Ghana is on a partial lockdown. Most businesses have ceased. Life has almost come to a standstill. A virus we cannot see is threatening our lives and everything around us. Who ever thought a day would come that man, despite all his sophistication, would bolt at the name of a virus!?
While we remain indoors, we should learn the lessons this outbreak is teaching us. The plethora of lessons this virus is teaching us remains one of the most significant facets of this season. People may die but the lessons that came with the outbreak may not.
Today, life has been narrowed to its essentials. We are getting to understand that all we have ever needed is actually what can make us survive. Every other thing is a want— the expensive cars, luxurious mansions and what have you. Courtesy corona, we know today what our needs are… and what our wants are, too.
This war against corona has taught us to carve our businesses around life’s needs. When it has all been said and done, people will buy what they NEED to survive. They will patronize services that will aid in their survival; nothing more; nothing less. In other words, if our businesses have the primary needs of people at heart, we will always be in business!
Even though there is a lockdown, some businesses are still in business because without them, there is no survival. Without such businesses, it will be hard for many of us to live alone successfully after a few weeks. When we tie our businesses to the survival of people, those businesses will always survive… come what may.
After the hullabaloo of this outbreak has subsided, you may have to consider a side business in some of the areas listed below. We will always remember corona virus as one virus that did not only bring death but also great business ideas.
- Agriculture and the food value chain
You can’t underestimate the importance of food in life. All the hustle and bustle of life is geared towards putting food on our table. Everybody eats to survive and everybody survives to eat. In order words, if your business is tied to food, it is tied to the survival of people everywhere. It is a product/service everybody can patronize regardless of their race, tribe, religion or whatever.
If you can’t farm, sell a product or service farmers may need. If it is hard for you to farm, be interested in connecting the product from farmers to consumers. If farming is such a chore for you, carve for yourself a business that is food-related. Whatever regardless, create a business along the food value chain… and you will always be in business.
One can set up a grocery store. At all cost, everyone will need groceries at a point in their lives… and the scare of a lockdown taught us this so well. Of a truth, everything that has gotten to do with food survives when done well.
Agriculture is not the future. It is the present. It is what will determine whether or not we will make it to the future. If you have some seed money, try investing it into food after the outbreak is gone… and trust me, you will never be out of food!
- Delivery service
Operations of companies that have returns of millions of dollars have come to a halt but guess who is still operating— delivery businesses. From what it seems now, delivery businesses are a need, not want. In the times we live in, we can’t afford to transact some businesses in person. That is why we need the delivery man or woman.
The secret about today’s world is that because a chunk of our daily life has been digitized, we need delivery companies to connect us to our suppliers or service providers. In these times of a lockdown, it appears to be the peak season of delivery businesses because they are running errands for people who would not even patronize their services on a normal day.
Starting a delivery company doesn’t require much. You first start with a motor bike and every other thing will fall in place. If you have some money to spare and you want to invest such in a business, give delivery business a thought. With a well-organized system, you can reap your investment in no time.
If you invest in a delivery business, you are investing in a need. As long as people exist, needs exist, too.
- Pharmaceuticals
We all get ill at a point in our lives. No matter how much faith we have, it is human to get sick sometimes. Just as we need food to be healthy, we need medication to be healthy, too. Otherwise speaking, the pharmaceutical business is as important as agriculture.
One business area that has profited very much from this outbreak is the pharmaceuticals. Though business may not be booming as usual, they have run out of face masks and gloves among others because everyone wants to stay safe and healthy.
Starting a pharmaceutical business may be a bit capital intensive but one can always start from somewhere, especially, dealing in some specific medications. As long as people live, they will get ill. As long as they fall ill, they will need drugs to get better.
In all your thinking, think about a business in the health sector. No matter which business you have, think of an extra one that is directly connected to the primary needs of people. As long as people need to survive, they will need your business to survive!
By Kobina Ansah
The writer is a Ghanaian playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), an Accra-based writing firm. His new play, “Emergency Wedding”, happens on Saturday, 25th & Sunday, 26th April, 2020 at National Theatre.