The One With the Bussiness updates

The ups are always disguised with the downs , and the downs come in magnitude, firefighting , is my new job . I really hope you enjoy the read

Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of "Random Thoughts with Takura." I hope you’ve all had an amazing month and enjoyed the little break from these updates. Let me catch you up on what’s been happening in the world of business and where we’re at right now.

First off, I’ve realized something important: trying to do everything alone is not the way to go. Sure, having business partners or employees can sometimes lead to betrayal, but trying to handle everything on your own is even worse. Imagine if I disappeared for two weeks like I just did—everything would have come to a complete stop. Luckily, I have a team willing to fight alongside me through this journey. Special shout-outs to Kupa, Tapiwa, Doc, Cephas, Smart, and Stella. You guys have been. very instrumental especially on the journey to get a million dollars. The fact that nothing collapsed in my absence, is really just impressive.

Okay, let me bring you up to speed on everything. One business at a time. First, Crocs.zw—the store that sells high-quality Crocs all over Zimbabwe. The business was going well: the profit margins were strong, and there was a clear market. We were now in the top ten advertisers in the country, we were really pushing this brand to the limits. But then, Instagram deleted our account, claiming we violated community guidelines without telling us what we did wrong exactly. It was a blow, but I see it as a chance to prove that we can rebuild. Kupa has been working hard to solve our supply chain issues, and we’ve now partnered with reliable suppliers who believe in us. They’ve already bought stock in advance, so we’re ready to relaunch. We just need a new name for the store—if anyone has suggestions, drop me a message! Imagine having naming rights for a million-dollar company! This could be a crazy way to be a part of the story.

Next up is Happy Toes, my sock business. It’s been the most consistent of all the operations so far, with regular orders coming in, and adverts running almost on a weekly basis, but I’m convinced it could be even bigger if we had a physical store. Tapiwa and I have talked about this and tried to do some rough maths. For some reason, I genuinely believe people buy more from shops with physical locations than online ones. But I know from experience that running a shop comes with its own headaches—rent, city council issues, and all the little expenses like WiFi and security. The stress I have received in Chinhoyi makes really consider if this is a worthwhile move. I’m torn because while I see the potential, I’m also scared of the additional stress. For now, we’re keeping Happy Toes running as is, but if you have a brilliant idea on how to take it to the next level, hit me up! It is also important to note that as I write this blog, Happy Toes is now 3 years old. It is actually crazy, cause most businesses fail after 2 years

Moving on to Frenies Branding. This business is inconsistent, sometimes it brings in big returns (that  I am even shocked at the potential it has ), then other times it returns nothing at all. I haven’t even finished buying the business, so there’s always a chance the deal could fall through. I’m focused on making it consistently profitable so I can complete the purchase. Cephas, our newly appointed CEO, has been holding things down, negotiating, finding new clients, and handling the daily fires, which has freed me up to focus on growth. We’ve got some exciting projects underway, like our portrait and frame business - the canvas hub, social media management - frenies studio, and packaging- boxify. These are all part of the plan to diversify our income streams and make Frenies profitable. The good days of this company have made me believe that we can take over the world, but the bad days have made me reconsider if this business is the way to go. But the most important thing is, that the business is alive, the employees are still there, and we have a new location. We will see what tomorrow will bring. 

I think in Zim, those are the 3 running businesses. We have new projects that Kupa and I are working on though. We’ve Power Buddy, a business selling portable power stations. The market is there, and the margins are fantastic—we just need to crack the conversion funnel. I ran ads for a month, and the conversion rate was quite good - but this was just based on inquiries. What we need now, is to find a way to make those inquiries into orders. We also have Zovala, our tracksuit brand. It is still in its early stages, but we’re working on building Africa’s biggest tracksuit brand. Right now we have started with sample collections, and we are getting to decide which tailors we would like to work with. And then finally, Bam and Bead, which is about to launch any day now. I think I will share more details about it when we launch.

As of this moment, I am now back in Kigali. In Kigali, there are three startups. the first one of course is Menava (our health tech app for women), I think I was pitching this company every day beginning of the year, if you still remember those episodes. After MasterCard, we have done the website, a waiting list, and the whole UI/UX of the app. The app is under development and should be ready by year-end. Visit menavahealth.com just to see what we are going for.. The second startup is Smartel (our agriculture startup focused on hydroponics) I will talk more about it later on. Lastly, One Child Africa (our NGO). You might have heard about One Child in the previous updates, I have also been parading about it on my Instagram story. The main reason I was in Uganda was to launch a one-child project called Dream Space, a project where we renovate buildings and equip them with everything kids need to learn technical skills. The whole point is to create spaces across the African continent where children can come to actualize their dreams, basically bringing their ideas to life. We launched the first one in a rural town in Uganda, called Lugazi, and many more are to come in each country. Just talking about it gives me chills. But a special shout-out to Smart for putting extra effort into cooking this. 

Anyways,  best for Last. I’ve been keeping this secret for a while: Smartel was funded by the World Food Program! This is the main reason why I am now back in Kigali. This is a six-figure USD funding, the largest fund I’ve ever received. This is one of those funding, where you stop being a pitch company and actually start thinking about filling for IPOs and stuff. Anyways, We’re starting our first sprint right now, with expansion plans in Rwanda and Nigeria. I will be keeping you posted every step of the way. It’s actually hard to believe we’re doing this in our early 20s, but here we are and I am not dreaming. Day 1 of building an international company. (The cooking has begun)

I believe that this means you are now caught up on the business front of things, That’s it for this week. I hope you’re enjoying the series. See you next time!

Sayonara

Takura✨

❤️Highlights of the week:

1. Follow One Child Africa for updates.

2. Watch Billions—it’s a great show!

3. Oh, and Power Book 2 is back!