We just look around, see where certain situations are causing discomfort (pain) to people, families, neighborhoods, towns and even the whole country. We find an opportunity, an idea to change lives, and then provide the services people need.[break]
In the past five years, there has been an amazing growth in interest among the new generation of Nepalis to become entrepreneurs. Many young Nepalis are starting organizations, businesses and institutions in their twenties.
We all know Nepal is undergoing a lot of pain these days.
But this is exactly when entrepreneurs should seize the opportunity.
In a country where one thousand Nepalis are leaving the country daily for jobs abroad, providing dignified jobs here is the best social service you would be providing.
For those of you who are just starting out, here are a few examples where pain is an opportunity:
What if you:
- Provide an open office space that could be prepaid and rented on a per-use basis in the heart of Kathmandu and other urban centers. A great place for start-up entrepreneurs to meet others. ‘Co-office’ or brainstorming space or ……
- Come together and operate a nonstop bus/micro service/ tempo service that guarantees timely service, pick and drop for a premium price (but not as shocking or surprising as those taxis in Kathmandu right now).
- Build barbershops in Kathmandu which are cleaner and also combine that with a professional massage therapy. (A lot of us in Kathmandu are willing to pay substantially more for this.)
- Open a public transportation service that only travels in the evenings and is reliable and on time. (If you are thinking about lack of security, maybe the vehicle has its own security guard.)
- Organize a ‘farmer’s market’ in different parts of Kathmandu where you lease stalls and where people come to buy and sell fresh produce, meat, food (hopefully some will be organic and locally produced) like Kalimaati but smaller and agile.
- Train yourself to be a “turn garbage into organic waste” trainer, and charge families Rs 200 a session (for half an hour) to turn house waste into manure in their own gardens (and even buy surplus manure from them).
- Started providing healthcare services to urban families in their own homes. With young Nepalis working elsewhere, Kathmandu and other urban centers are fast turning into old people’s homes.
- Turn the former Royal Palace gardens into what is a fusion between Garden of Dreams and Babar Mahal Revisited. This is something families look forward to - taking their children for a quiet (and hopefully fresh) time together.
- Run a business that installs a rain harvesting service in individual homes for use in dry seasons. Isn’t water the next gold? If you are a designer or architect or engineers, start thinking of building services and products to save or recycle water that is easy to install. Then sell them!
- Provide technical trainings to builders, electricians, engineers, architects who build new homes on how to integrate alternative energy source into houses.
-Open a micro-brewery. If one wants to enjoy beer, let it be home-brewed. There is a healthy local market here. I am sure with a marketing twist “Himalayan brewed” would become quite popular among tourists also. (The only catch is you have to convince our monopoly-friendly government in issuing affordable licenses to small businesses to start this.)
- Lease and operate Tundikhel into a weekend bazaar, which only operates on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). “Our own Haat Bazaar”. (If you have been in Bangkok, Thailand, you will already have a visual idea.)
- Operate a public auction place in your city where various auctioning of items like antiques, used furniture and used appliances can be auctioned. Make this a weekend event. Will be pretty lively and entertaining to be there!
- Run a business managing motorcycle (scooter) taxis to get to your destination fast in Kathmandu’s traffic. Say bye-bye to microbuses.
- Open a “positive news only” media that focuses on progress, enthusiasm, dynamic Nepalis, hard working Nepalis and small successes in Nepal. Aren’t
we sick of watching those three old faces in media crying and fighting with each other all the time, and other gloomy news of murder and mayhem to top that?
- Build a giant storage house for perishable goods to be stored in the highest standards and rent them out space by space. A lot of entrepreneurs would come to buy these services from you.
- And for the daring ones with deep pockets, open an elaborate theme park here on the outskirts of Kathmandu. You have a healthy middle class who will afford your services, (in fact, many that I talk to are dying for a new form of entertainment in their lives. People are getting tired of hauling their children to the movies). We need some outdoors fun rides and more. Even a giant water ride park somewhere near River Trisuli?
So start working on transforming all the pains you see into opportunities today!
Ujwal Thapa blogs at whynepal.com and is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs for Nepal.
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