Gone are the days when owning a fleet of taxis was a lucrative investment strategy. Nowadays, innovations like Uber have disrupted the market and taxi owners are scampering for safety. What does this teach you as a business person, innovator and youth? The writing is on the wall, it is either you innovate or die.
Talking about innovations, I would like to take this conversation to a whole new level by identifying a few new innovative business ideas that will be the real deal in Kenya come 2017. These are simple ideas that you can start with next to nothing provided you have the determination to do what it takes. Feel free to contribute to this conversation on the comments section below this article.
4.Graphic Design & Digital Printing
Image Courtesy: AP
2017 is going to be an electioneering period in Kenya. And with the many elective seats up for grabs, anyone who is good at things like T-shirt printing, graphic design, posters printing and general PR will have a field day. The best time to start preparing for this kind of business is today so that you can build your portfolio and networks before the craze kicks in.
And you don’t have to be a skilled designer or PR person to start. Entrepreneurs are resource mobilizers. You only need to put together a small team, buy a few machines and venture out. Your aim should be to get one or two politicians on your bandwagon for starters. Beyond the electioneering period you can think of venturing into commercial printing, printing of calendars, office supplies and branding.
3.Medical Matchmaker Website
Image Courtesy: AM
More and more people are looking for quality healthcare. However, finding the right medical expert for the job is becoming increasingly difficult due to the rise of quarks. You can help solve this problem by creating a medical matcher website. This website does not have to be anything fancy, it can simply be a static website that can be used to capture leads.
Then you can approach 15 reputable, certified, local private healthcare clinics (dentists, gynaecologists, ENTs, dermatologists, opticians etc) and request them to list their profile on your website for free. Then you will spend time marketing your website through online ads, radio and television so that you can drive as much (quality) traffic as possible to your website.
The clinics will get more clients and the patients will get quality services. That way you will have created Kenya’s Number 1 go-to specialized medical referrals website and you can start charging for FEATURED SERVICES. Game on!
2.Scholarships Website And App
Courtesy: College Counseling & Consulting
Kenya has many brilliant people who lack an opportunity to study because of lack of funds. However, as it turns out there are so many companies and institutions that are willing to offer scholarships and bursaries only that this information does not reach the right students in good time.
So what about you start a website and app that contains all scholarship schemes in Kenya (including the ones offered by private individuals and companies like Kenol Kobil, Total, Equity, KCB and so forth) so that students just simply need to create an account with you, fill in their details and then the system automatically matches them with the suitable bursary?
This way, you will attract a mass audience (a social media of sorts) and you can even start to sell your advertising space to the highest bidder. Many top organizations will come begging to buy your platform…just like Facebook went looking for Whatsapp and Instagram.
1.Gambling Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Business
Image Courtesy: CF
Statistics by PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) late in 2015 indicate that the annual gross turnover of sports betting alone is in the excess of Ksh2.1 billion (this figure does not include other forms of betting). The same report estimates a 6.9% annual growth in gambling business in the country.
But the dark side of the industry’s exponential growth is that gambling addiction has started taking a toll on some Kenyans (Read recent case in Eastleigh, Nairobi). This therefore presents an opportunity for anyone to start Kenya’s first ever gambling addiction rehabilitation clinic.
You can start one and hire a few trained counsellors who will be leveraging on professional expertise to offer a range of modalities and therapeutic services. If current trends are anything to go by, you can rest assured gambling addiction treatment will be one of the best business ideas in Kenya by 2017.
Final Word
Of course, these are just ideas and what really matters is the execution. Go ahead and challenge your entrepreneurial power with one of these and be sure to say Hi to us when you get to the top.
