Diaspora Matters

I have travelled several times along the Harare-Bindura Highway and never bothered to enter the Mazowe Boating Club as I knew it as a private club for the white community -mostly farmers.

But last month I stopped to buy fish and noticed high traffic at the area-inquired about entry fees and was told its free for all provided you pay.

So on Christmas Day took my family there and got an insight into the Northern Suburbs Gateway

Activities
1)Boating: Great place for kids with a couple of boats for hire and some vana vevhu towing their boats to the dam…great spectacle.
2) Picnic Area: Bring your braai stand and mind own business-own car music and enjoy
3) Kids Entertainment Zone:Jumping castles, swings, see saw…awesome stuff

Witnessed more than 3000 folks who thronged the place creating a carnival atmosphere. All the inside parking space was filled up and some cars had to park along the highway for more than a kilometre…had never seen anything like this at this place!

Entry is USD5,00 or RTGS equivalent for adults and USD3,00 for kids. It took us 30 minutes to get inside. There are 2 venues…the ordinary and the VIP section…I opted for the ordinary section where most people were creating a Ghetto feel of entertainment..

Very clean bathrooms with Mazowe Hotel providing bar services…bring own drinks or they will charge you twice the average retail prices.

However the drinks ran out..they were ill prepared for the large influx of entertainment seekers.

Small business opportunities:

1) If you had cooler boxes of drinks for sell…chances are high you would have run out of stock and ordered replenishments-not once or twice but thrice!
2) Mr Ice cream? Where were you?
3) Photographers where were you? Drone pilots?

Big business opportunities:
1) Opposite the dam-the area is under developed providing opportunities for expansion, conference centres, casinos, motels etc
2) Did show you marvellous pub restaurants in Beira with ship like designs….bring the concept here and we will have the best pub near Harare. The management of the place need to take a 590km journey from Harare to Beira and check out Club Oceana. Although we left at 6:00pm, most of the folks we left there seemed as if they were probably leaving very late in the evening!
3) Proper beach: There is need for a proper sand beach and swimming pools. They can charge for these extra services and there is ample space for this. Shops selling swimwear have potential too
4) With kids having fun, fathers fishing, what can mothers do? Dont be surprised when hair salons crop up!

To those who have been to resort areas, compare and contrast what you have experienced vs Mazowe Dam…the dam has massive potential.

The risk is in future it may be too small but may help spawn new opportunities in the area.

Unlike Lake Chivero, the water is not heavily polluted.

Its located 50km from Harare and less than 35km for those in the Northern Suburbs. The road is good shape and I also witnessed a Vaya Shuttle Bus. Ndikati iya ko Hararians vange varonga izvi nguvai futi lol

So good guys, Hararians never disappoint, they create plans, they open up new areas.

With the current state of the economy, only a tiny few can afford the luxury of travelling far from the city for holidays. In comes Mazowe Dam and you need to go there to believe it..

Look at its current state and opportunities and then its future potential when the economy picks up and traffic increases 20-30 fold.

Opportunity identification skills are crucial for entrepreneurs as they form part of the stepping stones for starting an entrepreneurial journey. This is an area many struggle with unless one has been exposed to market research experiences-it is further compounded by the  absence of well defined and easily accessible resources on opportunity identification. The starting point in opportunity identification is the mindset ‘is the glass half full or half empty?’ Some simply experience a light bulb moment and others use industry experience to spot opportunities before others do.

The characteristics of people who identify opportunities show that they are generally individuals with optimistic outlooks, inquisitive, commercial curiosity, enjoy questioning assumptions, embrace change, conscious about local environment, have a problem solving mindset, are innovative and enjoy researching. We can also take a leaf from Sir Richard Branson who has a mantra that runs through the DNA of Virgin companies- A-B-C-D. (Always Be Connecting the Dots).

We will explore some of the approaches you can use to identify opportunities;

Problem solving mind-set

The following are the top 10 risks out of the 20 released by the World Economic Forum;

1. Unemployment or underemployment
2. Fiscal crises
3. Failure of national governance
4. Energy price shock
5. Profound social instability
6. Failure of financial mechanism or institution
7. Failure of critical infrastructure
8. Cyber attacks
9. Interstate conflict and
10. Terrorist attacks

The above tie in to factors driving and shaping the future of the world such as technology and innovation, regulation and governance, global economy, trade and investment, natural resources and sustainability, human capital, and consumer expectations.

Zimbabweans can resonate with some of the risks above already playing out in our country.  We are psychologically predisposed to view risks negatively and as such miss most often miss out on opportunities. It’s important to wear risk lenses in order to adequately prepare for risk mitigation but the second question should always be what sort of opportunities lay beyond the risks. Are you willing to take calculated risks and progress through discomfort to get to the finish line? For instance who has moved in to benefit from the 2019 drought season? The answer lies in companies supplying products and services such as irrigation systems, drought resistant crops, solar products and more.

National Budget Analysis

The national budget can be considered a ‘document of opportunities’ for entrepreneurs in any country as it points to the key priorities for the government and the direction it will be allocating resources. Where and how will the nation be spending its resources?

For entrepreneurs, they first look at the big picture of macro-economic analysis and outlook and then secondly place the budget under the microscope and zero in on the expenditure line items. Are there new infrastructure projects coming up in 2020? Construction and engineering companies follow the money and prepare for future tenders. In a stable economy, the salaries bill for civil servants attracts companies offering hire purchase facilities. The donor community usually chips in to plug the gaps in the budget by coming up with own strategies and budgets to complement government’s efforts-entrepreneurs also follow their budget line items. Keep the 2020 National budget and analyse it with ‘’opportunity lenses’

Technological Opportunities

The future is already here with The Fourth Industrial Revolution being topical. The Fourth Industrialisation is a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. It is paving the way for transformative changes in the way we live and radically disrupting almost every business sector.

Africa unfortunately continues to lag behind in terms of technological advancement and this result in the continent being a recipient and consumer of technology. The huge gap between the developed world and Africa is pregnant with opportunities. Early adopters and implementers have a head-start on exploiting opportunities in this sector. Zimbabweans need not look any further when it comes to tech opportunities as this is the sector that produced our first billionaire-Dr Strive Masiyiwa!

 Spending Pattern Review

Zimbabwe is going through challenging political and economic times characterised by skyrocketing prices, high cost of living and hyper inflation. This has prompted many to change their life styles and adapt to the difficult environment. New spending patterns do show the majority focusing on ‘Maslow Hierarchy of Needs’ such as food, accommodation, transport, education and health. Some entrepreneurs simply follow the money and target opportunities on what many are spending money on at a particular point in time.

 Exports and Imports Opportunities

Another approach to look at opportunities in Zimbabwe is to analyse exports and imports and setting up businesses targeting these sectors. Zimbabwe is the 132nd largest export economy in the world according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). Zimbabwe’s main exports are tobacco and nickel, diamonds, platinum, ferrochrome, and gold. Zimbabwe main export partners are: South Africa, China, Congo and Botswana. Top fastest-growing exports include cotton, mineral fuels including oil led by coal coke or semi-coke and peat lignite.

Our main imports are motor vehicles and machinery, fertilizers, fuel and foodstuffs with main import partners being South Africa and China. The fastest growing imports include vehicles, miscellaneous chemical goods and plastics. Opportunities abound for new entrants in exports in producing goods or services or bringing disruptive forces. The same applies to imports particularly in the import support sector.

Changes Opportunities

According to Peter Drucker- ‘an entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. He viewed change as a vehicle for opportunities whether the change is good news such as unexpected success (good news) or an unexpected failure (bad news). Change in government, demographics, industry, products or government policies all present opportunities for those who can see the gaps and exploit them. Zimbabwe has experienced a record number of new statutory instruments in 2019 with some of them introducing new opportunities. The latest statutory instrument SI 2135 of 2019 which bans the installation of electric geysers on new properties has attracted the attention of companies supplying solar geysers!

Country or Geographical Areas Comparisons

Each country or region has got its own unique ecosystem of opportunities and this depends to a great extent on level of economic development. There are 3 broad stages of economic development starting with the resource based stage, investment driven stage being second and lastly the innovation driven stage. The higher the stage a country is, the easier it is to explore opportunities from countries or regions in the lower ranks.

For Zimbabweans in the diaspora some of the business models they are exposed to can be implemented back home. A lot of benchmarking can be employed in comparing countries or regions and plugging identified gaps.

Value Chain Analysis

Developed by Michael E. Porter, a value chain is a business model that describes the full range of activities needed to create a product or service. For companies that produce goods, a value chain comprises the steps that involve bringing a product from conception to distribution, and everything in between—such as procuring raw materials, manufacturing functions, and marketing activities

It involves various components from inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and service. When viewed from an entrepreneur’s point of view-the value chain provides an over view of opportunities for an individual’s company products and services or the entire market.

In conclusion, there are various ways of identifying opportunities and knowing them helps entrepreneurs to move in when others are fleeing. Opportunity identification is a mindset and what you focus on in your mind and heart is exactly what you will see and experience in the world outside. However be wary of the valley of death that lies between business opportunity identification and a successful business launch – as most business ideas perish before reaching the market place.

The year 2019 has been very eventful particularly on the financial and economics side of things. We have seen the introduction of new statutory instruments in the financial sector, cash shortages, ban on forex trade and now we await the introduction of a new currency whose name remains top secret. These have made running any business a nightmare. Farmers have not been spared and one may even argue that they have been the hardest hit. The biggest challenge comes when one has a sizeable number of employees as is the case on most large commercial farmsas most prefer payment in cash. We all know that cash is hard to come by in Zimbabwe unless you are buying it at a premium on the black market which often tips the farm budget into the red. Farmers have devised a number of ways to try and keep farm operations on track and production at optimum. In this article we shall be looking at some of the way’s farmers are using to cope.

Incentive 0.1 Cash payments

Most rural folk and farm workers to be precise insist on receiving their salaries in hard cash. With the current cash shortage in Zimbabwe it is not sustainable to commit to paying your workforce in cash. The best thing to do is to state from day one that payment will be through electronic means such as eco-cash or bank transfer only. Salaries should be paid every fortnight or once a month and not daily this eliminates casual labourers who are not consistent. I know probably you are thinking I have tried that, and no one turned up, well let’s tackle that in the next section

Incentives 1 (Groceries)

Some farmers have taken advantage of the shortage in basic commodities and have started to give their regular workforce food hampers which often comprises of mealie meal, cooking oil and a bar of soap. This is given on top of their normal wages. One needs to be very careful not to over run the wage billi.e stay within the wage bill budget. Research has shown that the farmer will save up to 1.5% of their normal wage bill if they incentivise this way.

Incentive 2 (Feeds)

Feeding your workers is another good strategy, you can grow your own maize, use it to make maize meal and feed your workers every day, grow vegetables or allocate a certain portion of the vegetables to feed your workers. We all know how hard it is out there for everyone and most of the times people will appreciate a free meal. Again, I will emphasize on keeping it within the budget limits.

Incentive 3 (Crop rejects)

On most farms often there is a certain percentage of reject crop yield which can not be sold. This reject crop can be sold at a very cheap price to recover something from it or simply given to the workers at the end of the shift. However, one needs to be very careful as pilferage tends to be very high when this is done. Reject crop will need to be checked if indeed it is reject grade. Reject crop needs to be weighed to check if the stated weight matches.

Incentive 4 (Work targets)

This is one of my favourites, it needs someone who is good with numbers, Lets use an example. If a worker is paid $5.30 / labour day for picking peppers and the target weight being 30 kg/ labour day which translates to $0.17/kg picked. You can then incentivise this by saying every extra kg picked after picking 30kg of good quality crop (bad quality does not add to days target) the worker is paid $0.30 per kg instead of the $0.17 rate. This will improve the quality of the crop being picked and more work is done within the prescribed time frame.

Incentive 5 (Bonus)

Most farms face this problem whereby casual workers do not pitch up for work when required which often has a huge impact on the job at hand and ultimately profit. One way is to offer a small bonus to those workers who continually come to work when required. This method has worked tremendously on most commercial farms in and around Zimbabwe.

 Incentive 6 (Accommodation)

Very few farms can accommodate all its workers on site and hence most farmers resort to ferrying labour from other places. This usually helps if local labour is not cooperating in terms of cash payments or for any other reason. As time progresses it is worthwhile to provide decent accommodation for your permanent workers on the farm.

Incentive 7 (Timely salary payments)

Pay your labour on time, as promised, if system of payment is going to be changed notify your workers on time. If you can have a proper wage bill management system,the better. I know most are thinking, do I need to have payslips since I only have 10 workers? the answer is yes , not only are you being professional with your 10 workers but you will find that by the time your workforce increases to 50 you will already be having a system in place. Most will runaway from having a paper trails as they avoid paying tax and NSSA but that’s a topic for another day

Article by

Emmanuel D.N Dube (ZIBN Agronomy correspondent)

Emmanuel is a qualified Agronomist with more than a decade’s experience working in the agricultural industry and development sector. You can contact him on edndsep@gmail.com

The year is slowly moving to the end and we are just 2 months shy from 2020. What a difficult year characterised by a tough economic environment for Zimbabweans. There have been too many swings in the economy and we hope 2020 will be more stable.

What has been taking place on the forum lately?

1) Beira Tour: Great tour and an eye opener. We are compiling a video of our findings and it will become the first official video of business opportunities in Beira

2) App Development: This is groundbreaking! We will soon have a mobile app for the forum that helps to connect all of our forums and be available at a click of a button. The biggest buzz on the forum which will result in a bigger market for our members. We officially will become the first business forum in the country to have members connected to a  mobile app.

3) Malawi Tour: On the 3^rd of November, a few members will head to Lilongwe for a business tour in the Warm Heart of Africa.

4) Public Lecture: We carried out a public lecture on entrepreneurship at Bindura University of Science and Education. Well received by staff and students. We have a follow up to create a group of college students and incorporate it to our forums.

5) Bootcamp for Young Entrepreneurs: We host a training workshop for school and college leavers in December. A new initiative for entrepreneurs equipping college leavers with the 4^th Industrialisation skills.

6) Crowdfunding initiatives: Apart from our mobile app, this is the most successful project of the year where we are pooling resources for farming operations. We have already formed a company and identified land for operations.

7) Two books: Our first book unfortunately leaked with an estimated half a million copies circulated. Bad news of the leak but shows our book became the most pirated book on social media last year. We have another one-better one coming out by end of year. We have also entered the South African market with our debut coming again at the end of the year.

8) End of year party: Do not miss out on our end of year party to be held in December. A great opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs. We held a mid year party in August which saw a lot of our members participating. We are expecting more than 150 members to attend including some based in the diaspora.

In terms of numbers, we are doing exceptionally well with 47,000 members on our Zimbabwe platforms and 67,000 on our South African platforms. The SA platforms attracting and incredible 1000 new members every week.

Our Zim Facebook platform doing extremely well with almost half a million views of posts on a monthly basis. It has become the key portal for small businesses in Zimbabwe and the launch of our mobile app means better connection and sharing of resources.

Do not miss out on our new Whatsapp groups on Financial Literacy and Young Entrepreneurs where we have added more than a thousand members.

For forum inquiries, do contact our administrator on +263774081808.

Little is known about Beira by Zimbabweans and yet the city is located less than 600km from Harare-more like the distance between Harare and Beitbridge.

So our forum hit the road last week with the following objectives;

1) Assess opportunities for our members
2) Create material for our next book and tv channel

Business model : Crowdfunding (pooling resources or the tour)

Results
As you enter the Forbes Border post, you are greeted by a long winding queue of long distance trucks…hundreds of them! What are they doing? Transporting goods between Zim & Moz.

The Road:

Mozambique should get an award for the road of the century👏🏽👏🏽. The road so good that its literally an airport runway stretching for 283km. For most parts, the road is straight making driving an enjoyable experience!

So much has been said about the Chinese and yes most of it not so good but this stretch of the road redeems the image of Chinese👏🏽👏🏽👌🏾.

State of development:
Chimoio: Technically a Zimbo city in Mozambique….fast developing, well organized. City taken over by South Africans who are building shopping malls competing with the Chinese. You find Barclays Bank (Yes still operational) FNB bank, BancABC etc. A lot of farming done by our former white farmers. Our diaspora investing too with some of our members having acquired farms in the region.

Other urban areas
Haphazard settlements and it gets worse the further you move away from the border, even the soil types-typical poor Mozambique as shown by media.

Beautiful Beira:
A mixed bag of poor roads & infrastructure. Most areas experiencing inner city decay and situation exercabated by the recent cyclone which blew off roofs.

However there are some nice areas, modern buildings and a lot of new areas.

Opportunities:
1.Tourism: We found that tourism not taken seriously but has a lot of potential. Some nice beach front areas and yet few tourism support industries.
2) Export clearance opportunities: Most of imports are in containers unlike Durban…so no abnormal loads like Durban. There are repackaging, warehousing & support opportunities. Zim Cooking oil comes in tankers from India…Malawi too. Fertiliser imports come in bulk & packaged there before onward transportation. Transport business overcrowded.
3) Salt: If you can figure out how to completely dry salt being processed from sea water…then great potential for export to Malawi. The salt sold there is not completely dry but good enough.
4) Mabhero: This is a tricky area where few people make it. Wholesale prices of mabhero (Shoes from USD65) Clothes from USD 130 depending on quality. The bales are sealed and the question is why🤷🏾‍♂
5) Zimbabwean Shopping Malls: The Chinese have own shopping malls, Ivato etc South Africans too…Zimbabwe Nothing! We need our own Zimbabwean centres for pushing our products! We found isolated cases of Dairiboard products…condensed milk etc Mazowe Drinks & Cerevita. Food for thought especially for diasporans. Plenty of land…lets mark our territory after all, the cidade was built for facilitating Zim imports & exports.
6) Farming: Poor and swampy soils in Beira but still room for commercial rice farming, cattle ranging etc. We witnessed small scale fish farming done by foreigners. More opportunities in agro industries if you can process fish and other sea food
7) We also identified an interesting opportunity where we will conduct a market survey and test the product in shortage in Mozambique & Zimbabwe. Funny enough they import when they have the key inputs. 8) Ice cream & freezits _ more room for enterprising Zimbabweans to introduce these products. Find out ways of distribution and kabum….Business generated! Its hot and humid but no physical presence of cool drinks in the city or beach front!
9) High consumption of potatoes and the good news? We are taking advantage of it. Chickens coming from Chimoio by ex Zimbabwean white farmers👌🏾
10 ) Stone Cladding: Most of the buildings have poor paintwork due to salty sea water. Solution? Stone cladding, stone cladding (Google search it) Had my home fixed with stone cladding…awesome stuff. Someone please whisper into the ears of House of Stone in Bluffhill that vanofa nemari pa Moz…shopping malls, hotels, churches, schools and private homes!

There are plenty more opportunities…cheap mbudzi cellphones going for USD4,00…resold in Harare for USD10,00.

Zimbabwe Community:
If Zimbabweans come together in Beira…they will benefit immensely! Need for Zim education, Zimbabwe products & more manje muZimbo kubatana nevamwe is difficult.

Logistics:
Everyday a Triptrans bus leaves Harare at 11:am arriving in Cidade De Beira @ 8:00pm. Bus fare=USD 30 equivalent.
If using own vehicle…it costs USD35 to get insurances at the border.

Police: One infamous roadblock after Chimoio…they will ask for documentos and if all inorder, they ask for an international driving licence and you have to negotiate. Make sure all passengers have buckled up or more fines will come your way.
Parking at the beach: Check for prohibited zones close to the beach…some of the signposts difficult to see.
Car break inns: In town avoid leaving your vehicle unattended, thieves can pounce on it even lights or mirrors!
Language: Learn some basics but you can still find your way using Shona & English.
No fuel problems, functioning atms, no electricity black outs.
Malaria: Get tablets, mosquito repellants etc The mosquitoes pierce your skin even when wearing jeans lol Sort them with repellents!

Hospitality:
We only saw one small car from Zimbabwe for the 3 days…Zimbos dont travel that much to this side despite close proximity.

Mozambicans go to vote this morning and political parties were holding last campaign rallies on Saturday.

We bumped into an after party of Frelimo supporters and as soon as they realised we were Zimbabweans they welcomed us and we managed to get a lot of contacts…patichada minda hazvichanetse😄…some top officials hanzi huyai huyai muri hama dzedu kkk

We even got Frelimo regalia…hats, tshirts and more! Of course our forum is non political but the regalia helped us avoid trouble with police on the road on our way back….clever lol

Danced to Passada, Kizomba & Zouk. They know our music too and can sing along to our hit songs. Mr Bow is the ladies favourite…we only realised it was 4:00am before leaving the after party. They were disappointed to learn Sunday was our last day before heading back home!

We will compile a documentary of our tour covering videos, photos, interviews and more and will share.

No meaningful material exists on the internet about Beira, absolutely nothing on business opportunities but where no information exists, our forum creates it!

Lets not let boundaries stop us from exploring opportunities. Dont allow language too…we are ONE PEOPLE with Mozambicans and they generally like Zimbabweans.

Kudos to our team, Gerald Kumansala, Fadzai Katandika & Mr Chidziva in Beira. More tours in future and its enjoyable when done in groups. Of course you can also go on your own.

Our forum was at Bindura University of Science Education for a public lecture titled ‘Adding Entrepreneurship Value to your college acquired skills’ 2 weeks ago. We feature below the presentation for download.

We would like to thank the college authorities and the students who attended. We hope you will make follow ups on the action points.

Africa always lag behind when it comes to technological advancements. Just ask yourself what is the latest technology development from the continent that has shaped the world and adopted across the world?

Most of the new technologies are developed in the west and Africa comes last in adoption. Why does Africa come last? Slow economic development and a small viable market. In Africa foreign investors get a good return on investment when they invest in North Africa, West Africa (Nigeria), East Africa ( Kenya) and Southern Africa (RSA).

There has never been a case where new technology was first introduced on the continent on countries with small populations such as Mauritania, Djibout, Swaziland, Botswana or Namibia.

In Sub Sahara it all starts with Nigeria because of its huge population, Kenya due to its strategic location and lastly South Africa. He rest of the continent follows suit.

For tech opportunities, its therefore important to follow latest developments in the west and implementation schedule for the rest of our continent.

What is important is the developed world has gone digital and there is a fight to win technological wars. China is emerging as a force to reckon with and now competing with western powers in the area of 5G.

What opportunities exist for SADC Citizens?

South Africa is sending experts in various fields to India where the buzz word is Fourth Industrialisation. Everyone is talking about 4IR, radios, televisions, newspapers and even billboards.

SADC like in the past, there is little discussions around the area and once more,we will play the catch up game!

The 4IR Value Chain

Artificial Intelligence

Block chain system integration

Internet of things

Cyber security

Cloud computing

Additive manufacturing

Augmented Reality

Big data

In all of the key components listed above, there plenty of opportunities with a lot to be discovered…no one knows them yet but trigger systems or devices will come like the smart phone which opened new doors for a lot of opportunities.

Whoever imagined that there were going to be almost free phone calls? How about rural areas being connected to the internet and social media? Whoever imagined that traditional banks would take a hit from mobile money platforms?

Did you dismiss crypto currencies when they hit our shores? They are going nowhere-here to stay and eventually replace central banks. Impact of social media on newspapers? The music industry? A lot of disruptions are on the way and in Hongkong they have licenced their first virtual bank. Who will own the first virtual bank in South Africa?

Who will open the first drone services company in Malawi? Who will provide Big Data services and support in Lesotho? Who will open an Augmented Reality theme park in Zimbabwe? Who is providing cyber security services in Namibia?

A lot of new industries are going to come up and a lot of others folding as well. The UBER and Taxify business models are creating tonnes of opportunities in South Africa. New thousands of jobs created and early adopters enjoying their time in the sunshine…disaster waiting for traditional taxi industries.

The shock collapse of a top British firm Thomas Cook sent shivers down the spine of many across the globe…there is more coming! Disruptors are targeting every field or sector-agriculture, mining, transport, tourism, financial services, education, government systems etc

4IR Skills

Many are of the view that computer coding will be a key skill and a lot of parents are enrolling their kids for the courses. However a leading professor from a South African University challenged this. In fact the key skills needed do not necessarily depend on coding but cover the following;

• Complex problem solving.
• Critical thinking.
• Creativity.
• People management.
• Coordinating with others.
• Emotional intelligence.
• Judgement and decision making.
• Service orientation.

So here is your checklist

Are you following tech developments across the globe?

Are you continuously developing your skills and aligning them with the tech future?

Do you ever discuss 4IR with friends, colleagues or your network?

At your company or in your business, do you have a 4IR compliant strategy?  

We are a prolific producer of small business material. Our members are always discussing various business issues affecting them. From Agric, Mining, Digital Marketing, Poultry, Financial Literacy, Young Entrepreneurs, Dog Breeding, Moz Opportunities to Hybrid Paw Paws…we are a rich forum of business ideas exchange. Every hour, discussions are going on helping to inspire our members. At any given time more than 50 views are on our website checking out material posted. Total number of views of our website posts totalling more than 600.000.

In addition to more than 30 active Whatsapp groups, our FB posts attract up to 100.000 views per month.

Our next move:

Converting our stories or material into short videos. An efficient way of assisting our members. No need to go through lengthy posts or discussions. You just watch a 3 minute summary of key points and you are covered. An initiative from our Young Entrepreneurs Groups…..the youngsters got energy plus a lot of innovation.

Expect a Youtube Channel with tonnes of our videos. We are going to start very slow and by end of next year, we will have followed our website model.

Benefits for our members:

Promoting your businesses beyond the forum. Member features and discussions helping you to reach out to thousands of others across the globe.

Access to funding: Do you have viable small projects in need of scale up and funding? If your story is not known….then it’s tough to attract funding. But if many see your successful small poultry project…they see the chickens, chicken runs, the professional way you do your business-then your funding needs are solved.

Access to markets: Some time back we trained a lady from Marondera, the lady produces great hand made bags…extremely talented but no skills in marketing. The platform will enable people like her to reach out to a lot of clients locally and abroad.

A lot of opportunities for the forum members with this new initiative. Lets see how this pans out.

In 2013 a group of online entrepreneurs came together and asked themselves the following questions;

1. If you want to access information on business opportunities in Zimbabwe, were can you get it?
2. If you want to access resources on marketing or access to markets, where can you go?
3. If you want to access resources on capital or access to capital, who can assist?
4. If you want to partner in business with others, which forums can you join?
5. If you are in the Diaspora and interested in business back home, which forum can you join?

We had difficulty in getting answers to the above and decided to set up this forum. Looked at various business Facebook pages and realised the only business was adverts. Dump adverts and more adverts and disappear.

Our model

We set up a Facebook page and started sharing free business information

In order to create a strong community, we also set up various Whatsapp platforms linked to Facebook

We linked the above platforms to our website and compiled information for easy access or reference.

The result is an active forum where information is shared by our various members inspiring more than 50.000 members.

The bonus was the compilation of our first book on business opportunities which unfortunately leaked resulting in more than free 400.000 copies circulating last year.

Our model was inspired by a Japanese concept named Mirasapo whereby entrepreneurs get resources digitally.

Our website is the richest platform for entrepreneurs in the country with more than 650 articles read more than 600.000 times and at any given point in time-there are more than 50 viewers.

Projects

It’s not easy to bring thousands of people together and make them collaborate. It takes years to build relationships and the good thing is after 6 years, we are proud of the engagements on the forum. Everyday hundreds of topics are being discussed in our various forums. Many are getting inspired, more resources shared and more businesses created or improved. Well done to Zimbabwe, our business model bearing fruit.

Business Tours: We do not like to strictly remain online and as a result we do have on the ground activities and one of them is business tours. We have successfully conducted 3 tours to Mozambique (Tete) and managed to unlock opportunities in the little known Tete which is 350km away from Harare. Zimbabweans rarely talk positive stories about Mozambique and yet South Africans are grabbing every available opportunity. Imagine fruits and vegetables being transported from South Africa-passing through Zimbabwe and Mutoko to Mozambique and yet Mutoko farmers cannot literally walk to Mozambique and sell their produce? They prefer travelling to Harare!

Regional Trainings: Opportunities abound beyond the borders-plenty of them! What is it that Zimbabweans can do better than the rest of the world? Our arts and crafts industry! No one can play the mbira instrument like we do. Noone can do sculpture the way we do…not even in advanced economies. So in 2017, we introduced an initiative that created a buzz around SADC.  When you invite entrepreneurs to fund their own transport and accommodation to come to Harare from Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and South Africa-then you have done something really special. The result is we conducted trainings in Harare and followed them across the region. We know all the provinces of South Africa. We had our programs featured on foreign televisions and newspapers. We had governments adopting our programs in Malawi (Disabled persons training) and South Africa (Mpumalanga & Limpopo women trainings). The ANC adopted some of our trainings during the run up to the 2019 elections. In 2018, we adopted training from South Africa and cascaded it to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Malawi. There is high uptake for our trainings across the region and they know when Zimbabweans come, they deliver! The good thing is we have created a distribution network for Zimbabwean products.

In Zimbabwe, there are fewer uptakes of our trainings but regionally, we are adored and even got an award in Durban for the impact we had in Kwazulu Natal province.

Crowdfunding Activities: We created innovative consolidated adverts on our Facebook platforms which attract an average of 8.000 views (down from 15.000 due to data costs in the country). So great platform for access to markets. We also authored a digital marketing book that takes into account our experiences across the region. Our Digital Marketing Group cements our objective of access to markets.

Our major challenge has been access to capital. How do our members access capital from the forum? We considered the relationships built over the last 6 years and invited our members to a crowdfunding initiative. Overwhelming response and a company formation is in the pipeline with our last meeting coming over the weekend. Members are pooling resources together and yes this agriculture season we will be on the ground. We will review results around March next year and upscale the projects including other areas such as mining.

Our board is composed of 10 members based locally and abroad. They have various skills covering law, accounting, education, medicine, engineering, human resources and NGO management.

We have also opened a South African group which now has 62.000 members with an enormous rate of growth of 1.000 new members every week. Not as effective as our local one but we will get there in a few years time.

Expect 2 new books by end of year, Zim follow up and our debut for South Africans. Most of our Whatsapp groups are full but every month new ones are opened to absorb new members. Regionally, we have an interesting initiative coming early next year.

Apologies for a long write up but we thought we needed our new members to appreciate what the forum is all about. In terms of opportunities information, no one in Zimbabwe can complain-a website, books and a vibrant forum. In terms of markets, we are getting there and the same applies to access to capital.

Credit goes to our thousands of members who actively participate on the forum sharing their experiences and advice.Information shared makes the forum a research institute of small businesses in Zimbabwe.

Little is known about the Bitcoin by many Africans. It is still a new concept and will take several years before many appreciate it. This our simplified version as we try to define it.

In the 80s they had type writers…how about now?

In the 70s and 80s they had vinyl records, then came cassettes…how about now?

In the past there were banks only for financial transactions…then came ATM and mobile money?

What is more? Selfless driving cars now on the roads, unmanned shops etc

Catch the drift?

Technology is changing at a blistering pace ….in Japan they noe have some robot receptionists! The future is tech, tech and more tech. Millions of new users are now being connected to the internet and the population is roughly 4 billion and rising.

So hapana anoita nharo….tech tech and more tech.

In comes the Bitcoin which is more like Ecocash in the sense that you cant see it and its digital.

Created in 2009, bitcoin is an all-digital “cryptocurrency” that doesn’t pay attention to banks, governments, or international borders. There’s a cap of 21 million bitcoins—so inflation is not possible.

Who created it? a mysterious person or group known only as Satoshi Nakamoto

System behind it: Research more about Block Chain Technology. By using blockchain technology, the inventor(s) of bitcoin () gave their currency the ability to exist without some sort regulatory oversight.

Every person who participates in the bitcoin network—everyone who buys with, sells in, or owns bitcoins—has their own copy of the bitcoin blockchain.

Since bitcoin is a purely person-to-person digital currency model, anyone using bitcoin can make fast, secure, low-fee transactions whenever they want, to anyone in the world.

Wherecan you use it? It’s a universal currency although still to get more acceptance in Africa. We always lag behind but  in advanced economies such as SA, Egypt and Nigeria….there are more people aware and participating.

In other countries they have ATMs that dispense cash to assist bitcoin users who want to exchange it for cash. Folks are using bitcoins to buy houses, cars, pay fees etc

Bitcoin I mari yemumhepo se Ecocash…haibatike nemawoko.

Leading global accounting bodies such as CIMA and ACCA are talking about it and as for CIMA, there are block chain courses which cost GBP 460 for qualified members. Its also the buzz word for auditors and actuarial scientists. So no going back!

Like all new products, they start slow with fewer takers and the price is initially low but rises with time. When the first telephone had a few people connected, its value was less but as more people connected,  its value shot up.

When Strive started Econet, it was a small network but with time it made the founder a billionaire, When Facebook had a few users, again the value was less and making Zuckerberg one of the richest men on earth in less than a decade.

In follow up posts we will cover its price, advantages and disadvantages. The scams around it and more importantly-the opportunities.

Advice? Invest in research, follow news, developments and discussions. Don’t put money yet in something you have not grasped-you will be scammed!

Bitcoin is the future, we have no option.