A change of direction inspires health business in Ghana

Without entrepreneurship training, Charity Selorm struggled to develop her business. HP LIFE training gave her the confidence she needed to change direction.

Lotus Flower Laboratory provides core health assessments, including tests for blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels, to help clients identify health risks. It also provides the information they need to lead a healthier lifestyle. “Good health is so important, but we hardly pay any attention to it,” Charity explains. “A sedentary lifestyle can result in ill health and time off work. We are trying to combat this by showing our clients, who are typically busy professionals, where their health is now, and what they can do to improve it.”

Like lots of new small business owners, Charity faced some challenges. “Of course, it’s critical for the future success of any business that it doesn’t run at a loss,” she said. “But because I’d never had any entrepreneurship training, I was struggling with the basics. I didn’t know how to price my services properly, who my target market was or what to do to ensure the business would grow.”

This meant Charity was wasting time and resources marketing to people who were not her key customers and making pricing decisions that were adversely affecting the business’s future growth prospects.

HP LIFE helped Charity tackle these challenges.  The program is funded by the HP Foundation and provides people all over the world with access to 32 free online courses in seven languages which help them build key business competencies.

“I learnt so many new skills through HP LIFE,” she said. “Like how to use the business model canvas tool (BMC) to develop and refine a business idea, how to determine the break-even point of my business, how to price my services properly, and how to identify my target market.”

As a result, Charity realized her original business idea was not going to work. Using her new skills, she began working on an idea for a profitable, socially impactful business and Lotus Flower Laboratory was born. “HP LIFE gave me the tools I needed to build a strong, business with good long-term growth prospects,” she said.

Three years later, Charity’s business is thriving.  She has five employees and is investing in new equipment so she can extend the services she offers and scale up her business.