Business owner Gifty Serbeh-Dunn employs Ghanaian women
Four lessons from this socially conscious entrepreneur
As consumers, we have the choice every day to make more socially conscious purchases. Like 95 per cent of Canadians, I’m making more of an effort to support Canadian businesses with a mission to give back.
Through my work at RBC and in the community, I have noticed many immigrants to Canada are actively engaged in creating and starting a business with socially responsible roots in the community.
For example, I recently learned about RBC client Gifty Serbeh-Dunn. Born and raised in Ghana, Serbeh-Dunn came to Canada as a student in the early 1980s where she fell in love and married a Canadian. When her husband’s work took them to Africa, she had the chance to reconnect with her roots. On these trips she would often take care packages of goods that she thought would be useful to women in her home country.
But, after many visits, an elder in her village confided that they didn’t really want her care packages. What they wanted was work — a way to earn a sustainable living. Serbeh-Dunn was floored by the request — how could she possibly employ these women? She wasn’t a businessperson and she lived half a world away.
Giving back to women from her homeland of Ghana
This conversation stayed with her. She had longed to give back to the women in Ghana and knew that, particularly for widows, providing an income source is the most important way to help them. One idea that stood out to Serbeh-Dunn was shea butter. A popular balm used for many generations in Africa, it was gaining popularity in North America. She bought a few thousand kilos of shea butter made by widows in a remote community and brought it to Canada. Her next step: create a market.
Serbeh-Dunn created Shea Butter Markets in 2005. Fast forward to today, she employs more than 200 widows in Ghana, her product line is sold in health food stores across Canada, and the business has now grown to sell directly through Alibaba.
Lessons on succeeding with a socially conscious business
Below are four key lessons Serbeh-Dunn has shared with us on succeeding as a socially conscious business:
- Never forget your mission. All entrepreneurs know that there are peaks and valleys in business ownership. When times were tough, Serbeh-Dunn says she would pause and remind herself of exactly why she was doing this. Quitting meant letting down dozens of women who needed the income — this was more than enough to motivate her to take on the next challenge.
- Understand business fundamentals. While her socially conscious vision drives her every day, Serbeh-Dunn also knows that running a good business is what will make he succeed. Fundamentals like getting her distribution in order and having proper invoicing in place means she can focus on growing the business.
- Diversify your product. During a slower point in her business, Serbeh-Dunn decided that she could open a new segment by wholesaling the shea butter directly to other distributors. Expanding to this new wholesale segment has helped her business grow tremendously.
- Look for ways to create and grow the community. For Serbeh-Dunn, employing widows is her driving mission. When women in the community have become unable to continue the work (making shea butter is very labour intensive), she has paid for and facilitated small business training, helping them to create new sustainable businesses for themselves.