Mr Stephen Kyei, the Budget Officer of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality, has advised traders to follow the basic principles of managing businesses for their enterprises to flourish.

He said the investments of many female traders had gone to waste because they could not employ sound business practices.

Mr Kyei said this when he took 60 rural women traders through Business and Financial Management, Record Keeping, and the Methods and Benefits of Savings.

The participants, drawn from the Cape Coast Metropolis and KEEA Municipality, were taught how to cost and price their products and transact business to make a profit.

The workshop, organised by the Progressive Excellence Youth Organization (PEYORG), with funds from Plan International, was to equip the women with the requisite knowledge to transform their businesses.

Mr Kyei said many petty traders sold their products without first costing them and the practice was killing businesses.

He said more often, instead of saving and investing part of their profits in the businesses, the women rather spent everything, plus their capital, on family expenses.

He advised them to use part of their profits to pay themselves, save some and reinvest the rest in their trading activities.

Mrs Bertha Ahwa Yankey, the Municipal Gender Desk Officer of KEEA, urged the women to strategise to sell their products with high market demand and desist from mismanaging their capital.

She admonished then to stop spending beyond their budget and rather work to grow their businesses.

Mr James Otchere, Programmes Officer of PEYORG, said entrepreneurship was an effective means to becoming a successful person when properly done.

He said entrepreneurship must be driven by passion and be able to identify a societal problem and provide solutions through a product or service.

“Everyone can be an entrepreneur but the passion and determination lead one to become a successful entrepreneur,” he said.