Side Hustles to Help Me Fund my WA Business

byJMaluth

180 followers

2 months ago

Hey friends, how are you going with your WA business? They say, "You have to use money to make money," right? That's right. But what if I don't just have money to use in order to make money in the first place? The question is "What else do you have that you can do/sell for money to make money to use to make money?"

Sounds like a tongue twister, right? It's not.

Since the day I was determined to get rid of toxic relationships and then focus on what I love most: writing, I made up my mind to find ways to fund my foundation, Wealthy Affiliate. If you have read my previous article, you know how I left my country, South Sudan, for Kenya.

My Side Hustles

In order to keep paying for my WA membership, have something to eat while staying with a friend, a bishop, or get free enough to rent for myself, buy some equipment such as a chair, a table, headphones, microphones, etc., I have to do something. I have to earn money for these, and I have some ways to work (remotely).

I'm sharing these side hustles with you to inspire you. You have no excuse for not doing your WA business. If I can burn my bridges (not suggesting you must do), you can. But what do you have at hand to start with? That's the same question God asked Moses when he was complaining of being a nobody.

I love the same idea in the book, Start with What You Have by Praise George, a Nigerian author who shares a lot of experiences with his readers in Africa and the world.

Okay, let me tell you about my side hustles then, hoping to inspire you to think and do something about your online business.

1. Languages Services - as professional translator, interpreter, and transcriber from English to either Dinka or Nuer and vice versa, I could get tasks ranging from companies, individuals, and even courts. Though I am not yet a satisfied service provider as per USA and other Western countries (since my Dinka and Nuer languages are not in the systems), I am a professional at work. Yes, I can even do Arabic. Not just Juba Arabic but classic Khartoum Arabic. To be frank, I just finished my first Arabic interpretation task with Colorado Courts and earned a bit. No, it's something that can make me pay my WA membership for a month and feed me for about 2 weeks. Looking forward to more tasks/assignments. I didn't know I was good enough with court terms and Arabic.
2. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing - instead of publishing my own books using this great platform, I could help those who got stuck in the process and charge them a fee. I have been helping several authors from Kenya do just that since 2016. I can charge from $100-$300/service depending on the tasks at hand. Do they already have an Amazon account? Is their book professionally edited? Is their cover designed? Do they have the correct trim sizes? How many books do they want to upload? The more boxes ticked, the lesser the cost.
3. Career Coaching - as a born teacher with the love for knowledge sharing, I can start my own coaching business beginning at church and then expand it to conference halls and more. I can even do it online and create online courses. This means I haven't start to monetize this gig yet, but I'm thinking about it, sharing the idea with the bishop and others. I can then teach about self-discovery, career discovery, and much more. I have 10 books on the subject with practical tips. I use the books, myself.

These are some of the side hustles that came to mind, and I have been working on some as you can see above. How about creating websites for others using WA, and then ask them for a fee? That's another side hustle that's missing from the list above, but possible, especially if I could be able to upgrade to Premium Plus+ and pay yearly instead of monthly, a plan on the pipeline.

Bad Experience

However, I have created websites before for Kenyans and South Sudanese, and that was a bad experience for me. Why? 12 months are not long enough, and people don't budget for their yearly fees. People don't understand that when a domain expires now, it doesn't wait for a paycheck. It just does its job: expires.

Why Share These?

Finally, the reason why I shared these with you is to help you think of other alternatively to help you fund your WA business, and other online endeavors. What can you do to earn some more money?

I believe you have a talent that you might not be aware of. Think about it for a while. I didn't know I could interpret from English into classical Arabic until I tried it, today. The results? Amazing according to the suspect of whom I was interpretating for because I asked him for feedback at the end before we say goodbye and he went back to jail.

And I got paid as soon as the court case closed. The case was adjourned, and I might be the next guy to be called next time (since the court asked me for my contact details in the chat).

Feedback

Let me know your tactics, plans, and goals to keep you do your WA business and more. Maybe I can also learn from you. Let's keep sharing our progresses. One day, one time, I'll be updating you while on a beach in the USA or somewhere in Bangladesh. I know it will happen.

Then I will be able to send my kids to school (they're not in school now), and maybe try to find a suitable digital nomad partner? I'm not thinking of that yet. Just healing from the past wounds.

Thanks for reading!

John