eBusiness Weekly
Kudzai Mubaiwa
Many years ago, starting a business was synonymous with all things prosperity and flamboyance. The man or woman would dress the part in a two or three piece suit, drive the part in powerful current and trendy vehicle and work the part in a plush office in a good building.
Today’s entrepreneur is becoming less formal, some wear shirts with no ties or a casual T-shirt, some do not own cars and many have very basic offices, if at all.
The new culture has permeated business owners in Zimbabwe, they still dress up when required to, and still have a penchant for fine cars but many are reconsidering the value of over-investing in high value real estate as offices.
The worldwide trend of co-working has caught up with us, perhaps easily adopted as a response to the harsh economic conditions.
A little over three years ago, I wrote about how co-working was emerging in Zimbabwe and described such spaces as being in the core business of letting out office space.
They may have varying sizes of offices, and the more economic cubicle type — plus access to a boardroom, meeting room, training rooms and often shared access to services such as printing, copying, telephone and mailboxes/mail address, and of course kitchens, ablutions and the popular Wi-Fi!
Emphasis is on the facilities management, and the oversight of such a space is a tiring function all by itself with administration, collection, repairs, seeking and releasing tenants.
The housed businesses may not necessarily be related, but they can find mutual benefit through interaction at meet ups, if any — and if the tenants go out of their way to find out what other neighbouring enterprises do, synergies can be identified.
They tend to be excellent locations for community type meetings and hosting of major, periodic start-up events, in which case the co-working space becomes a gathering place for local entrepreneurs and innovators looking to network and learn in an unstructured environment.
Naturally, they anticipate revenue from rentals, and thus the bigger the space, the better. In a way Zimbabwe was already using this model as self-employed professionals have always been known to use common spaces: Hairdressers, barbers, tailors, typists, and in some instances we had also seen shared spaces by doctors and lawyers in partnership or complimenting services.
In the three years past, many more co working spaces have since emerged, in the central business district of Harare alone more than ten new spaces are now offering this service.
Businesses want to be formal but not spend too much doing it. Many office buildings are now subdivided and partitioned to enable affordability.
Taking a look at the entire Central Business District, which is now fair game for vendors and small business owners, perhaps it is time to critically consider whether it must continue to play host to big business or we accept that it is now space for micro-enterprises and small businesses.
Big business has the option of office parks, and indeed some that feel the ambience no longer suits them are already moving out.
However, we can learn from developed countries where notable start-ups have stayed operating from the cities, in co-working spaces, such as The Factory in Berlin, Germany — a co-working space that headquarters SoundCloud and Twitter in Germany. There can be a mixture of fun and formality when it is done right.
Amongst some of the greatest issues raised by growing businesses is that of securing appropriate workspace.
I humbly submit that we have the opportunity as a nation to leapfrog and instead of emulating the exact structures and design of developed countries downtown and uptown we move towards an Afrocentric design that takes account of the types of businesses we have.
Many of our people — youth and women start off as traders – buying and selling specific goods, then graduate to building micro-enterprises wherein they employ one or two other people.
The flea market type concept works well for this, where there is shared physical infrastructure and other resources — but also the unspoken and intangible — sharing of ideas and security that comes from being part of the community.
Some are inventors and creators that naturally come together under a manufacturing community such as the steel merchants in Siyaso, Mbare or the furniture carpenters in Glen View. All of them require decent workspaces and not enough has been done to provide for these our local entrepreneurs.
They will need market stalls, lockable cupboards, ablution blocks, clean drinking water, warehouses and creative spaces.
Such a mandate cannot easily be taken up by mere individuals but it would require an investment from bonafide property developers working alone or possibly in partnership with local authorities as a way of supporting local economic development. Even the vegetable markets require specific types of spaces and amenities and they can be viable enough an investment to provide a good return.
We are likely to see greater demand in the medium to long term for what are called “hot desks” just comfortable rooms with comfortable seats and desks and a good Wi-Fi connection; as the millennial grow and look for “formalish” places to both work and playfully interact with peers in between breaks.
Remote working is a phenomenon that will become prevalent in this digital age and the self-employed/small business owner young people will look out for places they can operate from with a credible address and meet clients.
The matter of workspace for small businesses is a shared responsibility that must be navigated by business incubation spaces, technology and innovation spaces, business support organisations focusing on enterprise development, youth and women serving organisations and local authorities.
Without deliberate and proper planning for them, micro-enterprises and small business will randomly occupy city centres in Zimbabwe and use space inefficiently as well as in an unsafe manner.
Now is the time to put forward practical solutions to respond to the growing demand for workspace, and in some instances, the unlawful creation of the same.
Learnings can be obtained domestically — just a few hours away in Bulawayo, the city has done well over two decades by allocating a definite street for fruits and vegetables only, allowing mutual convenience and access of sellers and buyers, but also confining certain types of activity to a specific area.
We can also learn from the East, where the markets are highly organized and co-exist peacefully with big business and somewhat feed into each other. The future of workspaces is unlike what it has been in the past, we must move on into the new and make peace with the nature of small businesses we have.
Feedback: Twitter @kumub, Email [email protected]
