I’m sure you’ve heard of consultants before and have wondered what it is that consultants do. You’ll get many vague explanations but consultants are simply professionals who are (usually) experienced in a field and can provide advice to others in the field. Consultants can build businesses around their tacit knowledge and it is a lucrative area of business.
These professionals because of their years of in-depth experience in a field can be engaged to look at your business in that field and give you solid advice. They’re capable of saving you from errors, boosting your business and helping you comply with the law because of their knowledge and experience. Consultancy as a business also has the advantage of little to no overhead, most of the business knowledge is in the heads of the team. The biggest expense for consultants is labour hours. So consultancy also has the advantage of providing lots of room for profit.
There are many different types of consultants; finance, law, education, marketing, engineering, security and many more applications. Here are some consultancy business ideas for Zimbabwe that you could jump into if you have the requisite knowledge and experience.
Social media
Social media is big business and still growing in Zimbabwe. You will need a demonstrated ability to manage social media and industry experience or understanding will count big time with your clients. You have just two jobs as a consultant. The first is convincing the client you can bring value to their business and the second is delivering that value. Lowballing can help you get in the door but may hurt you in the long run if clients get used to the idea of your fees being low. Your ability with various platforms will be the most valuable here.
Financial
This is the big one. Especially in our economy. The knowledge requirement here is massive though. You will not only need a great knowledge of accounting but will also need to be adept at Finance, Tax Law, Macroeconomics and monetary economics if you want to be of value in Zimbabwe. Of course, all these capabilities need not be in one individual. It’s customary to have teams of specialists in a single consultancy firm. You will certainly find a large percentage of Zimbabweans in business will be interested in this.
Public Relations consultancy
Now, I really shouldn’t have to explain how important public relations as a practice in Zimbabwe is important. We have seen some outright crazy things happen in the public domain. From business owners abusing aggrieved clients to people in important positions saying things that are better not said at all. Public relations isn’t just about press statements and press conferences. Every single interaction that happens with anyone outside an organisation and sometimes even those within is a Public relations matter. Public relations should also not be approached in a reactionary manner. Good public relations is not being a fixer, its evidenced when no fixing is necessary. Public relations consultancy requires knowledge and experience in mass communications, psychology and publicity.
Style/Fashion
This is a form of consultancy that can have individual customers and is very lucrative. Just remember that public figures too need to be dressed and styled so the customer pool is vast. The idea is to coordinate both purchases and dressing choices to project a particular image or brand. Clothes do not, of course, maketh the man or woman but how you wear them does say a lot about you. It also extends to health and beauty matters and some make decent money being a skin consultant in Zimbabwe. You will need demonstrated knowledge of matters fashion, style and beauty depending on what you choose. Attention to customers pays off big here.
Information Communication Technology
Computers and all things ICT are the future but here’s the problem, without adequate machine power we are not going far. IT or ICT consultants are there to look at organisations goals and activities and work out the correct systems for them. It doesn’t stop there as they can even improve business processes by including IT solutions in the process. This consultancy suits people with great experience in IT, ICTs, Networking and related fields. It’s also useful to have someone with a great understanding of business processes in the team. It’s not so much about advancing IT adoption or systems but rather about improving businesses through IT.
Cyber Security
While we are on the subject of IT we should talk about cybersecurity. We have put so much of ourselves online. On Thursday 16th July, we woke up to the story of twitter accounts belonging to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Barack Obama and other high profile people were hacked into and used in a bitcoin scam. Now, this particular breach happened from within Twitter but it still highlights the dangers we are exposed. Millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin were lost by unsuspecting individuals. Cybersecurity is important and the importance cannot be underestimated especially in Zimbabwe. Experts in cybersecurity will also need some understanding of business processes because they represent the risks to security. Services will mostly be offered B2B but cases of B2C service can be expected.
These consultancy business ideas represent some of the best opportunities in the current circumstances. It’s customary to build a consultancy team because of the vast knowledge required to succeed in the line of business.