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Small Business Funding

Everyday People: Why this aspiring engineer paused education to sell okra in the market [Video]

Francis Botwe, once a dedicated engineering student at Accra Technical University, has put his studies on hold to work at Dome Market in Accra, selling okra.

His love for engineering, evident from a young age, shaped both his academic and personal pursuits.

However, an unexpected family challenge has diverted his path for now.

When his sister, his primary financial supporter, fell seriously ill, Francis found himself at a crossroads.

Facing the uncertainty of funding for his education, he decided to defer his course and step into his sister’s role, running the okra business to support her and save up for his return to school once she recovers.

“Growing up, it has been my dream and passion to be an engineer, and I have pursued that to some certain level,” Francis explained. “Right now, I’ll say I have deferred my course because the person supporting me was down, so I need …

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Small Business Funding

New Year's Resolution Bootstrap a Startup with a Paycheck and 1Mby1M [Video]

We are in 2025. Hundreds of thousands of tech businesses have already been built successfully. Let's learn from those who have come before us. Girish Navani started eClinicalWorks, a healthcare IT venture by bootstrapping with a paycheck. Girish scaled to over $500M in revenue. Since 2006, I have spent thousands of hours interviewing successful entrepreneurs. Listening. Asking questions. Understanding. Extrapolating. Learning about their mistakes. Capturing their lessons from the trenches. I encapsulated their anecdotal knowledge into Methodology. I have been running One Million by One Million (1Mby1M) since 2010. Our unwavering mission has been to democratize entrepreneurship education, incubation and acceleration. What is Core Startup Methodology? Bootstrapping. Positioning. Market Sizing. Customer Validation. Customer Acquisition. Financing. Team Building. We have to learn Domain Specific nuances. We call them Electives. Artificial Intelligence. Machine