The trends and challenges for small businesses in Zimbabwe

Greetings students. I figured that for my closing post for this week i would discuss some of the challenges faced by small business owners and possible solutions for some of these problems. It is important to note that most of those problems have been caused by the current economic meltdown and that as always some of these solutions are simply coping mechanisms.
1)Funding
This is one of the biggest problems of every entrepreneur especially in the Zimbabwean context. I have watched many of my friends and relatives trying to find funding for their small businesses and failing. The end result is that many brilliant ideas simply die because there is no money to fund them without selling clothing, furniture, arms and legs. And one of the solutions offered by government, especially to the youth, was a loan service. At the onset this proved very effective until of course officials started becoming corrupt. I however have a more realistic solution and that is drafting up a proposal and a business plan and approaching several, if not all, of the companies within your sphere of influence and asking them to partner with you in your projects. You have to ensure that you retain most of the control of the business so as to reap all the benefits. Besides that it would be a good idea to slowly save up for your business and only start operating after you have adequate funding.

2)Getting and keeping customers

This is especially difficult in Zim because people rely on reputable and established organisations over small businesses that are blossoming. This is usually the case because consumers are afraid of cheap products, services and of being scammed. Thus it is important to be excellent and extremely honest in order to win over consumers and keep them .Many companies also flow much of their revenue towards advertising and establishing their brands as household names. This can be achieved through marketing your services through the Internet,especially Facebook and Twitter, and adding incentives to the services that you already offer. Examples of incentives include notebooks, pens, bags, free coupons, free refreshments and the like.

3) Getting into good books with bigger companies and reaping benefits from those relationships
Small business owners often like to alienate themselves from the big guns simply because they believe they are too small to make any valid contributions to business debates of the day. This is the worst mistake any businessperson can make as the business world is all about making connections with all the right people. If you have already alienated yourself the only way to remedy this is to attend as many luncheons, dinners and business conferences as possible. It is best to have connections in the media to help you establish yourself and your business.
 As always im going to post additional material in helping you overcome some of the problems you may face.

http://www.carolroth.com/blog/the-biggest-challenges-facing-small-business-and-solutions/

https://www.academia.edu/3661331/The_Challenges_of_Youth_Entrepreneurs_In_Zimbabwe_Is_Access_to_Credit_Enough_Review_of_the_Youth_Development_Fund_

https://milliondolla.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/it-is-well-know/

Lastly and most important be willing to solve some of the issues you may face creatively and think out of the box. That is all for this week. HAPPY MONEYMAKING.