Last year in November i spend a day with my uncle. He came to pick me up around 8am on a saturday. We went to his company called Oriental Spring Services which is located at 336 WillowVale Road, Harare. At the time i did not know the address i just remember we went to an industrial area. I met his team of 3 employees in their work suits doing what they do best. I remember i felt over dressed for the occassion because almost everyone was wearing a dirty worksuit and there i was wearing my weekend best.
He began showing me around and explaining what they do. I was surprised with so many things about the spring services in zimbabwe. For starters the fact that he has been in manufacturing and repairing of motor vehicle springs business for more than 15 years. The spring services business was something new to me at the time and to be honest i did not even know what a spring looked like. All i remember is being in someone's car and hear them taking about wearing of springs because their vehicle was kind of bump and low.
We also went to town and then an industrial area after braeside to get some spare parts that he wanted. I was surprised to see people manufacturing motor vehicle parts at kaguvi street something i never knew was going on. All i remembered is that its an area i did not usually like to pass by because i did not want anything from that side of town.
One of the major highlight of the day is my conversation with my uncle about embracing technology in business and creating a system of operation such that his company will grow and that business will go as smoothly as possible especially if he is not physically present. I admired his mindset because so many small business owners never have such thoughts. I had a chance of explaining to him the importance of an online presence for his business and how he could get started for free to get his company out there. I shared a few examples of how i took our small company Litfy Africa with nothing more than a certificate from the registrar of companies at a global stage. He even received notifications from our facebook page that day and to my surprised he was one a few people who can clearly pronounce the name Litfy.
Embracing technology might seem like its not worth the effort but you can never go wrong with an online presence. My uncle told me a story about how he could not do business with Swift Transport because he did not have a company email address for the company, tax clearance code and a business profile. Fast forward 8 months Oriental Spring Services has an email address, tax clearance code, a business profile, facebook page and instagram profile. Guess what recently Swift Transport Zim started following Oriental on instagram.
I hope soon i will write about how we striked a big deal with a big company because we have embraced technology.
16 jun