Diaspora Matters

So the Bond Note has come? How has it fared during  the first day? We hope to track the performance of the new currency, the challenges and  the areas that need improvement. For now lets look at the current list of countries that have dollarized and use the United States Dollar as its official currency.

1.Ecuador*

2.East Timor

3.El Salvador

4.Marshall Islands

5.Micronesia

6.Palau

7.Turks and Caicos,

8.British Virgin Islands and

9.Zimbabwe

*Ecuador is an interesting case study which we hope to cover in the coming weeks

Good Morning Investors so the question this morning is ‘Do online opportunities exist for us in Africa?’ Ok to try and answer this question, lets look at a few examples. We hope to make follow ups and stablish whether anyone benefited at all.

1. Teach Online and Conduct Webinars

Tutors are in high demand whether it’s online or offline. Therefore, if you’ve got a brain and like helping others use theirs, become an e-teacher to earn an extra income in your spare time. The only thing you require is to be proficient in your area of expertise and be willing to give up a few hours each week to help someone else. Sites like Tutor.com and TutorVista are places you can sign up with and build a good reputation over time as a coach. If you’re really good, you can conduct lectures, seminars, or webinars that are transmitted online. University and college students are always willing to pay money to gain access into highly-respected online webinars ( This actually work, did pay last year mock exam fees to a Srilankan Institute giving student support for a UK based exam institute)

Online Affiliate

One of the easiest ways to make a few bucks online is to become an affiliate. An affiliate is essentially someone who receives a commission for selling products for other companies, whether it’s on their own site or through another channel like eBay. The best part is that you don’t have to develop any products yourself, just sell other people’s products.

For example, Amazon affiliates can potentially rake in obscene amounts of commission dollars if they work at it. Simply sign up as an affiliate to sell a company’s products using your special referral link, and you can get a commission for each product sold without lifting a finger.

Also, affiliate networks like Shareasale or Click Bank offer a vast array of products to promote as well. Some of the highly contested niches such as health and gambling can make people millionaires. Being an online affiliate can be a great way to create a passive income for you and your family. (This option is still new to most people, untested territory)

Sell Your Own Brand

If you have a knack for creating unique images, there’s no need to fuss over your own inventory. If your creations can be easily printed onto a product, then you can make money. Upload your designs on a variety of websites like CafePress. If someone likes them, the company prints them up and ships the product. You could create unique designs for calendars, books, T-shirts, bags, hats, greeting cards, or posters and get a commission for each one sold. Some of these sites include Zazzle, Teespring and Lulu. (Have you seen ‘Iam Zimbo T-shirts?)

Build Apps

Because smartphones are everywhere, the demand for new and creative apps is increasing in popularity more than ever before. Between Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone market, people are using countless apps everyday. And, most of them are selling right and left. Taking the time to develop and sell a smartphone app may be worth your while since it’s a very lucrative way to earn money online. The apps cost almost nothing to actually develop and don’t involve any shipping or storage costs, which works to expand your overall profit margin. Well performing apps can make thousands in ad revenue each month for their creators, making them another great passive income strategy. (Did you know that to build Apps does not require complex knowledge of IT?)

Buying and Selling Domains

Many people buy and sell domains to earn money online since it takes very little time or investment. You can purchase a domain at its registration price or even much cheaper and then resell it for a profit. But, it always pays to do your homework first on websites like Afternic.com, Sedo.co.uk, or other domain auction websites in order to get a good idea of what’s popular in terms of domain names. An ideal way to find really good names is to check out terminated lists that offer many expired names and have made their way back into the pool for people to buy. (Do follow our article on creating websites

Article to be continued….

We have covered many issues this week from the newsletter test run, members meeting in Harare, numerous posts on investment advice and the promotion of Poultry Farmers.

We have realised that everyone can do farming, practically everyone-the only challenge comes when its time for marketing one’s produce. Marketing is the biggest hurdle when it comes to farming, new schools of thoughts have brought the concept of market linkages where farmers are linked with markets first before they even undertake any agricultural activity.

You identify the market first, you sign provisional Memorandum of Understanding before you prepare the land for any agricultural activity. So as ZBIN we have realised this hurdle and in a small way we hope to assist. We are hoping to create one national register of Poultry Farmers whereby farmers can register for free their products. This register will become accessible to potential marketers and buyers. We are starting slowly with just 250 or so farmers from the ZBIN stable and assessing how it goes. If this becomes a success then we will share the stories for replication by anyone who follows ZBIN.

We are also slowly using the same concept in the Holidays Vehicles for Hire program where we are inviting ZBIN members with cars available for hire to register and earn extra income during the Holidays. The idea is that anyone coming to Zimbabwe has few options when it comes to vehicle hiring, ZBIN is therefore creating more options for you by creating a large pool of vehicles for hire. This program is targeted at tourists and returning Diasporans. The uptake has been extremely poor and perhaps this is due to the fact that this is a new initiative and members are still to grasp what this is all about. Just like when we first brought the concept of Online Forex Trading-it looks like we have to do more to highlight the risks and benefits of this scheme. So expect us to cover this several times before it becomes a success.

Resources permitting we would have loved to be trendy and develop Apps for our several forum initiatives. We are therefore inviting members out there to get in touch and help the forum in developing various Business Apps which solve some of the problems that our members encounter.

Our long term vision

Our long term vision is to help improve the income levels of our members! Members should benefit by having free business and investment advice on their fingure tips-no need to pay or say thank you to anyone. You get free business advice and you become empowered to do better decision making, you invest wisely. So we will continue to share free business advice with the ony challenge being that its general business advice. We are hoping to provide you with detailed, statistical based information but our only challenge being that of lack of time on our part. All of the management team of ZBIN is composed of professionals who are busy elsewhere. We only come here on a part time basis.

We hope to continue with more initiatives that promote products and services from members for free. We only have time to help members on Sunday afternoons, so get in touch if you would like to be featured on your website or Facebook Page. Get in touch if you have any business problem or challenge, we promise to do our best when it comes to information.

Bulawayo Meeting

After the Harare meetings-the next focus is on Bulawayo where our Deputy CEO, Mr Polite Ndlovu will be leading the resuscitation of the group in Bulawayo. He will -be ably assisted by Catherine Shava and Theresa Sithole. We are not looking for a meeting with a huge number-just 8-15 should be enough. This group will look at how members can benefit from working together in various ways such as marketing, sharing of ideas and formal registration of their business ventures. In attendance will be members from various ZBIN groups such as Poultry, Transport, Baking, Poultry, Online Forex Trading, Agriculture and Mining. The Poultry group should provide the bulk of the members to attend this event.

Webinars Use

We like to include everyone in our meetings irrespective of location. We do not have facilities to carry out webinars so that our members especially those in the diaspora can participate in our business meetings. This may happen in the next 6 months if all goes well. In the meantime we are ensuring that we keep this key community informed, we also share photos and videos.

Upcoming Posts

Do look forward to an interview with a sister based in Canada whom we will interview so that she can provide members with information in relation to immigration, living in Canada, Education in Canada and other general information about beautiful Canada. Time permitting, we may also cover our Forum Founder based in Tete, Mr Kiva Chiputu. More general posts to come including my pleasant experience at the Passport Office. We will also be actively promoting forum registers especially the Investors, Poultry and Vehicle for hire registers. So register if you would like to be promoted for free.

Wishing you a blessed and productive week

Munemo

Thank you for massive responses, more than 4,000 participants. So which country came tops?

1. Malawi
2. South Africa
3. Zimbabwe
4. Zambia
5. Botswana
6. Uganda

Individual Winners,  Fastest Answer to the Quiz : Sec Ezra Chiphiko Chiwala from Malawi

So thank you for the support, you guys are awesome! We will continue with Regional Quiz next Friday.

So we keep getting inquiries about how to join ZBIN(Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network). Some asking how much money they need to pay to join etc . Ok good folks, Munemo and friends formed ZBIN as a hobby and we are mostly around during weekends. Forum posts are done all week between 5:00am and 6:00am during the morning and in the evening it is between 8:00pm and 9:00pm.

We currently have over 28,000 members on Facebook and 6,000 on WhatsApp. We are hoping to create formal registration forms on the website next week so that you can formally register with us. We will not charge anyone any fee for registration. Life is tough for everyone and we hope to unlock investment opportunities without members having paid a penny for now.

So bear with us as we put all logistics in order. The current project we are working on during this weekend is our Inaugural ZBIN newsletter which should reach out to more than 2,000 members who registered their emails.

Thecla Mchibwa -Gweru

We can supply 200 +Chickens in Gweru. Bulk sales 10 for $55 or singles for $6.50. Contact Julie on +263 77 619 2920 or WhatsApp on +263 77 552 9612

Edwin , Harare, Broilers available, Mobile 0775848184

 Catherine Shava –Bulawayo Broilers available, 0776196313

 Apolonia Zava  Hatfield-Harare:I have got chickens for sale at $6 and $5 for bulk buying am in. App 0735599342 or call 0773160568.

Edward chikunichawa · 1000 birds for sale from 04-12-16 they will be 7 weeks old by then. priced @ 6 negotiable depending on quantity required. live or dressed we deliver. we are in mhondoro 21km from beatrice contact 0783214485

Admire Danda –Harare-Malborough,Broilers available 0772 807 022

Nyashanu :Broilers dressed 5 dollars Contact 077356063

Raymond Muringai :300 chickens for sale from 02-12-16 2.3kg average live weight at $4.30/bird 0718 911 877 am in Harare

Lydia Matiza Gumbie :Lovely broilers 1.5kg plus, $6/bird in Harare. Whatsapp or call 0773 940 195

Busi in Bulawayo: Broilers Available, $7 per bird singles or $6.5 in bulk. Contact Numbers 0717748550/0771775970

Do you like to  create your own website? Are you scared and thinking that its a complex process that involves a lot of complex IT stuff? Well here is good news for you-website creation has been made easy for non IT professionals.

When we created the first ZBIN website that was specific to poultry business, we paid a huge sum of $400 to this developer who did a shoddy job and later on removed the website under unclear circumstances-so our investment went down the drain just like that?

So we decided to create our own website and visited YouTube for guidance. Below are the following easy steps you can take in the creation of your own website;

1. Visit www.hostgator.com and select -webhosting
2. Choose the plan that you like-there are 3 options
3. Choose domain name- you will find out whether the name is available or not.
4. If your name is available, then complete the rest of the boxes and find out how much you need to pay
5. Settle amount -visa cards from Zimbabwe are not accepted and this is why I had to seek help from one of the forum founders, Chamu based in USA. The rest of Southern Africa countries should work.
6. Congrats if you have done this part and wait for 24 hours before your website name is registered and an account created.

You will receive registration details notifications and passwords. Please make sure that you keep your password secure and never share it with anyone.

The next stage is building your site and this should not take you time. You can use the expert advice from the video (Make a website step by step) which is found on YouTube.

Time expected to make your first website is approximately 6 hours and you can do this during weekends. If you use the tutorial from the YouTube, then you will never go wrong.

Do expect to pay extra charges for some plugins but this should not be more than $100 depending on what is on your wallet. Do not pay for the whole year, I recommend 2-3 months subscriptions. During this time you can assess whether website creation is for you or not.

So its not as complicated as it seems, iam still learning and am trying to find how to insert the Facebook link on the website-last week I learnt about how to create a newsletter which I will be sending to members to registered members at the end of the day.

Benefits of the process

1.You can become a professional website developer and earn money through designing websites for companies and individuals, you will be able to use your website as reference

2. You can earn money through hosting adverts: One easy way is AdSense adverts from Google-they normally approve your application after the website has been in existence for 6months or so, that’s why we have no Google adverts on the website.

3. You can make money through E-Commerce, selling your products and services online.

There are a lot of benefits from creating your own website just make sure you use the platform responsibly. Just find your passion, which areas are you good at? Is it business, tourism, fashion, religion? Once you have  established your area, then go for it- visit other website for inspiration.

As for ZBIN, the website is still far from perfect, we still need a discussion forum, the menu needs to be adjusted, we need a ZBIN professional email address-there is no contact details on the menu etc.

So get your website this festive season and if you run into problems then contact me on vicmunemo@yahoo.com. If you are a first time developer I suggest you do it during Sunday afternoons, do contact me for free advice.

In next article, I will give you more advice on how to drive traffic to your website and more information on E-Commerce.

Wishing you a blessed Sunday

Good morning folks: So we are slowly entering the festive season and during this period there is a lot of travelling going on. Take for example Zimbabwe, a lot of the Diasporan Community will be flocking back. You can also add the tourists who will be visiting our wonderful country.

Now we have realised that car rental firms usually increase their car rental fees, sometimes by as much as 100%. So ZBIN has realised a gap-Car Rental Services in Zimbabwe during the festive season.

So if you have a car and are willing to hire it during the festive season-then ZBIN will assist you to earn an extra dollar during the festive season.

Do register below for free. On our part we are going to distribute and promote the list. It will become Zimbabwe’s official Car Rental Register for the 2016 festive season.

For registering just write your name ( does not have to be full name), your location, car model  and contact number.

Siyabonga

*PS- Kombis or buses for hire invited too

The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network (ZBIN) does not offer anyone money, we also do not actively seek money from members by asking for registration fees or even training fees.

We formed the group in order to unlock endless business opportunities through Innovation! Getting members together to discuss business and find how we can all benefit for the betterment of ourselves and our country as a whole, no hidden costs-you get free information and disappear without need to say Thank You!

Formed in February 2015 we have a Facebook page with endless business tips and discussions. One of the founder, Munemo has been giving free advice to the Zimbabwean Community since 2013. We believe that its possible to create endless opportunities without the need for a lot of resources. Take for instance this website where one of the founders Chamu paid $90 for a subscription of the website that will last 3 months. I also chipped in with $60 to pay for various website plugins.

So with only $150 we have managed to share numerous business articles, free investment advice and tips. We are also in the process of helping Zimbabweans seeking investors to register so that we have one central register for investment.

With an investment of $150 we are helping Zimbabwean farmers to connect with potential buyers under in a symbiotic relationship that enables farmers to sell produce at zero cost. We are also actively promoting the website to our members so that they can support members selling products and services.

Diaspora Connection

We have also realised that the Diasporan community is a key stakeholder in the Zimbabwean Economy, this key community remits close to a billion dollars every year to Zimbabwe. This community can even send more money if the right policies for investment are put in place. ZBIN management team is made up of mostly diasporans-75% of the management team is based on foreign soil. So this platform that cost us $150, we are one central place for Diaspora Investment where they can come for free business news and resources. They can also come and link up with potential investors based in Zimbabwe.

All of us are doing this as a hobby that’s why we are not charging any fee, our only joy coming from the fact that we are helping our members, our country and the world at large. We are also showing folks that you do not necessarily need billions of dollars to create opportunities -$200 can generate millions of dollars or more if we use innovation and are willing to work hard.

Apolitical

There is a close linkage between business and politics but as ZBIN we have always maintained our distance from politics and to date we have not had any problem with anyone. So everyone is free to join no matter your background and we believe this stance will enable us to help everyone. Our group is a law abiding group and will be formally registered in January 2017

Zero Tolerance to Fraud

The forum does not tolerate fraudsters. We therefore do not tolerate illegal or dubious money making schemes. Our stance on MMM where we warned members is a case in mind.

Regional Expansion

Our group will be covering regional business information looking at Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania South Africa and Angola. We will be covering stories for members who are based in these countries.

So in summary ZBIN is showing the world that with hard work and innovation, we can help to unlock endless opportunities . We may not even need a lot of resources as shown by our $150 investment!

We would like to thank the more than 13,000 visitors to the site which was formed on 1 November 2016. That translates to more than 600 visits per day. Kindly help by freely sharing advice that will help visitors to the site.

Thank You, Zikomo, Twalumbwa, Siyabonga, Dankie