Test your business idea before you spend your savings

You have saved for months. You have the idea. Maybe a friend has even promised you a shop space. The temptation is to spend it all at once: rent, stock, signboard, branded bags, the lot.

Then the shop opens, and customers are slower to come than you expected. The money is already gone, and there is nothing left to adjust with. This is one of the most painful ways a business can start, and it is avoidable. Before you spend your savings, spend a few weeks proving that people will actually pay.

You are not alone, and that is the point

Small businesses are the backbone of Ghana’s economy. A 2024–2025 survey of 600 businesses by the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation found that micro, small and medium enterprises make up about 92 per cent of businesses in the country. That means your customers have choices. The businesses that last are rarely the ones with the biggest opening day. They are the ones that understood their customers before they spent heavily.

Start with a problem, not a product

“I want to sell shoes” is a product. “Workers in my area cannot find decent work shoes under GHS 300 without travelling to town” is a problem. Problems tell you who your customer is, what they are missing and what they might pay.

Write your idea as one sentence: who has the problem, what the problem is, and how you will solve it better or closer or cheaper than what they use today. If you cannot finish that sentence, you are not ready to spend money yet.

Talk to 20 real people before you buy anything

Not your family, who love you and will say yes to everything. Talk to people who fit your customer description: traders in the market, workers at the junction, mothers at the school gate. Ask about their life, not your idea:

• Where do you buy this today, and how much do you pay?
• What annoys you about it?
• When did you last buy it?
• Would you pay for something better? How much?

Listen for patterns. If 15 of 20 people complain about the same thing, you have found something real. If most shrug, keep looking before you commit your savings.

Run a small, cheap test

A test is a small version of your business that costs little and teaches you a lot. Take orders on WhatsApp before you cook. Rent a table at a weekend market before you rent a shop. Sell ten pieces before you order a hundred.

Example (figures for illustration): Akosua in Accra wants to start a lunch delivery business for office workers. Instead of renting a kitchen, she posts a menu on her WhatsApp status and takes pre-orders for one week.

• She plans 30 lunch packs a day at GHS 45 each.
• Ingredients and packaging cost her GHS 26 a pack, and a delivery rider costs GHS 120 a day.
• If she sells all 30: GHS 1,350 in sales, minus GHS 780 for food and GHS 120 for delivery, leaves GHS 450 profit for the day.
• If she cooks 30 but sells only 18: GHS 810 in sales, minus the same GHS 900 in costs, and she loses GHS 90.

Because she took pre-orders, she only cooks what is already sold. In one week she learns which dishes sell, which offices order most and whether GHS 45 feels fair, all without signing a lease.

Put your numbers on one page

You do not need a thick business plan to start. You need one page that answers three questions: What does it cost to open? What does it cost every month, even if I sell nothing? How much do I keep from each sale?

Example (figures for illustration): Ibrahim in Tamale is opening a small tailoring shop. His monthly fixed costs are rent GHS 600, electricity GHS 250 and phone and data GHS 100, a total of GHS 950. Each dress sells for GHS 250 and the materials cost GHS 120, so he keeps GHS 130 per dress. To cover his fixed costs, he needs to sell about 8 dresses a month (950 ÷ 130 = 7.3). Everything after the eighth dress is profit. Now he knows his real target, and he can check it against what his test sales showed him.

Make it official once it is working

When your test shows people will pay, register the business. It protects your name, makes it easier to open a business bank account and is expected by banks, big customers and support programmes.

• Registration: A one-person business is registered as a business name (sole proprietorship) with the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC). Under the fees that took effect in February 2026, business name registration costs GHS 130, and the name must be renewed every year.
• Your Ghana Card: Your Ghana Card PIN now serves as your tax identification number, so make sure your card details are correct before you register.
• Local permit: Most businesses also need a Business Operating Permit from their Metropolitan, Municipal or District Assembly. Fees differ by area and type of business.
• Special licences: Some sectors need extra approval. Food businesses, for example, need approval from the Food and Drugs Authority.

Fees and rules change, so confirm the current figures with the ORC and your assembly before you pay.

Start this week

1. Write your idea as one sentence: who, what problem, how you solve it.
2. Talk to five people who fit your customer description, and write down exactly what they say.
3. Design one small test you can run for under GHS 500, such as pre-orders on WhatsApp or one market day.
4. On one page, list your monthly fixed costs and how much you keep from each sale.
5. Search your business name on the ORC website so it is ready when your test works.