Diaspora Matters

The Sunday Mail reports that a record $108 million was disbursed to gold miners in January 2018. The amount is for the 2.7 tonnes of gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers, the gold buying arm of the Reserve Bank. This is great news given that almost half of this gold was delivered by small scale miners (1.2 tonnes).

In the article published by the leading weekly, the Zimbabwe Miners Federation spokesman Mr Dosman Mangisi believes that artisanal miners can deliver way above their current capacity if they access credit facilities. He says ‘ I tell you that if small-scale miners get adequate funds-even small packages of US$20.000-they will acquire critical pieces of machinery such as compressors and increase production’

Our country is fortunate to be endowed with a lot of natural resources and untapped minerals constitute a gold pot for entrepreneurs! Of course we have known about diamonds, copper, chrome, platinum, gold, coal and gold, however a new mineral seems to be enjoying the limelight, the mineral called Lithium has great promise for the country as it is used for many purposes such as ceramics, special glasses and of course batteries for computers, laptops and other electrical goods.

Back to gold, you cannot ignore the $108 million with practically half of it finding its way to small scale miners…there is no better way to empower locals than to give them mines! We expect mining to be disturbed by the incessant rains currently pounding most of the mining areas but with the sector bouncing back to full scale operations around April and then it will be advantage GOLD and other minerals.

So who benefits from minerals exploration especially gold? The first is the miners themselves and secondly Reserve Bank. Who else? We have some interesting stories of brothers in the diaspora benefiting too from the mining sector! Do you remember our story on Strive Masiyiwa’s farm? In case you have forgotten-we said ‘You do not necessarily need to own a farm in order to benefit from agricultural opportunities’ You also do not need to own a mine inorder to benefit from the mining sector as shown by Diasporans based in UK.

Find out more about investment opportunities in Zimbabwe buy supporting and buying our book called Investment Opportunities for Zimbabweans in 2018. The book is very comprehensive and features real life stories of entrepreneurs, covers agricultural, service sector, energy, mining, transport and virtual opportunities. It covers half of the stories we have featured on this site plus indepth review and a lot of investment opportunities we have not covered before.

The book is available in E-copy and costs $25. It will be available for purchase on Friday afternoon this week.

So the future is GOLD, we can add platinum, we can add chrome (we feature interesting stories of in our book), we can add diamonds in Angola but we cannot forget lithium and classify everything as Gold!

The traffic between Harare and Blantyre is increasing everyday, 5 years ago there was only bus plying the Harare-Blantyre route but the number of buses has increased to 3. The buses are Kynergy, TripTrans and ZUPCO. They leave Harare at 6:00am daily and arrive in Blantyre between 6:00pm and 7:00pm.

Cost of Transport: Buses cost US$25 or $30 Bond, all in hard cash form. If you choose to fly, there are daily flights for the route. Air Malawi flies everyday from Harare to Blantyre but with a 45 minute stopover in Lusaka.

Important Advice-Yellow Fever Card: Make sure that you carry a yellow fever vaccination card or face problems with Mozambique and Malawi Immigration officials.

Business Opportunities: Small scale

1.Buses travelling to Malawi from Harare are usually full with clothing material

2. Buses travelling from Malawi to Zimbabwe have Kilombero Rice and goods imported from a Chinese warehouse in Limbe

Business Opportunities: Large Scale

A lot of Zimbabwean consultants are doing business in Malawi in areas such as Agriculture, Engineering and Construction.

A number of great opportunities also exist for entrepreneurs and we will cover more of this in our book on Investment Opportunities coming out next week. Equally important are contact details of reliable people you can do business with in Blantyre. Our book is a collection of entrepreneurship stories and features some of our best read articles as well as previously unpublished material.

Its exactly 2 months before we commemorate 2 years since the banning of Zvihuta or Quail birds! Remember the Quail bird craze that took the country by storm in 2015/16 era? The business of keeping the small birds became an instant hit that created many opportunities for poultry farmers. Some abandoned rearing broiler chickens altogether in favour of the then trending zvihuta project. Some started training people to raise the birds, some made money from selling eggs and even leading retail shops such as TM and OK had the zvihuta meat and eggs on their shelves.

What made zvihuta a hit?

• The project had been brought from UK and generally locals embrace all projects that come from there
• The project had been a follow up of the sack potato project which had emanated from UK
• The Quail had ‘Medicinal Cures’ -it was touted as a solution to many non communicable diseases

Some invested heavily in the project borrowing funds inorder to construct poultry runs to house the birds. The biggest beneficiaries were those who sold eggs and training institutes for quail projects. Then one day, the minister responsible for the sector intervened and confirmed that the medicinal benefits were a hoax-this marked the beginning of an end to a high flying project that had taken the country by storm!

What do we learn from the project?

1. Projects that come from UK are generally accepted by locals
2. The project had resemblance to a commodity Ponzi scheme, those who made the big funds were supplying eggs
3. The scramble for the project showed the high interest in entrepreneurship by locals particularly agriculture
4. Banks reviewing business plans failed on the ‘compliance with local laws and regulation‘ aspect. No-one checked whether the project had been cleared by relevant ministries
5. Projects that affect the medical field are sensitive and investors should carefully check with relevant authorities
6. The project’s success and viral spread was fuelled by Social Media

There are many more lessons, feel free to add, however the follow up project to the quail even spread at a faster rate and it is the now defunct MMM. Those who had been making money from zvihuta  shifted their focus to the money ponzi scheme before the spectacular collapse of the scheme which went off the cliff with more than US$6 million of depositors funds.

So on 16 April 2018, we will commemorate the end of the high riding income generating project that once took the country by storm. We will watch on the horizon for similar projects with traits similar to the zvihuta project.

At face value Bitcoin can earn great returns for investors. A legitimate investment business which is fast gaining recognition across the world. There is no going back on crypto currencies! However few know or can explain in simple terms how this currency came about, how people make or lose money. Where to buy it as well as where to use it. Where to report in terms of losses or who to sue.

The lack of the above crucial information is creating a gap for fraudsters who are now creating ponzi schemes where members of the public are invited to invest funds into a pool with promises of high interest returns. The end result is a significant number of people are losing money to con men! In a recent case which has been circulating on social media–close to $40,000 was lost to a conman who is on the run. His modus operandi was as follows:

1. Invite members of the public to join a Bitcoin  Group
2. Entice members with evidence of huge profits
3. A few invest money and get hefty returns
4. More people join and wire funds to him to invest on their behalf
5. After everyone had transferred funds totaling $40,000 he disappears from the scene.

Attempts to track the culprit through use of his mobile money numbers do not bear  fruit as he had covered his tracks well by dubiously registering his number.

Lessons learnt

• Attend Bitcoin awareness programs, learn more before investing.
• Know well the risks and opportunities involved-do not give funds to anyone to invest on your behalf
• Internet business is good but extremely risky, before parting money its important to phone the land line of the person you are sending money to, physically visit their premises if feasible. Distance increases risk and the more the distance between where you are based and where the person you are dealing with stays-the higher the risk.
• Be on guard, treat everyone with suspicion especially on social media.
• If it is too good to be believed then it probably is, use your gut instinct.

Do not lose out on opportunities in Bitcoin but be careful of fraudsters! About 99.9% of groups sprouting up on social media are created by fraudsters.

Do you remember the video of Julius Malema’s EFF and the H&M saga? That is a classic example of marketing gone wrong! Marketers had designed a controversial advert hoping to generate huge traffic through controversy-unfortunately it ended up stirring trouble across the globe and South Africa was not spared. You do not want such bad publicity when you are an entrepreneur because it can destroy your business overnight. So how does an entrepreneur create a business post or advert that goes viral without creating unnecessary controversy?

Our case study
The following post has been trending in Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa,  Trinidad and Tobago, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We did post it on Wednesday evening  and the objective being for business followers to while up time and have fun. It also provided useful insights on Digital Marketing.

The question
……………………………………………
Fast Thinking Required: What will be your best option?
Answer A: Stop
Answer B: Proceed.
Answer C: Reverse and drive Back.
Answer D: Hoot and scare the lions

………………………………………………………….

Why did thousands of people respond to the above posts in different countries at the same time?

• Emotions:It draws emotions (fear). Lions draw attention and bringing fear to most people-they represent danger!
• Numbers Game: The fact that the number of lions is more magnifies the fear(emotions). If it was one lion…the response would have been minimal. The more the lions, the greater the danger and the greater the curiosity and responses.
• Risk Taking Decision: The post asks one to make a decision which can be potentially dangerous (Possibility of getting killed or injured by the lions or the lions killing or injuring you)
• Concerned Parties: Concerned parties in the adverts are animal lovers who are forced to respond due to the implication of the advert on animal issues. The implication of someone harming the lions is too ghastly to contemplate-perhaps this maybe the little controversial part of the advert.
• Vulnerability: The vulnerability of the lone car brings emotions of empathy-will the person survive? One car versus more than 9 lions?
• Real Life: You have been asked to be part of the action, you have to make a life saving hasty decision. You can therefore visualize yourself in this real life experience where the focus is on YOU with implications on YOU and NINE lions!
• Its Science: We will explain the analysis above in  our book on investment opportunities coming at the end of next week

Science Behind Digital Marketing

The bottom line in Digital Marketing is that you would like to increase sales! You like to convert interest in an advert into sales for your business and not for people to just see posts or adverts. You therefore need to appreciate Traffic generation,Lead generation,Lead nurturing,Conversions and Measuring. Digital Marketing has a lot of science or art behind it as shown in our viral advert which went viral across the region. This is our third viral advert with the first one attracting millions of views leading to one of our most successful initiatives ever on rug making.

We will explain more on the art and science of designing adverts and also converting them into real business in our book on investment opportunities coming in a few days time. Its a book you pray that your competitors do not get hold of! More trainings on Digital Marketing coming during the month of February.We encourage you to attend trainings in your local areas, read books and research more on this interesting topic.

Below we feature a select few responses from the thousands of responses our posts received…Africans and citizens of Trinidad and Tobago indeed have a bagful humour!

South Africa

Andy Claude Moodley E …GET my mother-in-law to take of make-up and scare those beautiful cats

Simosakhe Chamane Park the car on the side of the road and walk toward the lion greet n play with them

Ntando Tdoz Ntuli Lions get distracted by noise so it will be D

Junaid Yunus Soni B – Coz I’ll be like you better move it or lose it, you vicious man-eating, obstruction-causing carnivores!!!

Erna Kauendji Well i just hope i wont have a breakdown or the engine catches fire. Strange things happen when it is least expected.

Nelson Natasen Spin that car right there , and get the hell out

Avela Tatakamzontsundu Tuta And sing the song (waphuma u Daniel )

Buda Motswiri Proceed nd rev the engine high,wil scare the lions

Malawi

Dhiren Thakrar A. Its a rare sight so i would stop and enjoy the moment!

Elsmore Mtheto Mwenecho PRAY FOR MERCY AS YOU PROCEED

Zaheer Kara make the car fly over them lions like the Sci-Fi movies..problem solved

Cuthbert Chiumia B forward ever backward never no matter the storm stay focused on the goal

Nganya Munyithu Approach slowly. Get out of car and ask what’s for lunch today

Chikko Sekani If you are a trained driver then its not about best option its about what the rules or the laws say.

Fundo Chiwaula WG Go close, stop and step out of the car and greet them

Kambale Ulemu Continue moving forward at a high speed, ithawa yokha mikangoyo.

Smith Banda You just stop A I had the same scenario in mikumi national park in Tanzania I met 2 lions sleeping in the middle of the road at night I just stopped and waited for close to 15 minutes till they moved out of the road themselves.

Arrow Man None of the above. The best is is to stop . take a selfie with them lions . And post on social media captions ..#afewcandothis

Fumban Dicquez Drive slowly and talk to the lions nicely….they will pave way….kkkkkk

Namibia

Jay Hedge Lions are strong but only relative to the animals they hunt. Unless you are driving an open-top car or a pick up without a canopy and there are passengers at the back, there’s absolutely no reason to fear this encounter. Its very unlikely that these lions will attack the car. Just keep the doors locked, windows up and approach at a slow speed while hooting gently. Surely they will move out of the way.

Yolande L Fourie Stop! Enjoy the moments! At the rate they are killed in Namibia , you will only be seeing them on the covers of some books soon.

Nancy Carine C. What if there are more waiting ahead?

Trevor Ncube Non of the above.in such a fast big moving object,lions will go out of the road hence for safety of the car and lions one can hoot to give a warning of the incoming vehicle.

Shahbaz Ali Drive slow close to them take some pictures buye go Ahead ….?

Sandratjiuira Kapazu Kaurandua C….but if i have people at the back I will reverse n back..if nobody at the back the answer is C

Franz Tumuna E…will get out and scare them away

Bernice Grobler Sit and watch them for the whole time tbey are there

Werner Abraham Proceed but very fast and hold the steering very well and hoot, they will run away.

Werner Abraham If you happen to go for other option then you are finished, if you proceed fast and hoot, they will run for their life, they will see that this coming thing is also serious, they will not have other option other then to run away, remember that they are also alive and can be in fear also.

Zambia

Ituri Ole Semuliki Approach the lions in full speed, lights on hooting @ 100kph.

Oni Kappisy Mutelele I was once in such a situation….. Just drive proceed slowly

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Godfrey Nchemba Show the lions you are man enough. Come out of the car and say hello. . Politely ask them to give you way. Kwamana. All the best.

Ntombi Dlamini E. Drive like Schumacher and see what happens

Kamfwa Mubanga Hamooya D, lions are not like elephants. Elephants you stop wether you like it or not.

Davies Lunda Lions are not so scary, you just drive by_passing them at a moderate speed but keep on honking

Musa Kalinda If you have been to Dar es salaam before we pass through a park called mikumi……thy always come by the road side….just stop and do not anything….stay put no noise…..A distance away….thy leave the road eventually.

Musa Kalinda I have been in such an encounter before…..basically stop thy go out of the road…..just stay a distance away

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Worldwide retail e-commerce sales reached US$2.290tn in 2017, some 10.1% of all retail sales, and are set to hit $4.479tn by 2021. While many markets are already well developed, there’s still a huge potential audience to be reached and some exciting up-coming trends will help to reach them.

There’s big news ahead for e-commerce in 2018. Exciting and developing new markets like Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are set to take off in a big way and new technologies are likely to cause a huge shift in the way companies market their goods online. What should SMEs be looking out for in 2018 and which trends are most likely to help their businesses? Here are my eight “ones to watch” this year.

1. Customer experience and personalisation

Customer experience transformation is not just for big players like Amazon. The trend of personalisation will be key to winning and keeping customers in the years to come. Businesses that tackle customer experience transformation will win customers’ hearts and minds. Why? With today’s information overload, consumers don’t want to waste their time with irrelevant information. Offering personalised services, products and information will help SMEs stand out from the crowd online and keep customers coming back for more. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, retailers that have implemented personalisation strategies see sales gains of 6-10%, at a rate two to three times faster than other retailers.

2. Omni platform and device

By the end of 2017, two billion people used their mobile devices to shop online globally. And while not all online shoppers make purchases with their mobile phone, some 95% of mobile internet users look up local information on their phones prior to calling or visiting a business. According to Google, “some 85% of online shoppers start a purchase on one device and finish on another.” The trend provides a clear message from consumers: 2018 will be about integrating online platforms and devices

3. M-commerce

Mobile devices will become even more important for online shopping in 2018. Mobile will reach 70% of e-commerce traffic by the end of 2018 and more and more people will purchase via their mobile devices. According to Goldman Sachs forecasts, mobile commerce revenue in 2018 will equal the total e-commerce revenue for 2013, some $626bn.

Companies like Google, Samsung and Apple are making it even easier with advancements in mobile payment technology which will make mobile checkout the preferred method of payment for many customers.

4. Voice search

More and more people are using voice assistance to search for products online, especially millennials, 40% of whom have already used a voice assistant prior to making a purchase. By 2020, the number will surpass 50%. The voice search trend is a big topic, particularly for search engines and advertisers.How will customers find products when they no longer have to visit a website? Businesses need to think about optimising their listings for voice search and ensuring their content is relevant to the kind of queries customers might use when searching for their product.

5. Convenience and increased fulfillment options

Customers want convenience, from choosing their pick-up and delivery points to having their goods delivered next day. The delivery and fulfillment market has always been competitive, but it’s going to heat up even more in 2018. Companies that want to succeed will have to be faster, more efficient and offer more options: Whether it’s time slots for home delivery or in-store pick up, the more the better.

6. Augmented reality

The long-awaited launch of Magic Leap’s first headset marked another step in the journey towards augmented reality (AR) shopping. Applied to online services, e-commerce could become as good as the real thing once AR goes mainstream, and retailers are getting very excited about what’s ahead. TechCrunch predicts that the AR market will reach $83bn by 2021, driven primarily by AR on mobile devices.

And who wouldn’t be keen to try it? Imagine you can try on clothes before buying them, test make-up, look at a product in 3D and see how it will fit in your home? Furniture company Wayfair already offers an augmented reality feature for iOS 11. Its “View in Room 3D” allows shoppers to see 3D furniture and décor in their homes before they buy.

7. Emerging market potential

With e-commerce markets maturing around the world, businesses are on the lookout for new potential markets. Now that around half of US households hold a Prime membership, and nearly half of China’s population is actively making online purchases, it’s time to focus on some new geographies. The ones to watch, according to Business Insider, are India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. E-commerce penetration rates in these areas are only around 2-6%, making them a potential goldmine for growth.

8. B2B’s data challenge

We’re all so focused on consumers and their online habits, that we often overlook the booming B2B sector. In 2017, according to Statista, “the gross merchandise volume of business-to-business e-commerce transactions is projected to amount to 7.66 trillion U.S. dollars, up from 5.83 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013”.

How does Harare fare  against Luanda when it comes to prices? The price of a 2 litre cooking oil bottle in Harare is twice than in Luanda! The trend is the same when it comes to chicken. Economists may need to do a comparison of prices between Harare and one of the places known to be the most expensive in the world..Luanda! Our city may possibly have the highest prices in Africa!

We bring you part of an interview we carried out with one of our members based in Angola, Olivia Maguu Luamba. She lives in Angola and participated in the President’s address to the Zimbabwean community living in Angola last month.

How are living conditions in Angola?

Angola has a sub-tropical climate almost everywhere, with a cool and dry season from May to August, and a hot and rainy season, which runs from mid-September to April in the north-east, from mid-October to April in the centre, from November to March in the south, and from February to April in Luanda, while it’s almost non-existent on the southern coastline.The official language is Portuguese and is spoken throughout the country. There are some local languages, but these are mainly spoken outside of Luanda.The Angolan cuisine is a combination of Portuguese cuisine and west African cuisine. The traditional staple food is funge, which is basically sadza made from cassava flour. The cities close to the coastline eat a lot of fish.

How long have you been in Angola?

Almost ten years

Approximate Official Number of Zimbos living in Angola

About 500

What are the top business opportunities in Angola?

Agriculture, Mining and Tourism

Are there Zimbabweans doing business in Angola?

Yes (More information covered in our Investment Opportunities Book to be released next week)

Give us a break down of Rentals, Fuel Price, Cooking Oil and Chicken

We have a huge discrepancy between the official bank rate and the black rate e.g as I am answering these questions, the official rate is 1US$:202 AKZ while the black market rate is 1US$:400 AKZ . I will give the costs using the official and unofficial rate

Cooking oil $2.30 : $1.13

Petrol price $0.79 : $0.40

Chicken full $4.45: $2.25 

Rent 3 bedroomed flat (kilamba) $396:  $200

Rent 1 bedroomed flat (city) $1,250 : $625

Cost of air tickets from Harare to Luanda

Return flight TAAG – US$690

Tell us about top holiday destinations

Benguela has great beaches, Cabinda also has the Mayombe Rain Florest,

Can Zimbos find jobs in Angola?

Yes it is possible, although now it’s a bit harder than before.  Its very easy for people in specialized fields e.g Agriculturalists as the agriculture sector is fast expanding.

How did you learn Portuguese?

I enrolled for formal classes and later learnt from the community

Advice to first time visitors to Angola

You need to have a lot of patience. Don’t come here with expectations that things work the same way as in Zim or South Africa. Angola is unique and has a unique way of doing things.

Do not miss our book on Investment opportunities for Zimbabweans in 2018. Possibly the best resource book on investment opportunities for Zimbabweans. The book is named Opportunities for Zimbabweans because it has a regional outlook and covers not only Zimbabwe but opportunities in neighboring countries and the world at large. It features;

Provides an analysis of Economic Recovery Opportunities focusing on Agriculture, Service Industry, Mining, Transport and Real Estate Sectors. It covers real life experiences of entrepreneurs, includes coverage of diasporans in Namibia, DRC, India, Canada and Angola. The last chapter covers resources on where to source funding, risks associated with investment and how to mitigate them.

The best part of entrepreneurship is getting access to markets-this is the real deal! Access to finance is fine but does not come close to access  to markets.We are coming to the end of our carpet making training at the end of the month and would like to thank everyone who supported  us  from the inception of the program in August 2017. The aim of the training was to help empower women through a disruptive technology approach of weaving shaggy rugs through use of own hands.

Right from the design phase of the regional programme, we had Access to Markets in Mind!If you are designing an entrepreneurship program and you leave out the difficult part of Access to Markets then you are probably wasting a lot of time and resources! Access to Finance is easier than Access to Markets. You see, you can borrow money and have access to Finance, you can use pension funds and have access to finance, you can use salary advance and have access to Finance. You can even partner with those with cash and still have access to Finance. Donors can even bring monies and help in the access to Finance aspect. The bottom line is there are a lot of options for access to Finance.

When it comes to access to Markets, the game changes altogether! There are no many options for access to Markets. You have to work hard and smart in order to access Markets. You need experience and a lot of extra work in order to access Markets. Competition on the Access to Markets is stiffer than on access to Finance. A person working at a financial institution can easily obtain a salary advance or mortgage within a few days. Let the person open a shop that sells building materials in town and then the real battle begins….he has to compete with established companies, he has to compete with other new entrants, he has to be wary of the foreign competition that is coming on the horizon. So we have a person with capital but stressed on markets, the markets can easily sink his capital, the market is where the real business is.

Moloko Mohlama
As already mentioned, when we designed the programme, we had our eyes on the markets. How are trainees going to access markets? How will people from different backgrounds access markets when they d not have expertise on markets?
To answer this, we included business training which had a heavy focus on Digital Marketing. Trainees needed to appreciate the difficulty of access to markets, needed hands on skills on marketing and of course taking advantage of Digital Marketing which makes it easy even for novices to enter the market.

The target of our products are retail shops, having retail shops selling carpet rugs enables entrepreneurs to concentrate on what they are good at-weaving carpets! For them to get contracts to supply retail shops, they need to team up register companies! A retail shop will look at numbers, can you successfully supply big numbers?

So Moloko Mohlama is one of our start entrepreneurs based in South Africa. She has managed to get a contract with TOTAL SPORTS in Sandton, Wonderpark and from the 1st of March she will be supplying Kaizer Chiefs bathroom sets and already 30 orders have been received!

This is has been our dream-be efficient in business-secure a market first and then make products with orders already in the pocket! Manufacturing something and then looking for markets later has proved to be an inefficient way of doing business. Unogona kuva stuck with slow moving stock-at worst your stock may even have no buyers!

Our carpet making themes include Sports (Its sad locals have not made Dembare, Bosso, Caps mats only South Africans have picked this), Other themes include Religion, Culture and the biggest money earner being the Corporate World in terms of branding!

This is how we have been helping women entrepreneurs across Southern Africa with business trainings on access to Markets through Digital Marketing and Access to finance through getting organised (registered) and seeking corporate, government and donor funding.

So congrats to Moloko-there is no way she is going to satisfy the demand of millions of Kaizer Chief fans!The bathroom sets are handmade and it makes sense for sporting shops to sell them because they have a special story behind them….if you buy one, you have supported to create employment for hundreds of women and if you support a woman-you have supported a nation!

Good luck to her for excellent networking and believing in an organization based in Monavale, Harare, Zimbabwe,ZBIN!

Our forum has made an impact in Durban where we have hundreds of followers and this is not surprising after our trainings last year that affected thousands of women in this KwaZulu Natal Region. The spirit of entrepreneurship is high in Durban, sisters there are hardworking and go getters. The best entrepreneurs for South Africa are likely to emerge from this region in the not so distant future.

Digital Marketing is still in infancy in Durban and we urge sisters there to embrace it and use it to their advantage. Attending a course on Digital Marketing is therefore a must if you would like to be successful as an entrepreneur. Digital marketing is an efficient way of reaching out to a broad market in an effective and efficient manner.The old way of marketing involves opening a shop and waiting for local clients to come in and buy goods or services. This limits the number of people you can reach out to  because if you open a shop  in Durban how will you reach out to clients in Johannesburg? How about Cape Town or East London?

Digital Marketing enables you to cover all four corners of South Africa, what is more? You can also reach out to clients across the world like what one of our trainees Bongiwe Xaba does. She makes traditional Zulu Attire and sells it to Europe! She gets clients through Facebook boosting and ships her material abroad. She takes advantage of the fact that the world loves South Africa and millions tourists visit South Africa every year. The interest in Heritage Day  by the international community opens markets for South African based entrepreneurs to make clothes or arts and crafts for sale to international customers in Europe, Asia, USA and Australia.

E-Commerce a must

A good number of sisters have embraced part digital marketing and advertise goods on popular Facebook Groups such as Durban Factories which has a membership of 350,000. Facebook and Whatsapp advertising has limitations though in the sense that you have to manually register members and follow up with them. This is an efficient way of marketing as many clients can be lost to rivals. Most people who visit  Social Media when they make a decision on buying a product, they often want to do so immediately. Therefore an entrepreneur must be organized and have a website where potential clients can view all the details they may need. The website must be a shop as well allowing people who have shown interest in buying to do so immediately!

We therefore urge our members and followers to be efficient when selling goods and services and upgrade from manually  placing Facebook Adverts and wait for responses.Open a website that is E-Commerce enabled and have a shop that runs 24 hours a day and  7 days a week. This is how you can increase your sales in Durban and everywhere else across the globe.

Popular Business Ideas in Durban

1. Sisters in Durban want to look good and trendy clothes, shoes, handbags come top
2. Hair products, related to the top one-its all about sisters looking great
3. Kitchen ware is hugely popular especially Tupperware
4. Herbal Medicine-(Forever living, Teaguard,Longrich, Esylife,Herbal life) products and Chinese made products are popular
5. Perfume Making and Selling-emerging and fast business idea (Avon,
6. Buying and selling jewellery (some are now making jewellery)
7. ICT gadgets
8. Household furniture
9. Baking cakes for sale
10. Arts and Crafts –Tapestry

This list is obviously long but we have chosen a few small business ideas that are making a mark in Durban and the whole of Kwazulu Natal. The sisters want to look good and enjoy a good life-therefore if you try and address this-you will never go wrong! They want their homes to look neat, tidy and trendy and will therefore invest in this area.

It was also interesting to find sisters traveling all the way from East London to  Durban inorder to buy clothes and  shoes for resale. Having traveled to most provinces in South Africa the conclusion that we have is that Durban (KZN) has more opportunities for entrepreneurs than most provinces in South Africa, the economy is better, the buying power also better than in most areas.

We however urge entrepreneurs to improve and diversify. Buying and selling business is elementary stuff. You should move on and tap onto opportunities presented by the tourist sector. Do set up travel agencies, build homes or hotels and take advantage of high tourist arrivals. Carry out more studies on this area and develop plans to tap into opportunities that exist and set up start up companies.

Room for New Business Ideas

Do not be afraid to introduce new business ideas or concepts. Our forum introduced the disruptive technology on carpet making in Durban and the programme went viral with more than 20,000 people responding. We followed up the interest by training a champion group that cascaded trainings to thousands of women across the region. We followed up with the hybrid paw paw growing project which also showed that there is high interest in Agriculture by Durbanites. Our organization will therefore be bringing you more information on opportunities in the agriculture sector in the coming months. So the spirit of entrepreneurship in Durban is high and we experienced it, we compared it to the other regions and came to the conclusion that Durban is Number 1. Entrepreneurs need to carry out detailed studies before rushing investment decisions.

We urge caution on schemes such as Online Forex Trading-it is a legitimate money making venture but you can easily lose your money to fraudsters. Learn how to do online forex trading on your own and never give funds to anyone to trade on our behalf. The same applies to Bitcoin, do not lose money to people who claim they can invest money on your behalf. Therefore be vigilant, whilst opportunities are high, so are risks especially on Social Media-always view everyone you find there with 99% suspicion and be vigilant.

This post is covered in the upcoming book on investment opportunities for women in Southern Africa, do not miss the e-book which captures the inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs in South Africa which is coming out at the end of February 2018.