Welcome to 2010
Compliments of the season to everyone and a warm welcome to a the new year. I must say my Festive break was a pure bliss. Enjoying my first hot Christmas in years. Well maybe that’s not so true as I was here on holiday in Dec 07. I guess the main difference between then and now was that, in Dec ‘07 the banks had run out of ZIM dollars, and the there was some maximum withdrawal limit or something of that sort set by the reserve bank. But this time around, I celebrated the festive season with Braii(BBQ) after braii!
Damn ndakarowa nyama(I ate loads of meat)! Aside from the eating and chilling, I took some time out to do some catch-up on ideas and projects that I had started end of ‘09. Oh and had to get back to work and start invoicing my clients, it's school fees craze every Jan in Zim. Some people have been known to sell their cars at silly prices just to raise the necessary fees. hint hint.. when you want to by a car 4 cheap in Zim, go to ABC Auctions week before school starts and grab yourself a bargain!
Compliments of the season to everyone and a warm welcome to a the new year. I must say my Festive break was a pure bliss. Enjoying my first hot Christmas in years. Well maybe that’s not so true as I was here on holiday in Dec 07. I guess the main difference between then and now was that, in Dec ‘07 the banks had run out of ZIM dollars, and the there was some maximum withdrawal limit or something of that sort set by the reserve bank. But this time around, I celebrated the festive season with Braii(BBQ) after braii!
Damn ndakarowa nyama(I ate loads of meat)! Aside from the eating and chilling, I took some time out to do some catch-up on ideas and projects that I had started end of ‘09. Oh and had to get back to work and start invoicing my clients, it's school fees craze every Jan in Zim. Some people have been known to sell their cars at silly prices just to raise the necessary fees. hint hint.. when you want to by a car 4 cheap in Zim, go to ABC Auctions week before school starts and grab yourself a bargain!
It’s been an interesting start to 2010, on my end this marks the beginning of what I believe will be an amazing year. I really believe blessings upon blessings are about to fall on the motherland (Zim), and don’t think it’s because of the fact that next door in SA the world’s best footballers will be showing off their stuff, but simply because the atmosphere in Zim has changes. I dare say as one drives around Harare, one may experience the type of subtle vibe and good feelings reminiscent of the mid 90’s. People are moving around and activity in and around the shopping centers is some what normal, to to the way it was back in the mid 90’s. I guess you’ve guesses by now that 90’s where my best years in Zim( what were yours)?
Anyways as I mentioned before the start of 2010 has been very interesting, with new opportunities landing on my door step from the get go. I’m having to stop myself from pouncing onto them as I fear I may spread myself too loose. On that point here is a round up of the past week and some of the observations I made, and lessons I learnt.
Monday - Office Break In - Don’t forget the hidden forces
Whilst I was getting ready to go to the office and start the year off with a bang, I got a sudden call from our care taker. Matsotsi(robbers) had broken in, sometime in the early hours and he wasn’t sure what had been stolen. I quickly made my way to the office and tried to make sense of stuff. To cut a long story short and get to the analysis, a couple of guys had jumped in, killed the electric fence(somehow) and forced the door open with a screw driver, broken into the office and left with …..guess what… some bond paper and a few dollars. They hadn’t touched or taken anything else(computers etc). I guess they were after some cash! It's good thing we don't keep cash on premises. We are now forced to keep a 24hr guard on site (something my business partner and I had obviously not budgeted for), anyway this nicely leads me to my analysis.
Take a few steps back to the point when I got the call, I was a little shook no doubt, but on the other side of things, I recall having flash backs of a book I read some time back, something about success, competitors and criminals. I think one thing I had gotten used to in the UK was knowing that I could leave things in a certain way and expect them to stay in that state until I returned. But here in Zim the reality is what ever you are getting into, always think about the guy who’s looking from afar feeling like, ‘I wish that was my business, I wish that was my laptop, I wish that was my car. LET ME TAK IT’!!!! These people are only there to hinder progress. But that's all they do hinder. They can't stop a dedicated entrepreneur once they set their minds to something.
Lesson Leant
What ever business you will be setting up. Remember there will always be stuff that will try and bring you down. I believe those things are actually there to make you stronger and more determined. Just stay focused against all adversaries.
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - Slow Start to the Year
It seemed nobody was getting back to my emails or messages. I guess everyone but myself took an extra long holiday. I was now getting into a panic as I needed to get responses to my invoices, even the guys in the UK! They call it January Disease.Was feeling it already.
Friday - Sometimes We Want To Run Before We Can Crawl
Had a pleasant surprise visit from some family, they came over to look at the business we are setting up ( Internet café Business Lounge-A first In Zim-had to plug that). Showed them around, and explained the concept and the thoughts behind the business, we had a good chat. After they left I remember feeling like damn," this is going to be difficult. By the time I get the flyers printed for this target group, but the time I get the pictures on the wall, by the time I etc etc". I guess I have big plans for the business, but the plans didn’t tally up with the available funds. It’s only when I sat down to speak to my office manager (who is raring to go) that I realised that I was moving too fast. He suggested a very basic format for getting the ball rolling and boy way, it was like a breath of fresh air. We actioned it straight away and started plotting for the coming week. Will break down the plan for you in due course but it’s winner!
Lesson learnt
Sometime when you believe the task ahead will be tough and difficult to achieve. Share your frustrations with the people around you. They may help you see something you have totally overlooked.
Saturday - Taking the Opportunity to Make new contacts
Saturday morning, took a trip down to Chi Town (Chitungwiza) to check up on another of my little business ventures. Picked up a cousin on the way so we could discuss some other opportunities along the journey. The ideas were flowing well, I think we are onto something. Anyway once we were back into Harare, I offered to drop him off at an uncles house who was having a get together that afternoon. As I dropped him off, I was introduce to the host who happens to be a rather prominent well respected business man and chief exec and bunch of his friends.
My first instincts where damn I could meet some interesting people here and make contacts, but I had run out of business cards and there would be no where open for me to print a quick run. (There’s a business idea for some young entrepreneur - open up a 2 hours business card company that works though out the weekend!). To add to it I was tired and decided to leave and head home, which wasn’t too far a way. Arrived at home, and thought twice, and told myself that I could just go back and at least make friends and stay away from business issues, as I would not have my arsenal (business cards) at hand. In fact I came up with a master backup plan, I decided to download some of my work onto my ipod touch ( incase I haven‘t mentioned, amongst all the other things I dabble in, I’m an exceptional, award winning web/graphic/architectural 3d modeling designer) so I threw on some of my latest works , just in case I got the opportunity to sell to somebody.
I went back to the party happening at a Beverley Hills type mansion home I must mention, deep in the hills of the northern suburbs. The party/get together was in full swing by then. I did my rounds and by the end of the night (and oh yes the ipod came in mighty handy), I had managed to find common link up with at least a handful of people, who I can help or who can help me on the business front. A couple were into telecoms, some various businesses and another guy with some very interesting ideas re. IT and medical tech. Along with the tasty braiied steaks, sausages and cold beer by the bbq stand, it was an evening well spent. I left in the early hours of the morning.
Lesson learnt:
You just need to make 5 new friends each week to grow your network of business contacts. Remember to always thing about things you can do for them, and not always what they can do for you. It’s in giving that you get! Well at least that's how it's always worked for me.
PS
Have some very interesting observations to report on the new-age business cartels running the streets(literally) in Zim.
Till next week.. L8rs
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