I’m writing this article to my fellow African entrepreneurs. My deep hunger is to see modern day businesses. I love entrepreneurship, and I believe that entrepreneurship is the way to change the world.
My philosophy is that “Don’t just build a business for the sake of money, but change the world through your business.” I believe that is entrepreneurship defined...
Imagine if we had our own Alibaba, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Airbnb, iPhones and Amazon kindda companies.
Instead of us being consumers, why don’t we become creators, innovators and inspirational entrepreneurs like the Wright brothers?
To just enlighten your thoughts, creativity, and philosophy. DID YOU KNOW? THAT
1. AMAZON has no stores
Though Amazon has opened it’s first store in Seattle, yet prior to the opening of this physical store, they had none at all. They made their billions of dollars as a non-physical store.
It started as an online book store and grew into a large ONLINE store whereby you can purchase almost anything.
In my opinion, I believe Amazon is the pioneer in the industry of online shopping and they revolutionized the business world of retail. Or should we say they disrupted it?
So my advice is if; you are going to build a business.
Have a strategy and idea to disrupt.
Look for an industry or marketplace and find a solution to it, and deliver according to the modern days.
2. UBER owns almost no cars
Ubers remains the dominant ride-hailing and the best app across most of the world.
In his Forbes Article, Stephen McBride Contributor highlighted that “ Uber isn’t in the business of owning cars. It doesn’t employ drivers. Instead, its “app” connects drivers with people who want a ride. Uber sets the price of the ride and facilitates the transaction. The driver keeps most of the fare, and Uber takes a 20% cut on average.”
I believe this is the business world we are in and if you’re going to build a business in today’s world. Your business needs to be technologically driven.
Uber, is a company that makes more than $11 billion in revenues a year, yet they are not in the business of owning any car.
This should make sense, in this today’s entrepreneurship world that; “you don’t need physical entity or asset to build large.” You just need to build and create a technological system.
Recently I was at the Sunday Times Next Generation Awards, and the brand Mr. D which is delivery app scooped an award as the Coolest food delivery app of the year 2019. The app delivers from over 2500 restaurants, including SA’s favorites and they service over 1900 suburbs in South Africa.
Their business model is simple: It’s the same as Uber, however in this case they are delivering food and delicacies.
Recently, I was in a meeting with one of my friends who is in the business of logistics and he invited me for a piece of business advice. He does not own any truck, however, he has trucks which belong to other people and they are in business with him. What he does, is that he is a middle man and gets to secure deals.
He secures deals (to businesses or companies that needs logistics) and he goes back to his clients who own the trucks and they get to be in business together.
My advice to him was the same as that one as of Uber, and I said to him; why don’t you own an app? Since you are the middleman. Create an app, and people who own delivery cars and trucks get to use your services. You just get to own the system, just like Uber, Mr. D, and Airbnb…
3. Facebook Creates no Content
Facebook creates no content, however, it’s a platform that is flooded with millions of content around the world. They just own the platform, user-experience and the system.
It is defined as an online social media and social networking services, and it makes more than $55 billions in revenues.
So do you really need to own content, physical product or an asset, for you do make billions of dollars in the business world? I beg to differ, you can have your own music or video streaming service, and still not own any content.
This should inspire entrepreneurs to think in today’s times because to build a business today, what you may need may just be access to the internet, and the ability to look into an old industry and find ways on how you can disrupt or revolutionize it with technological aspects.
4. Netflix is not a TV Channel
I often wonder when I see most or some entrepreneurs still thinking in terms of owning a TV channel or a Radio Broadcast. I’ve seen time and time again entrepreneurs starting out the same business, with the same aspects and approach.
According to Forbes Netflix’s Market Cap goes around $157.3 billion and is listed as #38 World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019
Netflix is worth more than most of the traditional TV channels and Radio broadcaster we know, yet it is an internet based streaming service. Their service is to provide Video content such as movies, documentaries and TV series through the internet by subscriptions. I think this can also take us to companies like Tidal, Youtube, and Spotify.
I still believe that the business world have changed and evolved and in its evolution…
consumer habits have changed as well.
5. Airbnb owns no Real Estate
Airbnb is a company that has disrupted the traditional way of real estate. It’s an online marketplace and hospitality service brokage company. It is a company that knows and understand modern day consumers.
The company does not own any real estate and yet, it’s $2.6 billion comes from real estate.
Consumers nowadays are driven by rapid speed and if you can buy them time, you are likely to make an incredible business. One that does not own what it sells, but one that owns the system and gets to buy speed of things.
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