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Conversation with a serial entrepreneur
112 Plays5 years ago
In this episode of “The Entrepreneur Speaks” podcast, I engage Nii Kpakpo Sylvester, CEO of Ankara Textiles (pty) Ltd in a conversation on his entrepreneurial journey. Nii has lived most of his career years as a global serial entrepreneur pursuing business in areas such as IT, advertising, TV and production, agriculture and in economies such as Ghana, Nigeria, USA, UK and now South Africa.
Ankara Textiles (pty) Ltd has its head office in Pretoria and retail spaces in East London, Nelspruit, Durban, and Capetown. Ankara’s flagship store in Sandton is the first of its kind in Africa’s most expensive retail square mile.
Listen to this podcast to get some valuable insights from his journey of living a purpose-driven life.
Ankara Textiles Ltd can be contacted on:
Phone: +27 (0) 65 812 1155
E-mail: sales@myankara.co.za
Website: https://ankara.co.za/
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Transcript
Funding Your Own Proof of Concept
00:00:00
Speaker
And proof of concept, don't go to people or investors asking them to fund your proof of concept. Find money and fund your own proof of concept because this proof of concept in itself is case for funding. You know what I mean?
Nick Paco-Silvesta's Entrepreneurial Journey
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome friends to the Entrepreneur Speaks. I'm your host Kofi Annuendu. Each week I host an amazing entrepreneur on their journey, successes and challenges. It is my hope that we will learn from their experiences as we all work towards living a life of passion and purpose.
00:00:45
Speaker
My guest, Nick Paco-Silvesta is a trained public relations practitioner and journalist who's lived most of his career years as a global serial entrepreneur. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's in Law at the Open University in the UK. He has pursued business endeavors in several industries, such as in IT, advertising, TV and production, agriculture and fashion.
00:01:15
Speaker
and in the economies such as Ghana, Nigeria, USA, UK, and now South Africa. Currently, he runs a business in the fashion industry that is pioneering the African print, clothing, and textile space in South Africa. His company, Ankara Textiles Limited, is the leader in the market with the head office in Pretoria and retail spaces in East London, Nelsport, Devon, and Cape Town.
00:01:44
Speaker
Ankara's flagship store in Santon is the first of its kind in Africa's most expensive retail square mile. Ankara is also well noted for its huge online presence, grossing the highest in African print fashion sales through its website and online platform.
00:02:05
Speaker
Nii runs a program called Africa Apprenticeship, where he partners with other accomplished entrepreneurs to monitor the next generation of African entrepreneurs. In this conversation with Nii, we'll get to know about his entrepreneurial journey from Ghana to South Africa. We'll also get to know a lot more about his Africa Apprenticeship program among others.
00:02:30
Speaker
Ni, you are most welcome to the entrepreneur speaks. Thank you, Kofi. Thank you. It's a pleasure.
00:02:39
Speaker
So let's start off with Nick Papos-Silvesta. Have you always desired to be an entrepreneur? Yeah. Well, the thing is, growing up, I've always been a very experimental type person. My dad offered us the opportunity to partake in his business activities. So that in itself built a foundation or it built a basis.
00:03:08
Speaker
you know, for me to clearly understand what I want to accomplish in life. Now let's come back to Ghana.
Business Challenges and Opportunities in Ghana
00:03:17
Speaker
I believe you started a number of ventures and enterprises in Ghana. Can we take them and see what their experiences really were?
00:03:27
Speaker
Well, Ghana is, my views personally are Ghana is a very, Ghana and West Africa as a whole presents a very, it's a very tough business dynamic. You know what I mean? It requires a lot of resilience, it requires a lot of persistence, you know, and most importantly, a lot of lobbying.
00:03:50
Speaker
you know, to be able to build a successful enterprise. I mean, there's obviously very limited access to funding, you know, but the opportunities are also vast, more particularly also because you can basically just embark on an idea migration maybe from Europe or from America, you know, see
00:04:13
Speaker
things that are working in Europe or working in America and just basically just import those ideas into the Ghanaian environment. So in terms of being what to do, that's not much of a difficulty.
00:04:27
Speaker
the bigger difficulty is being able to port it to the West African society and deal with the bigger issues also of funding and operations. And I believe Ghana as a country with my experience, I've traveled quite a number of countries and with my experience, I can say that Ghana has
00:04:46
Speaker
one of the best human resources you can find in the world. So people, employees to help run the business, that's not much of a problem when it comes to Ghana as a country or West Africa as a continent. There are people who understand the values of hard work.
00:05:03
Speaker
you know, people that have gone through Ghana's educational system is a very, very, very strong educational system, you know, that builds people mentally. So you, you can literally have, and I'm not trying to make a comparison, but just to state facts, you can have someone who's a high school leaver, you know, while in Ghana, they call it a GSS leaver or no SS because this is a senior high school. So you can have someone who's either a junior high school or a senior high school leaver.
00:05:33
Speaker
in Ghana, you know, and they are really comparable to someone who's like a university graduating and another part of the world, you know, because the education really toughens you and it broadens your mind, you know, to the concepts of this world. So Ghana, I mean, yes, has been a great environment to upgrade business.
Credit and Funding Issues in Ghana
00:05:54
Speaker
You know, but it has a limiting capacity, you know, because for businesses to scale, you require funding. You know, Ghana has a very limited credit system, even if a non-existent credit system, for that matter. All the borrowing that is done in Ghana is mainly asset-based borrowing.
00:06:15
Speaker
you know, whereas in the West and in South Africa, we do a lot of credit-based borrowing. So someone or the bank decides to give you money based on your credibility as an individual, you know, and that's a great thing, you know, but the banks and the financial institutions in Ghana fund you based on your assets. So now you have a brilliant idea, where's the opportunity to get the asset in itself, you know, to be able to
00:06:45
Speaker
even get the bank's trustworthiness to fund whatever it is that you want to do. So the socioeconomic dynamics are quite different, you know, and it makes it tough. It makes it really tough to be able to succeed or to be able to thrive in Ghana. And I always take my hats off for people that have, you know, really, really been able to thrive to the top solely in Ghana without any external or foreign factors.
00:07:15
Speaker
Very interesting. We will come back to this subject matter again, but I still want us to look at Ghana again, especially in the areas where you handled. What were some of the things you got involved in before moving out to South Africa? Well, in Ghana, some of the industries that I've operated in, certainly agriculture, I've also operated in mainly media.
00:07:45
Speaker
So in media, I've done this span all the way from advertising to television, to journalism. And it's been quite interesting. It's been quite interesting. A lot of my enterprises have been funded from within. So what it means is that we start like your typical
00:08:14
Speaker
start up that starts from the garage or starts from the bed you know and gradually migrates itself to the top you know and and yeah and sometimes you you sometimes get into financial trouble which which sometimes as a result of under capitalization so yes yes and so your capital runs thin and then you literally have to
00:08:39
Speaker
fold the company. Also, some of the challenges would be that suppliers are very late to pay. And this is an attitude that I personally wish will change in Ghana where
00:08:54
Speaker
small companies offer or individuals offer services to big businesses. And these big businesses take sometimes 60 days to pay their invoice. I mean, where's the company supposed to get the operational capital to be able to continuously run? And sometimes the sad thing also about it is some of these projects you do for these big companies as zero pre-financed, because they also have experiences of
00:09:22
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individuals taking their money and running away with the money. So they are not willing to finance, you know, to prefinance, you know, so it's a really hard and tough dynamic, you know, but like I said, Ghana
00:09:36
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yet again, in terms of being able to build a good quality product, it's quite easy, you know, because the biggest asset of any company, your biggest asset, a lot of people think that the biggest, the most important thing in studying a business is finance.
The Importance of People in Business
00:09:52
Speaker
But interestingly, very far away from that, you know, the most important thing in studying a business is people. So you being obviously the principal human resource, and you need to be able to gather
00:10:05
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like-minded people around you or people that understand the vision and the drive, you know, that are ready to bring their intellectual resources on board, you know, obviously for some sort of financial compensation, you know, to be able to drive your idea forward or drive the business forward, essentially. And in Ghana, with my own experience, I can tell you that that's very easy to find. You know, there's a lot of people out there
00:10:32
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who understand the concept of good ideas and are always willing to come on board even more better for enumeration.
00:10:45
Speaker
And listeners, Ni is a very good friend of mine. So some of the questions I'll ask will be because I know him and know what he was doing here in Ghana. Ni, I know you were doing very well in Ghana. At which stage of your journey did you decide to relocate? And in making that decision, was there choice South Africa? Well, you see, here's the thing, Kofi. Like I said, I've traveled
00:11:15
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probably to all the continents of this world, with the exception of Australia. But I've traveled to all the continents of this world.
00:11:26
Speaker
Personally, I believe in the concept of Africa, Africa as a brand. I want my identity to be tied with Africa as a brand. And I have personally had a lot of hope in Ghana as a country because my mother comes from Ghana. So I've had a lot of hope in Ghana as a country. But I mean, here's the thing.
00:11:51
Speaker
For me, it's about, and everybody is really fighting for what sort of environment can springboard them further in life, you know, or in accomplishing their life goals much further. And I don't mean to say this in a bad way, but it's the truth. Ghana presents a lot of challenges, you know, a lot of challenges in relation to the environment, the environmental factors more particularly.
00:12:17
Speaker
So I have known that I always wanted to be an African entrepreneur because I did try some entrepreneurial endeavors in the UK. And I just felt that this is not the environment for me. And with Ghana more particularly, I really believed in
Moving to South Africa: New Ventures and Challenges
00:12:37
Speaker
Ghana. I pushed, did all that I had to do, run the businesses that I have to run. But you always keep hitting bottlenecks and you always also have
00:12:47
Speaker
that financial constraint and you also have some of the societal elements of corruption, bribery, you know because sometimes to even get a job you have to bribe people you know or you have to push money under the table to get a job which for me does not really sit very well in terms of my ethics you know so yes yes and then there's also a cap I mean the type of money you'll be talking about in Ghana
00:13:14
Speaker
that which is literally your entire business ten over you know that is literally in america someone who's working it's their salary you know what i mean so the yes even yes the exchange currency exchanges and all of that so i knew for certain that
00:13:32
Speaker
And I've always said something and you find this very interesting. I've always said that I've never called myself a CEO until very recently. You know, because I find the word CEO very, very intimidating. You know, I mean, those are three powerful words in there. You are an executive, you are an officer, all combined.
00:14:00
Speaker
I tell people that you cannot start a company in your bedroom or in the garage and you're calling yourself a CEO, you know, because it's a very egoistic, egocentric type technology, you know, and I feel like anybody that calls themselves CEO
00:14:17
Speaker
should have ended, you know, should have ended that status of being CEO. So I put myself on a mark where I said, if you have, you haven't end, your company is not a million dollar company, which means that you need to pass the $1 million mark, you know, then you have, you have gained the status and title of CEO. You have ended by the virtue of your earnings or your financial record or leading the company into profit.
00:14:42
Speaker
you know so I knew that Ghana presented a much bigger challenge because if you looked at the look at the city to the dollar ratio you know you can easily be a city milone but to be a dollar milone it's a different discussion altogether you know exactly exactly so I mean for me I did my research I've never been to South Africa prior to coming to South Africa in in in 2006 so I did my research and I knew that South Africa
00:15:10
Speaker
It's still in Africa, but it's a divide between the West and Africa, you know what I mean? It's got the infrastructure, it's got the systems, and oh boy, I thought I knew South Africa based on what I had seen on TV.
00:15:30
Speaker
you know, or I've seen on the news, but you get to South Africa and for me, it's really no different from being in London or being in maybe America is a bit far too stretched, but some cities in America, you know what I mean? You know, South Africa has really got everything that you need and the way they are socio-economic systems work from transportation,
00:15:52
Speaker
from credit, banking, it's literally like the West. So I knew that South Africa was really the place to, and all the big companies, all the multinational companies from Alexander Forbes, Ennest and Young, KPMG, the big fashion brands, like everything is over here. So I knew that to be able to build myself as an African entrepreneur,
00:16:19
Speaker
I could certainly not do so without getting the South African experience. So for me it was crucial to explore South Africa. And I came to South Africa very blinded. I did not know anybody.
00:16:33
Speaker
I had no network whatsoever. I had the idea of what business I want to do. And funnily enough, that's not even the business that I'm doing right now. I've always been an entrepreneur. When I got here, I saw an opportunity. I saw a gap in the market. And I took advantage of that gap that was in the market. It's been challenging years. And even worse, COVID-19 has also presented.
00:17:00
Speaker
me with a whole new different learning experience when it comes to business, you know, because a lot of the times we feel we are under the assumption that we know, you know, until we are faced with a different set of challenges, you know, and then we realize that there's always every day is an opportunity to learn, every day is an opportunity to grow oneself, you know, that the journey of learning
00:17:26
Speaker
you know learning is a journey you know it's not an end it's not an end in itself it's a journey you are continuously learning every single time you know and and and and that's where i um that's where i find myself right now sure let's take it back to your arrival at South Africa yeah you mentioned briefly that
00:17:51
Speaker
Ankara and the fashion space wasn't what you had in mind.
Tech Dreams and Scams
00:17:56
Speaker
When you arrived, what did you have in mind? Let's take it from there and build up. When I came here, I started a technology company with a friend in Ghana. And our technology company was basically we're building some niche products for the Christian community.
00:18:17
Speaker
So our whole idea was to be able to build products that are essential to Christiandom because Christianity is still, even within the audio space, for instance, I mean, churches were still circulating CDs. They are the big distributors of CDs.
00:18:34
Speaker
The cars that were being manufactured don't even have CD players in them. So we were building proprietary technologies that enable Christian organizations disseminate the word. So we had a program, a product in education. So we had built some part of the product before I even left Ghana. And my idea was to bring the product to South Africa and continue developing it. And to be able to lobby some clients from here to use the product.
00:19:03
Speaker
Well i got here i had another business partner who was very interested who also invested capital you know and that's one of the things as well like i said earlier on. You like in advanced societies you easily find people that are willing to bank.
00:19:21
Speaker
capital or bank cash based purely on credibility. Do you get what I mean? Based purely on your ideas that you have, you know, whereas in Ghana, it's more like you need to be able to prove some assets. Do you get what I mean? Or even have all those assets as collateral, you know? So yeah, so I got another part now we started. But here's the thing. I mean, the technology was more like a long term thing because there was still a lot of groundwork to do.
00:19:49
Speaker
So I remember getting here and my idea was just to visit South Africa and leave back again to Ghana briefly. So I was standing at the train station and I met this friend of mine who had been here for a long while and then he was speaking to me and he spoke about being able to assist me with certain things. Well, long and short of it was that he was a scum.
00:20:16
Speaker
So I remember being in South Africa in my hotel and I was left with my last $500. So I was left with my last $500 and I had a decision to make. So my decision was, do I continue to pay my hotel bill? Well, it's a long stay as BMB, so it's much cheaper. Do I continue to pay my hotel bill or I just pack and go back to Ghana because this other gentleman has swindled me of money.
00:20:46
Speaker
you know, and then I remember watching The Summers, The Summers is the South African Music Awards.
Ankara Textiles' Growth and Success
00:20:51
Speaker
And then on the red carpet of The Summers was like African print after African print after African print. And then over here, like we have our Black Twitter, you know, I mean, Black Twitter was loud about it. Everybody was talking about these African prints that these celebrities were wearing and people were looking for
00:21:11
Speaker
like trying to get those African prints and all of that. And I also went online, I Googled African print and the type of results that were coming were very appalling, you know, because basically it was just individuals who were doing things from the back of their boot or, you know, it wasn't a formalized practice as it is in Ghana, like you have your GTPs, you have your ATLs, you have your print decks.
00:21:36
Speaker
no one had really fully fledged the African print into a business and I saw a real opportunity over there because all my businesses that I've run in the past, I've run them professionally. So I saw a real opportunity in there and I saw how
00:21:54
Speaker
For a start, how could I couple my knowledge in the IT space and the technology space together with my knowledge in fashion and business management and all of that and build a real business out of this? So that's how the company
00:22:10
Speaker
Ankara textiles, that's how it started. And currently, as I speak to you, we have six branches in different provinces. We have an iconic store in Cape Town on Long and Rebeck Street. We are here in, and it's the first of its kind actually ever in Nelson Mandela Square. For anybody that has visited South Africa before,
00:22:34
Speaker
you know Nelson Mandela square, you know, yes, I do. Yes. Yeah, something is the pinnacle of of is Africa's richest square mile. That's what they call it, essentially, you know, and we the mall that I'm in, particularly is Africa's richest retail space, you know, so
00:22:53
Speaker
Well, we have a store in there. We are sitting on at about 187 square meters of space. And that's how it came about. And like I said, it's a process. And a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand process because we obviously did not start with having all these six stores. And we did not start the way that the identity that we are today is not what we began as.
00:23:19
Speaker
you know, but it's about, it's been about consistency. It's been about a lot of consultations, applying the right business principles, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and researching more, you know, and, and hiring the right people, you know, to run the business, you know, to be able to get us to where we are currently. Ni, what really inspires you as a person? Well,
00:23:49
Speaker
That's a little hard to say. Well, here's the thing. For me personally as an individual, I don't know, I've always been bent on leaving a legacy. So I'm very legacy driven. I'm very purpose driven. And I think as black people or as Africans,
00:24:07
Speaker
This is a component that is very missing in our society you know because if our leaders for instance even with the political environment in Ghana if our leaders have been driven by being
00:24:20
Speaker
are driven by the concept of leaving legacies, you know, we would have much better societies than we have today. You know, so I'm very, I'm a very legacy oriented person, and I want the name, Nii Purple Sylvester, to be a household name, you know, to be a brand and a force
00:24:38
Speaker
to reckon with. Because I don't think it's sufficient to just pass through life and benefit from everything that life has to offer and not give anything back to life.
00:24:54
Speaker
You know, so for me, I think what motivates me the most and what keeps me going every day is to live a purpose driven life, you know, and to to ensure that at whatever time in life, I call it quits or even be a living legacy, you know, like still be alive and see my the the the.
00:25:14
Speaker
to see the fruits of my hard work, you know, manifest while I'm even still alive and be a household name. So for me, that essentially is what motivates me. My guest today is Nick Paco Silvesta. Nick, we find ourselves in this whole COVID
00:25:35
Speaker
environment and we are faced with this pandemic. How has it affected your business and how have you kind of moneyed through this process?
Impact of COVID-19 on Business
00:25:54
Speaker
It's hard to even explain in words. It's hard to explain in words. The pandemic of this nature has never really hit the world. If we are speaking of pandemics like the Spanish flu and all of that, those dates many years back.
00:26:13
Speaker
The effects that is had on on on my business it's it's it's it's literally you know it's it's reflected based on the fact that the economy in itself is encountering. You know for our business we have a very so for every business that there's a component of your expense that we call fixed costs.
00:26:33
Speaker
You know, so the businesses that are most affected by this are the businesses that have high fixed costs, costs that you can't let go of, you know, irrespective. And some of those fixed costs associated with running our business, certainly is rental. You know, I told you we are in Nelson Mandela Square. The rent there doesn't come cheap. You're talking somewhere in the region of about fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a month.
00:26:56
Speaker
you know, we are dealing with other rental spaces, which are the minimum rental space, you're looking at about $5,000 a month, you know, so and some of my employees, I mean, are really dependent on this work. And we've had to even support them, even though we are close, then we are not making revenue because South Africa has a very strict lockdown policy, you know, and
00:27:22
Speaker
And we have the fixed cost of insurance. I know in Ghana, insurance is not compulsory for the business. But you see, we are dealing with a lot of stock here. And we are dealing with a country where crime is also on the high. So you want to make sure that you are insured as much as possible. So there's fixed insurance cost. I mean, my business insurance cost alone sits probably somewhere almost about $2,000 in the month.
00:27:50
Speaker
So if you calculate all these expenses, which you cannot like forgo, you know, the unnecessary expenses that are associated with the business at the end of the day, you know, you are, you are, you are making expense that you don't have money for, you know, and our business has, has tried to avoid credit as much as possible. We've tried to avoid the borrowing market as much as possible. Our income is we basically just cycle our capital, you know, to grow, grow that capital and cycle the capital.
00:28:19
Speaker
So while COVID-19 itself is proving that recycling capital in itself is not a very good strategy, that's why I said there's a lot of things that we've lent, you know, coming from an economic standpoint, you know, and for us also sometimes it's almost impossible to have huge reserves. I mean, this thing has been there for almost five to six months now, you know, and you cannot sustain a business with no revenue or very little revenue. I mean, our revenue points
00:28:49
Speaker
dropped to about 8%, you know, and we need that's in gross. And for us to cover our expense, we need, we have a net profit of about 36, 36.7%. So in essence, we need to be somewhere to just to break even, we need to be somewhere around 60%, right? You know, so to be making revenue of 6%, 4 to 6%, we're literally not even surviving.
00:29:18
Speaker
You know, so all we're just doing right now is trying to keep head above water. South Africa has a very, very, I mean, the socioeconomic dynamics of this country is a little weird, but it's understandable, you know, because South Africa would definitely prioritize its citizens before foreign owned businesses, you know, so it makes it a little more challenging.
00:29:42
Speaker
You know, but we are trying to survive the period, you know, and it also breeds a whole lot of legal cases here and there. I mean, some landlords get rental interdicts and you have to pay lawyers, you know. So it just presents a whole new challenge and a whole new learning experience more than anything else, you know.
00:30:04
Speaker
The great thing is we have a huge part of our business, which is also online. So we are able to service our international clients still who are interested in purchasing the product. Are there still other opportunities you've come across during this period?
00:30:25
Speaker
Yes, I mean, I invested, funnily enough, just before the lockdown began or the pandemic began, I invested in a courier company. So I have other business interests. So I invested in buying a courier franchise, a domestic courier franchise.
00:30:41
Speaker
So I own a domestic courier franchise here. And on top of that, I also built another product on that domestic courier franchise. So, yes, we've been able to explore opportunities, you know, but businesses on the average take about a year to three years, you know, to fully begin to fledge any proper profit, you know, and prove sustainability forward. You know, as I know, people do quick deals and quick ten overs here and there, but I'm not really about
00:31:11
Speaker
I, for one, I'm not that individual who likes to, who's looking for a quick back. Like I said, for me, it's about legacies. So it's more long-term, it's more building sustainable things. So yes, COVID-19 presents a lot of opportunities, but a lot of those opportunities that are also presented are very temporal. I see a lot of people rushing into doing face masks, hand sanitizers, when that is not the core of their business or it's not something that they are really passionate about, but they are just,
00:31:41
Speaker
try trying to you know get by you know and that's good enough you know but we shouldn't we must not also get distracted of what our core calling or our core business is it's important you see in business we have got something we call the a pivot right so business this pivot
00:32:00
Speaker
pivot, but what we need to notice in the definition of pivot in itself, it's only a shift in strategy, but not a shift in the goal. The goal remains the same, but you only shift your strategy to readapt. Do you get what I mean? You know, so for us at Ankara, it's been more shifting our strategy to readapt to the times, but the goal still remains the same and the core business still remains the same.
00:32:27
Speaker
because COVID-19 is not permanent. As a matter of fact, we are much closer to the end than we are to the beginning. You know, Russia just a day ago launched, it's approved, it's vast. Yes, even though there's a whole lot of politics around it, by the fact of the matter. And I have my own political views about that because, Kofi, the fact of it is when we talk about medicine, when we talk about science, when we talk about pharma,
00:32:57
Speaker
Russia is a very big force to reckon with globally. America might be very loud and have all the FDA and whatever, but Russia, when it comes to medicine, even in Ghana, our big doctors, our big pharmacists, all studied in Russia.
00:33:15
Speaker
Russia. Yes, I mean, space exploration. Russia was ahead of everybody. You know, so Russia are not just, I mean, this is not just coming from a country like maybe Sri Lanka or something, a country that we don't have regard for. This is a vaccine coming from a country that has a track record in medicine, has a track record in and I share very different opinions with this whole COVID-19, you know,
00:33:45
Speaker
pandemic that's going on an approach, you know, and obviously, Kofi, you work in the civil society sectors, you know, and I've also contributed to civil society for quite some time, you know, and the fact of the matter is
00:34:03
Speaker
This COVID-19 in itself shows how much our global health systems were never prepared. You know, upon all the investments that we've made, upon all the talk shops that we keep having, you know, it has not resulted as much.
00:34:19
Speaker
You know, and this calls for a reform in a lot of things, you know, it calls for a big reform in our way of doing things, you see. And I understand America's position when it comes to phase one, phase two, phase three. Very important, you see. But you see, those phase one, phase two, phase three in building or developing a vast and those things never considered a pandemic of this magnitude.
00:34:46
Speaker
You get what I mean? Those things, those processes were built with setting assumptions, but not with a magnitude, not with a pandemic of this magnitude that literally shuts down healthcare systems.
00:35:03
Speaker
a pandemic that shuts down economic systems. So I think what we have failed to do in this period, and I'm not in any way pleased with organizations like the WHO and the likes, and I'm not trying to challenge them or anything.
00:35:20
Speaker
But I think our responsibility as humans, you know, and our responsibility as these organizations leading the world towards a vaccine, you know, or leading the world towards a cure of some sort, should have been re-adaptation, you know, should have been speed, you know, speed should have been at the pivot, you know, sorry, should have been at the pinnacle of our work.
00:35:46
Speaker
But we have failed when it even comes to that. And we are still talking of outdated procedures, outdated processes that don't get a solution out of the door quickly enough. And businesses have to suffer, livelihoods have to suffer. I certainly agree that we should not be in this position where we have to decide between lives and livelihoods.
00:36:14
Speaker
But the concept of lives and livelihoods are intertwined. And we must not forget that. I mean, I have people that are, and unfortunately, these political leaders or these leaders in positions in the WHO and all of that, I mean, they continue to get their salary. And for that matter, they are comfortable. They continue to get all the allowances and whatever.
00:36:40
Speaker
you know, so they don't have to deal with the consequences of their poor decision making. Unfortunately, you see, and it's as entrepreneurs who have who began something with nothing, you know, that are hard hit by by by by by a pandemic of of this nature, you know, and I'm hoping that I mean, America has woken up, America
00:37:03
Speaker
is is looking at true is more than a vast and i mean it's looking at obviously speeding up the processes they've given us uh some predictions for november like i said russia is already out there um china even was ahead of russia but now china what what the the media didn't tell us was that china
00:37:23
Speaker
has sent its vassing to the UAE for independent testing in phase three. Because China in itself believed that phase two was enough, but however, was trying to restrict itself from the criticism of America and the criticism of the world. So now Dubai is handling a significant amount of its independent testing in phase three. And yeah, I know I've drifted to talk about
00:37:52
Speaker
health and pandemic and all of that. But these are global concerns and these are concerns that are going to affect our economy, you know, and are going to affect even the concept of entrepreneurship. Because I know a lot of people have even started questioning themselves whether entrepreneurship is the path to go, you know, or job security, even even with job security is questionable.
00:38:14
Speaker
you know people don't are not very sure you know whether they will keep their jobs or and it's even much harder for entrepreneurs because at the end of the day um you had a hassle that was bringing in money you had people that you were responsible for and then you were also responsible for their dependence through what you give them you know so it's it's it's certainly allowing us to rethink
00:38:38
Speaker
things differently. And I'm hoping that this would be the restart that we needed in the world. And for true, my belief certainly is this, Kofi, that real entrepreneurs are innovative, real entrepreneurs are resilient, and real entrepreneurs will always come out, even if we lose everything, we will always come out of this strong, better,
00:39:02
Speaker
resourced in terms of intellect, in terms of experience, and be able to do it all over again. Those that were in there for a quick back, that didn't even understand the concept of what goes into business, those are the people that are going to struggle.
00:39:21
Speaker
Exactly. Let's look at your program, Afrikaanship.
Mentorship and Relatable Entrepreneurship in Africa
00:39:29
Speaker
Can you please tell us about it? Yeah, I mean, Kofi, here's the thing. I mean, I've seen in
00:39:36
Speaker
And in Ghana, personally, and I'm sure you know this about me in the past, even though I'm pursuing a law degree now, I'm a little funny about our educational systems and relevance to current times and all of that.
00:39:55
Speaker
My thing is this, I mean, even in Ghana particularly, at a certain point in time, and I know it still currently exists, a lot of universities were springing out entrepreneurship programs, you know. A lot of institutions, like independent institutions, had the sole focus of entrepreneurship, you know. I mean, GIMPA has a big program on entrepreneurship.
00:40:19
Speaker
you know and a lot of when you study even the course material because I'm very open-minded I don't need to be in the institution I can just really research the course material or borrow it from a friend and see what the contents are you know and a lot of these programs are teaching us concept of entrepreneurship that are not even local do you get what I mean that are not are not really relatable in an environment like Ghana
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. You know, and the concept of entrepreneurship, I believe in Africa, is very different. I mean, yes, you can have a Magzookabec that comes up with the concept of Facebook. And I can guarantee you this, there's probably a lot of people in West Africa, programmers that have developed something like Facebook even much earlier than Magzookabec. Do you get what I mean? But at the end of the day, there's not the enabling environment to promote that innovation.
00:41:16
Speaker
You know, so we are learning concepts that are meant for the West or concepts that are borrowed, you know, that are not really practical in an African, an African context, you know, and so my program, Africa Prennership, basically tries to make the concept of entrepreneurship African.
00:41:36
Speaker
you know, and what I have focused on and it's mainly through a process of mentorship, you know, mentorship and then also sharing real life experiences and then lobbying people, African entrepreneurs that have been successful to also share their stories because a lot of African entrepreneurs that have been successful are not sharing their stories, you know, and that's very unfortunate, you know, and we have a lot of scams
00:42:03
Speaker
over there you have a lot of scams go on youtube go on um what you call it instagram and you'll see all these scams you'll see people saying that i started a a a paltry farm with three feathers you know those
00:42:18
Speaker
you know yes you know and there were all these jokes going around but these jokes are real you know you someone will go into a hardware store and then standing the shower and expensive shower and do like a youtube video or something and say that look at what i bought with my money look at my shower
00:42:36
Speaker
And these are not real. And I feel like it's important. And a lot of entrepreneurs also, another thing even with the true entrepreneurs is when we share our stories, we are sharing the end product, rather than the process. Because we have a feeling that people don't want to hear the process. And I don't think it's about what they want to hear. It's about what they have to hear. Because we are building an environment and society of lazy people.
00:43:06
Speaker
I hire a 22-year-old and that 22-year-old is looking at my... I own the business. I'm driving maybe a Mercedes Benz, an expensive Mercedes Benz. But this 22-year-old who I've hired is putting on his status a Lamborghini or a Rolls Royce.
00:43:25
Speaker
You get what I mean, you know? Exactly. Yes, people are not realistic in the expectations and the ambitions. So even in like, for instance, an environment like South Africa, where in South Africa, if you want a Rolls-Royce, it's not really difficult, I think.
Capital Access and Social Challenges
00:43:41
Speaker
It's much more difficult in Ghana, but it's not difficult in South Africa because one, you can rent it. Two, if you don't want to rent it, if you just have a good credit score, the bank will be willing to give you the Rolls-Royce and say pay monthly.
00:43:54
Speaker
you know, and then you find out that all your affordability will be squeezed. You know, so for me, Afro capreneurship is really talking about entrepreneurship in an African context, you know, access to capital, being able to
00:44:09
Speaker
to and not access to capital in an European sense, you know, how you can regenerate even your capital. So for instance, if you start your business with $500 or sorry, I'm a little lost with the Ghanaian currency, how it works, but the Ghanaian currency, $500 will be what? Like how much in Ghana cities?
00:44:28
Speaker
So a dollar is now just about five cities. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, so like five hundred dollars, you start your business with five hundred dollars. How how can you regenerate that five hundred dollars? Do you get what I mean? That five hundred becomes seven hundred, seven hundred, because that's what literally our mothers who have been the breadwinners of
00:44:49
Speaker
of our African society and have been the market women in Macola and things like that. I mean, they've turned 500 to 700. That has always been the African economics. 700 has become 1000. 1000 has become 2000. 2000 has become 3000. 3000 has become 10000. You know what I mean?
00:45:09
Speaker
and that discipline to stay in there and not when our mothers, our mothers are running market trades and run market trades in Macola. Some of them even managed to send their children to school in Harvard out of running that market trade in Macola. Do you get what I mean? Because their priorities were right, you know, and they focus on the most essential thing.
00:45:34
Speaker
She's selling in Makola, she won't go and buy a Bentley. She's selling in Makola, maybe she'll buy a pickup truck or she'll buy a van, that will aid in the business and help to carry goods. So it's that sort of thing. Is that sort of tutoring? Is that sort of mentoring that we are looking at? And I'm not interested in mentoring anybody who's looking for a quick back. As a matter of fact, as an individual, I am wired to be disgusted by that.
00:46:03
Speaker
you know, by someone who's looking for a quick back, you know, and that sort of thing. And with Ghana, when I was leaving Ghana, one of the things that also really broke my heart is you see a lot of like, and I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on the business program, but it's the truth of our society. I mean, you see a lot of young ladies, you know, looking for things much quicker. And then what do they have to do?
00:46:27
Speaker
They have to result to to to men, you know, for these things, giving out their bodies to men for these things. And some of these ladies are very intelligent, very brilliant. You know, who could put their their thinking, you know, to create businesses. You know, you have a lot of these young guys who want things quick. So they're resulting to Internet scam and Internet fraud and and all of that, you know, whereas I believe we need to begin to nature our society back again in the values of hard work.
00:46:57
Speaker
you know, and take away that idea that you can make it and you can make it quick.
00:47:04
Speaker
Sure. Ni, we are just about wrapping up, but there are two quick questions. I cannot leave a conversation with Ni Papu without asking. The first one is this. A lot of my listeners are desirous of starting businesses, right? But then there's the fear of the unknown. They don't have any idea
00:47:31
Speaker
about how to go about it. Fine, you talked about the Africa Pronunciation Program, et cetera. But I want you to talk to these people. Talk to these people who are desirous of starting. Advise them on how to go about this.
00:47:46
Speaker
OK, so basically, with starting a business, I feel like they are very crucial ingredients. And one of the most important ingredients is the idea, you know, so what it is exactly that you want to do, you know. And one of the big myths, Kofi, about entrepreneurship, and I say this confidently, that it is a myth.
00:48:09
Speaker
you know, that people say, do what you love, you know, money would come later. And this is an unfortunate myth because, and we related to people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and all of that. But you know, the reality of it is this, this is Zuckerberg scenarios and Jeff Bezos and all of that, they form a very small part of the population.
00:48:34
Speaker
You know, I think, yes, it's important to do something that you love, but most importantly, there must be a profit module behind it. You know, so there must be a profit module behind it because more particularly in environments like Ghana and Africa.
00:48:51
Speaker
You can't start a business without having a profit module behind it. So it's very important to ask yourself the most important question. Yes, I have this great idea, but how am I going to make money off this great idea? And is it sustainable? Is it scalable?
00:49:08
Speaker
you know and based on those answers you make a decision of whether you want to really go for it or not because there are some ideas that are meant for later and there are ideas that are meant for now and so it's very important to also prioritize you might have a whole lot of ideas but you're more passionate about some than others but however the ones that you're not passionate about are the ones that have an almost immediate chance of bringing in revenue.
00:49:34
Speaker
So you have to think as a businessman and a businessman is a profit-minded person, except you are a social entrepreneur and coffee might be the best tutor if you want to be a social entrepreneur. But if you want to be an entrepreneur that generates profit, it's very important that
00:49:57
Speaker
your foremost concept of running a business is to make revenue, you know, at least to sustain the business's operation. And so, yes, and then you also the next thing you need to look at is what is the most
00:50:12
Speaker
Minimal way in which you can start this idea so you might have a big idea, but it's very important to break that idea into into Achievable milestones, you know, so what can you do now to make that idea a reality? You know or to get yourself closer to making that idea a reality or what is the most cost effective? What is it that you you know and most of times even this is
00:50:40
Speaker
if you do management studies, this is basically piped into a model some will call the minimum viable product or the minimum viable approach. So what can you do immediately to make this a realization and a very, very little cost as much as possible. And even in some cases, some will call it the proof of concept. So your proof of concept phase.
00:51:09
Speaker
You know, because I also believe that once you are past the proof of concept phase and proof of concept, don't go to people or investors asking them to fund your proof of concept. Find money and fund your own proof of concept because this proof of concept in itself is case for funding. You know what I mean? I mean, if you have been able to do it and you have been able to succeed at a smaller scale, it means that you can prove
00:51:35
Speaker
that this can be done at a much bigger scale. So even on a smaller scale, you've got a profit of, let's say, $10. It means that with a capital of, let's say, a capital of $100, you've got a profit of $10. It proves in percentage, which is 10%, what your profits margins could be. So if it's a scalable concept, it means that if you have an investment of $1,000 or you have an investment of $2,000,
00:52:02
Speaker
then it means that you'll be getting $200 in profit or even much more because skill does not always necessarily mean at the same rate. You know what I mean? Skill could obviously grow much more marginally than it was previously. So it's very important to look within yourself. It's very important to
00:52:28
Speaker
minimum viable approach, minimum viable product, very, very important. Because that even allows you to make a quick exit with no shame. Because if it doesn't succeed, you put little resources in there, you put little energy in there, and you cannot afford to be emotional about business. I tell a lot of people,
00:52:48
Speaker
And I explained to you, Kofi, just quickly. I mean, a lot of people are passionate about what they are doing. They are over passionate that they cannot even see their own flaws. And it's very important to sometimes take emotion out of it. And which is why I say look at it from a profit and loss mentality. If that business is not making you profit,
00:53:10
Speaker
does not have the potential to make you profit like you're not seeing it anywhere in the foreseeable future it's time to pack up and focus on something that will make you profit because you see you can build emotion and love for anything you see as an entrepreneur me personally like i said i've been through several
00:53:30
Speaker
sectors, several industries. And you'll find this about many other entrepreneurs. They've been through several industries. And these industries sometimes just teach you the core principles. You know what I mean? Because as an entrepreneur, if your bank balance or your balance sheet or your profit and loss accounts look good, you will be a happy entrepreneur.
00:53:51
Speaker
You know, but if you have a product that you are passionate about and the balance sheet and the profit and loss accounts don't look good, you will be a very miserable entrepreneur. And then you begin to suffer depression. You begin to suffer all these other social ailments that, you know, that that may exist. So it's very important that your focus is on profitability. Thank you so much. Listen, as
00:54:21
Speaker
your full course should be on profitability. It's always a joy to sit down with my brother and friend Ni Papu Silvesta. And I believe we've all learnt a lot from his journey, his successes and his challenges. Ni,
00:54:37
Speaker
Thank you so much for spending time with us on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. Absolutely, Kofi. I wish there was a lot more time, but it's always interesting how time flies when we are sharing interesting thoughts. Exactly, exactly. But there will be more of these in the coming days. Listen, this brings us to the end of today's episode.
00:55:06
Speaker
My guest once again has been Nick Paco-Silvesta, a Ghanaian who is running a successful business Ankara in South Africa. We'll come your way next week with another episode. This is your host, Kofi Animedou. Take care of yourself. Go forth and excel. Cheers. Cheers.