I used my hostel fees to start my business – Pizzaman CEO claims

The Chief executive officer of Pizzaman Mr. Christian Boakye has revealed that he started his business with the fees for his hostel while he was still a student at KNUST.

Speaking in an interview on The Day Show on TV3, the young entrepreneur recounted how he ventured into the pizza business and some challenges he encountered.

The astute businessman is reported to have said

Raising capital was one, and then getting the right people to work with. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and you feel like quitting; you get tired of combining the work with academics. I was still in school, in my final year, when I started. “… not just hostel fees; any other money available that I could chance on.

I risked it… I wouldn’t advise it because it wasn’t pleasant… in January 2018, when I started, I had some money on me because I had gone to school fresh.

It got to a point things got locked up, so during National Service time, I had to take money for the hostel and use that money to secure a place around campus and then some small small pocket monies I had on me, including my roommate, Ebenezer, we just combined whatever we had and then got some oven. I mean, it was so rough.

He also discussed how some people thought his ambition was the devil trying to get him to stop him from bagging his first degree.

At a point, one of my lecturers had to pray for me. He was our patron when I was a department president. He knew how academically good I was, and he was quite surprised. “He was like, what is wrong with Chris? Is it a spiritual attack? He was wondering because I’m the front seater in class, but then after class, I’m done – that’s it… to him, he felt I was under attack or I was losing focus. Well, yeah, I was losing focus on my academics, but I was making money, and it was addictive

I feel whatever it is you want to do, if you want to do it, you won’t find excuses. Just manage your time well. There were times that I had to skip class and cook and my mates – my classmates, bought into the idea. They were like, Chris, you are too good academically. Why don’t you just do your master’s and then probably get a job outside, like how our seniors have been doing? Why are you risking so much?”