by Margaret Olatunbosun
People leave their jobs for different reasons. According to research, 43 percent of millennials plan to quit their jobs within two years (Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2018). Reasons cited ranged from millennials wanting companies to get excited about real social change to differing opinions about business’ motivation and ethics.
But another reason millennials leave jobs they truly love is because they can’t support themselves financially. Quitting to follow your truest passion doesn’t work either; you’re left with the big question of where to generate income to sustain yourself and your family.
So, what do you do when you can neither leave a job you love nor commit extra working hours to your current employer? The answer is to put your creativity to work.
Here are 5 ways to profit from your creativity while climbing the corporate ladder.
1. Offer to support online entrepreneurs.
You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home. A lot of entrepreneurs online are swamped with several actions that they need to perform to keep their businesses profitable. If you have administrative, organizational, or leadership skills, you could start your journey to becoming making money online by becoming an executive assistant or virtual assistant.
A virtual assistant can do anything from transcribing Livestream videos to text––which could be repurposed as blog posts, answering customer calls and processing payment issues, helping entrepreneurs find and secure PR opportunities for their brands, and making sure business systems work effectively.
The best thing about being a virtual assistant is that you can create retainer packages so that you can help them take their hands off what they don’t want to do while getting paid monthly.
2. Help experts create and organize live experiences.
Entrepreneurs, experts, and influencers are looking for ways to take their online connection to real-life meetings. However, most of these meetings take place in hotels, resorts, huge multi-purpose halls, and even international locations.
If you have the gift of dealing with several people, working with vendors, securing products/things for large parties and bringing them together, troubleshooting deadlines, etc…you can offer your services as an event planner.
So, how do you break into event planning in your local community? Here’s a simple way:
1. Look up current and upcoming conferences in your area.
Send the organizers an email and ask to be a volunteer to help with logistics. Once you get a couple of events under your belt, not only do you get to see the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to host live events, you add amazing people––who want to work with you again, to your network.
2. Teach people how to use a product.
Do you know how to use Microsoft Excel better than the majority of people you know? Can you take a smartphone and turn it into a magic video or image editing tool? Look for any product you love and figure out how people are not maximizing its use.
Start a blog and create tutorials with videos and screenshots. You could start a YouTube channel and upload your tutorials with a call-to-action to buy recordings of advanced strategies or you hire you directly. The goal is to teach anyone how to get advanced skills using products that they already have.
3. Be a writer.
Writing gives you the flexibility of building an engaged audience and monetizing your creativity. There are several ways to monetize your skill as a writer.
–> Become a freelance writer: A freelance writer is someone who sells his or her words to other companies or people in form of content. Organizations come to you to help them write blog posts, newsletters, sales pages, etc and you quote them a price on a project or monthly basis. You either specialize in writing on a specific subject area or be a generalist who commissions pieces on different subjects.
–> Start a blog: Starting a blog gives you the ability to choose your own topic, your audience, develop a posting schedule, and eventually a monetization model.
–>Write your own book: Becoming an author is on the list of so many people. However, it all starts with doing the actual work: writing.
Want to master the art and business of writing? Read blog posts on writing or join Facebook groups for writers. These are inexpensive ways to start your writing journey while you think about your career options.
4. Help small businesses by becoming a consultant.
If you have people skills and are able to solve specific challenges brands experience in the marketplace, you can package your skills and pitch yourself as a consultant.
Here’s an example: if a small business in your local community doesn’t have any online presence, you could position yourself as a Social Media Consultant. Your work could include teaching them how to build an audience, optimizing their Facebook content, and creating an editorial content calendar so that they can grow their following and increase their profit.
Kimanzi Constable, a former bread seller is now a multi 6-figure entrepreneur who consults with national and international companies, teaching several topics in digital marketing and personal development. One of his most popular consulting topics is teaching companies how their employees can develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
Conclusion
Remember, it’s not about quitting your current job. It’s about giving a platform to your creativity and profiting from it so that you can have the mental clarity to think about your long-term goals.
————————————————————————–
Margaret Olatunbosun is a writer, creative coach, and a rebel against society’s prescription of a dream job. She shows you how to thrive at the intersection of creativity, passion, and profit so your career becomes the greatest expression of your creative interests.
Her thoughts on career and entrepreneurship have been featured on Lifehack, Elephant Journal, TEDxLincolnSquare, Thought Catalog, Addicted2Success, Thrive Global, The Huffington Post, Career Contessa, and many more. She has also been featured as a career expert on Albert’s List, a community of 15,000+ members that connects recruiters and job seekers with the power of referrals.
She Owns It accepts guest post submissions at https://sheownsit.com/guest-post-submissions/. If you have an article that would be of value to our community, please submit for approval.
All posts will be screened, links checked (limited to 3 and must be relevant), and author must be verifiable through a website and social media accounts.
