HOW TO GET YOUR DREAM SCHOLARSHIP
So, you’re probably a university graduate, fresh off or with a few years after graduation. Maybe you are even in your final year. If you are like the average African student, you probably got fed up with the system of education here eons ago. Or maybe you are the patriotic kind, longing to go abroad and return with skills to develop your country.
There are many motivations for wanting to study abroad and frankly it really does not matter what gets your started anyways. The important thing is to know where you are going and how to end the journey successfully. There is a plethora of undergraduate and graduate programs available to people like you waiting to be accessed.
You may belong to a privileged few who already have the means and money to afford studying abroad. Congratulations if you are within that group. You may also, like the vast majority of people, not have the means and want to access scholarship opportunities to enable you pursue your dream program. Below are some useful tips on how to successfully navigate the study abroad landscape and succeed where others have failed.
You need a guide
You cannot do this alone, at least you would suffer needlessly alone. You need someone to give you pointers. It could be your academic supervisor, someone who is abroad, or an expert.
The Business Nuggets’ study abroad blog already simplifies these for you by offering you comprehensive tips, pointers and insights to give you a useful guide in your quest.
Research, Research, Research
A guide does not indemnify you from doing your own work. You need to research a lot. Research continents, countries, cultures, universities, educational pedagogies and programs. And when you are done, research about what more you can research. Utilize search engines, your guide, YouTube videos, universities’ scholarship sites, etc.
Always communicate
A very important thing to do is to always remain in communication with whoever is helping you. Be it your guide or whoever your guide/ research leads you to. It is imperative that you learn how to communicate clearly, boldly and succinctly via email as this would be the primary means of communication.
Get your documents ready
A friend of mine recently acquired a great offer! His long time Professor friend called him up and said, “Frank (name changed), I have a fully sponsored scholarship to study in a prestigious university. There is just a little problem. The offer expires in a week.” Well, Frank still cringes in regret when he remembers the offer two months ago. His documents were not ready. He could only manage to acquire his birth certificate and initiate procedures for the release of his transcript before the opportunity passed him. So, before you even begin finding a guide, here are a few documents to get handy.
- Your birth certificates
- Your passport
- All your school certificate (certified copies should also be on hand)
- Your transcript or detailed results
- Relevant national ID cards
- English proficiency letter
- Draft recommendation letters ready to be edited at short notice.
- Your curriculum vitae (CV)
- Your Covid card
Very importantly, make sure you scan all of these and keep them secure on an online platform, google drive or Drop box is a great option.
Apply indiscriminately
Ever heard of having a backup plan for your backup plan? You probably need to do that and have a plan Z just in case. Due to the competitiveness of the scholarship and study abroad environment, it is imperative you always try different options. You may be eyeing a juicy program at Harvard, but so are millions of young folks all over the world, including those who grew up around Harvard. So, apply to that obscure university in Honolulu. It might be the only one you get. Don’t get me wrong! You aim for the stars but you must learn the position of those fluffy clouds so that you can have a soft landing – just in case.
Don’t be discouraged because you would probably get a lot of bad news. But apply anyways. Obviously, we cannot cover everything you need to know in a few hundred words. Watch this space as we dedicate subsequent write ups to aiding you inch closer to your desired programs.
FIVE BUSINESSES YOU CAN START WITH JUST GH₵ 2,000.00
Ghana is a land of opportunity. After you have finished sneering at such a statement, let us talk about the amazing things you can achieve with a little money, hard work and smartness.
Say you had, I don’t know, GH₵ 2,000.00 and you wanted to engage in a business. What are the businesses you can successfully open with that money?
1. Mobile Money Stand
You see those folks who always dish your money to you? Cash out, cash in? Yes. You can set up a mobile money stand for a decent amount of cash. What you need to do is to get a business certificate then use it to register a sim. Then you need to load GH₵ 2,000.00 on the sim and viola you are good to go. Obviously, the business certificate cost some money and time but you are not going to throw away the GH₵ 2,000.00 in registration but it serves as capital. So officially for this business your cost would be GH₵ 350.00 for the business certificate and the cost of an umbrella, table, chair, paper and pen! You are good to go.
2. Fruit Vending
Ghana is blessed with surplus food especially in our local and peri-urban areas. The situation in our urban areas however leaves much to be desired. When it comes to fresh food like fruits and vegetables, they sell very quickly. All you need to set up a fruit stand is to have a small stall (or the gall to use someone else’s). Then depending on how much you want to start with, you can go to your nearest farming community and purchase assorted fruits. If you are able to package them properly, especially utilizing proper see through take away packaging and mixing the fruits up, you would be able to attract a vast array of customers.
And you don’t need to worry, Ghanaians love fruit!
3. Popcorn Vending
Have you ever been to a movie theatre? A show of any sort or a party? Chances are you have eaten popcorn before. You know what it takes to make popcorn? Well just the right type of corn, some oil (or fat), flavourings and garnishing, sweetener etc. You can get a whole lot of popcorn from just a cup of corn and the profit margins are insane.
A popcorn machine costs under GH₵ 750.00 and all you need to do is pay overheads. Depending on where you set up, either at an occasion or just along the roadside with excellent views, you can make a good deal of money by investing just a little.
4. Small Scale Fashion Retailing
If you are the kind that doesn’t want to always work or does not have the time to dedicate to setting up a business, small scale retailing is for you. All you need is that social media account you use to post unnecessary stories about your private life, a strong marketing sense and some patience. You can link up with people who are into fashion accessories like beads, make up items, clothing, jewellery etc.
Take a nice picture of those products and run an advertisement continuously. Someone would buy something one day. And another and another. Leverage on good reviews to attract even more buyers.
This business does not even need much investment aside bundle and credit as you don’t need to pre-order the goods or keep them physically to sell them. You can order them as soon as your customers request and viola! You are a budding entrepreneur.
5. Rabbit Farming
You can actually set up a small rabbit farm for that amount. Rabbits are cute, nonetheless they taste very sumptuous and studies show that they have more protein to fat ratio than chicken, pork (obviously) and beef. They are also quite easy to manage once you get past their carnivorous tendencies and know how to feed and tend for them. 1 homemade hatch made up of 6 cages can cost around a thousand cedis. You can get 4 females and 1 male at about GH₵ 120 each making GH₵ 600.00. Add a couple of concave asanka feeders and 2 bags of commercial poultry feed at 100 cedis each plus a bit of overhead for water and voila, you just got yourself a business!
Rabbits take around 4 months to grow to a marketable size and once you mate the first set, they can deliver many kittens.
There are countless opportunities available to entrepreneurs whether you want to start small or start big. But with just a little money, you can start a business and take it to a high level. Whether you are a student, a worker or simply unemployed, you can benefit from an extra source of income. What are you waiting for?