This is not a sermon on why Ethiopia is left behind while the rest of the Africa is moving forward. This insight is established upon direct experiences with the Ethiopian community in the United States.
More than one variable is a managed for a business venture to flourish. Furthermore, different industries have unique variables to tackle. Simply, it’s rough out there. Nevertheless, Ethiopians are venturing off on their own; built on both Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians as objective target market. And they are becoming more successful in their business endeavors. The United States is astutely labeled as the land of opportunities, as it is and should be for Ethiopians as well.
The continually increasing purchasing power of Ethiopians in the United States offer entrepreneurs an opportunity to successfully target niche markets in the community. As the purchasing power of Ethiopians is increasing, it gives Ethiopians an easier opportunity to be successful as a businessperson with a niche market already established.
The procurement of Africans is growing and corporations are taking notice. Case in point, both Moneygram and Western Union have marketing divisions targeting African immigrants as well as a subdivision for Ethiopians. To the point even an Ethiopian took notice and has started competing against them.(see EMT Money Tranfer) Sprint PCS has both a Hispanic and African immigrant division. The targeted promotions include direct web-advertising, sponsorships and print advertising. Properly tapped, the marketing budgets of these corporations are enough to support small businesses, like magazines and websites. Small Americans businesses generate enough revenue from Ethiopians that they have stopped targeting other immigrants. i.e. Immigration lawyers, Real estate agents in Washington D.C.
While the triumph is increasing, the failure rate for Ethiopian businesspersons remains high, given the preference to remain as a sole-proprietor in their ventures. Unlike Americans who generally allocate various parts of business with partner(s) and or employees; Ethiopians favor remaining independent, explicitly, independently poor.
Get the drift? For instance artists Chachi Tadesse & Hamelmal Abate decided to distribute their latest albums themselves without professional distribution. Furthermore everything is done unprofessionally:
One cousin in Seattle will take care of dropping the CDs to all Seattle Abesha superstores.
No inventory control, no market research and no marketing strategy. The various musical production sites are mom & pop chop-shops for producing and distributing musical album. At least they take 100% of the profits. Here is a math lesson:
A 100% of zero is zero.
Why not help yourself as well as others by giving your distribution rights to professionals? There are professional Ethiopian music distributors based in Washington D.C handling the North American corridor. (see Nahom Records, Fikir Sound & Afrec Records) This way, it would help them by creating less competition in addition to giving the artist(s) a wider reach in audience with a real niche market targeted. They are professionals; they know how to get cheaper manufacturing and have established contacts with various stores that carry the albums.
Collaboration efforts are zero to none in the Ethiopian community. What American artists have figured is that by collaborating with others they double or triple the network for that piece of art.
Janet Jackson’s ego is not too big to join forces with Missy Elliot.’
Last years effort of Burntface Media LLC & Artists for Charity is an excellent example of positive collaboration.
The result was 'Kush Groove' mix CD … artists from the United states and Canada submitted samples of the hip hop hope music
… 23 tracks from the premier east African hip hop artists and producers in North America.
It was the first time many were acquainted with many young Abesha Hip-Hop Artists. From east to west, young musicians came together and were able to reach and reach wide audience, even if it wasn’t monetarily quantified; as proceeds were used for Charity. Despite the fact of unconscious procurement, the business savvy is undeniable.
We all have heard of successful Ethiopians in the American corporate world, some are partners in major corporations and some have started a corporation with non-Ethiopians partners.
Young Ethiopians with enhanced adaptability in the American culture seem to be sharper than the slower older generation.
The Web
You might have noticed the recent amplification in number of web-based businesses. Every day new websites are popping up. Africans are bracing for the future, as the internet will be widely available in Africa.
There is and will be real money in websites, via programs including that of Google’s Adwords or direct request for advertising. Nazret appears to be apt about this.
This site for instance advertises in other Ethiopian website not based in the US, and it received positive cooperation. We have received resistance with few websites based in the US.
The not-for-profit web-loggers have created a nice little network and it appears as the Ethiopian web-loggers traffic increasing. It’s only a matter of time before they independently host their site, as some are doing already. In addition, some might include advertising as successful non-Ethiopian web-loggers are doing.
The unhealthy situation appears to be in the many Ethiopian News based websites. They won’t work together; they only work against each other. Many African countries have few websites with enough traffic to actually compete in the World Wide Web market. Ethiopians have one.
Here is a suggestion:
Dear Webmaster;If your content/intent is the same Ayele’s and you are the only one writing the articles & laying out your site, you might as well work with Ayele. You will have half the work as well as half the competition. Other variables come in to play as well; half the costs, twice the manpower, twice the network etc.
Published by July 2nd, 2006 in Current Issues.
Nolawi,
I concure your comment, but I agree even more the core of the problem to be our confused identity.
the place we have for self incomparison to others as well as the place we have for Ethiopian in comparison to the World.
Instead of being a citizen of the “global” society, we opt out to be ?????? I don’t know..
check out this blog which just starts to question these and many other topics. http://ethiomind.blogspot.com/
Thank you
melkam
You know why we are afraid to hire, or even work with one of our own in order to get the job done? Because, we are tired of getting screwed!
Just observe how our people talk when they are around their peer outside a work environment. More often than not, they blatantly talk about stealing, they talk about circumventing the system, and they talk about advancing oneself at the expense of others.
Mistrust creates fear; and when it comes to growth and expansion, fear is the ultimate chokehold.
Kirarae? (a/k/a Busch Light)
I personally do not think that ethiopians are untrustworthy.
all people are untrustworthy; that is why the law was created to protect the interests of ownership.
Nice article.
There is much to say about the subject.I have also seen many time that fear of stealing by employees is what prevents some little businesses to grow further.For instance, very successfull habesha restaurant owners do not open a second one and let someone else manage the first restaurant as you can see in other communities.
In fact, the problem lies in the fact they rarely maintain proper accounting of their businesses and they don’t know precisely how much it makes.If they did, the manager they hire won’t have that much room to cheat them, and even if he did, it won’t be on significant amounts.
So they prefer to stand behind the cash register and remain small.
[quote comment="1082"]Nice article.
There is much to say about the subject.I have also seen many time that fear of stealing by employees is what prevents some little businesses to grow further.For instance, very successfull habesha restaurant owners do not open a second one and let someone else manage the first restaurant as you can see in other communities.
In fact, the problem lies in the fact they rarely maintain proper accounting of their businesses and they don’t know precisely how much it makes.If they did, the manager they hire won’t have that much room to cheat them, and even if he did, it won’t be on significant amounts.
So they prefer to stand behind the cash register and remain small.[/quote]
zelabaju, true dat man
this is so classic
the more you attempt it, the more it feels like it is unnatural for us to be cooperative.
*sighs*
sigh…..
here’s a ramble…
societies have functional cultures
cultures can be conducive to one thing or another – utility being key
utility of some cultural norms loose their relevance as time passes and societies have to create new ways to adapt…
dunno if ethiopian society’s conception of ‘working together’ has adapted to the current social order…
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