One of our objectives is to equip our members with opportunity identification skills. A ZBIN member should have a competitive advantage over others when it comes to spotting investment opportunities. Before others realise what is happening, a ZBIN member should have taken up all opportunities!
Let me tell you of this interesting story that happened a few years back. Legend has it that a Nigerian brother visited Harare for the first time. When he was being driven from Harare International Airport, she shocked the cab driver when he started shouting ‘I can see money, I can see money-money, money money’. Our brother from West Africa kept on repeating the money, money much to the bewilderment of the cab driver. The local cab driver initially thought he had collected a mad person because it did not make sense- How does one see invisible money?
So when they reached the Coke Corner, the cab driver who had kept quiet all long driving from the airport, decided to inquire about this ‘money’ that our brother kept referring to?
Do you want to know his answer? His answer was that the many cars that he saw on the road represented nothing but Money! To him cars meant more business in terms of car parts or service kits! So it is very easy to overlook investment opportunities when you are a resident of a particular area. So we would like our members to think like our brother from West Africa who was seeing ‘money’ which was invisible to the cab driver.
I have already provided you with a post where I talked about having an investment mind-set. You can search the post on our website-brilliant article about having a positive mind-set that helps in identifying opportunities.
New Suburb –New Opportunities
So what do I have to share with you this evening? Well I would like to notify you of a simple way of identifying opportunities in your area-opportunities that are mostly noticed by visitors to an area. The opportunity lies in identifying new residential areas, new developments.
Many people ignore new areas especially when you are not interested in buying residential stands or homes. There is a breed of entrepreneurs who follow new suburbs with the intention of setting up businesses. They will not be interested in buying residential stands nor building homes-their interest is simply in providing business services such as real estate construction, provision of building materials, setting up of tuckshops to sell food and groceries. Some will rush with a view to build creches, setting up car washes or any commercial business.
In 2 week’s time, I hope to cover new suburbs in Harare as a lot is happening in terms of new developments. So take an interest in all new developments in your local area and think about how you can benefit in a commercial sense.
