A fast-food joint was opened in my neighborhood earlier this year. I passed by the area a week later and another one had been opened–right next to the first one!
I was in disbelief but the feeling was familiar. This was not the first time I had noticed a similar business being opened once the first one had done well.
Kenya is a country of runners, artists, businessmen, farmers e.t.c. But are we also a country of copycats?
Right now, there is a boom to buy cars and then get them into Uber. Everyone with the ability to acquire a car is jumping in and others going as far as taking out loans to buy the cars.
In recent years, other ventures that have been deemed as cash cows include:
- buying and selling land
- building malls
- keeping quails
- betting companies
I think that there’s a trend here where similar businesses are started when someone else shows us that it’s lucrative–when an idea has already been validated.
This is not an argument against competition; competition is healthy and important. An excess of competitors is also unhealthy. It makes the margins and returns become too low for it to make sense to continue doing business.
I don’t know what the root cause is but there’s a problem that is causing history to repeat itself with every “cash cow”.
On the flip side, there’s also an opportunity—an opportunity for those that are willing to become pioneers and to make their own path.
I hope that this spurs someone, including me, to take the first step.