Nowadays education, regardless of its extent or level, no longer offers the same opportunities and guarantees that it did only two or three decades ago. Most of this can be blamed on how the development and successes of our economy have failed to keep pace with those of our educational systems. This means that many of our high school, college, polytechnic and even university graduates can benefit from augmenting their skills and knowledge with those outside their curricula. Listed here are just a few of the additional skills which our educated can acquire to start their side hustles or even just become more marketable as prospective employees.
Sales
The ability to sell is one of the most important yet criminally underrated business skills in Zimbabwe. As long as any form of business exists in this world, salesmanship will forever remain a very valuable skill with countless opportunities even in Zimbabwe. If you don’t appreciate the sheer amount of opportunities that exist in sales, think about how many desperately unemployed people will ignore a job posting without a second thought if it contains the word commission. This makes sales one of a very few types of skills whose usefulness doesn’t automatically invite crowding. To develop the skill you will need to practice, read and watch online videos by those people who like to call themselves Sales gurus—some of them know what they are talking about.
Web design
Nowadays almost every kind and size of the company appreciates the importance of a web presence. This appreciation coupled with the large number of Zimbabwean businesses which do not yet have websites means that web development holds a lot of opportunity for the enterprising tech-savvy mind. What’s more, nowadays you do not even need to know how to code to develop professional and great looking websites for the businesses around you. Content Management Systems like WordPress allows people to develop websites without any need for prior coding knowledge. If you are interested in web development you can go online right now and immerse yourself in a large amount of free educational resources available.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is big and getting even bigger every day with companies of all sizes trying to incorporate it into their marketing efforts. Unfortunately, since it’s more of an art than anything else, few of these companies end up having any significant success with it—yes a company’s Twitter or Facebook accounts should help bring in more customers and clients instead of just existing to check off a box. This means that people who know how to leverage social media for the good of a business are very much in demand. You can nurture your social media talents to make yourself more valuable to whoever your employer is or offer your services to businesses for a fee.
Photography
For a brief moment in time, everyone thought that the ubiquity of smartphones would kill off the professional photographer. Instead, professional photography has just gotten better and nowadays people still appreciate the huge difference in quality between a professionally taken photograph and a selfie. Buy a camera, get good at it and you will be making a quick buck at events (family, professional, church etc.) in no time. One good thing about having a camera is that everyone you meet is a potential customer and it usually doesn’t even consume enough of your time to be called a side gig.
Writing business and professional documents
Cover letters, job application letters, CVs, tender applications and business plans are just a few of the documents which are written when enough is at stake that many people would rather pay someone professional to do it for them. You can be that someone. If you practice and develop the skills to draft excellent professional documents, you not only become more valuable to your employers but you also have the potential to make some money on the side. If you are a good writer you can start training yourself on how you can write such documents well.
Manufacture of toiletries
Nowadays the manufacture of things like detergents, soaps and perfumes is so accessible that there is a vibrant cottage industry developing around it. Gaining the skills and knowledge of how to produce these products right in your home will, at the very least, give you something to fall back onto if your primary source of income is ever disrupted. You can either learn from locals who are already skilled at making these or just use the internet.
Online forex trading
Online forex trading has been growing in popularity in recent years, particularly among college students. Making money through the practice is not as easy as some of its evangelists would like you to believe. You need to devote a lot of time to learning how to trade and at the end of the day knowledge alone is not enough. Without enough skill or experience, the practice can rapidly become a glorified form of gambling.
