Why UK Businesses Should Consider Outsourcing to Zimbabwe
I’ve spent years working inside UK businesses, from listed companies to scrappy startups. Now, as an advisor and investor diligencing small businesses week in and week out, I’m seeing the same story play out over and over again:
The numbers don’t stack up.
Margins are paper thin. Profitability is elusive. Owners are exhausted, and many of these businesses are only one bad quarter away from shutting down completely. Many have already decided to wind down.
When I look at accounts, I can often see exactly where things are breaking. Sometimes it’s bloated overheads. Sometimes it’s inefficiency. But most often, it’s simply the cost of people.
For many small businesses, the difference between keeping the lights on and closing down is outsourcing.
One of the reasons I founded askChenai was because I kept spotting businesses that were "on their knees" financially - not because their idea was bad, not because the founders were lazy, but because they were carrying costs they simply couldn’t afford.
When I asked why they hadn’t considered outsourcing, I got the same set of responses:
Can I trust these people?
Will they actually know how to do the work?
Isn’t it a nightmare to train someone remotely?
What about the paperwork - is it even legal?
And beyond the fear factor, there’s a practical barrier: most outsourcing providers don’t care about small businesses. If you’re not a corporate with 200 seats to fill, they won’t even look at you.
That leaves founders and small business owners stuck in the middle. On one hand, you can’t afford UK salaries. On the other, you’re left to gamble with anonymous freelancers on Fiverr or Upwork - people you’ve never met, unvetted, hit or miss.
That’s the gap I built askChenai to solve.
Here’s a simple example: at askChenai a full-time equivalent for 40 hours a week, costs from just £899 ($1,200) a month - all in.
I’ve compared the numbers across the UK, US, South Africa, the Philippines - you name it. Zimbabwe comes out on top every time.
Show me where else you can get that level of quality, education, and professionalism at that price point. You won’t.
And it’s not just about affordability. Zimbabwe is one of the most overlooked talent markets in the world. The country has:
A highly educated workforce (literacy rates among the highest in Africa).
English as the main business language.
European Timezone
A strong work ethic born from necessity in a tough economic environment.
This is why I’ve written repeatedly about my disbelief that Zimbabwe is still overlooked. It’s not a secret that the country has world-class talent - it’s just that too few businesses are looking in the right direction.
The Reality Check for Small Businesses
If you’re a small business struggling to make the numbers work, outsourcing isn’t a luxury -it’s survival.
It’s the difference between shutting down and scaling up. Between throwing years of work in the bin and keeping your dream alive.
And if you’ve dismissed outsourcing before because it felt “too complicated,” I’ll say this: it’s not complicated. It’s about finding the right partner who understands small businesses, not just corporates.
That’s what we’re doing at askChenai - bringing vetted, reliable, high-quality Zimbabwean talent to founders who need breathing room.
I’ll leave you with this.
Every week I look at businesses where the numbers simply don’t stack up. But when I run the scenario with outsourcing in place, suddenly the maths works. Suddenly, the business is viable again.
If you’re a founder or small business owner reading this and you’re drowning in overhead, you owe it to yourself to rethink outsourcing.
Because survival isn’t just about grit. It’s about making the numbers work. And the numbers work in Zimbabwe.