Servicing The Recession

I know I will be sounding like a broken record when I say, "There is a recession" but, hey, there IS a recession. And it is no longer news that jobs are being cut on the regular. Families can longer sustain themselves, bills are mounting and inflation is at an all time high.

This phenomenon has mostly affected the young, productive demographic, I mean, those that are either working and able to or those able to work and seeking employment. You can imagine the stress on a lot of families.

So, while trading lamentations on issues of being a full time work-out-of-home-mum-without-help and the dearth of reliable live in helps in the country coupled with the rate of unemployment and its attendant issues with a friend, a few thoughts came to me on how I can encourage young people to think creatively about ways to create value in their immediate community and at the same time, make money and I will share it with you.

You know the beauty of being a value adding entity in your community? It is in finding a NEED and filling it!! That simple. And there is a huge gap in Domestic services. You think I am lying? Find out the number of households in your neighbourhood that have househelps or maids or some other sort of domestic help.

Now, this is where you come in. You and a few friends can team up and decide to provide help (not the MMM kind of help o) temporarily for families in your neighbourhood for a token. That is a start. Your team can put word out that you can clean the house, do laundry, go shopping  and wash cars for a token fee. On the said day, you all can appear at your client's house with your cleaning supplies and clean the heck out of that place and even help the client organize their space. Do it well and conscientiously for one or two families and you would get a stream of jobs in the neighbourhood. One of you can keep the books. You can have a schedule of jobs you offer and days you will be available for each job and the time frame for such jobs. You could add shopping to your list. A team member who can drive an awesome bargain can undertake that. Another team member can undertake car washing for a fee.

Keep your pricing reasonable. And make it fun while at it. Be very prudent in spending and as your profile grows, grow your little "business" until it becomes something big. My only advice is, please be HONEST. Always deliver on promises. For example, if you say it takes you two hours to clean a house, you will get better referrals if you do the job in under two hours and do a very good job. That is called under promising and over delivering (if there is anything like that. We just use it at my office to communicate value to staff).

Getting ideas, yet? Aha! Trust me, do a good job, then you will be making enough revenue to help yourself out of recession in no time.

Never say I never gave you anything good this new year.