The Story of KFC

Image source: tinyurl.com/yakjrkma

Founder’s Beginnings

KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders. At the tender age of 5, he lost his father, therefore, his mother had to take a job at a food processing factory. Because his mother had to leave home for work, this left Harland with no other choice but to care for his two other siblings. During this period, Harland learned how to cook and was reportedly skilled with vegetables and bread but was still improving with meat. During his early life, he took various jobs from being a blacksmith, an insurance salesman to running gas stations.

Early Stages of KFC

During Harland’s stint managing a shell service station, he started serving chicken along with other meals to customers who would drive through. Later, he opened a motel with a restaurant in it but it caught fire just three months later. Later though he had his motel reconstructed. Along the line, Harland was frustrated that his customers had to wait 30 minutes for their chicken to fry so he later devised a strategy where he could use a pressure cooker to drastically reduce the cooking time to about 8 minutes. He later termed it as “his secret recipe”. He would later move from restaurant to restaurant trying to convince the owners to buy into his chicken franchise which he would charge $0.04 per chicken sold. During the period of pitching his “secret recipe” to potential franchisees, Harland had to live in his car and survive by begging friends for food.

Growth and Subsequent Sale

The company grew very fast and later came to overwhelm Colonel Sanders so he sold it for $ 2 million in 1964. Currently, KFC operates in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide.

Three Strategies on How to Make Poultry Farming More Attractive For the Youth

©Shutterstock Fresh and raw chicken eggs on a conveyor belt, being moved to the packing house

Ask any university student what they would like to do when they graduate. Many of them will tell you they want to be lawyers, accountants or teachers but rarely do you hear any of them saying they want to be poultry farmers. In the developed world, when someone tells you he is a farmer, you immediately assume that individual is rich but when you come to Ghana, many people erroneously assume that farmers are poor because they have a narrow view of what farming is. With that being said, I would like to touch on four strategies which can make poultry farming more attractive for the youth in Ghana.

  1. Invitation of highly successful poultry farmers to serve as a source of inspiration: The agricultural departments of colleges and universities should make it a point to invite highly successful poultry farmers to give speeches on their journey and how they overcame adversities to become the poultry farmers they are today. This way more young people will see agriculture, specifically poultry farming in a more positive light.
  2. More internship opportunities should be made available for students: Universities in the country should make it a point to partner with the most successful and technologically advanced poultry farms out there so that occasionally, their students would be sent there to work and appreciate the poultry industry better.
  3. There should be more education on the economic benefits of poultry farming: Well, this is very obvious. Poultry farming is a super lucrative business and if it is hyped up a little bit more, I’m pretty sure more of the youth would consider it as a viable career choice. If you are a young person and you want to know the opportunities available for you in the poultry industry, please read this post – https://tinyurl.com/y8c6guxo.

Conclusion

If we want to push the Ghanaian poultry industry to the next level, it is highly imperative that we fully integrate the youth in the process because they are very innovative and this has the potential to impact thousands in the country in terms of food security and job creation.

You Don’t Need to Travel Overseas for Greener Pastures, Here are Three Massive Opportunities Provided by the Poultry Industry

© Shutterstock Rural farmers from Machakos county, Kenya

In hindsight it may seem that there are too many obstacles in Ghana and other developing which hinder the youth, especially the highly educated ones from being successful, therefore, the obvious thing that comes into mind is to flee to a better country but what most people forget is those countries became “better” because people solved the very same problems that are currently existing in developing countries. And what happens when you solve big problems? You get big cash. So instead of fleeing your country because there are too many problems, try fixing those problems and make yourself rich in the process.  By now, you may be asking, “Where are the problems and how can I solve them?” There are not too many platforms out there to solve many of our pressing problems which are better than poultry farming. Below are some opportunities that the poultry industry can present to the youth in Ghana.

  1. Start a poultry farm: You remember the days when we used to eat chicken only during Christmas? Now things have changed. Currently, Ghana is among the fastest developing countries in Africa if not the world, therefore, this has resulted in more and more people being able to afford protein in their diet. Because chicken and eggs are a cheaper than other protein sources such as fish, starting a poultry farm means you are helping to provide potentially thousands of people every year with a cheap source of good nutrition which was previously only available to the rich and middle classes. Follow this link, https://tinyurl.com/ydz8kt26 for more information on how to start a poultry farm.
  2. Start a poultry consultancy business: If you read point number 1, you may by now understand the need for more young men and women to venture into poultry farming. Unfortunately, poultry farming is not particularly an easy skill to master, therefore, new farmers are prone to making mistakes which can sometimes be catastrophic. This, however, has presented an opportunity for skilled individuals to serve as consultants to offer advice to poultry farmers and help them with certain management practices such as brooding. But remember, before you set out to be a consultant, you need some expertise in the field and you can either do that by taking a one-year internship or working a job at a poultry farm for at least one year. After you’ve learnt the valuable skills, start a blog and open a Facebook page. I’m not saying this is going to be easy or you are going to be an overnight success but the more valuable things you post on your pages free of charge the more likely you will be able to attract a customer who would pay for your services.
  3. Help connect poultry farmers to customers: Another cheap way being part of the poultry value chain is to serve as a middleman. Even though there is enough demand for poultry products in Ghana, chances are you will still find a farmer who is struggling to find buyers for her products – this is where you come in. The best part is we are in the digital revolution so instead of walking from supermarket to supermarket or from restaurant to restaurant to find customers for your farmer clients, all you need to do is create a Facebook page where you can list all the items you sell then when a customer orders for one, you quickly go to the farmer, take the product and deliver it to the customer. That my friend is a simple way to connect poultry farmers to potential customers which could make you a lot of cash if you do it properly.

Conclusion

I’m not against travel or migration but what I want to point out is if your sole purpose of leaving Ghana is because life is tough, I assure you that poultry farming can be the key to your prosperity. Remember, trying to travel outside the country may cost you over GH₵ 20,000 but it is absolutely free to open a Facebook page so be smart and take advantage of opportunities presented to you.

Three Mistakes Poultry Farmers Make Because They Lack Financial Education

Photo by Berend de Kort from Pexels

From what I have noticed, farmers in Ghana, for the most part, take their work seriously. They ensure they give their birds the recommended feed and administer the prescribed vaccines but one thing I realize is farmers forget the main reason why they started in the business in the first place (i.e. to make money). This is why most poultry farmers will never be rich even though it is a well-known fact that poultry farming is a highly lucrative business. Whenever you log in to Facebook or Twitter, you always hear of gurus who advertise books on poultry farming or organize 10-day training sessions for farmers  (yes this is all good) but what they fail to teach you is how to manage your farm financially (the most important aspect of the business).  Below, I discuss some mistakes many farmers make because they don’t make financial literacy a priority.

  1. They fail to prepare a business plan: I’m not saying it is compulsory to pay us GH₵ 1,000 (even though we are giving you a 50% discount) for us to prepare a professional business plan for you.  All you need is a simple written document to put down your operational and financial goals so that it serves as a valuable guide to tracking the progress of your business but surprisingly, most farmers take this for granted and hence do not make any significant financial progress. Follow this link https://tinyurl.com/y8at8hox if you want to learn more about the importance of business planning.
  2. They Fail to Keep Financial Records: Most farmers in Ghana especially find it unimportant to keep accurate financial records and with devastating effect. I’m sure you’ve met a farmer who has been in the industry for years but still isn’t making any significant financial progress. When financial records aren’t tracked, it would be difficult to know whether your business is progressing or not hence may cause you to stick with an unproductive project when otherwise it would have served you better if you changed course.
  3. They are reckless when it comes to debt: Usually, farmers in Ghana don’t have a documented business plan or any accurate financial record of their business so naturally, they are frozen out credit facilities offered by established banks at reasonable interest rates, therefore, they (the farmers) are exposed to unscrupulous lenders since they desperately need funding to run operations.

Conclusion

The actual practicality of the poultry farming is very important but it (poultry farming) is called a business because they farmer intends to make a profit, therefore, the importance of financial education cannot be overemphasized.

Three Things That Influence Customers’ Purchasing Decisions

A lot of farmers assume that to be profitable and compete efficiently, there is the need to always have your prices lower than that of the competition. Sure, this can be an effective strategy if you are into egg production because you are basically competing with farmers in your area (i.e. if you are living in Ghana) but if you are into broiler production, you are competing against large players from the USA, Brazil and EU so it would be almost impossible for you as a farmer to compete on price with them since they have the economics of scale as an advantage hence they can produce more of the birds at a larger scale making their products cheaper. Below are some three factors consumers consider apart from price.

  1. Appearance: You will be surprised about how effective packaging influences people’s buying decision. According to tinyurl.com/y9zva54j, about 70% of consumer purchasing decisions are made at the shelf, therefore, beautifully packaging your products differentiates you from your competition and hence enables you to sell your products at a premium.
  2. Taste: Appearance is most important when it comes to consumer purchasing decisions but after they purchase your product and find out that the taste is very substandard, you would realize they wouldn’t come back to purchase anything from you. In poultry production, how you store and handle your products affects the final taste. For example, if you are into chicken processing and you don’t adhere to the necessary hygienic measures, you risk exposing the carcass to bacteria which would not only pose a health threat to the consumer but also compromise the taste.
  3. Convenience: We are living in a fast-paced world, therefore people need to get things done very quickly, and therefore, it is best to package your products in such a way that relieves your customer’s burden. Again, I will use a chicken processing example; customers may not necessarily have the time to cut the chicken into its various parts so as a prudent marketing strategy you would want to package the chicken into various parts such as thighs, breast or wings. Take the pains off your customers and they would reward you with cash.

Conclusion

Before you complain that there is no market for your products, try to fine-tune your marketing strategy and make sure you put all the necessary measures in place to improve upon the appearance, taste and convenience of your products.

Four Reasons Why Poultry Farming Is So Lucrative

You’ve probably heard many times by now that poultry farming is a very profitable business. But the question many people fail to ask is why poultry farming can provide a profit margin in the range of 20 to 30 per cent every month. Failure to understand the reasons why poultry farming provides farmers with such impressive financial gains will cause you to blindly jump into the business and cause yourself a financial catastrophe. Below are the four reasons why poultry farming is so lucrative.

  1. There is a super demand for poultry products: As the economy of Ghana and many other developing continues to expand, more people can now afford protein in their diets and poultry products such as meat and eggs serves as a cheap and reliable source. In a previous post, https://tinyurl.com/y89qqxut we explained that consumption of poultry products over the past decade has surpassed 5% in developing countries so this obviously explains the recent spike in demand and hence increasing sales volume for farmers.
  2. It is capital intensive: I know you are thinking, “How can a business be lucrative if it is very capital intensive? Aren’t costs supposed to go down so that profits can move up?” You see, because of the high input of capital needed to purchase land, structures, feed, etc, only a few can enter the industry and hence the market is not overly saturated so this means a massive payday for those who manage to stick around while doing the right things.
  3. It requires some serious managerial skills: Even though you don’t need to have a PhD in animal science to succeed in poultry farming, you need to know how to manage employees, take biosafety measures seriously and also have some knowledge about financial management. Fortunately, not many people have these abilities so the very few who are lucky enough to master these skills get to succeed and make a lot of money.
  4.  It requires insane hard work: This point is somehow related to point three but listen up, there are some notable differences. When starting as a poultry farmer you usually don’t have millions of Ghana cedis so you may not be able to afford to hire more employees or upgrade to the latest automatic systems; you may have to do things manually like feeding the birds, collecting eggs, etc until your farm is financially stable enough. This creates a natural barrier of entry since the majority of people don’t have this kind of discipline and work ethic.

Conclusion

There are reasons why poultry farming is a very lucrative business so you need to sit down, make self-analysis and see if you really have what it takes to start and succeed at poultry farming.

Is Envy a Bad Thing?

Oxford dictionaries define envy is defined as a desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable thing belonging to (someone else). You remember when we were kids, our parents taught us to be content with what we had and not to focus too much on what others had that we didn’t. For instance, when we see our rich neighbour’s son with the latest Gameboy console we kind of wish that piece of tech belonged to us and that in itself is some form of envy. The problem is envy is not in itself inherently good or bad it is only a tool. For example, when you see your neighbour driving a very nice car, what would be your reaction? The reactions are two: either you downplay your neighbour’s success and claim he achieved it through blood money or you will rather be fueled by envy to work harder so that you one day overtake that neighbour of yours.

Conclusion

Envy is a normal human emotion but always remember to use it to improve your situation rather than use it to pull people down to your level.

How to Start a Poultry Farm Without Risking a Financial Meltdown

Sure, starting any business let alone poultry farming requires you to take some risks but is it really necessary to gamble your financial security in the hope of succeeding at poultry farming? The answer is no. Please follow me as I describe some simple strategies through which you can start a poultry farm without risking going bankrupt.

  1. Sort out your finances: You definitely cannot succeed in poultry farming if you lack the fundamental principle, financial discipline. This means you have to perfect the art of financial disciple i.e. living below your means – don’t spend more than or equal to what you earn every month. Trust me, if you cannot manage the little monthly paycheck you get from your job, how do you think you can manage a business as financially complex as a poultry farm.
  2. Learn how to save money: I know, it is not very easy to save money but what we have learnt from this COVID-19 pandemic is that jobs could be lost at any moment and one way to protect yourself from such emergencies is to have a savings cushion. So let’s assume you make GH₵ 1,000 per month, your goal should be to save GH₵ 300 per month until you have 6 months worth of expenses saved up. That means if you save GH₵ 300 per month, you are going to have GH₵ 4200 saved up in 14 months.
  3. Start investing in your poultry farm: After you have saved up six months of your expenses stop saving money because saving money at this point is losing since inflation reduces the value of our currency every year but rather you can start investing in your poultry farm. At this point, you are not afraid of taking the risk because you are assured of solid six-month protection in case things go wrong.

Conclusion

There are many people out there who would have loved to start their poultry farms but are scared of destroying their financial well-being in an attempt to run a poultry farm. Things don’t need to be that way since you can carefully prepare a savings cushion to save you from any financial disaster so that you can freely pursue your dreams.

Four Signs You’ll Fail as a Poultry Farmer

Poultry farming is one of the most profitable businesses out there but unfortunately, not everyone is destined to succeed in this industry. Below are some four traits which if you have, drastically reduces your chances at being successful.

  1. You don’t like reading or learning: I know some university graduates, who upon completion haven’t taken a single book to read – for them they only find reading necessary when they have an exam to write. Do you know what reading and learning can do for you? It opens your mind to new possibilities and new ways of doing things. For example, when a new technology or farming technique comes up, it is usually those who read a lot and are current, who get to identify these opportunities and adopt them while the more intellectually lazy ones usually get stuck doing things the traditional way hence seeing little to no progress.
  2. You are horrible at math: You do not need to understand calculus or plane geometry to succeed in poultry farming but what you need to know is basic math i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentages. You only get to measure the true progress of your farm if you know these simple calculations. So let me ask you if you don’t know these simple stuff, how are you going to improve? You’re surely going to be stuck at one place with mediocre results. It is also worthwhile to note that feeding, vaccination and administering of some drugs require some calculation. Please, follow this link, https://tinyurl.com/y97c3b3j for more information on how to evaluate your farm’s finances.
  3. You want to get rich quick: Hello, guys. My name is Baba PKOM and I have magical powers; I can make you a millionaire in just one week if you share this post. Hahaha, I was just kidding. Maybe you heard that you can make a 30% profit margin per month on poultry farming so you blindly jump on the bandwagon and order 200 day-old layer chicks. Reality sets in and you realize you are going to spend an insane amount of money over 4 months without getting any return so you quit, sell off your birds for dirt-cheap and move on to the next flashy business out there. Always remember that poultry farming is never a quick way to get rich but rather, a sustainable long term source of wealth.
  4. You want to do everything on your own: Some people are so obsessed about saving costs in the short term that they seriously jeopardize the fortunes of their business in the long run. For example, in an attempt to save money, you decide to prepare your own feed and by so doing, you expose the carbohydrate component, usually maize, to moisture thereby fostering the growth of Aspergillus niger which produce deadly aflatoxins. Congratulations, you killed your entire flock. For more on this, I recommend you read this post, https://tinyurl.com/yb7uw538.

Conclusion

It is my prayer that the person reading this post doesn’t have any of these characteristics but even if you do, try to change some of your habits because only then would you have a genuine shot at success in poultry farming.

Four Sure Steps to Succeed as a Poultry Farmer

There is one question on the lips of every poultry farmer, “How can I succeed?” For your poultry farm to count as a successful one, it should be able to provide you and your family with a decent standard of living and achieving this is well within your reach. Below, I discuss four key strategies which should guarantee success.

  1. Be humble: Socrates once said and I quote, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” As you start your poultry farming journey, be willing to learn and don’t assume you can figure everything out on your own: read books, take an internship or training course and listen carefully to the advice given by a consultant or mentor.
  2. Start small: I know you intend to be one of the best farmers in your country and I’m sure you have dreams of owning and running a big farm with about 20 full-time employees. Sure it is great to have lofty dreams but do you have the necessary financial capacity and experience to handle such a big farm on your first start? The answer will probably be no. Take your time – don’t compare your level 1 stage to someone else’s level 100 because even the greatest had to start from somewhere. In https://tinyurl.com/yb6gfzde I delve deeper into the topic of dreaming big but starting small.
  3. Build a track record: Who would you rather trust your money with, someone who has managed to turn GH₵ 2000 into GH₵ 10,000 in only 5 years or someone who has very little experience but asks you for GH₵ 50,000 to start a poultry farm? Obviously, you are going to trust the one with the track record of turning small amounts of cash into a fortune. Furthermore, the surest way to build a track record is to start small and slowly build your way up. Follow the link, https://tinyurl.com/y8doqvxn if you need more insights on how to raise capital.
  4. Conquer the world: After passing through the first three stages, you now have the network and capital to expand your poultry farm to greatness. Here is the stage where you appear in covers of magazines and newspapers because you finally get the recognition of building a valuable company and contributing to the overall progress of your local economy. At this point, you probably rear hundreds of thousands of birds and employ over 50 full-time workers.

Conclusion

Your dream of becoming a highly successful poultry farmer is highly achievable if only you take the right steps and never look back. Go out there and make a positive change to your local community and nation as a whole.