Business News of Friday, 18 September 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

BizTech: The female carpenter who abandoned journalism to make more impact

Emelda Adjei makes beautiful centerpieces from 'abandoned' car tyres, make pallet beds, etc play videoEmelda Adjei makes beautiful centerpieces from 'abandoned' car tyres, make pallet beds, etc

After working with several media conglomerates in Ghana for years, Emelda Adjei decided to bow out of the media in 2018 to venture into entrepreneurship.

Now the Chief Executive Officer of Think Emmy’s Interior Decor, Emelda, together with her three employees bring life to 'dead' furniture with their artistic carpentry works.

The team are also into the recycling of old car tyres, reupholstering, making pallet bed, couches, general interior décor, and painting.

Sharing her experience on GhanaWeb’s BizTech show, Ms Adjei stated that she’s made strides and greater impact in society as an entrepreneur than her time as a journalist.

“Growing up, you always have something you want to do…sometimes, life happens and you don’t have to be strict on yourself. If you think you can move the wind, just go with it. If you think it is too much for you, that’s fine but for me, one of my policies in life is not to stick to doing one thing because I believe that everyone has the capability of doing so many things in life and so just spread your wings”.

“Yes, I went into journalism, that was what I was trained for but I feel right now that I am making a lot more impact being an entrepreneur than being a journalist,” she said.

The 26-year-old indicated that her journey to entrepreneurship has not been easy as the road to success has been pretty bumpy.

“This is something I started not with an intention of wanting to be an entrepreneur. I just saw a problem one day and I decided to solve that problem. I saw a very bad looking furniture in a very nice setting and I felt that why would this furniture be here looking at the environment so I just spoke to the person…I told the person I think I can do something about this furniture because it doesn’t befit the environment so the person just asked me what can we do about it and I said we can use fabric or something. It wasn’t something I had done before; it wasn’t something I had an idea of doing ever but just said I think we can do it and the person just bought into the idea,” she said on BizTech.

Though the work is tedious, she inspires herself to get the job done anytime she has a project to work on.

According to her, making centrepieces could take between 8 to 10 hours while reupholstering takes a day or 2.

However, she doesn't give up as she hopes her products will be exported someday.

Watch below the full interview on GhanaWeb's BizTech show below: