Two years ago, I stumbled into Technical Recruitment startup when I built a job board online (https://techjobsinghana.com/) to test my coding skills. What started as a pet project to enhance my technical knowledge has transformed to a growing startup that has placed 12 Software Engineers across various roles in Ghana.
I’ve learnt many lessons in the past 24 months which is shaping my perspective and ideas on how startups and businesses work in Ghana
Here are the 5 key lessons I’ve learnt so far.
- CUSTOMER ACQUISITION IS HARD
When I started Tech Jobs in Ghana, I had no HR experience or background. With no pedigree and industry experience, I set out to learn all about recruiting online. Recruiting is essentially a sales business and successful sales professional have strong pipelines. With this in mind, I set out to build a pipeline via LinkedIn which took many months of sweat and effort before I landed my first paying client.
After landing my first client, I thought other clients will come flowing through the door as I had already built credibility by making quality placements. Landing additional clients continue to be challenging. This motives me to continue twisting my approach on client acquisition strategy.
- ONE GOOD CLIENT CHANGES EVERYTHING
When I got my first paying client, it affirmed I’d built a viable startup other businesses were open to paying for. My first payment gave me the necessary confidence to keep pushing.
- LITTLE ACTIONS STACK UP
Startups have many moving parts requiring daily attention. Marketing was a frightening aspect for me because it requires creativity and ingenuity especially for a new business.
I doubled down on all the inbound/content marketing strategies I’d learnt from Hubspot and started creating personable and genuine content my targeted prospects could relate to. I highlighted trending jobs and skills in technology, wrote personality profiles and listed experts on the website for hire.
- MONEY IS GOOD BUT IT WILL TAKE TIME
Businesses exist to make money period!
So a startup not making money is not a viable business. However I had to remind myself that making money should not come at the expense of providing quality service. Making money takes time and patience because it takes a while for brands to align with their targeted customers, for a product to gain traction and for entrepreneurs to establish themselves as industry experts.
Losing focus on this can leads entrepreneurs to cut corners. I constantly had to remember this and give Tech Jobs in Ghana my all whiles looking forward to my first payment
- BREATHE (TAKING STRATEGIC PAUSES)
There’s been many moments where I’ve been overwhelmed and felt like giving up. Not only were people disinterested in what I had to say, they saw me as a nuisance. Those periods were demoralizing. The unanswered DM’s, the ignored posts, the zero website visits. Through it all I found a way to keep going.
I make a mental note to detach myself and breath every periodically and not make the whole startup about me. Understand where the objections are from and why my proposals are rejected.
It’s a long road but I’m excited to see what Tech Jobs in Ghana will become in the near future.
