Small Business in Botswana

In Kanye and Mochudi where we have lived while in Botswana, there aren’t a lot of large businesses. However, there is a lot of small business going on. We walk by these examples of the entrepreneurial spirit every day. From hair styling salons and barber shops, to clothing stores, to butcher shops.

When I say small business I mean really really small. One of the more common businesses are called “Tuck” shops. I don’t know where the name came from, but these are small shacks selling snacks, soft drinks, sunglasses and the like. They do their business most often in crude structures made from concrete block, and sometimes from corrugated steel shipping containers in which they have cut openings to enter and leave and conduct business.

Often the businesses are not in a structure at all, but are just tables set up on the side of the road trying to sell anything from Mophane worms, clothes, shoes, vegetables, fruit, cell phone airtime, or cell phones. At the bus rank in Gaborone I saw a guy selling blue, white and black striped wigs (the colors of the Botswana flag).

These businesses are a part of the landscape of Botswana, they are interesting, unique and have tons of personality.

See for yourself in this gallery of pictures:   http://c20.1e3.myftpupload.com/?page_id=2475

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