Entrepreneurship is made up of 2 parts, the arts side and the science part.

The science part is relatively easy as its covered at school—your accounting, law, human resources, risk management etc. Zimbabwe has excess capacity on this area. Google searches can pull out millions of pages on any topic on the area.

The arts side: How to spot opportunities and take advantage at the right time. Essentially how to make money! This is an unstructured field and no one can say they know it all—if this area was as easy as the science aspect, then everyone would be rich!

So ZBIN focuses more on the arts side of business and only 2% of the science aspect. This is reflected in our posts, books and other material. Ku science taabhoo—diplomas, degrees, professional certifications etc. Tikati mu ZBIN buritsai ma qualifications, we will get a Mt Kilimanjaro Mountain of certificates.

So we have been conducting Premium Conversations—perhaps one of the best initiatives this year which started with our meetings in February & March before the novel pandemic scuttled our plans but we are back doing it digitally.

Started with Mr Low, an accountant turned entrepreneur who is into dog breeding with him unable to meet demand from security companies where he sells dogs for between US$300 and US$500. And you are never going to see a newspaper article featuring a dog breeder sharing his experiences!

He also shared how climatic change opportunities are keeping his  team busy with solar installations for boreholes.

He touched on boar goats and how it’s a fast making business venture giving returns faster than cattle rearing. He selflessly shared more information and if you missed—apologies there is no repeat!

Mr Garande the Hybrid Paw Paws Farmer

On Friday we hosted a premium talk show on hybrid paw paw farming with Mr Garande sharing the following information;

• Seed to maturity:  9 months
• Return on investment;

Using minimum yields for a rain fed crop for 1000 plants

–1000 seeds=US$200 or seedlings for US$3000

–Tillage=US$100

–Labour for 12 months=US$3.600

–Manure/fertiliser and pesticides=US$500

–Total inputs=for seeds ($4200) and for seedlings (US$7200)

–Assuming each plant gives you 20 fruits selling at $1 each that means;

–$20k-$4.2 =$16k(seeds) or $13k (seedlings)

• In general paw paws sell for US$1 per kg around the world but in Zimbabwe they can sell for for as high as US$4 per kg.
• Leading producers include Thailand, Brazil, Mexico but Kenya and Tanzania are now being counted as strong forces
• Life span of paw paws-4-5 years but over time they cease to be commercially viable
• Soil types: well drained and slightly alkaline with sandy loam being ideal. The best time to plant is the start of the rain season although in theory you can plant all year round depending on temperatures (avoid winter)
• By products: Papaya Juice, dried papaya, papaya latex for pharmaceutical companies
• Water : Approximately 1500mm annually
• Germination: -8 days to 3 months
• Spacing: 2m x 2m
• Most paw paws in local shops imported from South Africa

So next Friday we tackle Fresh Farm Exports by our forum agronomist Dube.

So we initially lived in caves? Then moved to round huts in villages before moving to cities ka?

Men used to go out to hunt with women staying around with kids to help with chores and the family would meet during the evening for dinner and updates of what would have transpired. This was prime time and our focus of discussion.

Whilst everything else has changed over the past centuries—Prime time has not changed much except adding more hours and we will return to this later.

Let’s go back to the rural areas or the Stone Age.

In the evening dinner served, stories of experiences of hunting being discussed, folk stories for kids, men at a Dare discussing strategic issues—no better definition of Prime Time.

Then urbanisation came and the family structure was disturbed with men heading to the cities with families following later.

The Newspaper Era

But these men still needed social life after work, they needed prime time and the newspaper was invented… available in the morning and evening but this was a cheap version of prime time entertainment and many were not impressed.

The original prime time had experiences—face to face discussions. Everyone participated; laughter, jokes, poetry etc.

The Radio Era

To improve on prime time, they introduced the radio. They added a voice to newspapers and for a while this worked but still this was a cheap version of prime time. Where were the faces?

The Television Era

In came televisions providing a better prime time experience—movies, soccer, cartoons, news etc. We were pretty much close to the original prime time but there was one major problem—who developed TV content? Why did someone dictate the content of Prime Time?

Back to Reality: Digital Era

So digital platforms were created (Internet Era) with social media—a blank platform with no content but users filling it up with own content.

Dear Zbinite, whilst the rest of the world was advancing technologically, one thing remained constant –prime time. And we were trying over the years to go back to history using advanced technology! Isn’t this confusing?

We are technically advancing backward? Now that’s an oxymoron ka?

What are the implications on Digital Marketing?

Your adverts should align with prime time experiences;

• Short: Remember social media is all about entertainment and ads disturb entertainment.
• Entertaining: Disturb entertainment with entertainment ads and few will pick out your tricks. Storytelling, jokes, memes etc
• Relevant: What is trending? Align your ads to trending issues.
• User experiences: How does your ad make users feel emotion-wise?

Sorry for lack of space, I will add more on this interesting topic. Sadly most training on Digital Marketing leave out this crucial step and just dive into how o market on digital platforms without explaining the psychology behind—retracing to history and the experiences factor!

About 99% of ads that we see around are aligned to the newspaper era whereas the world has since moved to the Television and further to the internet Era.

If you did not get access to our Digital Marketing Book, then you need to save this somewhere for this is the anchor of Digital Marketing–forget about all the fancy terms you can bump into. If you do not appreciate the psychological perspective then you haven’t started.

Digital Marketing is the best thing that ever happened to entrepreneurs but it needs some key basics.

All the best