The Chief Executive Officer of Eat by Noor, Rashidatu Alhassan, has asserted that the road cannot always be smooth for business owners.

She indicated that challenges are necessary to balance things out. However, the rewards must overcome the challenges in order to be successful.

“I feel both are required to have a balanced business. If you’re only rewarded you would feel there may be something wrong but no one is telling. But if you’re always facing challenges then there’s obviously something wrong with the business. It’s 50/50 but the rewarding part should outweigh the challenges,” she said in an interview on Joy Prime's Prime Morning Show.

Also, she disclosed that it was the reminiscence of her childhood’s familiar flavors that made her want to start her business.

Travelling from the Northern regional capital, Tamale, to Accra, She stated that it was an incredible hassle to find those delicious and nutritious foods. This motivated her to go into the food sector by preparing Northern-based raw foods and other Ghanaian delicacies.

“The whole thing started with the passion for northern flavors. Growing up in Tamale you would be surrounded by traditional northern flavors like the wassawassa, the tubani, gobley. We have so many and they inspired me to want to start a business as an adult.”

It also became challenging for her to purchase one of the northern meals "Wasawasa" in Accra since she it was not part of the products she sells and could not find them in market places. She decided to add the business to the already-existing ones.

“Because it is an indigenous food to the northern people, it is not easy to acquire it in Accra. So anytime I was craving it my parents had to bring me some when they come and visit, but they couldn’t visit often, then it occurred to me. Why not start up a wassawassa business to bring it to myself and the people like me in Accra who also want some and my friend introduced me to a lady who sold it in its dry form.”

She explained that although she was not sure whether people from other regions and nationalities would like it, she was ecstatic that they loved it and gave positive reviews.

“We’ve been expanding and we have delivered in almost all of Africa as well as Europe, UK, America and some parts of Asia. We also have people from other regions in Ghana who have tried it and they were very pleased with it taste wise.”

She said that having started from scratch it was not easy, especially when she was alone. She had to endure the challenges of making everything on her own but as of a few months ago, she had gotten help and business is flourishing beyond her expectations.

Coulibaly Marie-Lyvia