Growing up in Kumasi like any normal Ghanaian girl, Mrs Mimi Andani Micheals has always said she wanted to be like a Chameleon, changing colours and true to her words, she has succeeded in becoming one as evident in the many phases of her career path.
Over the past decade, she has managed to miraculously and effortlessly transformed her life : She moved from the Big Brother TV reality show, to a musician to a fashion designer and finally an award-winning entrepreneur in Ghana.
Now here’s how it started.
Mrs Andani Michaels had just landed on the Motherland from a long period of studying abroad and was trying to find her feet when her sister hinted her on the auditions for one of the biggest television reality shows in Africa- Big Brother Africa.
She auditioned and represented Ghana on the show which was telecasted live on MNET. She readily admits that the show made her very popular across Africa. With the ever-growing level of popularity she enjoyed after the show, she sought to capitalize on the moment and that was when music came in.
“The music aspect was inspired by Big Brother so after Big Brother, I released a single which was a big hit. I released another one and it was really big and I went on to release an album. I started receiving invites for several events around the continent,” Mrs Andani-Michaels said in an interview with Business World Ghana.
There’s no doubt that she was having a moment as her song did not only become a viral hit in Ghana but also across Africa. Now, amidst this popularity, she felt something was amiss.
“After some time, the real me started coming up, the ambitious person, the person who wants to become a big entrepreneur across the World started coming up and I started pulling back from entertainment,” she said.
“I wanted a certain height that music cannot give me. I can’t dispute the fact that I have a soft spot for music but it can’t take me where I want to be,” she added.
During that transitioning period, she met her husband who was then her boyfriend who inspired her further to take a plunge into entrepreneurship.
“Let’s pay for people to entertain us and not to entertain people, “she recalled her husband once saying to her and that was when she came face to face with her “aha” moment.
Together they set up a branding business with her husband as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while she served as a secretary but later stepped up her ranks to occupy the position of Operations Director of NMJ Ghana: a branding company for organizations that deals in Internal and external branding.
“We make people see your service or product the way you want people to register it in their minds which would eventually drive sales. Most branding for most multinationals are done by us.”
Challenges
But before she got a foot in her current branding business, she had had two unsuccessful ventures: Fashion design business and a night club.
Divalish Fashions had outlets in Namibia and South Africa but collapsed after operating for a while.
Then came the night club she started with her husband called Hangover. After investing a lot of money into it, it came up as another unsuccessful venture.
“So it wasn’t all rosy. We did a lot of things but this was the only one which stood firm.”
In the company’s 6th year, they needed a second force to their business so settled on organizing
Golden Movie Awards Africa- the event side of the company which annually recognizes talented actors and film makers changing the narrative of Africa. This year’s event will take place in Accra while the award’s nomination announcement will be in Abidjan.
She however admitted that the success of the branding business was because she had a supportive husband and learnt from her failures.
“When you try something, you learn from it and try another thing, then you learn from it. By so doing, when you start another venture, all your experiences come to play.”
“This business stood because I have had a lot of failures so I learnt from it. All that I learnt was transferred to this one. Plus I had a partner so everything wasn’t on my head,” she averred.
Currently, NMJ Ghana provides about 50 direct and indirect jobs: 30 external contractors and 20 permanent workers.
Challenges
Echoing challenges that faced the business, she noted that the hurdle has always been on funds and investments because she believes when a business is expanding, there’s the need to pump in a lot of money to expand it.
Sustaining the business is a very big deal, she says and whether you are making profit or loss you need to find ways to keep it going.
As a third force, she started an initiative called the Michaels Family Initiative which takes care of women and children through education and health.
Juggling time
Asked how she juggles all these initiative, she explained that an entrepreneur should always plan, apportion time properly and learn the skills of multitasking.
“If you can’t multitask in your thinking and in your action, then you can’t be an entrepreneur.”
On working relations with employees, she noted, “we work here as colleagues and not as bosses. Until there’s a need to let you know I’m the boss, I’m not bossy.”
Uprooting herself from entertainment to the corporate World, she believes she has achieved what she had always said when she was young.” I am going to be like a chameleon, changing colours in every environment and still fit in.”
Here’s the drift to the chameleon part: she studied Biochemistry and majored in Chemistry, became a reality TV show star, a musician, fashion designer before entering the corporate World.
She is also a speaker and a mentor on two different platforms in Africa and it seems she isn’t stopping now as she habours hopes of writing a book to help multi talented people like herself reinvent and choose the right career part.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng