her products. It was difficult making out the good ones from the bad ones.

Dealing with cereal was the biggest challenge I had to overcome. I didn’t know much about it, so it was difficult selecting the best ones. I always relied on Food research to help me and gradually I have been able to surmount that.

HOW EDUCATION HAS HELPED HER IN HER ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY

Many start- up businesses consider going through regulatory requirements as an obstacle which is there to impede progress due to some of the challenges that was faced previously. However Hadijah appreciates following regulatory requirements as an advantage for her business.

I have come to understand that some of these  guidelines and regulations are there for our benefit if we follow them. It shouldn’t be always just producing to sell.

This also helps you gain a competitive advantage in the market, especially in the industry I found myself, It was very essential to go through all the various regulatory processes before I introduced my product to the market.

She believes what is driving her product is quality in terms of content and packaging. To be sure whether she is using the best of ingredients for her products too, she reads about the health benefits of the ingredients and knows which one to select.

HER VISION

Hadijah wants Myda Foods to be a registered brand in every household and also export to the international market.
” I want my product to be in every household in some few years to come. I also want to enter the international market that is the more reason why I re-branded my products.”she mentioned.

HOW THE GOVERNMENT CAN SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURS

Hadijah believes a lot of young people have very brilliant ideas which have not materialized yet because of lack of capital. She is urging government to step up efforts in providing easily accessible capital to individuals who are interested in entrepreneurship.

She also advises that while regulatory procedures are important for businesses to meet, it would be helpful if those processes are made easy for businesses to follow.

To make more enquiries on Myda Foods contact Hadijah on 0544503479

Email them on mydafoods@gmail.com or erasung300@gmail.com

Featured Moms

Women in Tech Week 2017

Announcing Women in Tech Week 2017 .This week festival also provides us the opportunity to train and discuss with thousands of women around the globe both physically and virtually on issues on Technology, Entrepreneurship, Work-life balance, and Leadership annually. This gathering is a great opportunity for women globally to come together to network, share and empower each other to improve and push forward technological growth agenda.

This event started last year by Women in Tech Africa, attracting a large number of groups globally . The event 2016 achieved a large number of milestones

  • Connecting over 10,000 women virtually and physically
  • Supporting the training of 300 girls in Arduino, Raspberry, scratch programming in Africa
  • Africa’s Largest and First Women in Tech Event.
  • Multiple Mentions in the Media across BBC and All Media During the Women in Tech Week

The week-long event will simultaneously take place in countries such as Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Botswana, Cape Verde, China, Germany, United States of America, Canada, Belgium, UK with events supporting the growth of women in technology and the African growth using technology. More than 10,000 participants from across Africa and the diaspora are expected to be part of the event.
Additionally Women in Tech Week also gives individuals and organizations the opportunity to create theirown user generated women in tech week to enable a global collective impact using technology. www.womenintechweek.com

#womenintechweek17

For information on how to book for and create an event, please visit  www.womenintechweek.com





About women in tech Africa

Women in Tech Africa is a membership charity supporting women working in technology across Africa to positively Support their Communities. Women in Tech Africa has membership of over 30 countries on the continent and in the diaspora – Ghana, Kenya and London, South Africa and Nigeria among others.Some of our activities include:



·       Programming to support children choosing Science Technology and Math Careers

·       Training Female entrepreneurs on the use of technology to grow their business

·        Networking and Thought Leadership Events for Women in Tech

·        Partnering with industry players to bring job and growth opportunities to our members.

For more information, visit womenintechafrica.com

Featured Moms

Mompreneur’s Journey: Royce Kids

Hello Lovely Mompreneurs, My name is Rafi Amadu Yakubu Vorsky. CEO of Royce Kids Salon. Royce Kids Salon was inspired by the experiences I had with Adult salon for my 2 daughters. Royce Kids Salon is a one stop destination exclusively for kids and their hair, accessories and more.

Royce Kids Salon is a child-friendly, chemical-free environment with professional and friendly hairstylists. Great ambience, very affordable, less waiting time. We don’t just do hair, we provide professional advice and solutions to your child’s hair. We offer excellent services.

Our services menu ranges:

  •   Styling
  •   Up do’s
  •   Braids
  •   Blow Dry
  •   Natural hair care and more.

If you are looking for a place to style your child’s hair for: school, birthday, flower girl hair dos etc. Then look no further than Royce Kids Salon.

Working Hours:
Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Saturday 9am to 7pm
Sunday 2pm to 7pm
Call or whatsapp: 0506346677
You can follow us on
Facebook: Roycekids
Instagram :@roycekids
We are located on the Dome Pillar 2/K.Boat Road, at Vulcanizer Junction.

You can just walk in or book an appointment through phone/Whatsapp/Facebook.

At Royce Kids Salon

  • We make every moment a lasting one for your kids.
  • They’ll relish the experience.It’s a fun experience!
  • We carefully choose the right product for your kids. Child-friendly products.

#CreatingLastingmemories.

Source: Ghana Mompreneurs Club

Featured Moms

Book Review: Sales 101, A Must Have for Every Mompreneur

My boss hit me up one day and asked if I knew Petra Asamoah. I responded with a No as I didn’t know who she was.
He then shared a link with me and asked me to check out a Sales Training which was being organized by Petra. After checking out the details of the training, I got more interested in her personality so I went on Facebook to follow her page and started reading some posts from her.
The company decided myself and my colleague in the sales department join the training. This was somewhere in June.
One thing that has since stuck in my memory after the training was the aspect of being nice to Gatekeepers. This has now kept me going in my journey of selling and I must say it has yielded a lot of results. Gatekeepers are basically people that you usually need to go through to meet your main point of contact. It could be the security, front desk executive, personal assistant.
Petra informed us of her book which she was going to launch later on in the year and I made it a point to not miss it when the time was due.

The Book Sales 101, is an essential must have for any individual who wants to go into business. Whether you are an entrepreneur, employee, even the everyday hawker would shoot in Sales if they took time to read this book.
The First chapter made me realize that, whether or not we liked it we at one point in our lives sell one thing or the other. Petra makes it pretty clear to the reader and let’s them know Sales is not a tea party event. It is involving and requires hard work. However when you learn selling right, results become easy to achieve.
Her approach to differentiating between sales and marketing in the second chapter is also very clear. You get to understand that marketing supports sales to make selling a product, service or idea easier. However marketing is NOT selling.
Her chapter on the customer cannot be over emphasized as she walks us through how important it is to treat the customer as a queen. I learnt that no matter what I am doing at any point in time in the office, once a customer request comes through it has to attended to immediately. We should be ready to assist our customers even after office hours.
The processes she takes us through in the subsequent chapters also serves as a guide which allows Sales people work in an orderly manner, when they have a new lead to approach. As she stated in the book , if you skip one step you would definately meet that step along the line again.
Her chapter on Butterflies and Jitters was one of my favourite modules during the course. It is important to identify that one thing that helps you overcome those butterflies and jitters when you are in front of a customer to present your product or service. When you are able to master these moments you turn to gain a lot of confidence with time.
And finally as a sales person I have come to understand that there are times a customer would say NO , no matter how good your product or service is. What Sales 101 taught me is that ” No does not mean Never” keep the relationship with that prospect going. With time there is something that Prospect would need from you.
I will recommend the Sales 101 course and book to any young person who is lost in their sales career. Give yourself a boost with Sales 101. #Sales #Sales101 

For a copy of this book
Call :  +23324808031 or +233274344000

Author: 
Mary Abena Serwaa Dickson
Operations / HR Manager 
NALO Solutions Limited