Ayisha’s beads impacting young lives

Then it slowly developed into a full time job that is not only earning Ayisha Fuseini Abdallah a living, but is also impacting on young lives.

Her beads work for both men and women, but they are more popular with female customers.

“I actually never thought of going into beads making. My business started as a hobby and slowly developed into what it is now. I realised I was passionate about what I was doing so it was easier and enjoyable as a job,” She told Pulse.com.gh.

Ayisha ordinarily makes the beads alone. But on days she gets many orders, she employs young people in her Abavana-Down community to assist her. Through that, she teach them what they need to know about making beads.

“At the moment, some of them are making a living out of the few things I taught them,” she said.

“The little they learn encourages them to also create their business at quite a young age,” she said.

“Others try to learn more in order to improve themselves.”

Most of the people Ayisha has trained are teenagers. And they come on board when she has many orders she can’t handle alone.

She also receives request from adults of her age who wants her to teach them beads making.

Prior to making beads, Ayisha did wall frames, graphic designing and picture making right after secondary school. She made some money out of it but it failed later on.

Asked why it failed, she paused, and in calm voice reflected “maybe it could have been better if I did a lot of Christianity stuff.”

The frames were motivational quotes.

“I used to hang them in front of my mother’s shop. And if I can remember, it was just one person who purchased it. I had to give the rest out,” she said.

While her first business collapsed because of lack of sales, her current business is competitive as many people are making beads.

“The bead business has been occupied by many of us and that makes some form of competition on who gets the clients to purchase her own.”

The challenge “is about making sales.”

The concept of doing something on her own started right after secondary school where she started with the wall frames, graphic designs and picture making.

Born in 1989, Ayisha holds High National Diploma in marketing from Accra Polytechnic. She is the first born of her mother and the third of her father.

She believes trust is everything, especially in her kind of business.

“Our line of business is often based on word of mouth,” she said. “Most loyal clientele stay no matter the season because they know what is being offered to them.”

Her business has touched many young lives, giving most of them meaningful hands-on training to make a living.

Today, some of her trainees are following her footsteps from the little they learnt from her.