Botswana startup - behind the scenes!

When I was going to Botswana, I expected something like “wow” because according to Wikipedia, Botswana was very developed and rich country in Africa.

The niceties of Botswana, I started to feel on the way from Windhoek to Gaborone. By driving in the night with car speed about 140 kilometres per hour - I hit a donkey.

The car was fine, and myself was shocked, but donkey flew through the car, then rose up and walked away. I am not sure how far, because I did not see the animal since that time, but my shocking experience left the memory for the rest of my life. It turns that government in Botswana refuses to put a fencing across the roads like in Namibia, and running around wild animals on the road - this is a quite normal thing for Botswana.

When I arrived, I could not understand why with more or less the same population as Windhoek - Gaborone is full of traffic jams, while Windhoek is clear?! Security guards in supermarkets are checking your bags and comparing it with the receipt from the cashier, and one company named Universal Builders are owners of almost all property in Gaborone.

One thing was for sure - it is not even close to Namibian economy despite of Wiki statements.

The first important difference was that 90 % of owners of vehicle sales industry were from Asian countries such as India, Sri-lanka, Pakistan, China. The other 10 % locals & South African. Which was giving me more problems due the lack of understanding of Asian mentally and how to deal with it.

The second important difference was that Botswana allowed to import vehicles older than 5 years, and thousand of really cheap used cars from Singapore and Japan was standing at the area called Mogoditshane. And the market for cheap used cars has been so great that the market for so-called “local cars” - looked ten times less. And it was the biggest problem which I faced in Botswana during the launching of our project:

Advertising of cheap used cars, from couple of dealers, on the same street with 100’s of other similar dealers - its a total waste of money. Because when it comes to buying, and potential buyer is coming to view the car - he sees at the same time thousands of other similar cars nearby. And eventually the buys a car from a dealer who managed to build with a customer a better relationships, regardless his first choice, which is always very weak and more depending on human factor. What can’t be said about the more expensive car, when the buyer knows exactly that he/she wants only this specific car, and not the other one.

It was a complete failure of the project in Botswana with dealers who were selling imported cars, but a big success with “local dealers” who sells “local”, more expensive cars for a middle class and a luxury segment of the market.

And in the end, the project began to generate a modest income, serving the few dozen dealers that could not be called a failure, but nevertheless the Namibian success we have not received.

We have learned a lot. We have learned how politic, mentality & law can change the level of success. A “copy/paste" idea from South African or Namibian project ,which we had in the mind before to come to Botswana was only an illusion. It does not work that way. And now we learned by ourselves why big international corporations are thriving in one country and failing in other.

Andriy Bondar

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