Mistakes are Correct: How Zimbabwe’s First Goat Meat Start Up Launched During Covid 19 and Failed

Goat Orders Co. (GoC) was established in May 2020 as a pioneering agricultural startup strategically focused on transforming the goat meat industry in Zimbabwe where no business model existed to unlock the sector. The goat meat start-up folded in May 2023. What began as a project for my Master of Professional Studies in Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, US morphed into a real-life, tangible product. I chose to do goats because I was determined to give back to my community. I have always disavowed education that remains stuck in a certificate; I advocate active education. Education that makes a real difference. My project proposition was to leverage the power of technology to make the goat market more relevant to the people of Zimbabwe. Doing a start-up takes blood, sweat, and tears, and I learned the hard way.

The start-up model failed due to a variety of factors which include a broken-down supply chain, poor logistics, lack of a sustainable energy supply for cold storage, lack of an intensive marketing and advertising campaign, lack of sufficient start-up capital, poor human resources, financial recording and accounting practices. The absence of goat meat in conventional abattoirs only worsened matters. Minimal processing opportunities for goat producers have continued to inhibit growth within the industry. Poor goat production practices negatively affected carcass sizes that it was almost next to impossible to predict levels of profitability.

We launched at the height of Covid 19. I convinced a friend of mine to secure us documentation that we were in a critical sector which enable us to operate in spite of the restriction. Of course, I had to pay $50 to get the requisite clearance letter. The launch of start-up was motivated by the noticeable absence of goat meat in the market. A disorganised marketing infrastructure, a lack of quality grades, seasonal demand, irregular supply, unfavourable customer attitudes, uneven quality, and a lack of research to find new markets and grow existing ones are some barriers that reduce the demand for goat meat. (Knight E, 2005) Many consumers lack knowledge and exposure to goat meat products, creating an additional barrier faced by the industry (Zachery and Nelson, 1992). According to Miller (1995) and Rhee et al. (2000), informing customers about a product's nutritional qualities and preparation techniques can boost their interest in consuming it.

As Founder and CEO, I was responsible for bootstrapping the operation. GoC began with what I would call a rag-tag team, including myself, because none of us had experience in the meat processing and meat selling sector. In retrospect, we were driven by zeal and little knowledge in setting up the enterprise. The fact that it was Covid 19 lockdown time made it easier to convince the early team to dedicate their time to the enterprise. Established folk with more meat sector experience would have hesitated to pursue the venture.

We started by doing online deliveries to customers in Harare using an old, rickety Mazda B16. We would buy goats at the informal markets, process them at local butcheries, and then initiate deliveries. The first delivery was to Borrowdale: the customer wanted the whole goat, including the rough offals and the skin. After doing a few deliveries, customers demanded to know where we were processing the meat. Customers demanded to come to our physical location. This is a key lesson: when you are dealing with meat related products such as goat meat, transparency and traceability are of paramount importance. Customers also requested for special goat cuts which we could not identify and could not deliver. Due to the proliferation of the informal goat meat urban markets, customers clearly doubted that we were processing the goat meat in healthy and sanitary conditions. Affluent customers had an affinity for knowing the source of the goat meat.

As CEO, I took a decision to establish a physical outlet. Rentals for a butchery space proved to be very high. After a long search, we located a space at the Pfugari Pink Complex in Whitecliffe Town, opposite the White House Shops. However, the space was not fit for purpose to be a butchery. I negotiated with the landlord to do some internal renovations. The landlord agreed but insisted that the renovations would be at my own cost. I proceeded to do the renovations which included tiling the floors, putting in two sinks, and painting the 30 square metre building in the GoC corporate colours of dark and light green. I was determined to make sure that we would be selling goat meat out of a clean, trendy and well-designed environment. Customer excitement was palpable in the build up to officially opening the shop.

The space had no electricity supply because it never been utilized which was quite a drawback, and a factor that I should have seriously taken into consideration before taking the space up. It took quite a while before we were connected to the grid. I had no generator when we officially opened the shop on June 20, 2020. We had to rely on a butchery nearby to cut up the meat.

We opened a butchery shop and a kitchen at the same time. The kitchen was supposed to bring already prepared goat meat to the customers who has few places where they could access prepared goat meat in a fast and convenient manner. The kitchen later proved to be one of the greatest undoing of the start-up model because none of my staff had had experience in retailing cooked food items.

A key assumption in setting up GoC was that smallholder farmers in the country’s outlying areas were in a desperate need to take their produce to market. While this true on the one hand, on the other hand, smallholders do not have the mindset for commercial production. Goats are kept as assets that can be turned into liquid cash when the need arises. Sourcing for goats was therefore not only time consuming but a costly endeavour. It was difficult to guarantee supply at the height of the GoC start up operations which attracted approximately 700 customers a week.

Building a team is key for a start-up. One of the mistakes I made was to hire quickly and fire slowly. I made a mistake of not adhering to standard human resource practices. For instance, I never bothered to do reference checks. I relied on my intuition which was guided by whether a person desperately wanted a job. I was very na?ve in that sense. Zimbabwe’ work culture has significantly deteriorated. Finding workers who have integrity is very difficult. When I assumed that demand had increased, I found reasons to make new hires which overburdened the sustainability of the start-up.

As CEO, I absolutely hated numbers. I was more driven by the creative side of business. I was stuck for too long in the customer discovery and building mode. I invested time in trying to innovate new products rather than tracking our financial positions. This lack of diligence resulted in pilferage. I could not hold anyone accountable to pilferage because I lack the data to prove it. The fact that I was involved in every aspect of the start up only complicated matters because I found myself with little time or energy to attend to the critical matters of the business. Finances are the lifeblood of a start-up and need to be reviewed on a daily basis.

Starting a business and managing it are two difference things that require a different skillset. Managing a business requires trouble shooting and a cool head that ensures that things are on track.

While we attracted a substantial number of business, GoC did not leverage this to build a more robust customer base. I hired a blockman on the whim who knew very little about how to cut goats. His role was to simply cut the whole goat into stewing goat. There were no special cuts which we could sold at a premium.

At one point I had 15 employees working at the meat shop which also increased the amount of human resource problems and conflicts. In retrospect, the start-up model only required three employees. That would have been sufficient to service the storefront and the kitchen.

A meatshop cannot exist without cold storage. The excessive power cuts and power disruptions increase the operational costs. In the first two months of running the start-up, I was forced to carry meat home where I would freeze it overnight. Investing in solar power, at least 5KVA would have gone a long way to solve the problem of energy supply.? When we launched, I made a decision to forego a cold room. I only learned later that a cold room is essential part of a meat shop. With a cold room, you are able to stock up, and therefore reduce costs of going up and down to look for fresh meat supply.

Instead of solely focusing on provision of the goat meat product to the marketplace, I should have focused on optimizing efficiency of processes, systems and tools. Customer led growth could have helped GoC to design a bouquet of product offerings that could have drawn in a larger customer base.

#bethegoat #goatunltd #wegotyou

?

?