Explore Ghana to discover new opportunities - Dr Agyekum urges christian entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur and pharmacist, Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, has urged christian entrepreneurs to travel around the country to discover new opportunities to help in expanding their businesses.

He said exposure was a necessary ingredient that christian business persons must be conscious of to help them to succeed.

“Explore your environment and travel to experience new places to gather new inspiration,” he said.

Dr Agyekum was speaking on the theme: A christian business person in a challenging socio-economic and political environment at a seminar organised by the Global Theological Seminary in Accra last Thursday.

He explained that travelling even around the country alone would expose entrepreneurs to new business opportunities that was needed for their development.

"That opens your brains, when you travel it gives you an entrepreneurial training in the 21st century,” he said.

New era

In a presentation, Dr Agyekum also encouraged entrepreneurs from the business community, who made the bulk of the gathering, to adopt a mindset that would help them to discover and appreciate business opportunities in the 21st century.

He said business opportunities abounded in the country although they could only be harnessed for wealth creation if entrepreneurs could open their minds to the realities of the 21st century.

“I came to tell you that we are in the 21st century and things are changing,” he said.

Dr Agyekum explained that the era of the 21st century was different and christian businessmen and women must examine how things worked and rethink new strategies that were fit for purpose.

Environment

He said although the economic environment in the country was improving, there was evidence of present poverty and hardship which was a natural phenomenon during such periods of transition.

To help overcome such challenges, he said, christians must learn to be content with what they had and avoid comparing themselves with their neighbours.

Touching on how they should conduct themselves as the general election in December approaches, he said the election year had presented some tension among political parties which required that christians restrained themselves from engaging in political debates.

"As christians, my advice for you is to keep your mouth shut because I don’t want to hear that any of you have been attacked ," he said.

Lifestyle

Dr Agyekum said for christians to be successful at business, they must first be healthy, adding that they must exercise, be on good diet and avoid falling sick.

"How can you be rich if you are always tired. If you want to be wealthy, be healthy,” he said.

However, he said, time must be made for relaxation as the normal working hours for him was the period between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

"As you sit here, you have 10 pints of blood but if you stay all night, you lose a pint of blood and if the next day you don’t relax, you will lose another pint of blood and you will begin having diseases," he cautioned.

Frugal living

Dr Agyekum also encouraged the gathering to embrace savings and investment as the pillars to grow their businesses.

“Say no to expenditure in the first three years when you start your business so that you fatten your purse to develop your roots,” he said.