The epitome of balancing a full-time day’s job with a side hustle requires hard work, dedication, and passion to achieve one’s goal.
Although the possibilities of businesses are literally endless, the approach is not gratifying immediately, real passion is the thing that keeps one going when there is an excellent reason to quit, that is the story of Mr. Ian Okwei, Protocol and Administrative Officer, TDC Company Limited.
Mr. Okwei said as a Marketing Official who knows how to combine marketing tools to achieve desired goals, he decided to work on something he would be passionate about to solve a problem in society.
“My passion has always been that people should not go and queue for food, they should sit in the comfort of their homes and whatever they need to be delivered to them,” he stated.
He added that he then started selling waakye in a serene environment at Tema Community Seven.
The Protocol and Administrative Officer, of TDC Company, said the “Big Joe organic waakye” is prepared without any foreign spice and packaged in banana leaves to unleash its benefits before placing it in the pack.
He said social media had been a powerful tool in the sales of food as about 70 percent of customers ordered the food from the platform.
Mr. Okwei said the platform had helped promote his brand as well as easily engage with the customers.
He said getting feedback from their customers was one of the most cherished elements as it opened a window into improving the weaker areas of their business and urged food vendors to take advantage of social media platforms.
He obtained a Diploma in Communication Studies at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and was awarded a Degree in Marketing from Methodist University and furthered a Masters in Marketing Strategy at the University of Ghana Business School.
He is currently studying International Trade and Export from the International Trade School under the World Trade Organization affiliated to Cambridge University.
Mr. Okwei is a Board Member of the Tema Industrial Lions Club under District 418 and Chairman of the Communication and Media.
Speaking with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview he said, after obtaining a Masters Degree in Marketing Strategy at the University of Ghana Business School, he decided to put what he had learned into practice.
He said his days at school were the era of the emergence of social media as such which resulted in studies in those days being concentrated on social media marketing and Integrated Marketing Communication.
