The Chief Executive Officer of Busara Africa, Taaka Awori, has advised Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to carve out a niche for themselves rather than diversifying into different trades at the same time.
She believes that SMEs stand a better chance of succeeding if they focus on one area of their business rather than constantly changing their business model.
Madam Taaka made this recommendation during the 2nd Citi Business Festival forum held today, June 13, 2023, under the theme, “building resilient SMEs “.
“Having a clearly defined niche is very important because you cannot be a jack of all trades. You will also have to be customer-oriented and responsive because if you don’t have that, you will not be able to survive for long. Again, you will be required to have the right mix of people unless you are a one-person business, and also, you have to be able to adapt and change.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Busara Africa urged business owners to be willing to let go of star workers who have poor attitudes.
“The mistake I find many business owners making is they are only looking at the employee’s qualifications. Yes, you are looking for skills, expertise, and experience. But we often forget the importance of hiring people who share our values and culture. Get the right people on the bus. But you should also be willing to remove the wrong people from the bus. They create a toxic work environment, they treat their colleagues poorly. But often business owners are afraid they won’t get results if their star performers are let go,” she pointed out.
She further encouraged business owners to prepare their staff before promoting them to leadership roles.
“When promoting people into leadership roles, you have to train them on what it means to lead. Empower people you want them to lead,” the Chief Executive Officer of Busara Africa urged.
Madam Taaka urged business managers to avoid blaming others in front of their subordinates.
“Make sure all managers are on the same page, you disagree in private, not in front of your staff. You should be united with everyone. Don’t point fingers after walking out of the management boardroom. Unity is important at the management level,” she encouraged.
About Citi Business Festival 2023
The annual Citi Business Festival is a month-long initiative marked with on-air and outdoor events in the month of June to equip Ghanaian businesses with strategies to grow and scale up while meeting emerging trade and commerce trends.
This year, it is themed generally around the Made it Ghana Agenda.
There are live radio on-air series at 9:05am every Monday to Thursday on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM. On Fridays however, it airs at 7:10am.
Aside from the on-air series, there will be weekly forums on Citi TV every Tuesday to hold discussions on the theme for the week as well as special TV feature stories aimed at showcasing indigenous Ghanaian businesses.
The Citi Business Festival 2023 is powered by Citi TV and Citi FM in partnership with Absa Bank and is proudly sponsored by MTN MOMO, MTN Business, and Zeepay with support from GIRSAL.