Webinno

We provide website development services to companies, individuals and corporations looking to take advantage of the growing community-focused nature of the modern internet.

Insightful...

: Looking ahead
What problem are you really trying to solve?

It matters in African culture to provide a decent and dignified burial for one’s loved ones. We all know that. Poor people have always been anxious about plunging their families into poverty because of funeral-related expenses.

I actually remember the day I first began to discuss it with one of my colleagues. I began to study how the poor have created something called “Burial Societies” that are really a form of micro-insurance scheme. Looking at that model, I decided to Re-Imagine these schemes in the mobile digital world. This is how we came to create EcoSure about 15 years ago.

Millions of people are now insured through our digital platform which provides support to families with funeral costs and expenses. People can even buy Life Policies and other insurance.

Let’s examine this using our toolkit:

1. As an entrepreneur, I saw a but didn’t just say useless things about it. I sprung to action to find a solution for a human need that causes great stress and financial difficulty for many families.

2. We looked to . It took at least a year long to develop this platform, and at least three years to scale it!

3. I put some of our best to work on it.

Today is a Product used by more than 4m people. It also provides insurance cover for more than 10m people. As a business, it generates millions every year for our group and is now available in four countries: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Burundi, and Lesotho.

is the greatest source of wealth creation the world has ever known.

“If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, identify a human need, and reach out to solve it, in a sustainable way, that is not illegal, does not harm others, and your environment.” ~Strive Masiyiwa

There is nothing stopping you from taking the Pathway I have just shown you. Not every problem out there requires a political solution. Some problems have solutions that are staring us in the face. They are just looking for an entrepreneur.

!

Image credit: Photographer unknown.

The Buffalo Hunter

Link:https://www.facebook.com/strivemasiyiwa/posts/1042021479205680:0

The Buffalo Hunter

There is a story told about a professional hunter who had a friend who always wanted to go with him on one of his hunts. So one day he said to his friend, "I have a permit to go into the Zambezi Valley and hunt for a buffalo. Would you like to come with me?"

The friend was ecstatic at the opportunity.

"When do we go?" he asked.

"In about six months time, but before then I have to train you about hunting."

For the next six months, the two men met every day, and they discussed and planned for the trip. The hunter's friend was surprised by how meticulous the hunter was about everything.

He taught him about the bush, and how to survive in it. He taught him everything about buffaloes.

“You must respect the buffalo,” he said, “because it's a very intelligent animal, and it is also extremely dangerous."

He gave him lots of books to read, about hunting and buffaloes.

During that time, the friend also trained every day at the shooting range. He understood by then the different types of guns used to hunt buffalo. He also had to do fitness training, which surprised him.

"You can die out there if you are not fit," his friend explained.

He was totally astounded by what he was learning about hunting.

"Until now, I thought all you do is just go out and shoot, but now I know there’s more to this than meets the eye!" he exclaimed.

When the day came, the two men set out into the wild bush of the Zambezi Valley, one of the most beautiful places on the earth. It is also inhospitably hot, and the terrain is tough.

They'd been tracking one single animal for 5 days, and the hunter's friend was totally exhausted. He watched as his friend patiently made meticulous plans every single day. The hunter seamed to take forever, from the point of view of his friend. Sometimes they would walk, and sometimes they would sit for hours. The hunter was always looking around, scanning the bushes, not even (it appeared) always paying attention to the surrounding areas more than the buffalo.

"Why can't he just shoot and we go home!?"

He was getting tired of this, as they walked almost 50 miles a day. He was also hungry most of the time, as they only ate rations of dried meat and fruit, most of the time. The hunter looked at the animal through his gun sight over and over every day, but wouldn’t take a shot. Sometimes they appeared so close, but he still did not do anything.

It was the fifth day: The animal was in sight again, but the hunter was going through his routine again. The friend sat in the bushes, when suddenly a rabbit appeared in front of him and he thought to himself, "At least if I shoot this rabbit, we can have meat tonight. I'm tired of dry rations." So he pulled out his gun and fired once. The rabbit disappeared, as he had missed anyway, but so did the buffalo, and with it, the entire herd.

The hunter looked at him in total horror and disbelief!

Then he shouted, "Run, or you die!" as he took off.

They almost got stampeded by an entire herd that seemed to appear from nowhere. Also, suddenly there were lions everywhere that he had not seen before! But for the skills of the hunter, who led them both to safety, they could have died.

The buffalo was gone. The hunt was over.

They had to return home, empty-handed.

There are at least 5 business lessons I want you to extract from this story.

Your turn: List 5x simple (one line) responses, if you are interested. No essays.

[By the way, I don't approve of hunting. So remember, this is a business story. Don't write me stories about animals!]

End.

Turn your business into a technology company (Part 7)

Link:https://www.facebook.com/strivemasiyiwa/posts/1032976403443521:0

Turn your business into a technology company (Part 7)

__Maybe it was "esusu," "stokvel," and "mukando" that got me into business after all!

In my last post I talked about a traditional savings scheme practiced across Africa. It’s easily the largest savings bank on the African continent, holding billions of dollars with operations in every single country in Africa (each one with its own brand name), and a branch network that goes right down to the village level! Well, it's more than a single bank, it is more of a system.

I talked in my post about how technology could be applied to this amazing informal system to make it more efficient, modern and secure. I imagined that African entrepreneurs (including myself) will soon create a multibillion dollar industry around it. The mobile phone and the Internet are the key tools to making this happen.

Which reminds me, did I tell you that this is really how I raised my first capital to go into business?

When I returned to my home country Zimbabwe, soon after its independence, I got a job with the state-owned telephone company as an engineer. In those days there were no mobile telephone companies. Almost every day after work, I used to stop at a local hotel for drinks with some of my mates before catching the bus to go home. I did not own a car in those days, and I used the public bus system to get to and from work.

My friends and I would often discuss different business ideas which could help us generate more cash for ourselves. I personally wanted to save up to buy or build a house one day, and get married. I soon realised that these discussions always ended up as nothing more than just talk, so I determined to put some form and structure to it:

__"Why don't we start a savings club in which we all pledge to set aside a portion of our salaries?" I suggested to more than 10 people gathered around the bar.

"What will we do with the money?" someone asked.

"Well, we can develop projects in which we invest?" I suggested.

"Like what?!" someone else chimed.

"We can start a disco. The one here is lousy!"

Almost everybody thought it was a good idea, and I was chosen as the coordinator. I also suggested that next time we meet at a more serious venue, rather than a pub. I suggested the home of an uncle of mine, and we set a date for that weekend. On the Saturday morning set for the meeting, only three of my friends pitched up! I suggested we start anyway, and we agreed to each set aside every month what would have been the equivalent of $75.

I went off and opened the bank account, and told all the would-be members of our little “mukando”… adashe, ajo, chama, chilimba, chit, ekub, estibe, esusu, hagbad, likilimba, kixikila, maround, motshelo, njangi, upatu, stokvel, vicoba were just a few of the savings schemes that you shared here last week… (sometimes spelled in a few different ways, but I’ve done my best).

At the end of the month, only two of us actually put in any money. Two others who promised to put in money continued to attend meetings for a month or two, but then we kicked them out after it became obvious they were never going to put in any money.

__Once I put in the first $75, I became a very serious individual. I never entered a pub again... The rest is history, as they say!

Here are some things to take away:

# I really started with $75, as a member of a failed savings scheme of young professionals.

# It's great to get together with your friends to start a business, but don't allow it to just become pub talk. Put some action plans together.

# Once you start putting money aside, things begin to happen.

# When people must put their money into an account, you’ll soon see who’s committed and who is not.

# Don't be discouraged if others aren’t willing to commit; just proceed with those who will... even if it’s just you!

# Even if you haven’t yet decided what you’re going to do, start saving, even if it’s very little. It's not reasonable to imagine you’ll be able to borrow money, and start a business, without putting in anything yourself, however small.

Today, you can raise money for small ventures on the Internet using much more sophisticated schemes such as "crowding sourcing." My daughter and her friends used a similar scheme when they were at university to raise money for a social venture. Whilst you must exercise caution when participating in such schemes (as many are scams) you must still have the intellectual curiosity to study them carefully, and understand how they work.

(Please don't inundate me with requests for information on this one, because I'm a little too old to get into it. Those of you who are determined will no doubt figure it all out). Here’s one place to get started in your research about what’s out there: http://crowdfundbeat.com/2015/04/05/2015-list-of-crowdfunding-websites/

One more thing -- I never condemned anyone who didn’t join me. I found ways to keep the relationships with them. Some of my friends who participated in those first meetings also went on to establish themselves as entrepreneurs, and often speak of how they had been inspired by my commitment in those early days.

End.