The business of business is growing in Zimbabwe. The rate at which people are starting businesses, nor to be confused with side hustles is encouraging. For those with certain skills, this presents some golden opportunities to start businesses or offer certain business support services. Realistically businesses outsource many functions these days and this is where the opportunity arises. The following are the areas in which small and emerging businesses need support and are willing to pay for it.
Sales
This is really where it all happens in business. Make a sale and you’re in business. Keep making sales and you stay in business. Stop making sales and you’re out of business. Selling is important to businesses but sales skills are very difficult to come by. Everybody can sell, here and there but consistently getting people to hand over money is not easy. This is something many business people would be happy to get help with. Selling doesn’t just happen when you talk to customers, talking to customers is often the last part of a sale, not the first. So Selling is a mentality that needs to go into every part of the business. You can set up a consultancy or get hands-on and manage the pipeline.
Delivery
Reports indicated that one of the biggest problems plaguing the proliferation of eCommerce in Zimbabwe was the trust in the postal system. Postal systems of course play a key role in the delivery and logistics networks. We’ve noted that many businesses that offer delivery in Zimbabwe have had to do so by managing their own logistics network. This involves fleet management and employee hiring amongst other things. Providing simplified delivery for businesses that want to reach customers would make a great business idea.
Ecommerce
Partly spurred by technology and partly forced by the pandemic, eCommerce is getting a fair shout in Zimbabwe. Not everybody in business can readily offer eCommerce. That doesn’t mean there isn’t space for their products online though. Aggregators are big hits in the African eCommerce landscape and an aggregator that offers businesses a simple way to get online and into eCommerce can go a long way. Many businesses would want in but find the requirements a lot to get their minds around. A business that helps people get into this has the potential to do very well.
Marketing
Sales get you the money and marketing gets you the people that give you the money. Marketing is certainly an established practice but as more businesses look online they have the struggle of traversing digital and social media marketing. These two practices whilst deriving a lot from traditional marketing also have their nuance and idiosyncrasies. That’s an area where you can create a business that supports businesses. There’s a lot to think about from content creation, community management, branding, brand strategy, graphics and a whole lot more.
Customs and clearing
Many products that Zimbabwean customers desire need to be imported from as close as South Africa and as far afield as the People’s Republic of China. Importing comes with a lot of complexity especially in customs and clearing. Those with suitable experience can create businesses that expedite and/or simplify the process of processing shipments through customs and clearance of goods. The business has massive growth potential as things stand and they are not likely to change soon.
Accounting and finance
Finance is a big area of concern for many small and emerging businesses. It’s not an easy thing to figure out, how to get your finances right. For those with accounting and finance skills coupled with experience in business finance, there’s an opportunity to provide services to businesses. From bookkeeping, accounting, statutory submissions and financial analysis there are many ways those with businesses can use help in accounting and finance.
As businesses emerge and grow they will greater the depth or scale of these services. We need not wait for them to grow though, many businesses need these services and assistance from the ground up.
