IN BUSINESS, RELATIONSHIPS MATTER

“Hakuna munhu anonzi haana basa” (every human being is important and has a purpose in life), I once read this statement from an article written by Zimbabwean writer Ignatious Mabasa in his weekly column, Shelling The Nuts in The Herald newspaper. I met Mr Mabasa around 2002 when I worked as a junior manager for Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers, he was a manager at The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and he later went to work as a Deputy Director at The British Council. He gave me a gift in the form of a folder that I still have up to this day.

Between 2004 to 2007 besides holding a full time job as an Underwriting Manager and later as the Bulawayo Branch manager for Zimnat Lion Insurance Company. I was operating my own general dealer shops in Hoyuyu Resettlement area of Mutoko and Virginia Resettlement area of Macheke. A young man Tonderai Jiri had joined the civil service around that time at the Business Center where my main shop was based, we became friends. I remember a day he needed to go home in Marondera and I had to alter my route in order to accommodate him. That generosity was repaid about 13 years later.

In September 2017 when I reached 10 years in my job in Pretoria, I resigned from my job. I finished serving my 4 weeks notice on 2 October 2017. That evening I boarded the bus home to Harare. My goal was to prop up my piggery project in Zimbabwe that lacked proper management and was not going anywhere despite the thousands of dollars I was pouring into it. At times some of the problems you face in your small business it’s not lack of finance but just lack of proper basic management.

I spent weeks buying cheap maize bran( makireshi) at almost 30% what it used to cost me when I was sending money from South Africa. My advice if you want to do a project in Zimbabwe please visit regularly to find out the situation on the ground for yourself. I would spend most of October 2017 in Mutoko buying maize bran and I managed to get almost 4 tonnes. When it was time to transport the pig feed to the main highway I was looking for a truck to hire, Mr Jiri insisted that I only pay for the fuel and he helped me to load and offload.

By end of 2017 my piggery project expanded beyond my expectations.( Here is my journey as a pig farmer so far http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-i-no-longer-fear-failure-my-journey.html?m=1) If it were not for the business relationships I have cultivated, my project could have failed long time ago. From my beautiful wife maNyoni Onita Kanyoka the best accountant I know, my father in law, all the guys who have worked for us, my manager Mereka Maruwira,my friends Edith Kayinga, Tonderai Jiri and many more friends and relatives.

For your business to succeed you need to build sustainable relationships that transcend race, tribes, religion, political affiliations etc

Very soon I will blog about my 6 months of self employment. I miss the hustle and the hardwork, I would leave the house at 6am six days a week and would also work Sundays that fell on month ends. I would run almost everyday and I met new friends along the way. My favorite was I could hike cheaply to Zimbabwe and come back the following day.