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Exploring different avenues of revenue generation

The gig economy is a sector of the jobs market that offer gig workers flexible job opportunities that are usually paid by the gig rather than by the hour.

According to another definition, it is "a labour market characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work, as opposed to permanent jobs".

This is the new frontline of work and this is the ability to service multiple clients with the expertise you've acquired over the years. This includes all sorts of freelancing jobs from writing to pet sitting, food delivery to accounting, and finance.

When people say 'Gig' we think of the word engagement. This widely used term is now used to describe any short-term job, spreading from grocery shopping to garden trimming.

Workers participating in the gig economy often rely on gigs in place of a full-time job, including freelance business owners or use the ability to find gigs on-demand as an additional source of income.

According to Microsoft skills developer Martin Ndlovu, this is revolutionary.

“The gig economy to me is a great start for young Africans. Professionals are no longer limited to the companies in Namibia. With the gig economy you are accessing the whole world and anyone in the world can benefit from your expertise,” he says.

Although this is a big opportunity for young, hungry Namibian professionals, Ndlovu says that we as a nation have to see what is required of us in order to fully infiltrate this market.

“We need to see whether we have the right, digital skills that are required for this. Our educational systems also work in a way that only a small percentage of Namibians acquire these skills. Many people today, are self-taught and educational institutions play one of the biggest roles in up-skilling people.”

Getting Out There

Gig economy workers sometime opt to use traditional job search techniques or specially designed gig platforms which may link business owners to independent workers.

In layman’s terms, plenty gig economy applications serve various popular gig economy sectors and specialise in linking freelancers' skills with the businesses that need them.

Many examples of ‘gigs’ are often remote work and do not require you to be in one place all the time. Gigs like software development and marketing are some examples to consider.

Graphic design is also one of the skills most online business and offline business models will need to make use of at some point and therefor is a good way to make money online.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list but it gives a clear outline of the range of work that one could include in the gig economy and is a great place to start if you are looking for a change in career paths or even just the opportunity to earn some extra money on the side.

Gigs On Demand

There are several examples of gig work in this oasis of opportunity. Once you have decided on the right type of gig job for you, the next step is to find work that will allow you to have the perfect work-life balance.

According to an online source, “the most common example of gig economy job searching is to find work through an online platform or job board or to use a mobile app such as Shiftpixy.”

It furthermore states that because there are pros and cons to gig work, you need to make sure you find the right platform for you and “ensure you are thinking about health insurance, retirement provision and tax, putting aside enough to pay for these things.”

Martin Ndlovu states that every digital entrepreneur is making money for Namibia and there is a continuous injection of foreign currency into the country.

“Skills and connectivity are two of the fundamentals that are going to aid in the success of Gig workers. At the moment our data prices aren’t bad but imagine if there was an Aweh package specially for gig-workers, that would make it so much easier for them to access these sites.”

He says as much as connectivity and skills are important, devices are equally as important because one will need the right tools in order to execute.

“We need to make sure these devices are more affordable and more accessible to the digital entrepreneurs all over the country. The remuneration strategies with certain gig platforms use certain payment gateways and channels such as PayPal which doesn’t deposit into Namibian bank accounts.

The payment structures need to be secured and in place to allow gig workers to access their payment once it’s there,” he concludes.