Armed with my GHS400 from my first Ghana event, I needed raw materials to keep this going. Where do I buy Shea Butter from? It seems like a simple question. For a country that the entire world believes is the capital of Shea Butter, it's quite surprising that there were NO Shea Butter shops, none, zilch, nada. Everyone kept saying, go to "Accra". Where in Accra? Or go to the North, without any specific location, direction, or plan. I'm not sure how I was supposed to just show up there and find Shea Butter. I went online to search. After all, in Atlanta, I sat in the house and ordered everything I needed online, it showed up at my door and I had a business. Hahaha...online? In Ghana? Yes, it was funny. Barely anyone was selling anything online in Ghana in 2014! But I found someone. A man from the North. Ben was selling Shea Butter on an international website. I called him and he directed me to his manufacturing facility, an hour outside Accra. He had a small women's group in Tamale who made Shea Butter for him. He would then bring the Shea to Accra, repackage, and sell on the international market. We spoke for hours. He told me, "Don't sell in Ghana there is no money here". I picked up my 25kg of Shea Butter and went home. I needed more ingredients. In those 2 years that I was studying for the GMAT, I also learned how to make a body lotion. Now, where can I find Glycerin, Stearic Acid, Cocoa Butter etc? How much do they cost? At this point, I had gone from making $75k salary a year to $900+GHS400 in revenue in the last 6 months. I was depleting my savings and I needed money to start a business.
