We continue to give you free information concerning tenders in Zimbabwe. Great opportunity for you to view all tenders in one place.

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Yesterday I found myself 150 kilometres away from Harare! What a fabulous journey, this reminded me of my first journey to Tete last during the Easter Holidays. Looks like every year around this time I look East!

So what was the business in Mutoko?

I was involved in a swap deal with a relative of mine who wanted one of my small tucks in exchange for land. I was initially sceptical of this deal because I honestly have no business in Mutoko. The little knowledge that I have of this place is when last year we stopped in Mutoko to refill fuel at the Total Service Station, the stopover lasted 10 minutes.  So yesterday witnessed me and my wife in this beautiful place and I was there for more than 3 hours. We were fortunate to have someone with inside information about this place.

General Economic Conditions

The area is affected by the current liquidity challenges that are affecting the rest of the country. There is evidence of business struggling with a number of closed shops. Commercial banks such as CBZ closed shop and the only commercial bank at the centre is Agribank.

Real Estate Sector

More land is being serviced for residential stands and this has resulted in massive expansion which defies the performance of the economy. Will need more information and research on what is driving this expansion. The number of new homes constructed over the past few years is very high. I also had a chance to visit one of the newest residential area called Mutandihwa where stands range from 800-2000 square metres. Iam not sure about the price ranges but I took the following phone numbers for the benefit of our members:+263773994686 and +263772237460.

The increased activity in the real estate sector has led to the growth in the Hardware Shops where business is brisk. We also witnessed 2 churches constructing massive church buildings.

And the Opportunities?

This town would suit someone who is looking into the future, someone who can look beyond the current challenges. The first question you may need to answer is what attracted commercial banks to set up in this area in the first place. It is obvious that at one time it made sense to set up shop in the area. At one time business was so brisk that one commercial bank was not enough for this area.

So they came because there was massive potential but later on business became unprofitable. So if you are patient and got a positive mind set then this area presents a lot of opportunities in many sectors. The real estate is the obvious one, we do not have population figures but estimate that since 2009 the area has grown by 100% with new houses being built every year. Opportunities abound for construction companies and hardware shops in this area.

Vehicles Servicing

We did not see a main shop selling vehicle parts, maybe we need to research more in future but we did not see visibility of this sector in the town. Chance for ‘makava eku Harare’ to research and invest lol because the population of vehicles in high and the only area we witnessed that has auto related products is the Total Service Station that was selling vehicle tyres. It is easy to overlook this area on paper but connect this area with the massive residential area expansion. A new service station is being constructed along the Mutoko-Harare Highway at the centre and this shows that someone has seen the potential presented by vehicles in this town.

Outdoor Leisure Centre

Witnessed an outdoor centre near the town which is in a ramshackle state, perhaps related to the general economic situation currently prevailing in the country? We feel that Yes the Economy plays a huge part BUT what is required is innovation. Wanted is someone who can bring a Megga 2 concept, A Paramount Signature concept to this centre and target 2 clients-travelling motorists along the highway and the locals. Mix the 2 clients and not have to worry about localised economic conditions.

Micro Finance Institutions

The gap created by the exit of the commercial banks means that micro finance institutions should consolidate market presence. ZBIN to carry out more researches in this area.

More Opportunities?

More opportunities to be shared with our registered members. Remember to register next week and access more opportunities. In future we will be providing detailed information so that you can make informed investment decisions.

Our Star

Our investment star has to be firstpack, they have invested in a business sector that is expanding-books, stationery and IT related products.

Getting Ready

So this is what is happening 150 kilometres to the East of Harare, massive real estate expansion which is going on quietly and not being featured. Our source told us that the Council is looking for more investors especially those interested in setting up manufacturing industries. The Toko People are also asking why Hararians take granite stones and transport it to the Capital? Why not set up stone processing plants in Mutoko and transport finished products? Chances for Diasporans to look at innovative ways of solving this area and help create employment for people living in this area. Application is simple, go directly to the council and inquire, no need for middlemen!

So whilst current opportunities are limited it is the future that some of us are interested. I do not even have money to develop the area that I acquired but got my eyes firmly fixed on the future. The future of this area is unlimited and so should be put on your investment radar.

Do not forget to register as a ZBIN Member next on Monday.

The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network forum is your One Stop Platform for business resources. Resources range from free investment or opportunities advice, tenders trackers and employment opportunities. We have now added a new feature-a list of consultants.

At a click of a button, one should be able to view a list of consultants from Zimbabwe.

1.  Civil Water and Structural Engineering,Clara Mapfumo+263779330095
2. Media Consultant,Ruth Bataumocho: Practising Journalist with 17 years media experience:+263 718954662
3. Accounting and Tax Consultant: Kava Chikoore:263 772347279
4. Construction: Tendai Chikondo+263773 416 146
5. Agriculture Projects Specialist: Lydia Matiza-Gumbie, Farm Planning, Budgets and Advisory Service, :+263 773 940 195. Email lydia.gumbie@gmail.com
6. Publisher: Tsitsi Mubvakure, Bright Minds Author Services +263778022053
7. Bookkeeping:Dudzai Sitate+27 78 902 2834
8. Public Relations and Consulting:Tsitsi Mombeshora+263773 240 262
9. Business Development and Innovation Consultancy: Taonga Mutsambwa +263 77784 5213
10. Human Resources: Lerato Lusaba: HR and Domestic Work Consultant:+263 773 000507
11. Business:Macrocell Business and Tax Consultants: +263 772454440
12. Agriculture:Clemence Makaure : Horticulture Expert +263 772 908 606
13. Engineering:John Mazodze: Geotechnical Engineer: +44 7500 778072
14. Business:Craig Makwembere: Market Researcher
15. Agriculture: Benjamin Ndlovu: Poultry Consultant:+263777550562
16. Finance: Bright Ngara: Chartered Certified Accountant: +263783303333
17. Agriculture:Munashe Mwoyosvisvi: Agriculture Economics and Development +263773028181
18. Autos: Tholakele Ncube: Mechanic +263773284275
19. Business:Webster Ngundu: Independent Business Consultant, ex Banker with over 20 years’ experience, with a strong passion for Small and medium enterprises development. Holder of Bachelor of Business Studies, MBA and with extensive professional training locally, regionally and internationally. +263772 249 780
20. Agriculture:Ephias Agrizem Farm Consultant. 20years experience in farming. Agribusiness, 0772856719
21. Auditing: Munyaradzi Chinodya Fraud and Internal security consultant Bcom Financial Intelligence 1 year experience 0774 750 586
22. Marketing:Pelagra Mapiye: Marketing: +263772941122
23. Mining: Batanai Chitauro: Gold Mining Consultant:+263 772 219 674
24. Agriculture:Newton Nyapwere:EIA/GIS/Soils Consultant+263778051738
25. Business:Joseph Gumbie: Sales and Management+263737 353 144
26. Agriculture:Ranganai Chanhuwa:+263715367602
27. Solar:Malone Dahwa:Solar Heating Systems for Chicken runs: +263773529289
28. Business: Silent Age Corporation (Pvt) Ltd: International Business Consultant, Fleet Management, Imports and Exports +27736632244/+263777590800

Joining this list is free. Send a Whatsapp message to +26377481808

We would like to applaud the Harare City Council for the wonderful work that they have been doing in creating a user friendly website. This is the way to go and we hope that more councils will follow suit. Creating a user friendly website does not cost a lot of money but the benefits are huge. Its a pity that most councils-urban and rural are still to appreciate the benefits that can be derived by having a modern website.

This morning we are going to share with you 2 important forms for download. The forms can be downloaded directly from www.hararecity.co.zw

Shop Application

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Licencing Checklist

Larfarge Cement Zimbabwe as launched the TAVAKA ne Larfarge Franchise Container programme. Through the programme, the company will deploy the TAVAKA ne Larfarge franchise in residential and commercial sites around the country.

Requirements to becomee a TAVAKA ne Larfarge franchisee

Initial capital equivalent to 1 truck load

Location visible and close to the market

Surface area 30square metres for a 40ft container

Parking space: Offloading and loading

Land ownership: Able to secure working space

Owner motivation: Entreprenuerial skills(Owner runs the container shops)

Customer should be a first time operator of a Larfarge container

For more details contact Rudo Mudimu on 0782707763 or email rudo.mudimu@larfargeholcim.com or visit http://www.lafarge.co.zw/

One of the biggest assets in business is information! Information about business opportunities, current, emerging or future opportunities. They say information is power and if you have none then you can be at a great disadvantage.

Information about opportunities is obviously not easy to obtain and sometimes to obtain it you may need to part with an arm and a leg-it is pricey! Realising the gap in information, ZBIN embarked on a community service to enable Zimbabweans to have access to business information. This is our Objective Number 1. To provide a lot of information on opportunities in Zimbabwe for the benefit of everyone including our key constituency-The Diaspora! We also have in mind members living in remote areas where information may not easily be accessible.

Last Saturday was an outreach programme for ZBIN and we participated at a business forum conducted by church leaders in Marlborough. An invite came at short notice and we had to prepare some material to share with a group of Christian brothers based in Marlborough. At this meeting attended by close to 20 members, we emphasised the importance of being ready for business opportunity cycles, the skills needed to identify opportunities and gave a few examples. The good news is that Zimbabweans are taking an interest in business especially networking for business. Zimbabweans are getting into groups where they share information about business and investment. Some are pooling resources and taking advantage of opportunities that currently exist.

So at this meeting some complained about lack of capital. Some had brilliant ideas but could not execute them due to capital constraints. We then posed this question –‘Are you aware of current Government Initiatives that support small businesses?’

To our surprise no one could answer the question and this is of concern, serious concern to us. Without information you are at a great disadvantage as earlier explained. Without information you may be found complaining about lack of opportunities when some have access to this information for free.

We referred the group to recent initiatives which are publicly known.

1. The Homelink Initiative of $15m that helps Individuals, Cross Border Traders and SMEs with capital which has an interest of 1%. A new initiative where collateral may not be a big issue as an applicant can find an employed relative who can be a guarantor of the loan.
2. We also explained a recent Reserve Bank initiative that resulted in the establishment of a Women’s Bank Loan Facility at POSB. The facility is for women interested in business.

There are more initiatives such as the promotion of exports by ZIMTRADE, market surveys by ZIMTRADE and the order to reduce of interest rates to below 12% by the Government.

So information is available in newspapers and local radio but surprisingly few people take notice. For ZBIN members we have done a lot to provide information on Capital Access. Access to Capital is our number 3 objective and we did post about the Homelink Initiative, do follow our recent posts on this site for reference.

Do not miss formal Member Registration coming next week.

We add another list of Top Tenders from Zimbabwe compiled by your favourite business forum-ZBIN!

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By now you should have seen a pattern…ZBIN does not run out of ideas when it comes to opportunities identification!This is something that now runs naturally in our blood. From May 2017 more ideas will be shared with registered members but for now we will continue giving out ideas to the nation irrespective of your membership status.

Today let us  take a closer look at the transport industry. The Kombis market is over saturated-Some say every new opportunity in Zimbabwe has a lifespan of 3 months. You can make profits in a sector for 3 months before competitors enter the field and wipe away profits.This assertion is however debatable because there are certain sectors where players have been active for years earning above average profits.

So our case study is the Transport Industry looking specifically at trucks for driving schools. We have left out trucks for hire to other sectors its risky. Unless you have reliable people to run or over see transport business projects-kungonyudza mari as you will be conned!

We have chosen trucks for hire out to driving schools because the demand for driving is still high despite current economic challenges. Charges in Harare vary from $250-$400 week. No need to worry of fuel costs or drivers phoning saying that the vehicle has been impounded. No worries of drivers hiring out the vehicle without your knowledge.

So if you are thinking of shipping trucks to Zim then this is an area you need to look closely at. In future ZBIN will compile a list of driving schools so that you can easily get in touch with them.

Wishing you a blessed weekend

Zimbabwe is made up of two countries- Real Zimbabwe and Virtual Zimbabwe. You can break down Virtual Zimbabwe into Local and Diaspora. There are opportunities, plenty of them in Real Zimbabwe but the field is increasingly getting congested. Now Virtual Zimbabwe seems to have opportunities for everyone irrespective of who you are!

There are loads of opportunities and the good or bad thing is that most Zimbos are still to understand about these opportunities. Conventional education does not cover in detail opportunities in ‘Virtual Zimbabwe’ where opportunities are unlimited.

In ‘Virtual Zimbabwe’ you can set up factories, mining companies, retail shops, newspapers, shopping malls, vehicle sales….hey there are no limits kani. So its easy to give up and say there are no opportunities in Real Zimbabwe because our education was tailor made to grab opportunities in Real Zimbabwe, our role models are people who made monies in Real Zimbabwe…this talk of Virtual Zimbabwe is alien…its an outer space phenomenon!

So u can easily give up all hope when you fail in the Real Zimbabwe but guess what? The good news is that opportunities abound in Virtual Zimbabwe if you are innovative, are willing to work hard and got integrity.

You are reading this article on Virtual Zimbabwe, Calculate the amount of time per week that you spend on Virtual Zimbabwe, some have more friends on Virtual Zimbabwe than in real life….so Virtual Zimbabwe is the future. For now there are still obstacles with less internet coverage in most parts of Zimbabwe but try and imagine 20 years from now. In 20 years internet will be free-everywhere….go to Rwanda for a case study. Visit some Asian countries for inspiration.

Real and Virtual-The battle

Have you seen that there is real battle going on between the 2 Zimbabwe? Look at newspapers…in some developed countries they have done away with newspapers; you no longer find newspapers for sale on street corners. All news is now online or virtual….Banks are downsizing with online transactions taking over…The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) recently closed shop in Harare because they computerized most operations including exams…no more need to send physical exam papers to Harare or Bulawayo for exam candidates and transporting them back to UK.

So the risk here is if you lose interest in Virtual Zimbabwe then you will be swept aside by the Virtual Tide. Virtual Zimbabwe is the future and already we are witnessing more time by youngsters being spend on Virtual Zimbabwe…already over 4 million Zimbos are on Virtual Zimbabwe with the number expected to increase in the future. It is affecting every facet of our lives-families now have Whatsapp Groups, Schools are now connected on Whatsapp and Facebook. There is a whole lot more happening and I may need the entire day to write it up

Grabbing Opportunities

The purpose of this article if for you to grab a piece of Virtual Zimbabwe. To occupy and take advantage of this ‘new country’ where the old generation does not fully appreciate. A Virtual Zimbabwe which is not comprehensively covered in the old system of education. Some are still stuck in Real Zimbabwe and do not see any benefits of the Virtual Zimbabwe…some are even dismissing it out rightly. The fact that some are still decades away from appreciating Virtual Zimbabwe is a big advantage for you.

So go and have a plan to grab a piece of land on Virtual Zimbabwe-occupy as many hectares as possible and resale it in future. Go and build factories, build your own shopping malls, your own stadiums, your own stores and the cost of building is very cheap!

We will cover more opportunities in Virtual Zimbabwe and show developments in this country which is less populated.

NB* Article to be part of a presentation by ZBIN to a group of college students.

One of our biggest initiatives to date is the Tenders Tracker. The tracker allows our members to have one central place to access latest tender information in Zimbabwe. In future we are going to cover more countries in Southern Africa so that the tracker becomes Regional.

Your truly has a lot of experience in applying for tenders and reviewing tenders. I therefore hope to share with you a lot of tips and resources on winning tenders. The hope is to see more ZBIN members becoming experts at winning tenders.

When developing the tracker, we had 2 groups of people in mind. The first is the Diaspora Community-folks who are not likely to ever have access of this information because most tenders are advertised in local newspapers in hard copy format. So the Diaspora Community should easily have access of this information through our site and online newsletters. This information should help them to partner with locals in securing goods or services which may not be available locally. With free information about tenders being available, the Diaspora Community can be able to track what is trending in Zimbabwe and make informed decisions when it comes to investment. Our last tender tracker shows that there is an increase in the IT sector with computers, laptops and software upgrades being on top of the list. So you can read the tracker with an interest to apply for tenders or read the tracker with the purpose of checking what is trending, which areas are on high demand.

The second group we are interested in are remote areas. Someone teaching in Binga, a District Administrator in Chivi, a Policeman in Chimanimani, A teacher in Lalapanzi. This group of people maybe at a disadvantage when it comes to business information. They may not have access to newspapers resulting in a lot of opportunities bypassing them. ZBIN would like to break barriers when it comes to business and investment opportunities-this is why we consider remote areas whenever we are coming up with new initiatives or programmes.

So let us talk about Tender Reviews and the help we can give our members. The process of tenders is that you must first qualify by meeting all requirements listed on the tender advert. Most people or applicants usually miss out or fail at the first hurdle simply by ignoring instructions!

We will share with you a checklist for tenders so that you can download and use. This article is looking at the last hurdle to winning a tender-Physical Verification of Premises. After shortlisting prospective applicants, the Tender Committee usually visits the premises of companies that had bid for tenders. Let us assume that there are 3 companies and they have all been shortlisted for tenders. Company A has no premises, Company B is located at the residential premises of the owner and Company C has got premises, secured premises located at Harare Exhibition Park.

Who wins the tender based on physical verification is an obvious guess….Company C located at Harare Exhibition Park! So it is important to have physical location for your business and they should be presentable and you should have in mind that its should be appealing to prospective employees, customers,suppliers,partners and potential tender verification committees. There are marks allocated for business location!

Below we give you an article on tips for looking for business premises. You need to balance costs and benefits before finalising on a place to locate your business.

Tips when looking for business premises