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Business Development Trust of Zimbabwe - BDTZ, 61 mbuya nehanda Street, Harare (2025)

Name: Business Development Trust of Zimbabwe - BDTZ
Address: 61 mbuya nehanda Street, Harare, HARARE, ZW
Telephone: 0772882545
Rating: 5

19/04/2025

10 Brutal Mistakes New African Entrepreneurs Make
(And Why Most Won’t Survive 5 Years)

So you’re planning to start a small business — or you’ve already started?

Bad news: Most small businesses in Africa never make it to their fifth birthday.
Good news: If you know what traps to avoid, you’ll not only survive — you’ll scale.

If you're going to break through, your mindset has to be different from the average hustler on the street.

Here are 10 brutal mistakes that kill businesses before they grow:

1. Obsession With Capital
You don’t need money to start a business—you need money to grow it.

Most people will die with “million-dollar ideas” they never started because they were waiting for capital. That’s foolish.

Ask yourself:
How much did Facebook start on?
Nash Paints? Coca-Cola? Airbnb?

Answer: next to nothing.
Ex*****on beats capital every time.

2. Underestimating the Effort Required
Your goals are probably fine. The problem is you’re not working hard (or smart) enough to reach them.

You want 10X results on 1X effort. It doesn’t work like that.
To achieve new results, you must become a new person.

Change your habits. Change your friends. Change your fire.

3. Setting Unrealistic Timeframes
You won’t make real money in the first five years. Period.

In fact, if you’re not willing to commit 10 years, don’t bother starting a business.
This is why I recommend you keep your job while you build.

You can't build a generational business with a backyard broiler farmer mentality.
(Short-term thinking, zero systems, panic moves.)

4. No Repeat Customers = No Business
One transaction doesn’t make you money.
Several transactions do.

If customers never come back, integrity is probably missing.
Don’t give people a reason to regret trusting you. Build long-term value, not short-term hype.

5. Begging for Support
A great product doesn't beg—it commands attention.

Don’t cry for support. Build something so excellent your customers beg to give you money.

Business Development Trust of Zimbabwe - BDTZ

05/06/2024

Food For Thought;

Recruiting as a new business.

I offer mentorship to a number of start-ups. I will be sharing some of the discussions that I conducted with my mentees here for the benefit of others here who might have similar challenges or questions.

My mantee said, Dr. I have a challenge in recruiting employees for my new company. People are not willing to join my new venture.

This is a common challenge when the company is still new, especially the way we start in Africa, where it just begins as a small hustle without proper structures. Others will not take you seriously until the business has reached a stage where it is full-fledged and shows results.

So when starting a new idea, you should be prepared to be the first employee of your organisation. You can't expect to hire other people, especially when your idea is still new. It is only known to yourself, and others might think your ideas are crazy. It will only start to make sense to others after the idea becomes successful.

The first employee that you should recruit for your new idea ( business) is yourself.
In most cases, it is easier to recruit your friends, church mates, or family. Unfortunately, these people will not grow with the business. Eventually, they will leave. It's common. They will leave because they lack respect towards you and the business. They feel entitled to the idea since they would have witnessed its formation.

When I started my brick yard, it was in a village where most businesses that were lucrative were groceries, bottle stores, and clothing.

People thought I was crazy but now there are more than 5 brickyard in the same growth point. So your idea might seem crazy to others only start to make sense when you finally put together your idea and start to show results.

The C.E.O ,Dr

06/09/2023

Goodday fellow friends am. Looking for someone with a great business proposal/idea that needs capital and we can form partnership and take it off. I will be following comment section here

You can App me On 0772882545

12/04/2023

Food For Thought,

Understand Your Profit Margin.

It is very dangerous to run a business and not be in a position to understand and know your profit margin. This is the reason why most small businesses deliver poor service or become bankrupt. In other cases, the business will end up supplying poor standards or making shortcuts because the budget is too small to deliver the promised goods or services.

Part of my business is cement brick production, We manufacture and sell bricks at a profit margin ranging from 20 % to 30 %, so a client may come and pay $10 000.00 , from this amount my gross profit is just $3 000.00, before I deducted indirect costs such as electricity, rentals, fuel, phone cost and stationery. In this case, it will be very wrong to treat the whole payment of $10 000.00 as my money. I should always know that the 70% is for production. Buying cement and aggregates to produce bricks.

The problems come if I may treat the whole paid amount as my profit. I may find myself buying a car, a house, or anything of my own that has nothing to do with the intended business. Automatically, this would be a disaster because I will not have enough money to deliver, either I will fail totally or deliver a substandard job.

Have you wondered why a person who has won a tender of millions will end up failing to deliver. Instead of buying equipment, the entrepreneur will buy a luxurious personal car. Go on holiday before the project is even completed. With this mindset, you will never build a successful company.

With your first significant sale, you want to buy yourself a house, a car, expensive furniture, and you will be killing yourself on the foot.

Understand your profit, and to calculate a reasonable profit margin, you need to know your cost of production. Profit is when income is greater than expenditure. This formula should never be compromised, and it's a fact. It can not be cheated or avoided.

Once you get into business, know how to peg your profit margi

11/04/2023

Food For Thought;

How to conduct yourself around a wealthy person.

In 2016, I was privileged enough to meet a young millionaire in Zimbabwe. This young man is very humble but achieved a lot in his early 30s.

When we met, I didn't know he was that wealthy, he would visit me at my office, I would visit him also. One day, he shared with me his experience when he wanted to buy a private jet, that they refused to sell him until he got a recommendation from a well established billionaire from Angola. I liked it when he was invited to put his signature on the parts of his plane in the process of assembly.

Fast forward, I know he is rich, but not a single day. I have ever asked for any financial help from him. We talk every time and share life events and achievements. He has properties in America, Dubai, and South Africa. He always invites me to travel in his 16-seater private jet, but our schedule always opposes.

When I started my project in DRC, I needed at least $500 000.00, I could have asked him, but to maintain our friendship, I decided not to.

For the past 8 years we have been good friends. He has never given me money, I have never asked for money from him, and this has strengthened our friendship. What he has offered is good networking. Whoever I contact through his reference, I am treated with utmost respect. His connection has added more value to my life than if I were to be given money. He said one day, Mufudzi wemombe, do you think if one of your immediate family members is on emergency and needs medical attention outside the country, obviously, I will send my plane to assist.

I have witnessed people when they are friends with a wealthy person. They're hurry to ask for money. Share their personal problems in order to get sympathy and money.

Wealthy people hate parasites. People who need money are quickly avoided and will not be given access.

I once went out to eat with some fellows, and I paid a bill of around $179.00 for 4 people. One of the guys

07/04/2022

AN estimated 60 percent of central business district (CBD) office space is vacant after demand plunged significantly last year, experts have said.

10/10/2021

*WATERMELON GROWING TIPS*

1.deep plough with a tractorh
2. Make planting stations of depth 20cm.
3. Put heaped shovel of well rotten manure of either cattle, poultry, pig or goat.
4. Put (60g) of Compound C on each planting station and mix with the manure and soil within the planting station
5. Put the soil to almost level of the planting hole.
6. Irrigate to field capacity on each planting hole. The following day plant 3 plants on each planting station
7. Do a light irrigation regularly until there's good germination. Check cutworm effect on young seedlings and if any, spray any one of the following insecticides:
Decis forte, chloroprifos, lambda. For me, l prefer decis forte since it is persistent in the soil compared to other insecticides. After 7days of seedlings emergence, remove one seedling per planting station leaving two seedlings per planting station.
8. 2weeks after germination, top dress with AN (34.5%N) cup 5 per plant not pagomba pagomba plus winstart (160g per 16 litre of clean water) or omni boost (300g per 16litre of clean water) for root development
9. At 4 weeks.Top dress with Pottasium nitrate at cup 2 per plant plus start to apply winglow at 160g per knapsack or 16 litre of clean knapsack.
Winglow promotes vegetative cropping
At 5, 6, 7weeks start to apply winbloom at 160g of clear water or best broom from zfc. It promotes crop flowering
At week 6, apply cup 2 (2g), potassium nitrate.
At Week 8, apply calcium nitrate. During this crop stage- crop flowering, irrigate daily becaus crop water requirement increases.
10. Watermelon is very prone to attack by fruitflies hence there is need to spray the following insecticides:
1) thunder
2) Acetacure
3) Malathion 50EC
4) Nemesis
5) Cartap hydrochloride
NB: Rotate at three of the above insecticides at day 3-4 interval.
11. From a 2-leaf stage of the crop, spray Preventative fungicides in rotation:
1) copper oxychloride
2) bravo
3) mancozeb
This should be done on weekly basis on crop under drip irrigation
If the crop is under overhead irrigation, spray should be done on every 4-5 day interval
12. For curative fungicides, use at least one of the following:
1) chemlaxyl / ridomil gold
2) -tebuconazole / folicur
3) otiva
4) Bion
This should be done for every fortnight on crop under irrigation
If the crop is under overhead irrigation, apply for every week.
13. Spacing is 150 cm between the rows and 75cm from plant to plant
After practising these activities. You will be amazed with the results. Very big watermelons.!
I am assuring you to get 22kg per fruit with crimson sweet variety.
The agronomic practises and crop protection is similar for other cucurbits such as pumpkin kayla, Butternut Waltham Plus and cucumber.
At cucumber, spacing is 40cm x 100cm but placing one seed per planting station. This means that application rate per plant will be +30g of compound C.

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10/10/2021

Some Entrepreneurs are saying home industries are the best way to grow the economy, with the right incubation they are sustainable and break the poverty chains. Great way to develop SMEs and bolster human dignity.

Whats your take.?

source©bdtztrust.
Whatsapp Hotline: 0713071351.
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06/10/2021

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04/10/2021

*Shalvar Construction & Hardware*

Please Note we are also manufacturers of Shalvar Paints.
1.PVA.
2.GLOSS.

For all your Building Materials Construction worksPlumbingElectricalsDoor framesWindow FramesRoofing MaterialsGeneral Hardware

*Contact Us on:
Calls :0772882545
Whatsapp :0712763425
Email: [email protected]
Like us on our page : ,Shalvar Construction and Hardware.
Twitter: .*

29/09/2021

Business Development Trust of Zimbabwe BDTZ.
National Excutive Meeting
28/09/2021
All emerging entrepreneurs join us on our WhatsApp Hotline :0713071351

25/09/2021

Farmers Zimbabwe
20 amazing Small Agricultural Business Ideas you can invest on in zimbabwe , africa
*source@bdtzinfo*

Agricultural Business Ideas
Urban Agriculture
You don’t need a huge space to get into the agriculture business. If you have a city or suburban home, you can grow in small or vertical containers to get the most out of your space.

Herb Growing
Herbs like basil, parsley and mint can make for great agriculture products. So you can grow it at your home or farm and sell it.

Vegetable Farming
You can also plant a variety of different vegetables and harvest them to sell or make into different products.

Livestock Feed Manufacturing
Even if you don’t have enough space to actually farm livestock, you can still contribute to the industry by manufacturing feed for livestock.

Nursery Operation
You can also start your own nursery where you grow and sell different types of plants to consumers or businesses.

Poultry Farming
Or you could focus on caring for chickens and other poultry animals to supply food production companies.

Fish Farming
Fish farming is also a growing sector of the agriculture – or in this case, aquaculture – industry. The process requires raising fish in large tanks or enclosures.

Beekeeping
Beekeeping is an activity that can lead to a variety of different product-based business ventures.

Honey Production
For example, you can harvest honey from beehives and sell it to consumers or processors.

Food Delivery
If you grow or process food items, you can also build a business around delivering fresh food items to local consumers who want to buy local products.

Bulk Foodstuff Wholesaling
You could also harvest food that can be sold in bulk, like rice or corn product, that you can sell wholesale to food production companies.

Fruit Canning
If you grow or process fruit, you can can it to sell to consumers or food companies.

Jam Production
Or you could process various fruits even further to make into canned jam or jelly products.

Juice Production
Juice is another popular fruit based product that you could potentially make and sell at farmers’ markets or other venues.

Meat Packing
You can also start a business that processes meat products to sell to consumers or grocery markets.

Hatchery Operation
Or you could focus on collecting and selling chicken eggs.

Florist Business
You could even start a florist business where you grow your own flowers to use in different products and arrangements.

Spice Production
There are also plenty of different plants you can grow that will allow you to create various spices that you can process and sell.

Nut Processing
Or you could grow peanuts or similar products that you can package and sell.

Sustainable Farm Consulting
Or you could even offer your expertise to other farmers or agriculture businesses that want to utilize sustainable methods as a consultant.

Agricultural Equipment Rental
If you have the capital to purchase farming or agriculture equipment, you could start a business where you rent or lease that equipment out to farmers.

Firewood Production
Or if you have other types of trees on your land, you could use sell the firewood to those who need it. Creating a long term sustainable business would depend on expanding the amount of land on which you can harvest trees and also systematic replenishment through continuous replanting.

Potted Plant Sales
Or you could grow different types of plants and then sell them in pots to gardeners or consumers looking for houseplants.

Pet Food Production
You could also use a variety of different crops and food products to create pet food that you can sell to consumers.

Educational Farming
Or you could have a farm where you welcome student groups or those interested in learning more about farming..

*Agrotourism*
You could also offer a whole tourist experience at your farm where people can come visit and maybe even stay as part of a bed and breakfast type of experience.

Categories: Agro-business, Agro-business, Case Studies, Featured, General, Learning
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