Informal enterprises urged to scale up operations

Mr Steven Ocloo, a pharmacists and entrepreneur, has called on businesses in the informal sector to intensify efforts to scale-up their operations, maximise profitability and create more employment.

He said in order for small scale businesses to grow and expand operations and product lines, there is the need to examine the organisation, the owner and the staff within the enterprise as well as the infrastructure.

Mr Ocloo was speaking at the closing of a two-day Small Business Venture Bootcamp organised by the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (IESBD) in partnership with the Century Incubator Ghana and the Lady Angel Network.

He said for small businesses in the informal sector to scale-up operations, there is the need to create efficient systems and strictly adhere to both owner and thorough staff guidance and motivation.

Mr Ocloo said it was imperative on the side of businesses that desire to scale up to consider ploughing back profit and also differentiating between business capital from personal revenue as well as loans.

He said as private sector is seen as the engine of growth, a little effort to scale up could lead to enormous benefits to the entire population adding that “if we can have 500 informal sector businesses empowered to employ five people each and treat them well, the country will not suffer”.

Mr Ocloo said there is the need for businesses in the country to begin thinking of increasing exports than importing and that it could only be achieved through improvement from the operations of informal sector businesses.

He urged small businesses to form partnerships that has the potential to increase the

productivity through specialisation than one business attempting to do everything with low productivity.

Mr Ocloo urged the participants to ensure that their handiworks were well branded to attract more international customers.

Madam Gifty Volimkarime, the Country Manager for Youth Challenge International, urged small businesses who want scale to ensure that there was consistency with quality to always meet the interest of customers.

She said there is the need to also be consistent with supply ensuring that their products were available whenever it was demanded adding that “it is good to scale up but before you make the decision to scale, you have re-examine the space, the equipment before you move”.

Mr Confidence Agblobi, the Director of Marketing at the GH Media School, said what has been killing many small scale business partnership was superiority complex, where the issue who leads the enterprise had led to the collapse of many potentials.

He said for businesses to become profitable, resources must be pooled together and the team members should be willing to swallow individual pride.

Mr Agblobi urged small business owners to train people who can make their products available to the market to ensure continuity even in the absence of the owner.

Participants were taken topics such as business growth strategy, packaging and standardisation, market development and competition, business management strategy and leadership.