The power of small beginnings; the story of Emi-Beth Quantson of Kawa Moka

What will push a high-powered Chartered Accountant working for a prestigious international auditing firm like Price-WaterhouseCoopers to quit her job to start a coffee shop, selling one cup of coffee a day, some plates of food for as little as 100 cedis sales a day.

“We started so small. We were selling on average a cup of coffee a day with total sales of 100 cedis, fifty percent of which was to family and friends”, Emi-Beth recounts.

Starting small in business may just be the most practical way to get a business idea off the ground, especially in the face of inadequate supply of capital for startups. Unfortunately, not only are people impatient to start small, it doesn’t feel like the true representation of the big dreams they have for their businesses.

Emi-Beth Aku Quantson is one of the few entrepreneurs setting a good example for Ghanaian entrepreneurs on the power of starting small, acting now and thinking big.

She started the business that would later become Kawa Moka, as her final year entrepreneurship project in the Ashesi University.

“Starting the business was very random, actually. There was a gazebo in a beautiful garden in the then Labone campus of Ashesi. I saw a great opportunity to turn it into a nice place on campus where the population could come in for cool refreshments, snooker, and generally a nice place to chill out.”

That space became the Lounge, Kawa Moka’s forbearer. However, Ashesi would move to their ultra-modern campus in Berekuso and Emi-Beth could not run the Lounge for much longer, so she put her Accounting and Finance degrees to work.

“There was a nice place I used to go for Coffee when I was working for PricewaterHouseCoopers in Kenya. The coffee was great, the business was inspiring, and the environment soothing. That reminded me of the Lounge and my dream for Kawa Moka.”

Ordinarily, Emi-Beth needed an ultra-modern coffee machine worth about GHC30,000, a space in Accra’s most prime locations, the best décor and the biggest marketing budgets befitting of the size of her idea and the impact she wanted to make.

“My fellowship with the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program Award, helped me a lot. The program challenged me to start my business with the little I had. It may never happen if you wait for all the resources you need to start. A lot of the time we focus on what we don’t have and forget the things we do have, like passion to see the business grow.”

Instead of waiting for the $150,000 she needed, Emi-Beth took an opportunity presented by the Hub Accra, now the beautiful Impact Hub in Osu Ako-Adjei, who had approached her to be their Chief Financial Officer.

“ Before that, I shared my dream to start Kawa Moka with them, and they volunteered to make me start at the hub. Customers at the Hub are going to need food and coffee anyway, the space was beautiful, there were already tables and chairs, and it was located in a prime location in Accra. That was a perfect opportunity.”

Kawa Moka has been growing at high speed since. They have moved from a small coffee maker to a relatively bigger one, diversified their products from coffee to some of the best fruit cocktails I have tasted.

The business has moved from a capitalist venture to a social enterprise providing employment to socio-economically disadvantaged women including young girls transitioning from Senior High School to tertiary education.

Emi-Beth has won a couple of entrepreneurship awards including Startup Cup Ghana, not because of the size of her business but her entrepreneurial spirit and the potential of representing where Ghanaian entrepreneurship should be headed.

“The future is bright for Kawa Moka, we are looking to expand to other locations. We are also looking to train our women to be managers of these locations. This will ensure that their lot improve just as the business improves.”

To young entrepreneurs, Emi-Beth’s advice is not to wait for a million dollars before they start their business. You must endeavour to start with as little as you have, but dream and think big. With the right scale-up strategies you will be as big as you dreamt from the beginning.

“ Truth is, if you are given one million dollars from the beginning, you will blow it in no time. Think big, start small and act now! That is the secret.”