Aspiring Bulawayo entrepreneurs audition for My Own Boss

THIRTY aspiring entrepreneurs from Bulawayo, five of them female, on Saturday auditioned for the Zimbabwe television series My Own Boss (MOB).

The theme for this year is "My Own Boss, Buy Zimbabwe". The show is organised by Buy Zimbabwe, a successful brainchild of Zimbabwe's young entrepreneurs.

MOB is an entrepreneurial TV reality show targeting youths between 18 and 35 years. It identifies, nurtures, educates and exposes raw talent into the business world. The show is in Season Four having been pioneered in Zambia in 2007.

MOB production manager Chido Chizondo said they were impressed with the proposals that were presented to them in Bulawayo.

The team was in Gweru for the Midlands provincial auditions on Monday and they were also scheduled to travel to Masvingo, Mutare and Harare for the same auditions.

She said the female contestants also gave a good account of themselves save for one who came ill prepared.

"The female contestants gave a good account of themselves as one wanted to venture into television production, the other wanted to set up a mental health facility. However, one came and had not prepared anything as a form of presentation. When she was asked what she wanted to do, she only could answer by saying she wanted to venture into selling sweets. The other two wanted to be in chicken rearing," said Chizondo.

She said judges were impressed by a young entrepreneur who had set up a children's magazine.

"There was a young man who presented a proposal for a children's magazine he is running. As judges we were impressed at how well he could articulate his business proposal," said Chizondo.

She said among the contestants were students from Nust and young business people in the city.

"We had people who are already in business and students from Nust who gave brilliant ideas. We had projects for chicken rearing, internet service providers and from the business people it seemed that peanut butter making is very popular in Bulawayo," said Chizondo.

She said results would be announced on Tuesday next week for the two representatives of each province.

"Each province will have two representatives, one male and one female.

"On Tuesday we shall announce all the winners from each province and on 23 June they will go into boot camp for a week," said Chizondo.

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