The First Business I Failed At

The Situation

At 24 I had a contact at a large beverage distributor who promised me volume if I could provide trucks. I borrowed from family, bought two second-hand trucks, hired drivers and started moving product between Tema and Kumasi. For eight months it worked. Then the distributor's payment terms drifted from 30 days to 90, while my fuel, drivers and repairs were due weekly.

The Decision

I kept going because I believed the relationship would recover and because stopping felt like admitting failure to my family. I took a second loan, this time from a microfinance institution at a rate I did not properly calculate, to cover the gap. I did not diversify customers because I had no time to find them.

What Happened

A truck broke down badly in month twenty. The customer, by then owing me four months, moved the route to a larger operator. I could not service the second loan. I sold both trucks for less than I owed and spent the following year settling with lenders and a driver who sued for unpaid wages. I was 27.

What I Learned

I had built a company with one customer, one sector, no cash buffer and no exit. Every one of those was visible from the start. The failure was not the truck or the customer; it was that I had confused a contract with a business, and confused persistence with judgement.

What I'd Do Differently

Never let one customer exceed 40% of revenue, even if it means growing slower. Calculate the true cost of any loan before signing, and write the monthly repayment against your worst month, not your average. Set a stop-loss - a date or a number - at which you will close rather than borrow. And tell your family the truth early; they can handle it better than you think.