Diaspora Matters

In business appearance unfortunately matters…rather unfortunate isn’t it? Whether you have offices plays a huge part in your business. If you are a first timer or a novice entrepreneur then you have to invest heavily in a professional presence…an office, a landline, a bank account…all of these are silent issues that helps to project your business as someone who is professional and can therefore be trusted with business.

Business and Trust.
The word business goes hand in glove with trust. Where there is no trust there is no business, where there is business it means someone somewhere has trust in it. The most important aspect in business after registration is where are you based? It can be a debatable issue with some arguing that what is more important is your business idea but the other side of the argument is as you start your business, the issue of credibility is of utmost importance. Bank application forms need the address of the business, clients want a physical presence, suppliers are not willing to supply goods on credit to someone with no physical address.

When you are new in business-you have the world against you and you have to prove your worth. You see—the world of business is highly competitive and when you mention that you operate at home, then clients move to your next competitors.

Visitors to your office will be subconsciously assessing your offices and making a judgement whether they want to do business with you or not. Some inorder to check on your credibility may decide to phone you on your landline…Yes a landline shows that someone is serious about business. TelOne hardly gives land lines to fly by night business people. So some conduct the landline credibility test, follow this by a physical premises verification and then ask for your bank account inorder to pay monies. Coming up with excuses to say you do not have a company bank account but you are using a personal account does not earn you credibility marks.

So how do you get offices or Premises?

Not easy to get offices, they are in most cases expensive…it may be an extra cost you cannot afford. As a start up entrepreneur your costs are likely to be higher during the first months and an extra burden of rental costs can be too much.

Various options exist such as office sharing with peers, a number of hubs exist in town where you can pay on rent as you use basis. So get a physical presence this year…brainstorm on how to cut on rental costs. Operating from your home will not grow your business. Tu office twekuti unopfuura nekuseri kwevanhu varikugerwa not too good either.

Get registered, get an office, get a landline, get business cards, get a website, get a professional email address and then excel at your line of business.

Congratulations for making it into 2018! The year 2017 was no doubt a difficult year and we look forward to better times in 2018. Have you made any new year resolutions yet? Some go for fasting for the first few days of each year, some jot down what they intend to achieve and some simply do not write down anything at all. Our recommendation is just do what works best for you. As good corporate practice, we however encourage our members to have a strategic plan in place which you must follow A strategic plan will give you guidance on what you need to do during the year. It keeps you focused and whilst success is not guaranteed, but at least you will be working towards a goal…you keep your eyes on the ball.

So what did the forum achieve during the year? We closely look at progress made since the inception of the forum:I

In February 2015, ZBIN is formed by a group of online friends becoming Zimbabwe’s first start up business forum.

In November 2016, ZBIN launches a website, www.zbinworld.

in December 2016, ZBIN gets a Board of Directors (Made up of 60% Diasporans)

In March 2017, ZBIN gets formally Registered.

In May 2017, ZBIN hires staff members.

In June 2017, ZBIN Opens Offices in Monavale, Harare.

In July 2017, ZBIN launches a highly successful regional carpet making course that results in the forum travelling to almost every major city in Southern Africa. The influence of the program sees thousands of women indirectly benefiting the program. The Malawi Government adopts the program, the course gets accreditation in South Africa. By far the most successful Zimbabwe training that affected the region in 2017.

In December 2017, ZBIN advises His Excellency to make follow ups with the SA Business Forum for another meeting on investment. Advice written on his page and surprisingly is taken up and results in the most over subscribed business forum ever by Diasporans. Not surprising as we had been advocating for Diaspora participation in business.

Our website provided Zimbabweans with over 470 free articles, they were viewed more than 300.000 times and helped foreign nationals too as we covered regional country specific issues. We became the most known Zimbabweans business forum beyond the borders through use of Social Media. The number of regional nationals stand at more than 1.000.

Failures:
Our objectives are as follows:
1. Help members with access to opportunities information.
2. Help members with access to finance.
3. Help members with access to markets.
4. Capacity Building, Advocacy and Promotion of Networking.

We have done quite well on 3 of the above objectives except Access to Finance! Noone can say I accessed funding from ZBIN in 2017. We did help a number of our tapestry programme trainees with funding proposals but this is a secondary objective….the primary one is $s,$s,$s….members should be able to say we got so much, we should confidently say we disbursed so much in figures. This is going to be one of our major objectives in 2018. Access to dollars and successful implementation of projects.

Do not miss out the book we are compiling for 2018, a collection of some of our best published stories, a critical analysis of the business environment and prediction of what the future will be like.

Asante Sana.

Please make sure you get your name into our database for possible funding and assistance opportunities.

Submit the following details about your business venture:

Name of Business:

Name of Business Contact :

Business Contact No:

Registered or Not Registered:

Business Sector:

Hundreds of people have already send us their details, it only takes 5 minutes but opens a lot of business opportunities for you at no additional cost. Send your details to vicmunemo@yahoo.com and copy victor@zbinworld.com

It is one of the largest shopping malls in the country and possesses great potential. A visit to this place will shows that more than 60% of the commercial space is unoccupied. Business is mostly concentrated on the two supermarkets which are Bon Marche and Pick and Pay. The little business that happens at this place is taken up by a few commercial banks, hardwares, boutiques and pharmacies.

There is no cinema, no leisure and entertainment shops, no fruit and vegetables shops. What is worse is there is not even a single pub? Megga 2 is the last pub to be located at the mall and since location to Hatfield more than 5 years ago, no one has come up to set up a pub at the place.

Potential

Suburbs surrounding the shopping mall show growth, new suburbs coming up as Zvimba Rural District Council extends its influence towards harare with a new middle density suburb called Sandton. The proposed new parliament building will be built in Mt Hampden which will add to more business in this area.

A new massive embassy is also being built adjacent to the shopping mall. One of the biggest embassies in South Africa, when complete -will add more business to the shopping mall. So if you are coming to Zimbabwe we urge you to take a tour of the shopping mall and appreciate the potential that it possesses. A time will come when all shopping spaces will be filled up, a time will come when it will become almost impossible to get renting space at this mall….do not be a spectator, let this happen when you have a business plan in place.

ZBIN is taking a break and we will be back in 2018 with new ideas and strategies to help our members with better information and services. We would like to thank you for visiting this forum 400.000 times over the past 12 months. We will be compiling the various articles we published and put them into a book which will be available for your reading in 2018.

Business discussions will continue on our popular Facebook Page and our Whatsapp platforms as well.

Wishing you a blessed festive season

Asante Sana 

All hotel rooms are fully booked from the 21st of December 2017 to the 4th of January 2018! This is according to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news today. No doubt a vote of confidence for the tourism sectors of Zimbabwe and Zambia. The numbers of tourists  visiting the area has been on an upward trajectory with a more than 9% increase when compared to the previous period last year. So what is contributing to this increase in arrivals? Its a combination of factors but the biggest one has to be the opening of a bigger airport and the increase in the number of foreign flights to the airport. Remember tourists from Kenya are now able to fly directly to Victoria Falls….so its all good for Zimbabwe and Zambia business and the question is what will happen next year when more tourists are expected to flood in? We have covered before tourist growth projections on this site and the numbers are expected to continue rising..so the question is what will happen to more tourists when accommodation is running out?

The answer of what will happen is solved by increased investment at Victoria Falls especially in terms of hotel and accommodation. One of the best areas to visit used to be Detema Safari Lodge which is located in Dete which is located 172 kilometres from Victoria Falls. Visited the place in year 2000 and was charmed-it used to have a lot of game and lovely thatched tree lodges. The place used to rival Mana Pools in terms of leisure activities and beautiful scenery. An airport in Dete helped to connect it with Victoria Falls, Bulawayo and Harare. Sadly standards deteriorated over the years and now little is known about this little paradise. For serious investors in the tourism sector we urge them to look at not only Victoria Falls but surrounding areas such as Hwange and Dete.

Young Entrepreneurs Advice:

You too can benefit from the tourism sector and you may not need a lot of capital to start benefiting from the sector. You can look at starting your own Travel Agent Business. We recently assisted one of our members to improve operations of her business in the sector and she has been doing well. We helped her with Digital Marketing which is a key requisite in the area as you have to deal with tourists from many countries whose mode of communication is mostly digital.

Below we feature basic advice to help you in starting your own business and tap into the increased business expected in the next few years.

Specific Advice: How to Start a Travel Agent Business

The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network has a lot of talented writers who are members of the forum. We are always encouraging members to bring articles and books for publication. Today we feature a free book on solving the unemployment problem and the book was written by King Bee or Blessing Mashapa.

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As Zimbabwe starts the economic turn around journey there is one area we recommend for our members. The area used to give returns of 12 for every dollar invested. You want to do a guess work of the area? Well the area is Dairy Farming this is according to research studies carried out by the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers or ZADF. Their website is www.zadf.co.zw and contains a lot of good information on dairy farming in Zimbabwe. We recommend that you visit the site and read a lot of useful information.

This weekend we are not in dairy farming but we zero in on a lucrative sector or energy. The demand for energy keeps going up. This week we covered the expansion of urban areas in Zimbabwe, the urbanisation process is growing at a faster rate than ZESA can cope with. As a result the gap is filled with alternative energy of which solar is a good option.

Solar has been in demand and those who made big monies did not supply individual households. They targeted Government, NGO and Big Corporates. Even local authorities participated on the tender market with Murewa RDC and lately Rusape Town Council flighting tenders. The trend for local authorities is likely to keep going upwards.

This is the sector where the money is, an improvement in the economy means more demand for energy especially in the farming and peri urban areas. All the new suburbs coming up will have to temporarily rely on solar energy before ZESA connects them. We therefore urge our members to do a detailed study of this sector with a view to invest in it in the nearby future.

There are a few major construction projects going on in the country but we encourage our members to be on the look out for major government construction projects in the pipeline. If you want big monies in Zimbabwe then the construction sector is a crucial sector you need not miss.

When the economy finally opens up to investors one sector that is likely to benefit most is the construction industry. We expect to see new buildings coming up, new construction projects by new investors or Government funded. We are going to be tracking these for the benefit of our members. You need investment information at the tip of your fingures.

One area you need to track is that of tenders, who is tendering what and where and this morning we share with you a wonderful site that tracks construction tenders in Zimbabwe. The link for the site is below:

http://www.cwctenders.com/construction_tenders_zimbabwe.htm

ZBIN wraps up the carpet making course phase one in the coming weeks. The phase one involved launching the programme regionally which saw us travelling to Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

We dared to dream and got interesting tales to tell. Indeed Africa is blessed with endless opportunities, to benefit you need to have a positive mindset and be willing to take the risks. I remember our advert going viral across the region reaching out to millions of Africans across the region….in one weekend we had thousands of people reacting to our advert. We probably had the most invites ever for a Zimbabwean organisation. Thousands wanted us to visit Lesotho, They wanted us in Mzuzu, East London, Cape Town, Francis Town….the list is endless.

We invited a few champions to come for training in Harare and had 7 selected members coming to Harare for training so that they could go and launch it in their countries. It was not an easy decision for those who decided to come to Zimbabwe especially those coming for the first time. Some were warned of human trafficking and we had a gentleman coming to our offices inorder to check whether we are genuine. In Lesotho on the groups we had formed the members started conversing in their local language with the word Mugabe being mentioned several times…before we knew it, the 5 people who were supposed to visit Harare had developed cold feet…they later on found good excuses not to come.

The training went ahead minus Lesotho and we successfully launched the programme in Harare at our offices in Monavale. The trained champions did a fabulous jobs of helping us to coordinate the regional launch in their respective countries.

They helped us to travel to Nelspruit, Durban, Mthata, Joburg, Pietermaritzburg, East London etc. We even went to Lesotho and proved that no human trafficking was going to happen in Harare. Our support to champions in Botswana, Malawi and Swaziland saw us reaching out to hundreds of trainees directly and thousands indirectly.

Success Stories.
1. We helped to form more than 8 women owned companies.
2. Program adopted by 2 governments
3. More than 15 Facebook Pages on tapestry formed.
4. Supported entrepreneurs with funding templates.
5. Added more than 5,000 regional members to ZBIN.
6. Helped secure markets for trainees.
7. Negotiated for establishment of one stop shops for supplies in Limbe, Malawi and Albertina Sisulu Street in Johannesburg.

The program was a pilot phase had a lot of challenges but the overall result is that it was a success. The second phase is going to be bigger and better and corporate sponsored. It will involve the support of the thousands of women across Southern Africa especially in terms of markets. Market fairs, arts and crafts hubs will be following in 2018. We also introduced Digital Marketing hubs and started with the Mpumalanga Real Queens in Action where in the first week they reached 100,000 views-not bad for a pilot project that seeks to help women entrepreneurs with useful business information.

What next for ZBIN in 2018?
A big project is under development. We know the region better—from Cape Town to Walvis Bay, East London to Limbe, Durban to Maseru. In the process we developed strong business linkages, distribution networks and will be using them to launch other initiatives. More to follow once the projects are complete.

Budget Review.
The Finance Minister presented a game changing budget and we think the many analysts we have in the country have done enough justice to the budget. What is perhaps missing in all the analysis is what is in it for the entrepreneur? We hope to cover this in detail during the week and look at specific policies or initiatives that will directly benefit the small or individual business owner.

Another question is why do we have yearly budgets? How about 5 years budgets which are broken down into annual budgets? This will enable us to see the big picture and compare the yearly budget versus previous budgets and performance against the 5 year budget. A five year budget allows a minister leeway to strategically plan for the long term. We urge long term planning and long term budgeting with the yearly budget not being a surprise.

The starting process In budgeting is having a strategic plan or initiative in place which will inform the creation of a budget. The official strategic plan for the government Is the ZIMASSET, how does the Budget align to ZIMASSET? Are there targets from ZIMASSET to be met in the budget? Hoping that in future when government strategic plans are devised, they will align them to the budget for ease of tracking and monitoring. The current budgeting process needs tweaking and we hope next year will be better.

Wots Up this week?
We hope to feature a Bitcoin interview of some of the Zimbos who are doing well with Bitcoin Mining. We have not done Facebook Lives in a while and we will be reaching out to our members to feature on our platform and help others with key information.

Wishing you a blessed week.

Asante Sana