“Ghana doesn’t need more employees. We need more entrepreneurs”
Anyone who has tried to start their own business can tell you that it’s no easy feat to set up a fully functioning and profitable business. It is even more difficult if your are already working full time and are lacking in professional business knowledge.
Stephen Osei, an entrepreneur with Bridge for Billions, faced these typical hardships when first developing his business BIDDGH. Living in Accra, Ghana, Stephen was passionate about technology and creating his own business. He realized that internet was really picking up in the country as well as ecommerce, and from this certitude had an idea. Stephen started thinking about creating an online bidding platform that would eliminate the fear of buying inferior or fake products, but he was unsure of how to proceed from there.
Armed with his passion for entrepreneurship and an interesting idea, Stephen set out on a quest to learn anything and everything possible about the world of startups. It was in this endeavour that he found the Bridge for Billions’ Facebook page. By participating in a contest published on Bridge for Billion’s page, Stephen won a subscription to Bridge’s three-month incubation program, including a mentorship. Stephen was paired up with David Correa, a program manager at Microsoft whose interest in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ghana and programming made him and Stephen a perfect fit. David mentored Stephen by helping him understand difficult concepts in the IT sector, allowing him to expand his technology and ultimately his outreach.
In the initial stages of development, Stephen was new to the business side of his endeavour, but Bridge for Billions took this into account, allowing him to develop his business plan through the easy-to-follow, eight-step guide, giving him the tools to explore new aspects of his business that he hadn’t considered. However, Stephen admits that “it’s been pretty intense for me, [there are many] things I haven’t encountered before. It’s a learning process for me so it’s a really good experience actually.” For Stephen, Bridge came along at the perfect time. He had been developing the platform for a while before he won the scholarship that covered his incubation costs and allowed him to get entrepreneurial training and mentoring, and see things such as his customer base.
His favorite part so far has been determining Customer Segmentation through our Value Proposition tool. Prior to Bridge his “thinking was really shallow. After finishing that tool, I saw the potential that my product had and it was really fun.” When Stephen finally understood the amount of people he could reach with his platform, he became even more driven to complete the eight-step guide. However, the process has not been all smooth sailing. Stephen attributes the Pricing Strategy and Business Models tool as a very challenging step. He felt that his lack of background in business was a hindrance when completing this step. However, with the help of his mentor David that guided him through the tool and gave him various examples of business models for other online platforms, Stephen was able to determine the Pricing Strategy and Business Model for his company.
While Stephen has struggled just as any entrepreneur would, he has been able to propel himself forward with the help of his team and Bridge’s tools. Coupled with his hard work, Stephen is on the road to a successful business plan and the growth of his online bidding platform: “I now feel very confident that I can answer complicated questions about my business, I feel at ease explaining my product to partners and investors”.
To learn more about BIDDGH you can check out their website. If Stephen’s story has inspired you to take your project to the next level, apply for our program at BridgeforBillions.org, or become a mentor where you can help passionate entrepreneurs like Stephen.
