Good Kasi business ideas are not easy to come by. Most of these ideas are best suited for townships and informal settlements. These areas are prime locations for starting kasi businesses. Entrepreneurs with good business acumen stand to gain a lot from implementing kasi business ideas. But what is a good kasi business opportunity? Essentially, a good idea is one that addresses a gap in the market by solving people’s problems using what resources are available. When thinking about a good business idea, it is best to keep an open mind. Evaluate the suitability of your idea for your preferred location and implement it following the best business practices. Here are some of the best Kasi business ideas in South Africa.
Delivery Services
There are different types of delivery services that you can start and succeed in South Africa. These businesses do not require huge initial capital. They include:
- Food delivery service company
- Package and parcel delivery company
- Flower delivery company
Food Delivery Service Company
Food delivery is useful for people who need lunch at work but cannot make it to hotels or eateries. This target demographic in townships will need good food and catering service at affordable prices.
The best way to start this business is to deliver to institutions and shops in your area that have employees and clients who need lunch on a daily basis. For an African township, these are mostly schools, where teachers and pupils are not able to go home for lunch.
When thinking about a business idea, you have to consider whether the business can be scaled. A food delivery service business can be scaled to other towns using a food truck, motorbikes and mobile apps. Essentially, a customer places an order through a mobile app from their local restaurant and you deliver it to them. It is easy to scale in that regard. However, it gets difficult to achieve consistency in the food the company makes when it is cooked by several different people. You can solve this by having a common recipe that will be used in several cooking points.
The best choice of food (the product) would be healthy kotas, vetkoeks, boerewors and walkies with additional salads, confectionaries and soft drinks to help solidify the experience. At the beginning, it is best to stick to one or two meal options and do it well.
Package and Parcel Delivery Services
Package and parcel delivery services, also called courier services, are a good option to explore as a kasi business idea. Most vendors who sell things on social media don’t have a working logistical means to get their product to the buyer. That is where a package and parcel delivery service comes in.
This idea works by getting packages to buyers in townships at a low cost. You can scale the business by appointing agents in different kasis to oversee the deliveries going to their specific kasis. With the help of an app, you can turn a courier service into a large scale delivery company.
You can deliver products using a motorcycle or a pickup truck. You can hire them for a start, depending on the nature of the job at hand. At this point, you should ensure your operational costs do not surpass the amount you charge for your service. To get ahead of the competition, deliver in all weather and make deliveries on short notice and on holidays.
Flower Delivery Company
Flowers are a part of South African culture. Customers buy flowers to send to loved ones, family, friends and colleagues as gifts for anniversaries, birthdays, Roseday, New Years, Mothers Day and Easter.
Flowers are deeply compelling because they symbolise affectionate messaging. Learning how to select flower types, what portions to use, how to package them is very useful for a long term flower delivery business.
Transportation Services
The second idea is starting a transportation services company that takes people in the kasis to and from their very doorsteps. Public service vehicles and private transportation companies, Uber and Bolt, don’t make drop offs for people at their doorsteps.
This business can be scaled to match competitors like Uber and Bolt in the private transport industry but to begin with, an on app taxi could be a great idea.
Using an app will make the experience feel to your customers like Uber or Bolt. It is also more convenient. Better than advertising your name and number. On the app you can set availability of your transporter on or off depending on the time you decide to work and customers can see on google maps whether or not you are within their area. Customers mostly want a smooth ride for a convenient price. Make sure you maintain your vehicle and competitively price your service.
Growing Food Crop Produce
Food is a basic need. Farm produce is more popular now that people are getting conscious of what they eat. In case you have access to a small portion of soil you are free to till, even 1 by 1 meter, you can grow crops like vegetables that you can sell quickly and easily in a kasi. But in case you can’t till but still have space, you can use bag gardening to create extra vertical space for crops.
Food crops are easy to grow. With access to water either from rain or the tap, you will just require seeds and fertilizers (both of which are affordable). But this kind of business is hard to scale. It is mostly for small but fast and reliable steady income.
After they have grown, they are easy to sell in townships because they have a ready market. Spinach, cabbage and onions are particularly favourite across the country and are easy to plant and nurture. Farm produce is also good for subsistence use.
Tutoring
This is one of the new ideas that will especially be attractive to clients who have children that need to improve on their grades.
If you have a passion for education and are well learned in the subject you decide to tutor, you can make good money opening a tutoring business.
With a start-up capital of zero, this business will only task you to develop teaching skills which you can learn online. After which you will be able to make money on the hour, and if you are good you will get referrals that increase your per hour value. The more you are demanded, the more you will cost to those who can afford your time.
Graphic Design Company
Graphic design is an old idea internationally, but a new venture nationally. In townships and informal settlements especially, opening a graphic design shop that makes and paints the front of the shop designs can make you good money.
Graphic design can be scaled to international levels. On days when work at the shop is slow, you can switch to online freelance work. In the long run, having a website can help make your services available online.
Graphic designers do posters, logos and web pages. Although artistic talent is beneficial in design, you also need to acquire some basic design skills to begin.
Resale
Retail shops buy from wholesalers and sell at a profit. Similarly, in case you decide to go with this idea there are several ways you can do a resale:
- Buying in bulk from wholesalers and selling at a higher price for profit.
- Purchasing gadgets and electronics that are rare (in your kasi) online and reselling them at profitable prices
- Buying plain items, packaging them, branding them and reselling them at a profit. Value addition is more profitable than retail sales. Value added items sometimes become brands.
- Purchasing plain clothes, branding them and reselling them.
- Buying or bartering old items from collectors and reselling them.
Reselling is a growing sector, if you can get into it and establish yourself as a reputable vendor you can grow a big business out of it.
Resale items like gadgets, clothes, old furniture and used electronics are always on demand in townships. Even so, make sure you do social media marketing just to get your name out there.
Pet Grooming and Training
South Africans (including those in townships) like pets, especially dogs and cats, but few are willing to personally give them the care they need. Pets need deworming, vaccination, proper nutrition, washing and disease and parasite control. Additionally, they can also be trained to only go when outside, to follow certain commands and maybe even aggression as guard dogs.
Pet grooming businesses are on the rise because people like to outsource these pet needs. If you are an animal person and are willing to deal with even the most aggressive of dogs you can take this to great heights.
You will need space and a good supply of food for this business. Dogs consume a lot and need space for kennels and to be trained in.
Additional Kasi Business Ideas
- Local pop-up event selling food or a service
- Fumigation against pests
- Making wine as a microbrewery
- Doing haircuts and selling male shaving products
- Selling female cosmetics and doing hair dressing
- Renting out commercial shelves and storage units
- Opening an ice-cream shop. A lucrative business idea if you can get the mood and ambience of the shop as well as the ice-creams right
When evaluating kasi business ideas to pursue, you need to think about each idea objectively. You need to assess your kasi, evaluate yourself and see if the idea you are thinking about pursuing is something you can devote yourself to and commit to making a profitable business out of it. Remember that a business is only as good as its leader. But even more, keep an eye out for the gaps that everyone might have missed.
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