
Meet Kojo Asare, Ghana’s Young Online Entrepreneur
launching and running a new business is difficult. Running a successful business is even more trickier. The entrepreneurs who create these businesses are individuals who defy the odds to truly achieve what very few individuals venture. Especially one as young as Kojo Asare who has not only created a business in a space that would be categorized as not only luxurious but difficult to sustain in Ghana. Kojo’s success story has become one of our country’s worth sharing.
At a very early age, Kojo discovered his love for sneakers. Like any enthusiast, his collections grew. At any given time, Kojo had more sneakers than he could store. To make space for new collections, he gave old ones to family members and others to friends who wanted to buy them.
Kojo had become the go to guy in school if you needed to step out in class. Demand was growing and he’d realized his friends were constantly asking him to sell off some of the items he owned in his collection. Which he did as a favour.
It didn’t take long for Kojo to realize he had the opportunity to turn his passion into a business. So he started ordering for more sneakers from his brother who would buy and send to Ghana. He got orders from friends and friends of friends who were in other senior high schools. He did this for sometime till he decided to turn the idea into a more full scale business by reaching customers beyond his social circle.
In 2015 while still at the Presbytarian Boys’ High School, he created his first instagram account for his business. That is how the @thesneakerstore_ started. The business was making an average of 7 sales a week in its infancy. After graduating from Presec in 2016, Kojo decided to run @thesneakerstore_ full time while preparing for his next level of education.
Growing up among a family of entrepreneurs, Kojo has always had a natural knack for business.
He knew numbers mattered so had to find a way to reach more sneaker lovers than he was currently pulling in. The instagram page he had created would become the basis to grow his business. Like any technology savvy business owner, Kojo used several digital tools to run his business efficiently. At first glance, it is easy to notice Kojo’s attention detail. Every post is a beautifully curated product placement with details on sneaker style and offer.
“Not to boast but I am a perfectionist and I like to project that in my work”

Great product design is a major huddle for most Ghanaian online shops. Big brands can afford to hire design agencies to handle their online presence and some smaller business owners resort to either freelance designers or engage other professionals to manage their online presences.
Creating and maintaining such a well put together online shop is something you would think only big brands can afford to do. They can afford to hire design agencies, sales executives and accountants to keep the business running.
Kojo however being a startup ingeniously turns to some online services to get the job done. Giving off the sense he’s hired an office full of smart people to keep @thesneakerstore_ looking as it does now.
Canva App, a social media design app available on both web and mobile is one of the tools Kojo uses to create those visually pleasing online store he runs. This gives him the flexibility to create professionally looking content without the relyance on more sophisticated tools like photoshop.
He meticulously manages business operations such as stock taking, expenditure and invoicing all from his phone with with apps such as Tinyinvoice. Within minutes Kojo can generate and send invoices to customers with these apps. He can get a sense of expenditure, sales and overdue payments without having to hire extra muscle for the job.

The Sneaker Store doesn’t only run it’s operations on Instagram, Kojo has also setup up an ecommerce shop using shopify. The shop has online payment integration such as Visa and MasterCard payment that allows payment processing. This opens up his business to international markets. The shop ships an average of 20 orders each month to countries like US and South Africa.

Aside using Instagram and a website for his business, he also employs other online channels such as Twitter and an active Whatsapp for sales and marketing.
Knowing your customers demography is key to running a successful business and this is one area Kojo thrives. His knowledge in analytics he gets from his online portals are what keeps him informed on what to stock, when to stock, promotions, etc. Being able to read and understand these metrics is what helps him make informed decisions for the business.
@thesneakerstore_ has grown with a few members onboard running operations. Kojo has conquered the online space, and is currently working on setting up a physical shop by 2019.
It is impressive how Kojo is able to run a greater sections of his business operations from his phone and we can’t wait to see how he adopts to upcoming technologies like WhatsApp for business or Instagram for shops. Having a great idea is just one part of the journey, properly executing and marketing that idea is what will differentiate your business from being just another failed venture or a successful business as Kojo has proven possible with @thesneakerstore_.
We have invited Kojo to the unQut Digital Marketing Trainingin January 2019 to share more on best practices, digital marketing tools and experiences he has gained and used in running and growing his success at @thesneakerstore_.
