How Business Systems Allow Owners To Be Absent For Extended Periods

BUSINESSLINK MAGAZINE APRIL 2015 Page 1

EVERY CHAMPION
WAS ONCE A
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REFUSED TO GIVE
UP.ROCKY BALBOA
ALWAYS DO CAREFUL
RESEARCH
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BUSINESSLINK
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ISSUE NO. 13, APRIL 2015
BusinessLink Magazine is published by
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ContentsJoin us For a Networking Breakfast on 24 April ..................................................... 5
What happens to your business if you are absent for a month? ..........................9
A Farmer, Her Daughter And Two Pebbles ............................................................11
Highlights From The March Breakfast Meeting.................................................... 14
5 Pointers to a Successful 2015...............................................................................15
The Zimconomics of Vendors ................................................................................ 18
Zimra extends tax amnesty to June 30..................................................................20
YOUR GIFT IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET.................................................23
Win one of three copies of Commercial Rabbit Production in Zimbabwe.............28
8 Rarely Mentioned But Extremely Powerful Reasons Why New Businesses Fail30
Nigeria's Tony Elumelu funds 1,000 African entrepreneurs.................................33
This 15 Year Old Is On Track To Make Millions ....................................................36
Thinking beyond small: How to grow your SME business ....................................40
A Five Step Guide to Setting up Business Systems................................................44
Success Will Never Come to Entrepreneurs Who Do These 10 Things .................48
Africa as One Campaign – Content Marketing Case Study (DHL Africa) ............. 52
Where Should You Focus Your Marketing Efforts?............................................... 57
9 Ways Marketers Can Create Superior Online Content ....................................... 61
How to determine proper pay scales for staff........................................................65
9 Habits to Jumpstart Your Change Journey ..........................................................70

Join us For a Networking
Breakfast on 24 April
Great learning and networking opportunity that will help you grow your contacts
and share business ideas.
Our Guest speaker is Tonderai Mandaza, Consultant, Businessman, Speaker and
Founder of LeVision Consulting Africa. He is also the author of a the book
Commercial Rabbit Farming in Zimbabwe, which has helped hundreds of
people hit the road running in establishing profitable rabbit farming enterprises and
creating a stable stream of income.
Date: Friday 24 April 2015, Time: 0815 to 0945
Venue: The Terrace Restaurant, 3rd Floor Barbours Department Store, Harare
Cost: $6 for BusinessLink Magazine subscribers, $10 for non-subscribers.
To book, please call / WhatsApp Christine on 0772 854 301 before the 23rd .Or come
to our office, No 308, 3rd Floor Merchant House,2nd Street / Robson Manyika
Avenue, Harare

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Good News: Earn commission when
you refer a friend for the following
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• Tax clearance
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• Business plan writing
Call Phil now on 0777 774 007, or Christine on 0772 854 301
OR visit us at 3rd Floor Merchant House. 34 Robson Manyika/ 2nd Street,
Harare
PS: We now offer flexible payment terms for company and PBC
registration, so no need to wait, contact us now.

PRICES Hard
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2015 Simplified Guide to Taxes $6.00 $3.00
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to
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To order, call Christine on 0772 854 301 or come to our office at No
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PUBLISHER’S BRIEF
What happens to your
business if you are absent
for a month?
By Phillip Chichoni
There is this business strategy development
workshop that a friend of mine was invited to
recently. It is said to be a game changer for
entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the
next level.
“So, when are you going for this high flying
workshop, Steve?” I asked my friend.
“What? It’s a three week course overseas and I
cannot leave my business for that long!” replied
Steve.
Now, Steve is missing a life changing opportunity because he cannot
leave his business unattended. Can you?
Speaking at the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of
Zimbabwe (SMEAZ) monthly networking event last week, a colleague
Gabriel Chipara said most owners of small enterprises are not real
business owners. Instead they are simply self-employed.
The draw back with being self-employed is that you cannot afford to be
absent from your business. When you are not there, there is no business
because you are the business. Like Gabriel said at the event last work,
systems can change your business from being a one man self-employed
professional to a business that runs without the need for the owner’s
constant presence.
With a properly documented system in place, a business owner can
rely on his staff to deliver without he or she doing the physical work. This
requires the owner to train and empower the employees and then leave
them to carry out the work.
In the book The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard talks about this
manager who only needs to tell his people what to do, first teaching them

how it should be done, then only asking them to come to him when they
have a problem that they cannot solve.
Now I have heard many business owners talk about how some
employees leave after being taught the production system, only to go and
set up their own businesses. Yes that happens. Many SMEs today were
started by people who were not happy at their jobs. Because they had the
knowledge, they were able to start their own enterprises, in many cases
competing directly with their former employers.
This is not a problem of disloyal employees. It is a problem of
leadership. A good leader gets loyal followers. He persuades, inspires
and motivates others to follow him.
Tom Peters said that the best leaders don’t create followers, they
create leaders. You must motivate others to follow your vision, to
support and achieve the goals and objectives that you have set, to buy
into that mission of the organization as you see it. To achieve sustainable
success as a leader, you must earn the trust, respect and confidence of
your people. You must also fairly reward your people’s efforts and
initiatives. That way you will find that employees will never leave; in fact
they will be happy to see your business succeed because your success is
their success.
A business system basically is a set of manuals that describe how
things should be done in the enterprise. They cover the key areas of an
enterprise, namely production, marketing and selling, finance and
human resources management. Responsibilities are assigned to specific
people, who become accountable for the attainment of set goals.
When the system is working well, everyone knows what to do and the
results they are expected to produce; so the work flows like clockwork. A
system allows management to monitor performance. You can therefore
identify slackness and take corrective action. Non-performers will clearly
stand out as a result of the monitoring and control functions of a
business system.
If he had a good system in place and his people’s full buy in, Steve
could afford to go to Europe for the three-week workshop, with the peace
of mind of knowing that empowered and responsible people are taking
care of his business. With the instant communication available via the
internet, he can get updates and reports on how the business is
performing on his laptop or smart phone.
Now, start working on making your business systems based so you can
be able to take that occasional break, or go for that well deserved holiday
without having to worry about things falling apart when you are not
there. Our article on page 44 of this issue of BusinessLink magazine,
entitled A Five Step Guide to Setting up a Business System, will give you
practical guidelines. Feedback me on twitter :#chichonip

MOTIVATION
A Farmer, Her
Daughter And Two
PebblesMany years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune
of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The
moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful
daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his
daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the
proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let
providence decide the matter.
He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into
an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from
the bag.
1. If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her
father’s debt would be forgiven.
2. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her
father’s debt would still be forgiven.
3. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into
jail.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As
they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he
picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two
black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a
pebble from the bag.
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What
would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise
her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag
and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to
save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
What would you recommend to the girl to do?
Well, here is what she did…
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble.
Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn
path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.
“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the
bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had
picked the white one.
And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl
changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely
advantageous one!
Moral of the Story
Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don’t
attempt to think.

Highlights From The
March Breakfast
Meeting
In the lucky draw,
Miss Bacoliwe Mthupha
won the book
Fountains of Inspiration
by Rabison Shumba.
Don’t miss the next
breakfast networking
meeting on Friday 24 April
2015

5 Pointers to a
Successful 2015
By Rabison Shumba
It is already four months into 2015. What have you achieved so far?
How you manage every day that goes by determines what you will get
out of this year. Do not cry foul when at the end of the year you seem to
have regressed even to levels you never imagined.
Below are 5 pointers that can position your 2015 to be the best year
ever.
1. Transform work into wealth – do not just be a hard
worker but be thinking about how much of your work is really
bringing a change to your financial position. Many work to pass
time but you have to see your work in terms of what contribution it
is making to your sustenance.
2. Transform knowledge into wisdom – with every piece
of information you get start moulding it into a life principle to live
by. Knowledge gathering is good but how much of that knowledge

is useful for daily living? Derive wisdom from every mistake from
years gone by.
3. Transform every plan into project – it’s no use having a
list of 1 million things you want to do without an ounce of
willingness to act on even one of them to make it real and tangible.
Yes, write plans down but that alone will not change your situation.
It is deliberate action that will see plans becoming living reality.
4. Transform every pain point into seeds of
possibility – find one problem that people face around you,
provide a solution that brings about convenience and in that is the
opportunity to turn around circumstances of your own life and
lives of many others. One way to fulfil your financial goals is by
providing solutions that people cannot live without.
5. Transform every moment into a memorable one –
every day that goes must be building great memories for you and
those around you. Be thinking deeply about what you want to be
remembered for (your legacy and the heritage). When you know
why you are among the living in 2015, you will not lose time
unnecessarily. You will begin to leave an indelible mark in your
chosen area of endeavor in this generation.
As you can see, you are a transformer. You have a role to play in
making your 2015 the best year ever. You can not delegate or place the
outcomes of your life in the hands of others. So, step up, step out and be
the success you desire to be associated with. Meet you at the top at the
end of 2015.

Zimbabwe
Business
Updates

The Zimconomics of
Vendors
The argument against street vendors vary from unhealthy practices to
pedestrian congestion to noise and visual pollution in the city; the list is
endless.
These queries have led to intolerable treatment of these men and
women by the City Council and shop owners.
Despite efforts to protect them by unions such as the National Vendors
Union the council men find one reason or another just to disrupt their
business.
Many can relate to these people considering the economic hardships in
the country and unemployment flying over the roof; they have resorted
to vending to make earns meet.
Image is a Collage from various News Sites in Zimbabwe
Vendors are now a reality in city centres, with or without Council approvals.

Let us take a minute to appreciate the influence vendors have; this
monopolistic competition has contributed to price regulations to a
greater extent.
In truth many retail outlets, supermarkets, wholesalers and the like
are selling products that are differentiated from one another (e.g. by
branding or quality) and hence are not perfect substitutes; it’s all the
same product.
This has created competition for their outlets, as street vendors are
now able to sell for example Creamora and Ricoffee on the street, at an
even cheaper price than a supermarket.
As scores of them line up on pavements and sidewalks they sell
different wares from food, to household goods, to clothing, with prices
set to lure customers, making their products very affordable.
Shop owners nearby are now forced to set their prices almost similar
to the vendors in order not to lose business.
Vendors create competition for the retailers and force price reductions
and offer promotions; without such competition retailers would be
charging unreasonable prices.
They also allow bargaining in which the best salesman wins business;
something that customers appreciate. Carrying bags are for free unlike in
retail shops like Spar or OK where they are sold for 10c or more; with
some offering fancy carrying bags.
Simple things like these, is what has guaranteed their survival
throughout the years, and causing the unemployed to enter vending.
It is very easy to set up and has helped to create a livelihood for
thousands in Zimbabwe at a time the public and private sectors have
failed to provide employment.
A friend of mine was in Italy for his honeymoon during the festive
season. It was to his amusement to notice street vendors in Rome, with
the same set up as here at home on sidewalks and different wares sold on
card boxes.
China has also a reputable number of its people as vendors some who
have exported this to other countries creating what are known as China
cities or town.
Yet these two economies are worth trillions; China as the richest
sitting at number one on world records with a GDP of $17.632 trillion
and Italy worth $2.066 trillion in 2014.
In 2013 the Harare City Council was among Zimbabwean local
authorities under fire for exorbitant salaries being paid to directors,
earning half a million a month; the same money needed for
operationalizing bylaws and make Harare better.

Such corrupt conducts are the ones that prevent full establishment of
areas where vendors can sell. Council could benefit from vendor fees and
thus stimulate further activity in the country and economic growth.
There is an argument by City Councils that there are designated areas
for vending. This no longer applies as these were based on the old
transport system of buses and not the current unpredictable commuter
taxi stations.
Furthermore, no one can predict the behaviour of consumers as they
move around town shopping, hence the best locations for vendors is
actually in the areas of high consumer traffic concentration; that is not
going down well with City Councils.
Business mogul Philip Chiyangwa started out as a vendor and now is
worth millions; he is a land developer, transporter, and so forth.
A perfect example of great entrepreneurship skills some of these
people possess. A different view of vendors could actually benefit
Zimbabwe.
Zimra extends tax
amnesty to June 30
From FinX
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) has extended the Tax
Amnesty window to the June 30, after the initial window expired last
month, Director of finance, corporate planning and modernization,
Robert Mangwiro has said.
Speaking at the second Zimbabwe Accounting Conference, Mangwiro
said the payment period remains unchanged as companies are expected
to pay their dues before the end of the year.
“The minister of Finance and Economic Development has agreed to
extend the tax amnesty to the 30th of June, after the initial window
expired last month. We urge all the companies that owe ZIMRA to come
forward and take advantage of the amnesty,” he said.
Mangwiro said there has been a remarkable improvement in the
number of applicants that have applied for the amnesty, from the 1471
that were recorded at the end of February. He expressed hope that the

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