Mfidie.com

Category: Startups

  • How ELNAK is Reducing Textile Waste and Empowering Women in Ghana

    How ELNAK is Reducing Textile Waste and Empowering Women in Ghana

    ELNAK is helping people like you make informed and eco-friendly fashion choices. The ELNAK App along with their decluttering & wardobe organization, pick-up and drop-services are designed with you in mind – quick, convenient, shame-free, budget-friendly, impact-tracking and most importantly, focused on protecting the environment.

    Their convenient drop-off locations and pick-up services for your preloved clothing and textile waste – bedsheets, curtains, you name it- as well as their professional decluttering services are bound by their confidentiality policy to ensure your personal information is safe and kept from third parties.

    On top of it all, ELNAK provides access to experts who will guide you through styling your closet for every season of your life. Their expert sessions cover all significant topics from curating your unique body shape capsule wardobe to picking out colours that accentuate your features and complexion, transforming your closet into the one you deserve. 

    “ELNAK is all about closing the loop and encouraging circular fashion and sustainbaility within Africa’s textile industry. Our services are made to empower consumers AND producers to make the right choices so we couldn’t leave out our fashion designers, upcyclers, seamtresses and tailors.” says founder, Emma Forson. Their pick-up service extends to textile-centered businesses as well. With efforts in textile recycling, ELNAK offers businesses a means to incorporate and track environmental impact by joining their pick-up routes in Accra-Ghana.

    Environmental impact isn’t only where it’s at. ELNAK is also providing vocational training and employment for Kayayo women who migrate from Northern Ghana to Accra. Join their community to learn more and get involved in this wave of doing well while doing good.

    Join the ELNAK App beta list, get exclusive content within the clothing swapping community or request to get in touch with an ELNAK representative by simply filling out this form https://green.elnakrecycle.com/

    Follow ELNAK @elnakrecycle_gh on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter

  • Intellectual Property Protection For Tech Startups: Patents, Copyrights, And Trade Secrets

    Intellectual Property Protection For Tech Startups: Patents, Copyrights, And Trade Secrets

    Intellectual property protection is essential for tech startups, as they need to protect their inventions and ideas from being stolen by competitors. Patents, copyrights, and trade secrets are three of the most common ways that businesses can legally secure their intellectual property.

    In this article, we will discuss why these protections are important and how tech startups can utilize them properly. We’ll also look at how companies should go about protecting themselves against infringement or theft of their intellectual property rights.

    Trade secrets in particular provide powerful legal protection for certain types of information such as a company’s unique processes or formulas. They may be less well known than patents or copyrights but still offer valuable security for tech startups’ assets.

    Understanding the basics of each type of protection is crucial in ensuring that your startup has all its bases covered when it comes to securing its IP rights.

    What Is Intellectual Property Protection?

    Intellectual property (IP) protection is essential for tech startups. It involves an IP enforcement strategy that uses legal tools such as patents, copyrights, and trade secrets to secure the owner’s rights over their innovations or creative work.

    Patents provide exclusive rights to inventions by preventing others from making, using, selling or importing the invention without permission.

    Copyrights provide a similar monopoly on works of authorship including books, music, software and art.

    Meanwhile, a trade secret is information related to business activities that provides competitive advantage over competitors when kept confidential.

    By utilizing all three forms of IP protection properly in combination with one another, tech startups can effectively protect their innovative ideas and maintain their competitive edge in the market.

    The Benefits Of Ip Protection For Tech Startups

    Increasing market value is one of the biggest benefits of IP protection for tech startups; with a patent, copyright or trade secret in place, a startup can increase the perceived value of their company in the eyes of investors. Prevention of infringement is another advantage; having a legally-protected IP can help to stop competitors from stealing or copying a startup’s ideas or products. Finally, having a legally-protected IP also provides a startup with legal recourse for violations, so that if someone does infringe upon their IP, the startup can take legal action to protect their rights.

    Increased Market Value

    By protecting their intellectual property, tech startups can gain a competitive edge and increase the value of their business.

    Patents, copyrights, and trade secrets are effective diversification strategies for start-ups to protect their ideas from being copied or replicated by competitors.

    These measures also help tech companies differentiate themselves in the market, giving them an advantage over others who don’t have such protection.

    Overall, properly safeguarding IP can be beneficial to increasing market value as it allows businesses to stand out from the competition while helping preserve their innovations.

    Ultimately this will offer greater opportunities for success.

    Prevention Of Infringement

    The importance of IP protection for tech startups doesn’t end with just gaining an edge over competitors.

    It’s also important to consider how to prevent infringement and counterfeiting in order to preserve authenticity.

    Companies can use things like trademarks, domain registrations, or other forms of digital security as a way to protect their intellectual property from being stolen or replicated without permission.

    This helps ensure that the original product is recognized and prevents fake knockoffs from entering the market which could damage the company’s reputation.

    Taking these steps not only provides peace of mind but will ultimately help maintain the value of their business by protecting its authenticity.

    Legal Recourse For Violations

    Enforcing the rights to intellectual property can be a difficult process, but it is important for tech startups to do what they can in order to protect their products.

    To ensure that any violations are properly addressed and handled, companies must look into legal strategies like copyright or patent infringement lawsuits. These will help them seek justice and financial restitution if someone uses their ideas without permission.

    Additionally, having a comprehensive IP protection plan in place also puts potential infringers on notice that the company intends to take action against violators if necessary. This way, companies can maintain control over their intellectual property and discourage others from attempting illegal activities with it.

    Patent Protection

    Protecting intellectual property for tech startups is key, and one way to do this is through patent protection.

    Patents help provide legal ownership of inventions, giving exclusive rights to the owner. In order to get a patent, there are certain requirements that must be met – such as an invention being new and non-obvious.

    Once these applicability requirements have been satisfied, then a patent filing can take place. With a successful filing approved by the Patent Office, the inventor now has full legal control over their own creation.

    To sum up, patents offer tech startups peace of mind knowing they will receive credit and recognition for their hard work while also protecting them from others who may try to profit off their ideas without permission.

    Copyright Protection

    Moving on from patent protection, copyright protection is an essential tool for tech startups to ensure their digital assets are properly secured.

    Copyright law protects the expression of ideas rather than the underlying ideas themselves and applies to any work that has been created in a tangible form–such as software code or music recordings.

    Copyright holders have exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and make derivative works based on their original creation.

    As such, it’s important for tech startups to register copyrighted materials with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to enforce legal protections against infringement.

    Additionally, tech startups should enter into licensing agreements when using another party’s copyrighted material or entering into partnerships involving intellectual property.

    By understanding how copyrights apply to their business operations, tech startups can protect their valuable digital assets while ensuring they remain legally compliant within a crowded marketplace.

    Trade Secret Protection

    Trade secrets are one of the most important tools for protecting intellectual property and giving tech startups an edge in competitive markets.

    Trade secrets refer to confidential information that has value because it is not generally known, such as a formula, device, process or customer list.

    The key to making trade secret protection successful is exploiting the secrecy of these assets while preventing others from gaining access to them through competitive analysis.

    Companies must also take steps to protect their trade secrets once they become aware of potential threats by limiting employee access and implementing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with external parties who may come into contact with sensitive data.

    It’s essential for tech startups to keep up with industry best practices when it comes to securing their proprietary information if they expect to remain ahead of the competition.

    Conclusion

    I have discussed the importance of intellectual property protection for tech startups. Patents, copyrights, and trade secrets are all effective ways to protect your unique ideas.

    You will need good lawyers like O-Laryea Law in Accra to help you navigate the legal landscape.

    With IP protection in place, tech startups can be sure that their innovations will remain secure.

    Having an understanding of these different types of protections is essential when starting a business venture. Startups should always make sure they understand what type of protection best fits their needs so that they can appropriately safeguard their inventions and creations.

    Additionally, securing IP rights at an early stage will help them maximize profits down the line if they choose to commercialize or license out any products or services associated with their innovation.

    Overall, taking steps to ensure proper IP protection for tech startups is critical for success. This way, entrepreneurs can rest assured knowing that no one else will benefit from their hard work without permission or compensation. They can focus on developing new products and services instead of worrying about potential theft or infringement of their ideas.

  • Creating a Digital World for Small Local Producers in Africa

    Creating a Digital World for Small Local Producers in Africa

    Micro and small local manufacturers make up to 39.5% of all businesses in Africa, a continent whose internet penetration is 42% and increasing at a rate of 39.3% that is to say every 4 out of 10 people are gaining access to the internet. Most African local producers use a brick and mortar module of business that makes use of physical contact and this has led to the sector being affected the most by COVID-19.

    Micro and small local manufacturers in Ghana make products that are quality and affordable. However, their work-life and impairment in new and advanced technology usage especially with regards to the internet make it virtually impossible to leverage the internet to grow their sales. The few ones that find themselves on other e-commerce platforms face fierce competition from large manufactures, hence become unnoticed.

    These small manufacturers train young people who graduate only to be jobless in a few months due to a lack of startup capital or huge operating cost. Most of these manufacturers lack a lot and with a little help push, they could even offer job opportunities to their graduates for some period of time and this will also help in the reduction of the unemployment rate consuming the country and continent.

    Ogaliya.com creates online shops for local producers on the Ogaliya Marketplace regardless of the manufacturer’s tech know-how, at zero setup cost.

    With this, we believe small local manufacturers can operate from anywhere and still thrive globally. They can now focus more on production, quality, training and employing more trained people to serve the growing demand while Ogaliya digitizes their businesses and give more exposure to their products and services.

  • Ghana For Startups: Pivoting From A Tourist Attraction To A Tech-Nation

    Ghana For Startups: Pivoting From A Tourist Attraction To A Tech-Nation

    It will not be overrated to state that the “Year of Return” was one of the most trending topics globally in 2019 in Ghana and to a certain extent in all African and “Black” quarters across the globe. Backed by a strong political will, Ghana was able to proudly host thousands of returnees from all over the World. I had the opportunity to finally meet with one of the “gurus” I look up to in the global startup ecosystem, Izzy Obeng, Founder of UK-based Foundervine and a good number of other afro-optimists; so I got to say, “Akpe* Year of Return”.

    While in the mood of the Year of return and beyond it, I realized one key ingredient was missing: our failure to market the new Ghana; the Ghana of Asoriba, the Ghana of mPharma, the Ghana of Farmerline as we maintained our focus on the Ghana of Elmina Castle, the Ghana of Kakum Walkway and the Ghana of Mount Afadzato. 

    Ghana is arguably one of the best tourist destination in the sub-region, thanks to our welcoming nature as a people combined with the prowess of the Osagyeefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the peace and political stability we are enjoying since 1992. It is worth celebrating and the role of the tourism sector in our economy cannot be underestimated.

    It is however equally important for us to project ourselves in the future or in the least, project our new identity – Ghana, the African tech-nation.

    Many Ghanaians like myself and foreigners know of the Big Six, the fight for independence, Tetteh Kwashie and our journey to the Cocoa world domination but how many of us know of Gregory Rockson of mPharma, Alex Bram of Hubtel and of Herman Chinery-Hesse of The SOFTtribe?

    Herman Chinery-Hesse founded The SoftTribe in 1991 when Markus Villig, the founder of Bolt was not even born. Today Bolt is a more relatable brand in Ghana than the SOFTtribe has ever been.

    I am pointing this out because the Year of return demonstrated that in Ghana, it is when there is a political will that there is a way, and unfortunately, beyond the digitization agenda led by Vice-President Bawumia, little is being done to lead us towards our dream of becoming a tech-nation. One may even ask, is this our common vision or it is that of fellows at Ghana For Startups. This is no news as we have seen that our ecosystem growth is shaped, powered and led by non-governmental institutions.

    Entrepreneurship and tech-wise, where do we see ourselves at in the next decade? To that question, the answers you are likely to get from stakeholders are wishes rather than projections and roadmaps.

    All these make it obvious that the political establishment could do more with regards to our national startup ecosystem.

    Ghana has a vibrant startup ecosystem, with thousands of startups and more in the offing, a dozen co-working spaces and incubators, no unicorn – yet – but we are one of the leading startup-nations in Africa.

    In the face of that and with the realization that more should be done, we need to strategize and redirect our focus as a Nation towards what will be relevant in the next century – and most of the ways to do it demand consistent political will.

    I have outlined a couple of interventions I believe could drastically reshape our ecosystem and make “starting up in Ghana” a more attractive venture.

    Building our Silicon Valleys

    Building a startup-Nation is not an easy task; just like Rome, Silicon Valley was not built in a day. According to the Brookings Institute, today, the San Jose Metropolitan Area (which hosts Silicon Valley) has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world (after Zurich in Switzerland and Oslo in Norway). This says a lot about the value a country/region can drive from intentionally supporting the growth of its own Silicon Valley. Ghana does not have a specific area that could be tagged as its Silicon Valley. The sixty (60) acre Silicon Accra Technology City being built at East Legon Hills and expected to be completed next year is the closest we have to a Valley. Many will also recall the Valley that never was – Hope City, which was launched by private consortium RLG in 2013 and was projected to be completed by end of 2016. A better alternative to building a single area into a tech city will be to develop technopoles in all the sixteen region of the country or at least around vibrant startup communities like Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale and Ho. The technopoles could be public-private partnership-led and provide the needed structural support to develop local ecosystems and expand our national ecosystem support net.

    Powering our National Tech Champions

    The United States has GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft), Germany has SAP, China has Transsion (Tecno phones), Bytedance (TikTok) and Huawei, South Korea has LG and Samsung, Estonia has Bolt and Sweden, Spotify. We can go on and on with this list but some things these tech companies have in common are that, they are global giants that thrived on their countries economic growth and with the cushion of enterprise-friendly policies and on governmental contracts and support. It is imperative that Ghana designs a strategy to protect and power its tech startups that have the potential of becoming great market players within and outside our borders. If in past decades the Armed Forces have been at the forefront of technology advancement in Western countries, our Ghanaian setting does not permit us to hope for same. It is private ventures that are leading our efforts to become a leading tech nation in Africa and we need to be intentional about setting aside the leading indigenous tech firms and powering them into becoming global champions.

    Designing a National Startup Strategy

    There is currently a draft National Entrepreneurship Policy and it is hoped that it gets through to Parliament soon. That is good news but Ghana seems not to have a global strategy for its startup ecosystem. Startups are still treated as SMEs, which they are not, funding through the banking sector is not regulated to encourage banks to step in more for startups, and universities lack the needed support to develop their entrepreneurship curriculum beyond the classroom. The University of Ghana for example which saw the foundation of Ghana For Startups (recently launched its own makerspace) and others has joined fellow universities (Ashesi, KNUST etc) in redefining the role of Academia in the startup world. Doing more of such and finding solutions to many other challenges faced by the ecosystem can be the backbone of our national startup strategy.

    Setting up a Ghana Startup Bank

    “L’argent est le nerf de la guerre”; this statement in French suits very well what drives ecosystem and startup business growth. We obviously cannot set ourselves ready for this venture without funding. A Ghana Startup Bank could either operate in the form of an investment arm of any State-owned Bank or as a separate entity. Its main purpose will be to invest in startup operating in strategic sectors of the economy and provide the necessary funding for projects aligned with our national startup strategy, which may cover building of regional technopoles, leading on merger & acquisition et al. The government could as another option make loan or guarantee facilities available for private banks that have a special offering for startups and entrepreneurs. One key example of the success of such a bank is BPI France, which has been instrumental in rolling out the French government financial support for startups before and at the peak of the corona pandemic. We may even suggest that the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) be positioned to play such a role; inferring from how instrumental it was in the management of the Covid-19 Alleviation Programme funds. This could avoid us the stress of setting up a new organization but that will demand a thorough reform of the NBSSI as in its current form, is not an investment or financial institution.

    Supporting Corporate Innovation

    I am a fan of Stanbic Bank Ghana and my softspot for the institution has everything to do with its establishment of SB Incubator. The bank was one of the very first corporate giants in the country to put up a plan and a structure to support startups in Ghana. While it is encouraging to see other institutions following suite, we should start thinking of ways to encourage more corporate innovation and power it through governmental support. Such support could come in various form like facilitating academia-industry partnerships, involve corporate Ghana in the drafting of national innovation and startup-focused policies and giving tax exemptions to such institutions that will be productively involved in building our ecosystem.

    Restructuring the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Plan

    The NEIP is underutilized – I know this may not be the point of view of many but I hold that the Plan can serve a more strategic purpose – rallying State institutions and catalyzing government efforts in the ecosystem. Since its inception, the Plan has done great at engaging stakeholders in the ecosystem and bringing government to the table; but it did not stand out as having interest in policy and regulation of the ecosystem. The plan could have a “compliance” department that vets the curriculum of incubators or the state of co-working spaces; a research department that partners with other ecosystem stakeholders to regularly map the ecosystem and provide the much needed insight for policy-making among others. Those are very much needed and having the NEIP turn its attention to that angle will go a long way in making it more strategic as a tool for ecosystem growth.

    Establishing the Startup Visa

    A startup visa is a special visa given to entrepreneurs coming into a country to build a startup, work for a startup or join any active ecosystem support organization (my own definition). The idea underlining the startup visa is to give a special treatment to individuals coming to Ghana to help the ecosystem grow. This will mean changing some aspects of Ghana’s immigration laws, but if operationalized, will enable us attract foreign skills and investment into our ecosystem and position our country as the prime startup destination on the continent. This will go quite well along our plans for “Beyond the return” as it will also contribute to growing the number of visitors we receive in Ghana, people should not just come to “chill” but also to build.

    Setting up a Guichet Unique

    “Guichet Unique” is French for “One-Stop Shop”. The idea is to have a one stop shop office where all administrative processes are completed in the shortest possible time to set up a startup venture in Ghana. The processes could be uniformized for Nationals and Foreigners. This special institution will combine the workings of the Registrar General, Ghana Revenue Authority, the Food & Drugs Authority and other relevant regulatory bodies. We could also have a selected bank to provide the necessary financial services. This draws us back to our wish to have a Ghana Startup Bank.

    Many other things could be done, but as we all know, the journey to make Ghana, the leading startup-Nation in Africa got to start from somewhere – but got to start anyway and NOW.

    Author: Gilles Ametepe ( Communication, Partnerships’ Strategist and a Co-founder of Ghana For Startups)

  • Jumeni: Managing Your Waste Just Became Easier

    Jumeni: Managing Your Waste Just Became Easier

    Several tonnes of waste is produced daily across the globe. In Ghana, waste management is one of the major problems people are faced with.

    Though there are some waste management companies scattered around the country, their strengths and abilities make it difficult for them to take care of all wastes produced in the country.

    Here in this article, we introduce to you Jumeni, a company well vested in waste management.

    What Is Jumeni ?

    Jumeni is a Ghanaian company which helps waste management companies to deliver exceptional field services easily and more efficiently.

    This company provides services to cover the customers, field operators, payment system and general management.

    Customer Management Benefits Of Jumeni

    Jumeni provides the following services to cover the customer management aspect of running waste management companies:

    1. Address verification using google maps or Ghana post services to ensure accurate locations of customers for easy service delivery.
    2. Access to customer contacts for bulk messaging and reminders regarding payment.
    3. Customer registration portals as well as referral systems.
    4. Feedback on performance.
    5. Customer portals to enable quick communication.
    6. Pickup requests to enable customers plan and request for pickup by the field workers.
    7. Bulk messaging services for the distribution of messages to customers.

    Field Operations Benefits Of Jumeni

    Jumeni offers companies some benefits as far as their field operations are concerned. They are listed below:

    1. Real-time route management to enable managers track vehicle and field workers and where they are at specific times.
    2. Quick and Dynamic scheduling to help assign drivers and other field workers to various pickup points.
    3. Mapping and navigation systems to enable management check locations, customer densities and pickup points.
    4. Jumeni field app ensures an easy and ultrafast distribution of assignments to field operators electronically to enable the office managers access data and other metrics quickly.

    Payment And Analytics Benefits Of Jumeni

    Jumeni has top-notch technology to provide users with payment systems that are trendy and easy to use. Also, it provides useful analytical data for its users via the following:

    1. A comprehensive billing system which enables automatic invoicing based on fixed rates per month or per pickup.
    2. The integration of electronic payments to reduce cost and time of travelling to settle bills. Using the web portal or the USSD code, one can make payment for their waste management service.
    3. A frequent payment reminder system to alert customers of amounts they may be owing and how soon they need to pay.
    4. A dashboard that reveals how much waste you’ve generated per pickup, per month or per year.

    Conclusion

    With Jumeni, there is less you can worry about as far as waste management in Ghana is concerned. With their perfectly designed user interfaces and features, just about anyone should be able to use the app or web portal efficiently.

    You can visit Jumeni’s site today to find out more about their services or you can call them via 02025853279. You can also send an email via [email protected]. I hope this article was helpful to you.

  • How Renting has been Made Easy Using the “Renthauz” Platform in Ghana

    How Renting has been Made Easy Using the “Renthauz” Platform in Ghana

    Renthauz an accessible housing rental launches in Ghana today as a group of vibrant entrepreneurs come together to address problems of rent providing the platform with a wider spectrum of properties to choose from having in mind the urge to solve Sustainable Development goals 8, 9 and 11.

    Renthauz aims to become a solution to property renting. It seeks to work hand in hand with property owners, landlords’, agents and individuals through the website and mobile app which provides the most comprehensive and innovative rent solution tools that will make your rental experience perfect.

    An opportunity for individuals to access, quote and pick properties in the comfort of their homes. We help you find residential and commercial properties to rent anywhere in Ghana and also provide offline support and guidance on renting a property.

    With a population of 28.83 million (2017), in Ghana and the department of social welfare indicating that about 300,000 persons currently live and work on the streets of Ghana, inaccessibility of properties has been a factor.

    “Hey, be rest assured the saviour of the day, ‘Renthauz’ is here”, says COO Miss Faustina Kokloe.

    Clients get to list their properties on the site for easy access to the general public. For the first four (4) months customers get to list on the site for free building a strong rapport with both the Renthauz team and possible customers since they get to rate services given them by these property owners.

    Rent is and will continue to be an issue in our daily lives since we may need to rent at one point in life either for ourselves, friends or families and when coming face to face with this reality we wish to solve it hands down.

    In real-world, RenthauZ is here to play a significant role in the rental sector in meeting housing needs in Ghana.

    RenthauZ seeks to provide an avenue for a search in the right direction reducing stress in search of a property, opportunity to quote your own budget.

  • BezoMoney: Online Susu And Savings For All Ghanaians

    BezoMoney: Online Susu And Savings For All Ghanaians

    If there’s one thing we all grew up to know, it is the importance of savings.

    Our parents from back in the days were part of some daily Susu schemes where the collectors came around daily for the monies. They then take one day’s contribution off a contributor’s total monthly contribution as their fee.

    Well, if you were born before or during the 90s, you’ll understand perfectly what I’ve described above.

    However, in today’s world of technology, where we have moved from carrying cash to mobile money transactions, it is rather difficult to have people do the traditional Susu contributions.

    In view of this, a Ghanaian startup company named Bezomoney has provided an easy and formidable way of saving your traditional Susu contributions without having to wait on anyone to come to you or going to any bricks and mortar institutions.

    In this article, we shall take a look at Benzomoney, what they do, how they are beneficial to you and the team behind it.

    What is BezoMoney?

    BezoMoney is a financial technology company interested in creating a suitable platform for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly Susu contributions.

    It is in essence, a digital platform that helps you save effectively, and enables you to access bulk cash through group savings and ensures that you build a worthy savings and credit history to foster your access to loans.

    How Do You Benefit From BezoMoney?

    With Bezomoney, you are assured of building on your savings culture as an individual, a group or a company by aligning to the Benzomoney lifestyle of saving.

    The service provides four different packages. They are:

    Personal savings

    With this, you are required to set a weekly or monthly goal as an individual, on your mobile phone. You are then reminded to contribute towards it via your mobile money wallet.

    Group Savings

    With this option, you are granted access to connect with other people who are geared towards achieving similar financial goals as yourself. In the process, you all save from your individual mobile money wallets into that single account.

    Value-Added Packages

    With the value-added packages, contributors are granted access to loan facilities, based on their credit history and their savings. In addition, BezoMoney also serves as a mediator for making group purchases through group savings.

    Pay-As-You-Go Services

    With the pay as you go services, BezoMoney gives contributors the ability to purchase items, products or services and pay in instalments. Some of the items or services covered include payment of school fees and buying of electrical appliances.

    BezoMoney pays a fixed interest of 3% per annum on all contributions and the interest is calculated on a daily basis.

    You can register by for BezoMoney by dialling *713*12#

    The Team Behind BezoMoney

    Bezomoney is put together by a team of three young tech and business Ghanaian geeks who have over 16 years experience in software, business and strategy development, designing, building communities and partnerships.

    The team also has a group of advisors who are creditably pitched at the apex of their careers in Telcos, banks and nonprofit organisations.

    The founders of BezoMoney are Mubarak Sumaila, a design thinking expert, in the position of CEO, Diana D. Osei an expert in technology for development, in the position of CMO and Kenneth Simpson, a software engineer in the position of CTO.

    You can check out their website: bezomoney.com for their photos and profiles

    Conclusion: BezoMoney is your sure solution to promoting your savings habit and growing your financial strength as an individual, a group or company. BezoMoney charges a fee of 2% off the total money contributed by the contributor, at the end of the term.

  • Why Every Business Should Have a Facebook Page

    Why Every Business Should Have a Facebook Page

    The crust of every business is the customer base and sustainability.

    In a world which is gradually drifting from the physical to an online space popularly termed as a global village, businesses are more likely to be successful by tapping into the numerous opportunities available.

    With the rapid growth of digital shopping giants, Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and the likes, we have come to realize how powerful the Internet is to the growth of businesses.

    Fortunately for us, there seems to be a more solid and easy-and-free resource for business owners to expand their businesses. That resource is Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.

    Quickly, let’s take a ride through some few reasons why your business should have a Facebook page.

     FACEBOOK HAS MOST THE NUMBERS

    With over 2.6 billion registered users and over 1.5 billion users monthly, Facebook is the biggest social media company in the world presently.

    With these great numbers, a company that is looking to break away from its comfort zone and attain higher heights should be seeking to take advantage of Facebook and the best way to do that is to get a Facebook page.

    Facebook Pages Have Wider Reach And Ad Potentials

    It is the wish of every business owner to have their business reach more and new people all the time. With Facebook’s huge user base, there is enough room for business pages to reach more and more people by the day.

    Also, with their relatively cheap display ads (Sponsored ads) feature, Facebook creates room for business pages to reach even more people with just a few dollars. Facebook ads start from as low as 1 dollar per day to 100 dollars per day.

    NB: You can only run ads on your business pages. You can’t run ads on your personal Facebook account or groups. Only pages.

     Facebook Is Utterly Reliable

    As an industry leader, Facebook has a big team of technicians who are always on the lookout for problems and work hard to prevent them.

    Despite the huge exchange of data on Facebook by their over 2 billion users, Facebook hardly suffers downtimes hence making it very reliable for businesses that wish to benefit from it.

    For Facebook to get deleted permanently, it has to take some very dramatic events, considering the amount of money the team makes daily. So, Facebook is here to stay! You can build your business on Facebook without fearing that it’ll disappear tomorrow.

     FACEBOOK PAGES HAVE THE ULTIMATE ENTREPRENEURIAL TOOLS

    The art of managing a business is one that requires lots of time and commitment. Having realized how difficult this is, Facebook has developed automated in-built tools to enable business pages to manage their businesses without much struggle.

    With Facebook page stats, business owners are able to analyze the growth of their page, sales conversion and other vital data which is auto-determined by Facebook.

    Also, you get to advertise your vacancies for free, get to book appointments with prospective candidates and interviewing them all on Facebook. And for free too!

    There are many other tools you could use on your business page to easily manage your business.

    Conclusion: If your business doesn’t have a page on Facebook yet, know that you’re missing out on something big. To set up a business page on Facebook, click here for our assistance.

  • How To Get Small Businesses Online For Advertisement

    How To Get Small Businesses Online For Advertisement

    If you’re reading this article now, you’re probably a digital marketer, a content creator, you’ve just started blogging or you are someone trying to enter the field of advertisement in a couple of days.

    Well, if you belong to any of the categories above, I’m happy to invite you on this interesting ride with me.

    If you’re a content creator, I’m assuming that you’ve already started getting some sizeable number of views for your contents and you keep growing at a steady rate as I indicated in my earlier article ‘How To Make Money On Whatsapp As A Writer’.

    Again, if you’re a digital marketer, I’m assuming that you have already completed a couple of campaigns and you have proof of your achievements (Portfolio).

    Before I bore you with too much to read, let’s dive into the little details right here.

    Categorise Your Content

    As a content creator, you are unlikely to write on everything in this world. You definitely have some topics or areas of interest on which your contents are based. List these topics or areas of interest and put them under bigger categories just as you’d do for posts on your blog or website.

    If Kofi Agbo writes about how to play some video games, he could consider himself as someone who writes on “Gaming Tutorials”. And again, he could categorise himself as someone writing on Technology in a broader term.

    So, go ahead to categorise yours as well.

    If you’re a digital advertiser, you may be feeling this is not for you. But frankly, it is just as important to you as it is to the content creator. However, the only difference is that you have to categorise the products or services you’re good at marketing.

    Every product has its own unique way of marketing. Running a campaign for a music video can never be the same as a campaign for an eye drop. So you have to list the services or products you’re very good at marketing and categorise them.

    List Products In Your Category

    Doing a near-perfect job in the previous step gives you room to have enough precision on this step. Knowing your Content’s categories gives you a broader picture of which products or services related to your content.

    Take a pen and paper and make a list of all the products or services you could think of which are connected to the kind of content you are known for.

    If you’re into gaming tutorials like Kofi Agbo, you should probably be looking at game stores, high-speed computers, consoles and any other products or services related to games.

    If you are a digital marketer reading this, it’s the same in your case too. Just list the products or services that are associated with the products or services you’re good at marketing. Make a thorough work of this.

    Re-Arrange In Order Of Preference

    Possibilities are that your list contains some products or services which you’re very sure that your viewers may not be so enthused about. And there are others you’re very sure about that once you put them up, you’ll get positive feedback.

    So, to reduce the number of frowns you are likely to get, you have to re-arrange the items listed in the previous step according to preference. If possible, strike out some of them. Here, you need to understand your viewers and what they want to be able to make the right decision. So, you can check out the gender and age group of your viewers to enable you to determine what works out for them.

    If you’re digital marketer, you don’t necessarily need this because you already have tools to do such analysis.

    Search The Listed Products And Services Online (Social Media and Search Engines)

    Your best bet is that the majority of the businesses you would like to advertise for or have a partnership with are already on one or more platforms online. In a world where one is a digital outcast when they are unavailable on social media, businesses have found a way to keep up with the trend.

    The biggest platform where you may wanna find these products and services is on Facebook, thanks to Facebook Pages. With Facebook pages which groups pages based on the Products or services they offer and their location, a search term “Game store in Ghana’ should bring up a list of posts and pages that contain the keywords “Game store “ and “Ghana”. Now, you can imagine the list of pages that could come up.

    Notice: Instagram and twitter are a little bit tricky with this because they only allow room for accounts and not pages so your search terms may not produce proper results so for the benefit of this post, we shall only use Facebook and Google search.

    Same way, you could type the same search term in your address bar and google search brings up a list of online resources containing social media links, websites and the likes of companies that deal in such products or services.

    Find Out Their Current Marketing Campaigns And Pitch Yours

    Chances are that once the businesses are already online, other advertisers or content writers have contacted them for a deal. So obviously you wouldn’t be the first person to contact them. Again, chances are that those companies are already on some digital marketing campaigns already.

    But hey, you’re here for business. You can’t close your business because of the competition. That’s what should rather make you stronger, right?

    So the first thing you need to do is to check the companies online resources. Check their brand presence online. The Alexa ranking for their website, their likes on social media, their engagement on social media. And if they already have ads running, check how well the ads are running.

    After doing your checks, you’re likely to come across their contacts. It could be an email address or phone numbers. In the unlikely event that none of these is available, you should consider messaging them on their social media platforms with your idea of solving their problem.

    More likely than not, you’re likely to be ignored if you’re blabbing, trying hard to be funny or perhaps being outrageous with your figures. So, keep it simple. Introduce yourself, tell them the problem they have and tell them how you intend to solve that problem. If you kill it well, you could get invited for a tête-à-tête.

    Price Your Service And Welcome To Bankroll

    The previous step may seem a little bit daunting but if you’re able to overcome it, this next step would be your moment of smiles.

    Based on the numbers you have, you get to price the service you’re providing for the companies. Be sure not to mention anything so huge for the first time. Chances are that you’ll get to work with them for a very long time, and of course, that’s if you do a good job.

    So, try not to block your future income with today’s greed. Be considerate in your pricing. And make them understand that you’re giving them the offer because it’s your first time with them and you want them to see how you work.

    Again, don’t mention a price that’s outrageously low. You could lose good clients at a very low price. You know why? People are concerned about Value.

    If I have money to buy one original Rolex watch, why would I go to buy 10 fake ones? If your client has the money to spend and you give them a very low budget, chances are that they know what industry prices are so if yours is ridiculously low, you come across as a scam and trust me, the end is bad news.

    Conclusion: This is a tried and tested way of getting clients online for advertisement. This could work for you perfectly.

    Happy earnings!

  • Meet Oyaclean, The startup that helps people find reliable artisans for their homes and offices

    Meet Oyaclean, The startup that helps people find reliable artisans for their homes and offices

    We’ve all faced this problem before: You come into a new building and there is a lot to fix. You then call friends and family who suggests names of technicians they use and after repeatedly calling, you resort to the street poles, uncompleted buildings and fences to fill your technical needs. After 2 weeks to a month, the work is finally complete, while plenty of money and time has been wasted and of course, you are stressed out even more.

    What is notable in this process are these:

    • The process is very complex.
    • Tasks completed aren’t very transparent
    • The technicians are unreliable and clients have no proper way of vetting
    • The process is timeconsuming and regularly manual.

    This issue resulted in the birth of Oyaclean, where we provide a platform for residents and offices to request for well trained and highly skilled artisans with just a few clicks or a simple phone call.

    Our professionals are trained in Cleaning, Plumbing, Electricals, Air condition repair, Inverter repair, Generator servicing, Water Tank filling, Home/office helps, at any location in Accra.

    Our goal is not to just offer our homeowners or offices with the best maintenance professionals & most transparent service around but also to empower these professionals by providing them with a larger client to service and increased revenue.

    This practice will encourage the level of competency among artisans on our platform to ensure they are continuously refining their skills to maintain a good standing on our platform, therefore earning them more projects via Oyaclean and improving the maintenance practices of artisans in general, starting with Accra Ghana.

    As a customer, here is what we promise you at Oyaclean;

    Fast response time

    Depending on your maintenance requests, we always respond to you within 10 minutes and then agree on a date and time to send in a technician for a quote.

    Trust

    If you are not satisfied with the work of any of our trusted technicians, we would send another person to redo the work.

    Reliability

    Even if we cannot address your request, we want you to still trust us to find someone in our network who will at no extra cost.

    Affordability

    Our prices are always very competitive and we match affordability with premium service, That is our secret sauce.

    OyaClean brings technology and professionals together in a totally unique way. We use our proprietary Joluud software to make sure we optimize our service, keep our professionals accountable and improve upon our service delivery.

    We are made up of three young men who are passionate about technology and facility management. We are Luqman Musah (CEO), David Obi (CMO) and Hassan Abudu (CTO). We are passionate about what we do at OyaClean and we promise to give you the best service you have ever seen.

    Here is where you can help us. If you need any artisan, for any maintenance work please contact us, or if you know any expert technician, please refer them to us. We train our technicians in customer service and professionalism to ensure the Oya-standard is met.

    Why wait, Book a service right now or refer a friend.

    Our website is www.oyaclean.com or please call: 0248574571