Greetings students. For this particular post i decided to share some disturbing statistics and facts from one of our local newspapers so as to inspire you to take small business ideas and entrepreneurship seriously. This is a story from the Zimbabwe Independent.
Zimbabweans earn paltry US$3,50 a day
ABOUT 60% of
Zimbabwe’s seven million adult population, aged 18 years and above, earn
below US$3,50 a day, a research has revealed.
Taurai Mangudhla
This is less than a fifth of the country poverty datum line which stood at US$511 early 2014 for a family of five.
According to a 2014 FinScope Consumer Survey Zimbabwe 2014, 76% of
the country’s adult population earn less than US$200 per month, while
7% has no income at all.
The report shows farming remains the main source of income,
accounting for 36%, followed by salaries and wages at 14% and
self-employment and piecework both at 10%.
The level of poverty in the country is on the rise as 44% of the
population had to skip a meal because of lack of money for food in 2014,
up from 29% in 2011, while 37% of the population had to go without
treatment or medicine due to lack of money in 2014, up from 20% in 2011.
The survey shows 36% of the population has been unable to send
children to school because of lack of fees and uniforms in 2014, up from
25% in 2011.
On basic amenities, the report shows 29% of the country’s population
has access to piped running water, down from 35% in 2011 while access to
electricity for cooking remained flat between 2011 and 2014 at 29%.
Financial inclusion has increased by 17 percentage points from 60% in
2011 to 77% in 2014 mainly due to mobile money services.
Based on the article, it becomes apparent that employment is not the ultimate solution for any Zimbabwean's financial problems but entrepreneurship and being business minded. Many successful individuals in our country were employed simply as a means to an end and not the end itself. If you are employed at present it is important to know that you can become unemployed at any moment because of the country's economic woes so having several means of earning income is very important. For this week, i will not get into much detail about my cocktail of business ideas but i will use this post as a reminder of the importance of being business minded and provide you once more with links ans lists of business ideas you should consider.
1. ACCOUNTANT
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Create
a flier outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know
what those services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a
small business? A more involved level of accounting would be do actually
work up balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports
on a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis, depending on the needs of
the business. Other specializations can include tax accounting, a huge
area of potential work. Many business owners don't mind keeping their
own day-to-day bookkeeping records but would rather get professional
help with their taxes.
2. BICYCLE REPAIR
In
many parts of the country, this business tends to be seasonal, but you
can find ways around that. Rent a storage unit and offer to store
people's bicycles over the winter after you do a tune-up and any needed
repairs on them. If you want to cater to the Lance Armstrong wannabes,
you can have business all year round. These road race riders are
training through snow, sleet and dark of night. Some of them work on
their own bicycles, but many of them don't, so you can get their
business all year. And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you can be sure
you will have a group of enthusiasts coming by to talk all things
cycling.
3. BOAT CLEANING
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Boats
that are hauled out of the water for the winter or even just for
mid-season repairs will need the hull cleaned. And depending on the type
of boat, it is a good time to give a major cleaning everything else
too--the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head, and the holds. Start by
approaching homes that have a boat sitting in the yard. Or you could
market your services to the marina to contract you to do the boat
cleaning it offers to customers.
4. BUSINESS PLAN SERVICE
Has expansion possibilities
Offer
a soup-to-nuts business plan, including market research, the business
plan narrative and the financial statements. Plan your fee around the
main one that the client will want and offer the others as add-on
services. You can give clients an electronic file and allow them to take
it from there, or you can keep the business plan on file and offer the
service of tweaking it whenever necessary. Have business plan samples to
show clients--and make sure to include your own!
5. CHIMNEY SWEEP
Learning
to be a chimney sweep may mean nothing more than apprenticing with
someone already in the business. By becoming a chimney expert, you can
combine a chimney sweep business with a chimney inspection
service--covering more than just whether or not the chimney needs
cleaning but whether the chimney is in good working order or in need of
repair.
6. CLEANING SERVICE
There are many
directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours
when no one else does, you can focus on office clients. You can focus on
retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two
blocks. Restaurants are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can
be a great source of steady clients. Perhaps you would be more
interested in house cleaning. Many times with cleaning services you
don't have to spend lots of money on advertising or marketing because
your customers will come by word of mouth.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start Your Own Cleaning Service.
7. COMPUTER REPAIR
Experience, training or licensing may be needed
Study
the main types of software that system users will want--word
processing, photo manipulation software, mail merge, spreadsheet, design
and especially security software. Investigate all the
components--monitor types in all their varieties; keyboards, from wired
to ergonomic to wireless; mouse types; as well as peripheral components
like printers and scanners. Become completely familiar with all the ISPs
(internet service providers) available in the market area you plan to
cover. Establish yourself as the guru who can meet the needs of the
personal computer user, the small business or a larger corporation.
8. CONSULTANT
Has expansion possibilities
To
be a consultant, you need to have an expertise in something so you can
market yourself as an advisor to others looking to work in that area.
Perhaps you managed several large warehouses in your career with a
drugstore company, you did all the marketing for many years for a large
shoe manufacturer or you set up a chain of beauty supply shops or
take-out restaurants. You can use this experience to help others do
similar things without making the same mistakes that you made along the
way.
To learn more about this business idea, check out Start Your Own Consulting Business.
9. DOG BREEDER
Experience, training, or licensing may be needed
While many people are willing to
adopt from animal shelters, others are looking for a specific breed.
Purebred dogs are more popular than ever and can command large sums of
money. But becoming a dog breeder is serious business catering to savvy
consumers with high expectations of their pet purchases. You will need
to establish yourself as a conscientious breeder who cares about the
health and welfare of the animals you bring into the world.
10. EBAY ASSISTANT
Do
you have items lurking around your household that you could sell on
eBay? Figure out your asking price and decide whether to auction it or
put it in your eBay store. Then decide if you want a minimum bid and how
long you want the auction to last. You will want to establish a PayPal
account to use for transactions. The eBay website provides all the
information you need to know to get up and running with an eBay
business.
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