Earn A Living Without A Job

I first read about Grace Adek in the Daily Nation. I later traced her on Facebook. Grace has been selling second-hand women’s clothes since she was a university student. According to her story as reported in the daily newspaper, she started by buying 30 extra dresses to sell to her schoolmates every time she went shopping for herself. She’d buy the dresses for Sh50 to Sh100, then sell them for Sh500 to Sh600 bob. That means that she would make around Kshs. 500/- profit per dress! Yet we have people who earn Kshs. 500/- in daily wages! Four years ago Grace quit her job as a pharmaceuticals marketer to pursue her mitumba (second hand clothes) business full time. She was 32 at the time. At the time, she had been dabbling in the business part-time while she was still working her day job. Grace reports that she purchases clothes worth hundreds of thousands a week. “Every week I buy stock worth between KSh 200,000 and Sh300,000. I make a profit of between KSh 100,000 to KSh 150,000. I make Sh 20,000 on a good day and at least Sh 5,000 in a bad one.” In the meantime, costs are low; Grace runs her business online so she has no rent to pay. She has a Facebook page with 29,000 likes, and it is where her customers shop. Besides two motorbikes and their drivers to deliver her orders, there are no other costs. Read the full story here: http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/saturday/Making-a-living-off-mitumba/1216-3342796-kgxre6/index.html I get people contacting me with financial challenges almost on a daily basis. Some are working but they always have too much month left at the end of the money. Others are part of the statistics of the unemployed in Kenya; they have sent their CVs to all manner of organizations but they have not been lucky to get a job. Each and everyone of us is blessed with unique gifts and talents that can be turned into streams of income. What many of these people are lacking is someone to guide them to explore how they can monetize their gifts, talents, passions as well as skills and expertise. You love styling hair, baking and decorating cakes, spending time with kids? How can you monetize your hobby for example?

One category of people who gets in touch with me seeking help out of their situations is women who are in abusive relationships. “He beats me, forbids me to work, mistreats my child, but I don’t want to go back to my parents.” There is one thing that is constant in this world and that is change. The job market is constantly shrinking but opportunities to earn income outside formal employment are consistently expanding, especially with the platform that the Internet offers. The WorldWide Web has connected the world. Anyone can now work successfully from home, as long as one is willing to put in the work to learn how to master the Internet. Grace Adek’s story is a good example. She runs a mtumba (second hands clothes) business. She does not operate a physical shop anywhere but uses a Facebook page as her shop, keeping her costs down. If you are going to be successful in building a successful business long term, mastering the Internet is not a luxury but a necessity. The social networks have brought together over 1 billion people. By mastering the use of the Internet and positioning yourself correctly on different social networking sites, you are able to put your business before large audiences. You are able to market your business while keeping costs down. It does not matter what your line of business is; second hand clothes, delivering ready lunch to people who work in busy offices, offering cleaning services or whatever it is; the Internet is a tool that will help you expand your business. Here is a helpful link: http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/saturday/Work-at-home-queens/1216-2858100-126vawq/index.html This article is written by Susan Catherine Keter, Life and Health Coach, Trevo LLC, USA Website: http://trevo.life/susanwamucii/ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/educate.the.woman/?pnref=lhc Telephone: +254728999136

Financial Independence Africa