From defying her mother's wishes and moving to Accra alone with no clear plan to building a six-figure business in 24 hours using only Snapchat, and why the brutal truth about starting a business when you have nothing is that sometimes the desperation to not depend on anyone becomes the fuel that drives you to create something from absolutely nothing, the young woman who packed her bags and left Kumasi for Accra against everyone's advice except her father's because she knew her family didn't understand what she truly wanted and staying in Kumasi meant staying stuck, arriving in Accra with nowhere to go when her friend never picked up the phone forcing her to stay with a total stranger for months while starting her national service, the painful reality of going to university alone carrying your own bags while watching other students arrive with their entire families when no one came to visit you throughout your time there, the Apple shop job during national service that turned toxic with men and women's stuff forcing her to file for early completion after just seven months, the two years of staying home trying different things without passion or results while depending on a man from a previous workplace who was doing well and taking care of her, the relationship that was saving her but also suffocating her because being at home not doing anything and not making money meant having to depend on a man which made her deeply uncomfortable, the 10,000 cedis she managed to save from that relationship by giving the money to a friend to hold because she knew if she kept it herself she would spend it all, the random day she bought a feminine hygiene product from a lady online for way less than the 350 cedis she had paid before and forgot about it until a friend asked for something similar, the moment she realized she could make a business out of it and spent hours on the phone with her friend planning a dropshipping model where she would post products and forward orders to the supplier who would deliver directly to customers, posting the product on Snapchat the same afternoon she came up with the idea and immediately paying an influencer to promote it, the explosive response that brought more than 100 orders in the first 24 hours proving how desperately people needed that product, the supplier who got overwhelmed after just one day and said it was too stressful and she couldn't do it anymore leaving the business hanging, the realization that people trusted her so much they were paying upfront without asking for payment on delivery when she had just put a price there and customers were ready to pay just like that, making about 20,000 cedis or more in the first 24 hours just from Snapchat with no WhatsApp, no Instagram, no TikTok, just Snapchat and influencers she kept paying because the money was coming in and the orders kept flowing, waiting a full year into the business before even starting to use Instagram or TikTok because Snapchat alone was generating that much demand.
Guest: Femlas Founder
Host: Derrick Abaitey