Africa is desperate for money at all levels. These levels range from individuals through to governments. Unemployment is on the rise for all groups, including the educated. The shortage of funds to support personal needs is a serious concern that may in future result I undesired consequences. In this post I present what an individual can do to position himself or herself to try and improve his or her financial position through online side hustling, which in turn will have a positive impact on the government’s deliverable of improving people’s lives. Note that I will use the phrase ‘side hustle’ interchangeable with ‘freelancing’.
An online side hustle, commonly known as the gig market or freelancing, is an option not farfetched for Africans. I have met and read about many, myself included, that earn something substantive online by participating in these structures.
The African reality
Indeed it may not be as easy in Africa as it is elsewhere in the world to take on an online side hustle for a number of reasons. Other factors that contribute to the difficulty include the scarce availability of good quality equipment, infrastructural resources and access to the internet. However, it still is possible with a little more effort and aligning resources even when it means putting everything together to serve the purpose just for a short period of time; say a few hours a day.
In my approach, I want to focus on the individual level. The truth is that everyone has 24 hours a day. Most of us spend 8 hours at an employer’s place, which leaves us with the other 16 hours for personal use. In the 16 hours, there surely must be time to sleep and that for family fellowship.
The workaround
I have some suggestions on how to make it work even when your resources are limited, as it is mostly the case for most Africans. Be smart on the use of resources because everyone out there is after them and want to sell you a product or service, promising you unprecedented success. Therefore, as a starter, most of the free resources online are good enough to support your start-up. Avoid buying those fancy tools like website themes, plugins, email management platforms, etc. work with the free versions. At some point, your business will indicate the resources that really matter enough for you to then invest in.
I want to open your eyes to the fact that working on your freelancing career may take a longer time to get to a level where you feel comfortable to relax your efforts. You will be required to invest your time on a continuous basis since this is a business to you. Things online happen slowly. Of course at some point you will have to invest some money in your hustle activities but be conservative, especially if you have a tight budget.
Below I discuss a few things you need to take to heart as you journey into online side hustles:
- Commitment to your endeavour. It is one thing to naturally like fidgeting with computers but it is another to push yourself even when you no longer feel like it. Commitment will empower you to do the unbelievable. For example, it is only the committed that can write a full article to post on their blog, writing such content on a cell phone or tablet. Commitment will get you innovative when resources are scarce. For example, you can turn your ordinary house into a competent studio to meet a certain requirement and turn it back to its normal usable space again.
- Take time to study on your desired outcome. This will help you avoid repeating mistakes other people have done and waste time reinventing the wheel. You should by all means try to build up on what others have already exposed as pros and cons in your space. I today would not expect a blogger to code their own blog from scratch when there are platforms and templates readily available for free to use online. My teacher was another blogger who gave out information on WordPress for free. I liked and tried it out and it worked. Other teachers are the multiple vloggers, bloggers, social media tutors and websites. Talk to people who are like minded and empower each other on your space of interest. Joining relevant social media groups and being studious will save you a lot of time.
- You should never bite off more than you can chew. It took me a long time to master the art of doing just enough for the day but still don’t do much too less than you are capable of. Tools that you can use to help you do better in this area are scheduling your time such as setting and observing your bed time. Once you find yourself going beyond that time, you have taken too much for that day.
Work hard but don’t wear yourself out. Your eyes, hands, mouth and mind need time to rest and reset. You will discover that if you do take time to rest you will be more productive afterwards.
- Avoid time wasters. The advent of social media has its pros but it is one dangerous time waster. If not controlled, it can lead to poor performance due to wasted time and false teachings. Lengthy and none productive discussions are a culprit also. Television is another culprit, though less of one nowadays. Watch television for a purpose and give yourself time enough to pick a lesson or two, and then discipline yourself to pull off from it.
- Use resources available to you right away. Don’t reserve tools for use in future if you happen to need them now. Your smartphone is a tool that can help you deliver unexpected results. I have seen fiverr promotional videos that are undoubtedly produced from ordinary smartphones and they are good enough to convince a buyer to spend their money on that particular freelancer. I have come to realise that often times when you reserve something for future use you are most likely to end up losing it, abusing it or even never get time to use it again. Such resources could be things like educational material you have secured, electronic gadgets, your GMS or Wi-Fi loaded data, etc. Rather you get idle from having used all your resources than having your resources lye there idle and later get them spoiled.
Factors for the possibilities
Being in Africa is not an excuse for not making an attempt on an online side hustle as long as the following resources are available or means to gain access to is possible.
- Access to support platforms. Freelancing websites are plenty and open to willing sellers from anywhere in the world. I agree that some freelance companies are restrictive to some participants in some countries, particularly those in developing countries and Africa happens to be one continent with such challenges. However, if you search well enough, you will get one that works for you. I did get one myself when I found fiverr. Even now, sometimes I do take time to explore some more freelancing platforms, perhaps I can get one more that will work just like fiverr did.
- The availability of options that fit your scale and resources you have. People claim to have made substantive amounts of money just by using their phones and average domestic laptops. I am a witness to that as I also freelance on fiverr and have made some money using my phone and laptop. Smartphones are capable of delivering far more work that we often think, if used under proper guidance. They are fitted with very good cameras to produce good enough photos and videos to impress the freelance market.
- The reseller offers on products and services. The term I hear a lot about this is flipping products and drop sipping servicing. Whatever service you get online and find useful, you can resell it to someone else at a mark-up. An example I tried out myself was webhosting reseller service and it worked.
- The wide scope of products and services to offer to customers. Services and products are either physical or digital and in each of these you can find opportunities that suit your interests.
- The advent of self-paced training. There are very good courses that are available online, some free and some paid for, that cover almost any filed you would take any interest on. Most of them are self-paced such that you may take the shortest time as possible to complete. I also recommend YouTube as a good place to start.
To conclude, I want to encourage you to keep visiting out ‘Resources’ page to get easy links to helpful tools that will enhance your business online. You are also welcome to follow me on TikTok and YouTube.
