Mr. Christian Boakye, the Chief Executive Officer of Pizzaman, has revealed how he began his career with hostel fees while still a student at KNUST.
In an interview with TV3’s The Day Show, the young entrepreneur discussed how he got into the pizza industry and some of the hurdles he faced.
He said;
“Raising capital was one, and then getting the right people to work with. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and you feel like quitting; you get tired of combining the work with academics. I was still in school, in my final year, when I started. “… not just hostel fees; any other money available that I could chance on.
I risked it… I wouldn’t advise it because it wasn’t pleasant… in January 2018, when I started, I had some money on me because I had gone to school fresh.
It got to a point things got locked up, so during National Service time, I had to take money for the hostel and use that money to secure a place around campus and then some small small pocket monies I had on me, including my roommate, Ebenezer, we just combined whatever we had and then got some oven. I mean, it was so rough.
At one point, one of my lecturers had to pray for me. He was our patron when I was a department president. He knew how academically good I was, and he was quite surprised. “He was like, what is wrong with Chris? Is it a spiritual attack? He was wondering because I’m the front seater in class, but then after class, I’m done – that’s it… to him, he felt I was under attack or I was losing focus. Well, yeah, I was losing focus on my academics, but I was making money, and it was addictive
I feel whatever it is you want to do, if you want to do it, you won’t find excuses. Just manage your time well. There were times that I had to skip class and cook and my mates – my classmates, bought into the idea. They were like, Chris, you are too good academically. Why don’t you just do your master’s and then probably get a job outside, like how our seniors have been doing? Why are you risking so much?”
