By now you know that one of my burning passions was always to set up a business that expanded outside my own country. I remember traveling to Namibia in 1990 with a plan to set up a business there. By then I’d been in business for less than five years, and already I was thinking of international expansion. Unfortunately, it was a total fiasco!
I didn’t yet have the capital or the skills to do something like that, and Africa really wasn’t yet ready to receive investors from other African countries. I went back home disappointed but not dispirited. I knew that one day I would do it… and seven years later, I set up Mascom in Botswana!
The rest is history, as they say. I’ve now developed the capacity to set up businesses almost anywhere in the world, and it just seems to get easier and easier.
You can do it, too!
Now let me share with you another secret: You can set up a cross-border or multinational business almost overnight these days and you don’t have to have years of international experience.
How is that?! It’s the Internet!
You can create a pan-African or even a global business overnight because of the smartphone (handheld computer) which gives you access to the Internet. Today there are already 250m people with smartphones in Africa that you can use to connect you and your business to the world, instantly.
__All you need to do is to develop products and services for them!
In recent months, I have allowed you a front row seat to see how this is done through the Kwesé TV project. First, we put our programming on the Kwesé App, which allows anyone to watch TV on their mobile phone from anywhere in Africa. Right now, entrepreneurs are launching products for distribution in this way from all corners of the world.
Let me give you another amazing example: We always knew we could beam by satellite to every African country at the same time. That technology has been around for a long time. So then we started thinking of how to tackle an old challenge in a new way: How do you sell satellite TV decoders to people in every African country?
The traditional solution? Set up offices and shops, country by country which could take years…
Our solution? E-COMMERCE!
We have now set up an ONLINE platform that is selling decoder packages in the 13 countries where we already have authorization to operate!
__Yes, we can now sell our products and services online… and recruit dealers online, too!
Just last week we launched Kwesé’s Online Shop: https://store.kwese.com … as well as an online “recruitment center” to help us find the best dealers on the African continent.
Imagine if I could have done that in 1990 when I went to Namibia; in fact, I would have spared myself the trip!
So there you have it:
# Kwesé TV is available in every African country using the Kwesé App.
# For those who prefer using a satellite decoder, they can now just go online to Kwese.com and either order directly at our Online Shop, or look up a Kwesé TV dealer.
# If they have the skills and interest in being part of our star team, they can even become dealers themselves!
We already have a team working 24 hours a day shipping any number of decoders to our participating countries throughout Africa. Within six months it will be over 40 countries.
This is what the likes of Google, Facebook, Netflix, Alibaba and others have done… Now we in Africa can (and MUST) do it, too.
The bottom line is this: it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you can expand it, not just across Africa but the world.
I’m sure your e-magination is working overtime by now!
Author: Strive Masiyiwa
