Diaspora Matters

On a monthly basis we summarise developments on the forum. This latest edition covers more opportunities in Malawi.

Enjoy

On previous business models we covered the barter trade business model which is taking rural areas by storm.

Borehole drilling in exchange with cattle,

Solar Irrigation systems for cattle,

Collect your cattle fatten them and sell at a premium!

We also covered the entrepreneurship support business model. Everyone wants to make money and if your business is to sell to the final consumer then its not going to be sustainable in the long run.

Make other make money—don’t eat alone. Support entrepreneurship which is the fastest expanding sector in the world. Econet introduced Eco-Agents and boosted business, Musina is popular for supporting entrepreneurs. Seedco, Vet Distributors, Chinese Factory Shops in Jozi etc

Network Marketing also follow the same model and clearly, this model is with us for a very long period of time!

Business Partnership Model

Today we had a Zoom meeting for the steering committee on Borehole Crowdfunding. Members will be interested in getting a borehole set up and after everyone gets a borehole what happens to the machinery and equipment?

The drilling rigs converted to commercial use by shareholders! Now this is better than simply having a borehole drilled on your premises…

How much money have you paid to Nyaradzo? So they never bothered to give you share capital based on your contributions? To say those who contributed for 10 years we are giving you a certain percentage of shares?

So Econet just takes funds from us but never bother to make clients shareholders? Yes of course we know where their shares are traded but for all these years—we have nothing to show for using their systems?

The next funeral assurance company to take the country by storm will craft strategies to make clients shareholders.

So these schools just collect school fees and as soon as your child leaves the school that’s the end of the relationship? The biggest school model will have parents owning a stake in the school…

As financial literacy levels increase in the country, many are now asking tough questions—for how long should we continue to be consumers?

If you want ownership then go to the stock exchange?  People already know of this but will say its not enough—they want more!

So save this post –check how this aligns to your business model, follow trends too in the economy.

The downside of the model is it can be taken advantage of by scammers.

So we initially lived in caves? Then moved to round huts in villages before moving to cities ka?

Men used to go out to hunt with women staying around with kids to help with chores and the family would meet during the evening for dinner and updates of what would have transpired. This was prime time and our focus of discussion.

Whilst everything else has changed over the past centuries—Prime time has not changed much except adding more hours and we will return to this later.

Let’s go back to the rural areas or the Stone Age.

In the evening dinner served, stories of experiences of hunting being discussed, folk stories for kids, men at a Dare discussing strategic issues—no better definition of Prime Time.

Then urbanisation came and the family structure was disturbed with men heading to the cities with families following later.

The Newspaper Era

But these men still needed social life after work, they needed prime time and the newspaper was invented… available in the morning and evening but this was a cheap version of prime time entertainment and many were not impressed.

The original prime time had experiences—face to face discussions. Everyone participated; laughter, jokes, poetry etc.

The Radio Era

To improve on prime time, they introduced the radio. They added a voice to newspapers and for a while this worked but still this was a cheap version of prime time. Where were the faces?

The Television Era

In came televisions providing a better prime time experience—movies, soccer, cartoons, news etc. We were pretty much close to the original prime time but there was one major problem—who developed TV content? Why did someone dictate the content of Prime Time?

Back to Reality: Digital Era

So digital platforms were created (Internet Era) with social media—a blank platform with no content but users filling it up with own content.

Dear Zbinite, whilst the rest of the world was advancing technologically, one thing remained constant –prime time. And we were trying over the years to go back to history using advanced technology! Isn’t this confusing?

We are technically advancing backward? Now that’s an oxymoron ka?

What are the implications on Digital Marketing?

Your adverts should align with prime time experiences;

• Short: Remember social media is all about entertainment and ads disturb entertainment.
• Entertaining: Disturb entertainment with entertainment ads and few will pick out your tricks. Storytelling, jokes, memes etc
• Relevant: What is trending? Align your ads to trending issues.
• User experiences: How does your ad make users feel emotion-wise?

Sorry for lack of space, I will add more on this interesting topic. Sadly most training on Digital Marketing leave out this crucial step and just dive into how o market on digital platforms without explaining the psychology behind—retracing to history and the experiences factor!

About 99% of ads that we see around are aligned to the newspaper era whereas the world has since moved to the Television and further to the internet Era.

If you did not get access to our Digital Marketing Book, then you need to save this somewhere for this is the anchor of Digital Marketing–forget about all the fancy terms you can bump into. If you do not appreciate the psychological perspective then you haven’t started.

Digital Marketing is the best thing that ever happened to entrepreneurs but it needs some key basics.

All the best

We did share what we believe to be arguably the best advice to entrepreneurs this year—business models that are relevant post Covid-19! It’s your task to search for it on our Facebook Page or risk missing the train.

In our latest newsletter, we also shared the barter trade business models playing out in farming and rural areas. Got a borehole installation company and worried about demand? Rural areas are teeming with farmers with a lot of cattle but little cash. Some have moved in to install boreholes and solar irrigation systems in exchange for cattle which they rear, fatten and sell in urban areas.

We are wired to view rural areas as outposts of poverty but is it?

We covered the business model of supporting entrepreneurs and why this is the fastest growing business model across the continent with studies we carried out across the region.

• What is keeping Siyaso Entrepreneurs busy?
• What is keeping Chinese Factory shops in Joburg busy?
• What used to keep Ecocash busy?
• What is keeping Delta busy?
• What is keeping Seedco busy?
• What is keeping Vet Distributors busy?
• What is keeping network marketers busy?
• What is keeping Musina busy?
• What used to keep Roadport busy?
• What kept ZBIN busy across the region?
• What kept Zvihuta farmers busy?

What is keeping the nation busy is entrepreneurship. There are many unemployed and under employed people with some estimates putting unemployment rates at above 90%. The Covid-19 is adding more numbers each day. The small business sector becomes the biggest in the country with over 10 million people.  The question becomes-how do you structure your business model so that you help support this sector and also boost your business? Selling products directly to the end consumer? Not good enough, include entrepreneurs to make money too and share the proceeds.

Selling luxury cars? Not ideal at the moment—sell money making cars!

We go on to another dimension of entrepreneurship which is fast money making ventures. Do people have enough patience? We can refer to studies on the attention span which has dropped to 7 seconds. The world is spinning at a faster rate and patience is wearing thin.

Which ventures have been trending over the past few years?

Chicken rearing , Miracle monies, Money changing, Ponzi schemes, Soccer betting, Buying and selling, Gold mining, Network marketing, Second hand car selling, Zvihuta, Mshikashikas,  Sack Potato farming, Online forex trading, Bitcoins , Hybrid Paw paws, Hybrid Rabbits and others.

There are fewer takers for gumtree plantations; investment horizons have plummeted to less than a year and in most cases reduced to weeks or even days. Buy and sell forex and earn money in minutes. Give the pastor money and it’s multiplied in an instant? For this reason, all future opportunities now need to factor less investment periods.

Few are patient enough for projects that span longer than 6 months. Farm maize or buy and sell? Rear cattle or chickens?

Why less patience

After spending a lot of time at school and colleges working extremely hard to obtain degree certificates, many are fast realising that patience does not pay as there are no jobs.

The digital era is making everything fast—all spheres of life from business to religion.

The economic challenges have been with us for far too long and add Covid-19 and the situation could not be any worse.

The loss in value of pensions for many leading them to look to entrepreneurship for salvation.

The rise of those who are unscrupulous who show off their ill-gotten wealth on social media.

One for the road

For policy makers including the donor community; if you are not talking about entrepreneurship, then few will listen. If you are a newspaper editor and your newspaper does not cover opportunities then expect the number of readers and adverts to continue sliding southwards.

If you are a church and you do not cover opportunities then expect to be irrelevant in the not too distant future.

For entrepreneurs, the question is does your business model enable others to make money? If not then expect trouble in the coming months.

Lastly most of the money invested by Zimbabweans is flowing towards entrepreneurship—so follow the money!

From the book: 2019 Revised Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans.

‘You learn different things from your grandparents than you do from your parents, and I had the opportunity to spend my summers from ages 4-16 on my grand parents’ ranch in Texas

My grandfather was a civil servant and a teacher—he worked on space technology and missile defence systems in the 1950 and 60s for the Atomic Energy Commission-and he was self reliant and resourceful. When you are in the middle of nowhere, you don’t pick up a phone and call somebody when something breaks. You fix it yourself. As a kid, I got to see him solve many seemingly unsolvable problems himself, whether he was restoring a broken down Catapiller bulldozer or doing his own veterinary work. He taught me that you can take on hard problems.

When you have a setback, you get up and try again. You can event your way to a better place’

Dear Zbinite, these are the words of the richest man on earth—Jeff Bezos the founder & Chief Executive Officer of Amazon at the Anti Trust Hearing this week!

What do we learn from this? Grand parents play an influential role in inspiring our children. Is this new? Not really as we once covered it on the forum. Our revised 2019 book which is available for free on the forum covered this on Chapter 5 on career guidance.

We said grand parents are in a unique position to know the DNA of the family—what is the family good at? Take for instance your paternal grand mum;

She could have been privileged to see your grand great father and mother observing what they excelled at.

She also saw your grandfather as a youngman observing traits passed on from his father.

She saw your father being born, she raised him and could trace DNA from his father and grand father.

She also saw you being born! And could trace the generational DNA from 3 past generations.

If you are fortunate, she could also have witnessed your own children being born!

Now dear forumite, who is the best person in your family to know all about the family DNA?

This is the best resource person and no career guidance expert can do better than her.

Grand mothers used to test the skills of grandkids by giving them tasks such as rearing chickens, planting certain crops and assessing progress.

This is where the concept of ‘Ane ruwoko rwekurima, ane ruwoko rwekuvhima came from’

Talents were tested from an early stage. They did not wait for you to go to school before identifying your talents.

Now here is the interesting part—every kid has talent and in the past they nurtured it. This is why unemployment was nill before the modern educational system came.

Does the school system identify and nurture talent? To some extent yes as students are placed in different classes such Sciences, Commercials and Arts. But students have pressure to study hard in certain fields with the most promising job prospects.

How do you determine the talent of a student with 8 As at Ordinary level? Is it possible that their natural talent could be in Arts but society pushes them to pursue Sciences?

Apart from the schooling system—how does it identify and support entrepreneurship?

We have to go back to basics and revive what has worked and producing excellent results in the past. Grand parents are the first teachers and the first career guidance experts too.

Maximise the time your children can spend with their grand parents– this is beneficial to their future growth. The summers Jeff Bezos spend with his grand father propelled him to where he is. We are sure that the legacy will continue. He should be spending more time with his grand kids too and imparting more information.

They don’t teach this stuff in school and yet it’s the most important aspect of career guidance or even entrepreneurship. When asked about role models—few mention grand parents and instead focus on strangers they never met. Strangers with no knowledge of your family DNAs.

 You too could be a grand parent or will be one in future, the question is what active role are you undertaking so that future generations will be inspired?

Over the weekend one of the trending stories was the extent of fake academic qualifications in the country. This is regrettable as it tarnishes the reputation of the country. Our educational system is revered across the globe for producing top notch graduates who go on to excel in various fields.

The article published over the weekend lifts the lid on a flourishing industry of fake academic qualifications and our forum also discussed the prevalence of the problem. Indeed fake qualifications are being bought with a lot of unscrupulous people benefitting and getting away with it.

This writer once met someone with the same degree, same class but the man never attended the same institution. He was not part of the graduation ceremony either—so where did he get the qualification from?

The traditional approach of qualification verification included approaching universities which would task the registrar departments with verification in their IT systems but fraudsters are creating academic records by hacking the systems or colluding with the registrar departments. So this approach is no longer good enough as its now also prone to corruption.

One of our forum members shared an experience of an accountant who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe, went through articles and then obtained a suspicious MBA during a period when a local college was suspected of selling MBAs for as much as US$3000.

Wary of the tag of a suspicious MBA degree, he later enrolled for another MBA from Masters Degree in Corporate Governance from another local college. In official audit questionnaires, he would cover up for his earlier MBA by writing that he had acquired it from UZ. A bizarre arrangement of pursuing 2 masters degrees instead of pursuing professional accounting studies.

Those that acquire fraudulent qualifications always have a way out—acquiring more qualifications on top to bury down the fake ones. Some even go up to doctorate level and no one will question someone with a legitimately acquired doctorate whether they faked their undergraduate qualifications!

How to solve the problem

Colleges: Internal controls at registry departments should be strengthened and internal audit departments should play an active role in designing systems that minimise the risks of academic fraud. Are academic results databases safe? Do hard copies of graduation lists tally with what is recorded in the databases? Do external audits cover this area? What are the control procedures for verification of results?

Outsiders: The verification results you obtain from colleges could be fake! In future consider asking graduates names of fellow graduates and lecturers and then verify.  Who are the lecturers who taught you? Who else was in your class?

The period at most risk is when the economy started facing challenges from 2003-present. Some have been known to fake professional qualifications but verification is usually easy especially for international bodies.

The academic fraudsters usually perform well as work with some being star performers but they are usually given away by lack of ethics especially making life tough for those who sweat for their academic credentials–they always feel threatened!

Even in-house, some may avoid applying for posts that require interviews and qualifications verifications and prefer growth by promotion. Human resources experts therefore need to regularly check qualifications even for those that would have been in the system for decades.

With our education in the spot light for the wrong reasons, it’s the duty of every stakeholder to flush out academic fraudsters.

We have added a massive 30,000 new members  over the past 3 months to our Facebook Page and our members now stand at 80,000! We welcome you all to this forum. We are registered as a trust with a board of 10 members and a management team of 40. Our offices located at No 34 Quendon Road, Monavale, Harare.

Purpose of forum: Provide small businesses with a platform for resource sharing, networking access to capital and markets

Access to resources: There are thousands of inspirational posts on our Facebook page, over 700 free articles on our website www.zbinworld.com , active business discussions on our more than 50 Whatsapp groups and we also published 5 books.

Access to capital: We pool resources through Crowdfunding initiatives and to date there are 4 registered companies owned by members.

Access to markets: We allow our members to advertise on Facebook 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Look out for consolidated posts that attract an average of 18,000 views or 600,000 views per month. Our Whatsapp platforms also provide a great platform for access to markets. The bonus is the forum is growing at a rate of 300 new members per day—so bigger market for members.

Networking: Before the Covid-19 lockdown, we had started holding monthly meetings attracting more than 200 members. We hope to tap into Zoom facilities and hold monthly fairs to network members starting from August 2020.

Member Expectations

Active participation on forum posts: Share your entrepreneurial experiences, inspire the next person.

Buy from the forum: Do not just use the forum for dumping ads, support others too and grow the forum. The spirit of support on the forum is extremely high.

No spamming: Posting the same ad over and over on our Whatsapp platform is a NO! Our admins will self quarantine you.

No Ponzi schemes: Post ponzi, phishing links or commit fraud and you are automatically out.

Politics: It is a divisive topic especially in Zimbabwe. Avoid political posts as not everyone shares the same view with  you. If the urge to discuss politics is too strong for you, our ZBIN Social App group is a great platform and in there the members are evenly balanced. Those who support Political Perspective X and those for Y. Whatever you support has an equal number of those who oppose it. Outside the ZBIN Social, its advised to avoid this topic.

Diaspora Friendly: We are diaspora friendly and have a good number of diasporans participating in our programmes. Our board is made up of 50% diasporans and we regularly write posts to keep the diaspora clued up on business developments on the ground.

Subscribed Members: They keep the forum running through yearly subs, they have preferential treatment for ads as well as access to our yearly books. They have a separate forum and  are the first to benefit from forum initiatives.

 So enjoy your stay, be visible, promote your brand, support others too. Keep your prices reasonable and deliver what you promise. The Facebook admin team tries their level best to share as much information as possible and is made up of a Digital Marketer (Darlington Letala), Social Entrepreneur ( Kevin Farai Moyo), Lawyer ( Taffy Dube) and Accountants ( James Foster & Chenjerai Takawira). The Whatsapp platforms have Catherine Shava, Theresa Sithole ably supported by a team of 40 admins.

Zim Business Ideas and Network

One of the common reasons why businesses fail is due to venturing into business ventures without carrying out market surveys. More than 95% of start-ups in the country simply deep dive into projects without scientific evidence of the existence of a market.

In most cases, entrepreneurs base investment decisions based on what is trending.What are other people doing? Ndezvipi zvirikupa mari? Are Covid-19 masks the in thing? Then plunge in without enough information.

So why do entrepreneurs avoid detailed market researches?

Little appreciation of the concept and associated benefits

Generally considered an expensive process

No developed SME Experts industry, so few market researchers available

To those knowledgeable-the process can be time consuming

Lets take you back to a few years—do you still remember the sack potato which once took the country by storm? How many people got burnt?

Market researches should have pointed out the grey area of wild animals and related legal restrictions. Of course pointing this out when many people are venturing and benefiting is a futile exercise.  

In this article, we hope to assist you with conducting market researches on your own but our advice is always for you to get experts advice.

Market Existence: Is there a market for the products or services you intend to bring to the market? Is there a gap sufficient enough for you to invest funds and get a reasonable return? If there is no market, then you better hold on to your resources.

Size of the market: If for instance you have established that there is a market, what is the size of the market? This is where you need scientific evidence rather than guess work. You need a helicopter view of the whole industry. For instance The Herald reports today(24 July 2020) that Zimbabwe has a housing backlog of 1.4 million people and it will take between 15-20 years to clear the backlog. If it is agriculture, then responsible ministries such in charge of agriculture publishes regularly information on market sizes and gaps-Output forecasts and actual figures. The donor community also chips in with estimates. ZIMTRADE helps with foreign markets market researches.

So we have an overview of market sizes on a national level but this is not enough—you need to zero  in on your area of interest. For instance the supply of soap to Ruwa or Norton. How many people live in your area?

What are the changes in the market? Business going online or new suburbs being built? New shops coming up?

Active Market Players Analysis : In your area, who are the active suppliers? In the case of Ruwa, we may find that many people buy soap from local shops—Spar and TM and other tuckshops. Are they meeting the demand? Are customers satisfied with their products—quality, prices and other conveniences. Is there a gap to supply own soap? For instance if a bar of soap is being sold for US$1—can you also manufacture and sell at the same price or even lower?

What are the changes in terms of economic environment? Disposable income changes and preference for lower priced products? Can you tap into online business opportunities? For those used to buy from the CBD, how does the lockdown restrictions affect buying behaviour?

Conducting the research

There are key stakeholders involved in conducting a market research and they are;

The buyers: You need input from the people who will buy your products and this process is no stroll in the park. Your sample size should be big enough for instance if a suburb has 100,000, then reaching out to 10 people is not good enough but a few hundreds can help but this can be an expensive process. Solicit their feedback, what are their pain points in buying existing products? Can they buy your products? Having samples of the products can help. Document information collected.

The suppliers: Who are the key suppliers in your industry? You may obtain crucial information of prices, availability of products and changes in their business. Document information collected.

The competitors: Who are the major competitors in the industry? What are their business models? Are they expanding or contracting? What are the challenges they are facing and how are they dealing with them? What is the level of competition in the industry? Document key insights for decision making.

Regulatory agencies: What are the regulatory forces in the country? For instance price controls? We witnessed the ban of kombis—what were the public statements issued in the run up to the ban? What are the priorities of the government? Is your business legal? What anticipated legal challenges can come your way? Refer to our VUCAH Skills articles.Just like the quail birds, you risk investing into a project that can later one be banned and adversely impacting your operations. Highly unlikely to have an opportunity to interview regulatory agencies so your source of information likely to be search engines and general knowledge.

Boots on the ground approach

Unfortunately you cannot conduct researches without getting your feet on the ground. You need time on the ground observing events or carrying our researches. Structure your research so that you have desktop work as well as on the ground. Engage student interns in cases where you cannot afford to engage market research consultants.

Report Compilation and Review

If you were actively involved in your market research, then you are going to need a different pair of eyes for review. It’s difficult to critique a document you would have been involved in drafting. You need someone who will review the adequacy of your report –the independent eye that picks out grey areas you missed out and provide an objective and balanced assessment.

Launching your product

Often times, start-ups prepare projections that span more than 6 months but is this realistic given the dynamic nature of the environment?

Instead of investing all of your funds based on market research evidence—rather choose to test the market with a few product samples for learning purposes. Investing funds for learning purposes? It’s a tough decision as this means resources usage but its important rather than proceeding full throttle. Read more about the lean method.

On a parting shot, this information is just elementary stuff but gives you an overview of how to carry out your own market research. This is an area largely ignored by many start-ups! Even those who can afford to engage experts choose not to but with disastrous consequences!

Do watch out for examples of market researches for our subscribed members.

One of the trending news is that of the smuggling of bodies from South Africa with most of them suspected to be of victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. The clearance of the bodies of Zimbabweans who die in South Africa is unnecessarily cumbersome. The processes required do not take into account that some citizens would have skipped the border without proper documentation and this affects thousands of people dotted across the Rainbow Nation.

Immigration officials take advantage of the situation and demand thousands of dollars to process papers or even turn a blind eye to body smuggling.

Whilst this has worked in the past without serious health repercussions recorded, the Covid-19 pandemic is a totally different period. Smuggling of bodies risks the health of immigration officials, authorities that check vehicles and the drivers.

With some of the bodies sharing space with groceries—there is even more risk for those receiving the goods being imported from South Africa. Most recipients will be oblivious to the condition of the transportation of the goods.

As South Africa heads for the peak of the novel pandemic, it’s inevitable that our daughters and sons of the soil will be affected. Even as SA records statistics of infections and deaths, they should inform respective governments of the victims where feasible so that repatriation can be facilitated in an efficient and effective manner.

How is the South African government dealing with foreigners succumbing to the pandemic? They should have easily available guidance of who to contact and the sort of assistance they can provide.

How is Zimbabwe also handling the issue of citizens succumbing to the Covid-19 pandemic on foreign soil especially South Africa? How is the country dealing with bodies properly processed and cleared and those smuggled?

The Covid -19 task forces in both countries should engage each other especially at government level as this has the potential of posing serious health risks for a lot of direct and third parties. Our borders risk becoming epicentres of the Covid-19.

Why is repatriation expensive? Why is the repatriation process information not easily available to the public? How can our responsible governments come in and solve the bottlenecks?

Business opportunities information is hard to come by as noone is willing to reveal their secrets of how they are making money! The information is a closely guarded treasure and for good reason. However inorder to help inspire many entrepreneurs, our forum has focused on researching and giving you the scarce opportunities information. It is no easy feat as it involves a lot of hard work in researches and analysis of opportunities. Sometime it involves even undertaking tours to regional countries and then compiling opportunities uncovered.

Consider yourself fortunate to bump into our short book that covers 5 chapters. The full book has 11 chapters but the 5 free chapters will go a long way into giving you an insight into opportunities in the country. Our site has a lot of visitors from other countries too and we believe some of the information covered applies to your countries too.