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Financial Jennifer: These Tips Will Help You Create Multiple Income Sources
In this period, one thing that should be a priority for every Nigerian is exploring means of making more money. We have always prioritised this to improve our personal finance and wealth building, but with the recent fuel price hike and accompanying high inflation, more than ever, we need to find coping mechanisms. One important piece of advice in this period is to cut down expenses, but there is a limit to how far we can cut down. However, when it comes to earning, there is no limit to how much money you can make. You need to go get all the bags you can.
Creating multiple streams of income tends to seem like a big deal because we usually do not know where to start. Well, I got you. We will be looking at practical ways you can come up with side hustle ideas using my personal experience and that of the women in my FinTribe community. Every method to be discussed has been tested with results.
Expand Your Current Capacity
You start this by asking yourself some questions. How can you squeeze out more money from your current position? In your job, is it time to negotiate for promotion and salary review? Is it time to change jobs? Is there a skill or certification you can pick up to earn more from your position? If you are a business person, is there a new line of business you can introduce to complement what you currently have? Can you explore new markets either by entering a new location or servicing an additional class of customers? Put on your thinking hat and milk your current position.
Here’s what I did with my hair business. Initially, we sold just hair bundles and wigs. We would always recommend the perfect hair products for our customers. But after some time, we decided to stock some of these hair products. Since we already have the market, why not? We not only help our customers to get the perfect care for their hair, but we also generate additional income for the business too.
Monetise Your Education and Experience
Assess the opportunities to monetise your skills within your current profession. Don’t think that what you know is basic. It is not to many people out there, and they are willing to pay you for it. Can you offer consulting services, freelance work, or teach others? Leveraging your existing expertise can be a valuable way to create a side hustle that complements your main career.
One of our women in the Fintribe community is an HR Professional. During covid, she started sharing tips and insights on LinkedIn on leadership in her industry. Today, she is a highly sought speaker at events. She consults, on the side, for companies. And she has sold her courses to thousands of people, while still doing her 9-5 job.
New Skills
You can’t monetise what you already have? Not to worry. Learn something new. The internet has made it easy not only to learn new skills at little or no cost but to market the same skill to a global audience. There are so many tech and non-tech skills you can pick up. A simple Google search on ‘high paying skills’ or something like that will give you many options, including things like copywriting, social media management, video editing, digital marketing and others.
One of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities at FinTribe is to award scholarships to young women for digital skills and support some of them with laptops. We have received many testimonials from these women on how they now earn in dollars offering their skills on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
E-commerce/Dropshipping
Many of the big shops we know today started from dropshipping. This is when you sell products you do not stock. How does it work? Identify a product you want to sell, find a wholesaler you can be buying from, and advertise the products at your own price, when you have a buyer, pay the wholesaler and they deliver to your customer directly. You can sell on social media and e-commerce platforms.
This was how I started my hair business. I was still a student in Owerri but most of my customers were in Lagos. When I have a buyer, I would contact my Lagos supplier who delivered to them. And thankfully, because of the pay-before-delivery system, you don’t need capital for this. For busy people who want to start a business online, consider getting a page manager that will handle your page.
Digital Products
I needed to emphasise this one because it’s the new money-printing machine. Some of the things we already discussed can be monetised as a digital product. You can sell information through eBooks, webinars, templates, courses and others. My brand is focused on personal finance for women. In addition to my free teaching, I host one-on-one coaching and courses that teach people about investments. My first live class this year had over 3,000 paying participants. Do you know how much I would spend if I were to rent a 3,000-capacity hall? Thankfully, in the digital age, you don’t need to spend that much to make money.
Investments
To know me is to know that investment is a must for everyone on the journey to build generational wealth. With investments, you don’t have to work for every penny you own, you send your money to work instead. It’s not only a means to build wealth, it’s also a way to earn passive income that can fund your lifestyle. As an investment banker, I can tell you that the number one secret of the rich is investments. It’s not even a secret, but many of us still think an investment is for a certain class of people. No, it is for you and me.
There are different credible investment instruments like stocks, government bonds, commercial paper and mutual funds. I teach a lot about this on my social media pages. Reach out to any investment professional, they will guide you in building an investment portfolio.
I hope this helps you to uncover ideas that not only provide financial rewards but also bring fulfilment and joy to your life.
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