“To make a lot of money, you must solve people’s problems” goes a certain entrepreneurial saying. A latest post on this website about “The Virtual Zimbabwe” Inspired me to write this post about the real Zimbabwe, highlighting the problems and possible entrepreneurial solutions. Well in Entrepreneurship and or businesses, the word problem or opportunity are used interchangeably, implying that problems are a “pool” of idle opportunities. It only takes one’s mind to see possibilities where others see empty spaces and also to take action in utilising the opportunities whilst others muse, relax and wait for the so called “the good” time when the Zimbabwean economy is flourishing. Here are some problems that represent untapped business opportunities.
1.Hunger
Although Zimbabwe was once Africa’s bread basket, it has for the past two decades been facing prolonged dry spells. `There are some areas/ regions that were giving better yields although the farmers have to be more capital and labour intensive. The opportunity for this problem is straight to the window: Grow as much as you can in areas where there are better yields such as Mash Central, then after that, your markets are ready in areas of dry spell such as parts of Manicaland and Masvingo provinces.
2.Load shedding
The unplanned switching on and off of electricity has become a normal issue in the present day Zimbabwe, although the frequency of power cuts is declining. Simply put, to make a lot of money in this energy industry, invest in alternate sources of energy. These include solar energy, paraffin, liquid petroleum (LP Gas) and even charcoal or firewood.
3.Higher fees at schools
Many pupils are dropping out of school due to high fees being demanded. An ideal to ride on this opportunity is simply providing a learning facility at a very affordable fee. Think of those who are conducting extra lessons at their homes or having a private college or a crèche. If you want to go an extra mile, then make use of technology and have an online class or have the assignments uploaded online.
4.Health problems
There are so many patients that a doctor has look for if you visit public clinics. It is sad that patients are dying in queues before being attended to. More sadly, to those attended, you are just given a prescription without the medication or the pills to cure the disease. Entrepreneurs, how about opening a private clinic or a pharmacy that sells the prescribed medicines from the clinics. It is a project that is much viable and worth taking.
- Cash crises
This has become almost everyone’s problem, whether employed or not. Having cash at hand seems to be everyone’s dream. With the rising of the sun marking a brand new day, everyone things of how he/she can have cash at hand. So if you are business minded, look for avenues where you can get the much needed hard cash and “sell” it. Many mobile financial services agents are giving cash after you give them a certain interest, usually 10% i.e a $1 on every $10.
There we are. Go on and give it a try, take the problems around and turn them into opportunities.
**be reminded, in business you have to take risks, if you win you will be happy and if you lose, you will be wise** {maxmakumucha@gmail.com}
