One of our greatest contributions to Zimbabwe is championing the introductions of cruise ship jobs back in 2021. At the time there was solid rock resistance to the initiative. Even veteran members of the forum were not convinced that one could easily land a job in USA without much hussles.

Everything looked like a scam. If it is too good, then it obviously is a scam. His is the first rule of scams—and we perfectly passed the first test. And the more desperate we became in appealing to our members to participate—the more dubious the scheme became.

Lessons for business strategists—If it is too good, it will face strong resistance. If the price is zero—market dynamics could confuse you as demand could remain flat.

So 2026 here we are and millions of Zimbabweans now know about what we started—and thousands of Zimbabweans have benefited. So the trending topic is what sort of businesses can seafarers do when back home on vacation?

Here is our advice

1. Skills Enhancement: Learn new languages—French, Portuguese, Mandarin and others. This could help you in career development. In addition enrol for advanced courses in your career. Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Client Experience and more.
2. Learn Trades: The Polytechnic and other colleges have courses on trades. Look for courses of interest and learn. This could even help you in career development in additional to personal growth.
3. Entrepreneurship Workshops: Scan the environment for workshops on entrepreneurship and learn from experts.
4. Venturing into Business: Read as many books as possible and this also include being part of many business forums. You may want to start and complete a project such as poultry, fashion design, and others. Don’t expect huge profits but focus on  skills and experience acquired—which you could use in future.

So vacation is time for your to relax, recalibrate and also find something to do. Travel to new areas, volunteer to help. Even visit former schools and present your experiences on cruise ships. You could improve your public speaking skills or any area you have weaknesses on.

Meanwhile have you read all of our books? They are full of business ideas and including the content shared in this post. You could also join our Premium Chat and learn from others.

Joining ZBIN is only $10 per year and we have a hundreds of seafarers on the forum,

We also share a testimonial from one of our members below.

Hi Ntate how are you? I wanted to ask if I could come with a testimonial. I work for Carnival and have been home on leave.

So during this downtime have been trying to find something to do so that I can grow and have a secondary income. We had a data analytics session some weeks back and Dr Mugomo helped shape out the idea I had to use Data for customer service analytics and audits. I wanted to reach out so he can know that I took his lesson and started a consulting firm for that with some of my colleagues.

I wanted to thank him for the insight and push because that session helped me see that I was sitting on a gold mine that I could tap into. Thank you so much for providing this platform and I look forward to bringing more testimonials from all that I am learning.

Did you know that this site hosts 20,000 visitors every month? We would like to thank you for your time going through hundreds of posts dating back to 2016. We urge you to visit our Facebook Group with 150,000 unique viewers and also subscribe to our Whatsapp Forums where there are 20,000 active members. Today we feature the leader of our Elders Forum, Mrs Masocha. She has a beautiful guest house where we have hosted events in the past.

A family owned business founded by serial entrepreneurs, W & P Masocha in 1988, then a young couple in our twenties.

We started with a Bottle Store and Takeaway at Marlborough Civic Centre Shopping Complex, in 1988.

We sold the Bottle Store and Takeaway in 1991 and started a Canopy Manufacturing Company called Headway Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd in Willowvale Industrial Area.

In 1994 we opened another Business. Executive Hair Salon in Union Avenue.

In 1998 we added another Venture Ashley’s Garden Nursery and Landscaping. We were contracted by Old Mutual to Landscape Westgate Shopping Centre, Highglen Shopping Complex and 3 other Industrial premises in Willowvale.

We sold the Hair Salon to raise funds to Build the Headway Industrial Complex in Willowvale in 2004

We were forced to close down Headway Canopy Manufacturing Business in 2017 due to the very difficult economic hardships and corruption.

In 2018 we subdivided the Headway Industrial Complex into 7 Lettable Units or Bays currently being rented our to successful SMEs . Website: www.headwayenterprises.co.zw;

In 2019 we opened Ashley’s Guest House, a Hospitality Business, which is still currently operational. Our website: www.ashleysguesthouse.com

We have a very successful backyard vegetables gardening venture, where we grow covo, lettuce, spinach and shallots. We wholesale to big retail shops in the Western and Northern Suburbs. We also grow boiler chickens for sale to our community and to Makoronyera.

Our strength: Mentoring young and upcoming entrepreneurs on resilience and never to give up on their dreams.

Our weakness: We are getting old, although we have enlisted all our four children as beneficiaries and Directors of our family Business, they have successfully established themselves abroad and we are currently enticing our last born son to relocate to Harare and be the New Face of our Businesses.