Chief Executive Officer of Joyce Ababio College of Creative Design, Joyce Ababio, has shared with Rev. Erskine on the Y leaderboard series on YFM, some challenges that she faced and still faces sometimes with her business.
She noted that initially, she was faced with the problem of not having a shop and this was becoming a big problem after her first fashion show which had lots of people looking to find her location so that they could opt for her services.
However, her husband pulled through for her, suggesting that they put a signboard in front of their house so she did that while she kick-started her business little by little in their living room.
Joyce furthered that even after she got herself a shop, there was a problem with workers. “Once the shop was opened and I needed workers, I realized that anyone that walked in, I had to teach. The standards we had at the time were not the thing to have so I had to teach everybody that came in”, she said.
Again, the CEO added that she is a perfectionist, thus she was always scared that her workers would not do things the exact way she wanted, and for that reason, she was always sure to be around.
“I would train these people to get to the point of feeling comfortable enough to take a step back and then they leave and you start again. That’s how it was with workers. Once they’ve learned enough, they move on and you start again”.
Joyce Ababio also mentioned that there was the problem of Ghanaians’ perception that people in the fashion design industry are mostly dropouts and that mindset is among the reasons why she started teaching and not just designing and making clothes at the Joyce Ababio College of Creative Design.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
