Contest: My Worst Experience as An Entrepreneur

In the business world, you must take a lot of risks before you can succeed. However, taking certain risk can make you regret ever starting your own business in the first place. My worst experience as an entrepreneur was when the Corona outbreak hit Ghana hard and we had to go into partial lockdown. Before the lockdown, a regular customer of mine had ordered thirty pieces of fabric valued ¢4000 cedis equivalent to 1030 steem. When I got the order, I was ecstatic because it was my biggest sale since I started my fabric business.

I didn't have enough stock in my store at the time, but I was able to work with some wholesalers to get the brands the customer wanted, which I paid for with my own money. The lockdown was declared just as I was going to make the delivery. All activities were halted as a result of this sad circumstance, which included the closure of all border crossings connecting neighbouring nations such as Togo, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire. All travel, whether by land and by air, was prohibited.

My main concern was how we will transport the stuff to Nigeria. I attempted to contact the customer and explained the situation, which made it impossible for me to ship the package. He recommended that we keep an eye on things until the lockdown or ban is lifted. After the lockdown, he no longer wanted the products since he claimed to have spent all his money, suffered losses, and his business had been slowed because of the Corona pandemic in Nigeria.

My biggest mistake was spending all of my money on a total of ¢4000 worth of fabrics that, if sold, would have yielded a profit of ¢800. I was certain that he would honour the payment because he is a regular customer and someone I know. He later claimed that he doesn't require the supplies because business had disrupted by the corona outbreak.

Even as I share this experience here, I still have a few unsold textiles. One of the issues is that I paid more for them when I got them, so I have to lower my prices in order to sell all of them now that the market has seen a slight reduction in their pricing. After years of running this business, this is the biggest loss I've ever had, as well as the worst experience I've ever had.

While risk is a part of doing business, this experience was the worst I've had since starting my company. As a result of this experience, I learned that I should never prepare orders before payment. Even a partial payment could have compelled the buyer to complete the full payments.

In operating business, it is also critical to anticipate any potential eventualities and devise strategies to address them, I never prepared for such, I was only concerned with the profit. Now that I have learned from this experience, I intend to do things differently moving forward.

Cc:
@harferri
@ladyofpolicy