Yearly Archives: 2024

How to establish an event planning business in Zimbabwe

WEDDINGS, birthdays, parties, family reunions and graduation parties are some of the occasions that are driving the events market in Zimbabwe.
This market has a strong demand for certain goods and services, which enterprising Zimbabweans can tap into.
Starting an event planning business in the country can be both rewarding and challenging.
This article outlines the key steps and costs associated with establishing this type of business.
Market research and business plan
The first step in setting up an event planning business is conducting thorough market research.
Understanding market trends, the target audience and competition is crucial.
This research will inform your business plan, which should outline your services, pricing strategy, marketing tack and financial projections.
A well-crafted business plan can also be useful when seeking financing from investors or banks.
Legal requirements
In Zimbabwe, the process of legally registering your event planning business involves several steps, which are:
Business name registration — This can be done through the Registrar of Companies.
The cost is US$50 to US$100, depending on the legal structure of your business.
Tax registration — You must register for tax with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
This involves obtaining a tax clearance certificate, which is free. However, it requires compliance with tax regulations.
Local authority licences — Depending on your location, you may need to obtain specific licences from the council, which may cost US$100 to US$200 per year.
Initial capital and equipment
The startup capital for an event planning business in Zimbabwe varies; it depends on the scale of the operations.
Key expenses include the following:
Office space — Renting a small office space in a central location can cost between US$200 and US$500 per month, depending on the city.
Office equipment and supplies — Budgeting for computers, phones, furniture and other requirements is essential.
This can range from US$1 000 to US$2 000.
Event equipment — If you plan to own your equipment (e.g. tents, chairs, tables and decor), this could require an investment of US$2 000 to US$5 000.
Alternatively, you can choose to rent these items, which lowers the initial costs.
Marketing and branding
Establishing a brand presence is crucial in the event planning industry.
Initial marketing efforts may include creating a professional website, which can cost between US$300 and US$1 000.
Additionally, business cards, brochures and social media marketing should be considered, with a budget of US$500 to US$1 000.
Staffing
Initially, you may operate the business alone or with minimal staff. However, as the business grows, hiring event planners, marketing personnel and administrative staff may become necessary.
Salaries in Zimbabwe vary, but budgeting US$500 to US$1 500 per month for each employee is reasonable.
The total cost of starting an event planning business in the country can range from US$5 000 to US$12 000, depending on the scale of the operations.

Grand reopening celebration held for local business

21 minutes ago

JACKSON, Tenn.—A local business celebrates its grand re-opening.
Walt Mestan Co. hosted a special event to mark its grand re-opening under new ownership.
The local business has been a staple in the fireplace and hearth industry for over 70 years.

Founded in 1950 by Walt Mestan, he spent years providing locals with fireplaces, wood stoves and more. After his passing in 2022, and the passing of his son and successor Wally shortly after, the business was left without an owner.
That’s when new owner, Greg Bodkins Jr. stepped in to not only run the business but to honor the legacy of its founder.
Bodkins expanded the showroom to offer more options for customers including; state of the art indoor and outdoor fireplaces, BBQ grills, fire pits and more. Bodkins, who is an avid pool player, even added a line of pool cues.
Today’s celebration invites the community to check out the new look of Walt Mestan Co. and get a glimpse at the new inventory.
The celebration also included a BBQ, special deals on merchandise and a raffle to win a new pool cue.
“Most of our products we stand behind 100%. We service them. We work on them and everything we have is good wholesome products, good American products,” said Greg Bodkins, owner and manager, Walt Mestan Co.
Walt Mestan Co. is located at 132 Ragland Road in Jackson.
For more local news stories, click here.

Opinion: Vance needs to mind his own business

One can only wonder about JD Vance’s peculiar and freakish obsession with people who do not have children.The Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential candidate has disturbingly targeted women who are absent of biological offspring as “childless cat ladies” (apparently being an adoptive parent or stepparent does not qualify) and perversely stated child-free Americans are “more sociopathic” than Americans with kids and make the U.S. “less mentally stable.”As Vance sees it, no one absent of children has a “direct stake” in the nation. Although, interestingly, he has urged people embroiled in domestic physical discord to remain in violent marriages for the sake of their children, citing his grandparents — one of whom tried to murder the other — as a requisite example. Go figure.At a Center for Christian Virtue forum in 2021, Vance was heard saying: “So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children, and that really disorients me, and it really disturbs me. [American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten] doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”Needless to say, reaction to such personal, hostile and nonsensical rhetoric has been swift and immediate. Weingarten responded to Vance’s resurfaced comments on social media, calling them “gross” and “sad and insulting to millions of modern families, and school teachers including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be targeted for their family decisions.”For the record, as one of those child-free Americans that JD Vance is referring to, the reasons I and millions of other men and women have decided to remain child-free undoubtedly vary just as they do for the multitude who decided to pursue the children-and-family path. For me, it has always been simply a matter of choice. I have always been an iconoclastic individual, rebellious in many ways. Growing up, I heard and saw too many stories of people making choices, whether it be marriage, children, selection of friends, or pursuit of jobs, because of family influence, societal pressure, desperation, or simply because it was “the thing to do.”As a consequence, many of these people found themselves stuck in unhappy, loveless, dysfunctional marriages or relationships, becoming “friends” and associates with individuals they tolerated but really were not all that fond of, working at jobs that made them miserable and yes, in some cases, having children they did not want and eventually regretted having.
Witnessing such experiences made me determined to live my life on my terms and do what made me happy, as long as it did not disrupt or negatively impact anyone else.Some individuals are first-rate and splendid parents. They are caring, attentive, conscientious, and loving. Their children are the pride and joy of their lives; they would not have it any other way, and their kids are fortunate to have been born to them. In contrast, there are people who are lousy and terrible parents who had no business giving birth to anyone. In essence, biological parents, adoptive parents, and surrogate parents have made their decisions. We child-free parents have made ours. JD Vance made his. Now, he needs to stop with the asinine rhetoric, stay out of other people’s personal decisions, and mind his own damn business.Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. Contact him at:[email protected]

The P&Q Interview: Asia School Of Business Dean Sanjay Sarma On The Ways Tech Is Changing B-Schools

Asia School of Business Dean Sanjay Sarma: “The vast majority of graduates are going to be at the forefront of a very significant change.” Courtesy photo
It’s no secret that technology is transforming business education at a faster rate than ever. At the heart of this digital transformation are exciting advancements in AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and biotechnology — just to name a few. 
As the business landscape shifts, B-schools are jockeying for position, rolling out different learning formats to accommodate students from all corners of the world. According to its dean, Asia School of Business, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is stepping up to the challenge, blending traditional and digital learning while maintaining focus on flexibility, accessibility, and cutting-edge educational frameworks. 
“It is, in my view, a matter of time before students demand an even greater degree of agility,” ASB Dean Sanjay Sarma tells Poets&Quants. 
‘ASB IS PARTICULARLY KEEN ON ACTION LEARNING PROJECTS’
ASB has hosted a 12-month MicroMasters MBA program in partnership with MIT Sloan School of Management for about 10 years. The program is taught with signature MIT flair, emphasizing practical, real-world experiential learning within industries and organizations across Asia and the U.S. 
At the forefront of the program is Sarma, the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, who is not only ASB’s dean but also its CEO and president. He and his ASB colleagues are preparing students to face global challenges during this era of dramatic digital transformation, integrating advanced technologies and AI into the curriculum in a way that other institutions of higher learning will inevitably seek to emulate.
At the core of everything they do is embracing the mutability of business education — essential at a time of great and rapid change. “There are so many things that could change — what are we teaching, who is teaching it, do we have the capacity to teach it,” Sarma says. “ASB is particularly keen on action learning projects, so we put students in the field — an MIT concept.”
Below, see highlight from Poets&Quants’ interview with Sarma, edited for length and clarity.
MIT & ASB students. Courtesy photo
P&Q: How do you see online learning evolving?
Sanjay Sarma: At MIT, we started something called the MicroMasters which is purely online. I helped create this nearly ten years ago. Now at ASB, we’re going hybrid. 
It’s one thing to get the content from a video but it’s quite another thing to work with a group of people to build something or execute a project. That’s what we are providing with the hybrid model. 
What are the biggest challenges you’re currently facing with digital transformation? 
It’s about disintegrating and reintegrating. Let’s say you wanted to learn about AI, crypto or carbon credits. Where do you go? 
What we are doing is creating these hybrid courses where you watch the videos when you can, such as on the weekends. You don’t have to leave your job – you watch the videos when you can. You’re a weekend warrior and you master the topic when you can. 
How is AI being utilized at ASB and how it is transforming teaching methods? 
There are a few different levels. First, much of what professors use is automated, and a lot it is customer service based. 
The next is in using AI to generate codes to write classroom games and simulations. 
The third is using AI as a tutor. It can ask you questions, and you as the student can ask it questions.
The other thing about AI is, it’s going to be something you have to retrain yourself in every six to nine months because every thing has changed so much. I spend about two to three hours a week reading up on the latest myself. 
The faculty have lots of discussions about AI, and we are small, so we can do that. The systems naturally absorb AI. AI tools creep in even for those professors who don’t use it often. You just have to be open-minded right now. 
How is ASB preparing students to tackle these unique challenges in the global business world? 
We are fundamentally rethinking our curriculum around technology. 
ASB students spend weeks at a time at MIT. We introduced AI as a course and we also have a data science course. 
That’s another thing for professors – they have to fundamentally rethink their curriculum. 
The second piece of this is what we are doing – developing agile continuous education with our hybrid courses. 
Sanjay Sarma: “It is, in my view, a matter of time before students demand an even greater degree of agility”
What other impacts do you believe the integration of advanced technologies will have on traditional business school models?
Business is changing so fast, and traditional business schools teach what needs to be taught right from the front lines. 
Is the MBA worth it? These tools mean that there are so many new delivery methods. Do you want to be a movie theater in the age of Netflix? That’s the question. Adjust and adapt.
There are so many things that could change — what are we teaching, who is teaching it, do we have the capacity to teach it. ASB is particularly keen on action learning projects, so we put students in the field — an MIT concept. 
How do you as a professor ensure that the curriculum remains relevant? 
Its not easy. It’s very difficult to do. A lot of these fields have evolved over  a hundred years and there’s a playbook on how to teach it. 
The fundamentals don’t change much,  but pretty much everything else changes when technology changes so rapidly. Take marketing, before and after TikTok. There’s a difference in the choices you make and the way you segment customers. Everything changes. 
With my own technical work, I’ve changed the way I operate within the last three months. I’ve changed the way I write documents, the way I develop curriculum, the way I interact with my colleagues, the way I do research, and the way that I interact with my staff has changed. 
The way I take notes, the way I do follow ups. I travel extensively, the time it takes me to plan travel has been cut in half.  I use Chat GPT, Perplexity and other tools. They all make serious mistakes. But I have achieved a level of expertise in these areas. I learn things faster now – things that would have in the past taken me weeks and months to learn. 
Everything gets faster — it’s game-changing. 
How important is it for MBA graduates to be proficient in emerging technologies?
100%. If you’re working at a bank as a young person, you’re going to have to take on challenges like how to use large language models in customer service. How do you address the risks of large language models, and what do you do when a large language model  makes a mistake? 
Same with modern payment systems, crypto, carbon credits, I could name a hundred other similar examples. It’s really important because the vast majority of graduates are going to be at the forefront of a very significant change.
DON’T MISS COMMENTARY: THE RISE OF THE ONE-YEAR (ASB) MBA AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: TOP PROGRAMS IN THE NEW FRONTIER OF EXEC ED 

After Dressing Beyoncé and Harry Styles, Palomo Spain’s Designer Is Building His Cult Following Into a Business

Alejandro Gómez Palomo backstage with models from his Spring/Summer 2024 runway show. Photography by indigital.tv. Image courtesy of Palomo Spain.Alejandro Gómez Palomo’s latest runway show is inspired by bondage photography. Not the ropes themselves, but the way they pull at the model’s clothing, particularly in snapshots from Nobuyoshi Araki. “It was like a pleat here, and you can see a boob [spilling] through, and all those casual, random moments,” explains the Palomo Spain designer, while on a break from a final casting for the show. “It got me thinking [about] why everything that we enjoy so much—going out, sex, ecstasy, whatever—why is it always associated with hell and sin? Why isn’t heaven the place where you have all the pleasures?”That great divide was something Palomo had time to ponder growing up in a small village outside Córdoba in Spain. The church was, as he recalls, “the richest place in my village. It was the only place where I could see embroidered velvet and gold.” The adornment and the divinity, it’s all present in the designer’s latest works. “All Of Heaven’s Parties,” showing at New York Fashion Week today, is a rotation of garments thrumming with a queer desire that has become characteristic of Palomo’s runway outings. It’s joined by his second see-now-buy-now collaboration with Spanish womenswear brand Bimba y Lola.Palomo with a model in Spain. Image courtesy of Palomo Spain.The Spring/Summer 2025 collection follows his standout presentation last September at the Plaza Hotel, teasingly titled “Cruising in the Rose Garden.” As heritage houses increasingly shift their shows abroad—where Palomo notes his presentations are slotted between runways with “millions behind them”—New York has become a fertile ground for young brands to shine. Palomo Spain’s offering for Spring/Summer 2024 saw men walking in flouncing mini-dresses, lace and low slung denim, bralettes and corset tops, vines wrapping up their arms and metallic roses tucked behind an ear.  His clothing was quickly chalked up as a type of “womenswear for men,” an idea that Palomo outright dismisses. “We had built the clothes on men and that made it menswear,” he argues. Though, when faced with settling on the menswear label, that doesn’t quite fit either. “We do have women customers and we have men customers—mainly men,” he ponders. “Calling it menswear would be a mistake, but it does come from a menswear patternmaking and silhouette. I would say it’s a very free menswear—something like that.”Harry Styles wearing custom Palomo Spain, 2022. Image courtesy of Palomo Spain/Instagram.Palomo knew he wanted to be a designer from the age of three. As a child, his first model and muse was a Barbie doll. The designer’s grandmother was a frequent sewer, and taught him to work from her stockpile of fabrics. He grew up looking to John Galliano, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, and the like, convinced that a career in womenswear and couture was the traditional, if not only, path forward. An education in London changed that notion. There was formal training at the London College of Fashion and work on the side with a fashion collector selling vintage wares at Liberty’s. “I understood that menswear was a whole universe and there was a whole world of opportunities,” he says. Fresh out of school, Palomo headed home to Spain and got to work on his own project. “I started with this idea of really mixing those memories that I had from my childhood, all these couture moments, with a more menswear street style that I was learning in London. Those have been the keys for the brand—an idea of a new, really glamorous man.”Palomo Spain was founded in 2015 out of Posadas, Spain. The first collection, “Orlando,” in 2016, took its name from Virginia Woolf’s novel about an aristocrat who undergoes a sex change and gains a type of immortality. The designs, already carrying much of the sartorial signatures Palomo has made his name on, ended up in Opening Ceremony’s New York and Los Angeles stores. The following year, Beyoncé called.  Backstage at the Spring/Summer 2024 runway show. Photography by indigital.tv. Image courtesy of Palomo Spain.Her order, 12 looks in total, was the first big purchase from the burgeoning brand, one quickly forgotten when the clothes never showed up anywhere. “We heard that she was pregnant, so she never wore the clothes. We’re like, ‘Well, she paid, whatever.’ Then, all of a sudden, one day she posts this picture on Instagram.” The image of the singer in a cascading purple Palomo Spain gown—the most liked of 2017—served as the birth announcement for the singer’s twins, Sir Carter and Rumi. The industry response, Palomo remembers, was one of instant credibility—more even than what came from shows in Paris or New York.“It was very exciting in the beginning, but then we had a lot of mistakes as well,” says the designer. “We had no idea of how to produce, how to become a real thing. [We were working] in my village with a seamstress that was 65 years old. She was brilliant, but she was only doing made-to-measure. There was no way to get them to be real clothes that could go on a production chain after that.” Scaling the business up into something with longevity was a process of trial-and-error, boosted by additional appearances of garments on Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, and Rosalía, among other clients.Beyoncé wearing custom Palomo Spain, 2017. Image courtesy of Beyoncé/Instagram.  “I thought I was Chanel,” Palomo laughs. “I was doing these massive shows in Madrid and we had 80 models coming from New York, Los Angeles, and spending money that I don’t know where it came from. My dad had a company at the time and he was doing okay. Whatever he was making, he was investing in me.” In 2018, Palomo Spain saw a 300 percent boost in sales and what followed was a race to match the acceleration. These days, however, the designer is at work on solidifying his foundations. He’s enjoying the period in a business’ lifespan where scrappy turns to scrupulous and fervid to forward-thinking. There are collaborations with Puma and this season’s second iteration of “Bimba y Palomo.” The backing of big companies has allowed Palomo to stretch his imagination further into the commercial market across items like track suits and high-heeled boots. At New York Fashion Week, the designer is back in traditional form, despite the tinges of the underworld and darker pleasures—“I’m still a romantic!” The angels Palomo is in the process of casting when we speak are set to stumble upon a heavenly party on the runway, one wrapped up in hedonism and lace. “It has been a tough summer and a tough season,” he admits, “because of the changes inside the company and new teams and people that I had to get used to.” Growing pains aside, he smiles, “Now I’m feeling really, really confident.” Sign Up for the Cultured Newsletter Sure, we can be close friends. Unfiltered access awaits.