If You Suddenly Lose Your Job

A Nonjoiner way of making and managing money. Remember, part of being a nonjoiner is being free from other people's control. That means financial freedom where you decide how you make money, how much and what for. 

Thank GOD there's no pandemic on the Net, no lockdowns and neither is there any economic crisis there. Last year (or in 2020 to 2021) while so many brick and mortar companies were closing down, a lot of businesses online were enjoying unprecedented success and making a killing. I believe God provided Cyberspace for this, among other things, to get us past the severest Covid period and the concomitant lockdowns. Or, if you suddenly lose your job and are shocked to be jobless just like that.

 Photo above by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash.

And I'm not talking about small traditional businesses selling their merchandise on Facebook, or the no selling no income stuff. I'm taking about the kind that can run on full automation online, and fully legit at that, too. Online businesses that sell by themselves 24/7 while their owners are on vacation or relaxing at home and a bit lazy to do business but want to make money nonetheless (or locked indoors during pandemics, emergencies or simply out of money for transportation fares). And believe it or not, you can be in this business, too, in case you lost your job or about to lose it--or your pension has weakened buying power. Now you can end all those financial woes and be in charge of your profitability--and your life.

All you need is a desktop, laptop or smart phone and wifi connection. And yes, a healthy FB account.

Traditional Businesses Online

A lot of traditional businesses ventured online and made it. Like those selling goods by posting items on their FB walls and urging friends to PM them for details (what I call FB Wall Sari-Sari Store or FB SSS). That's still pretty much traditional because you still sell to people by displaying products and talking to buyers yourself, replying to their queries, delivering the items and collecting the money. Everything is still done manually by you. But it's good because you sell not just to your immediate locale but to the whole country, even the whole world via e-Commerce and dropshipping. And you use COD door-to-door delivery services. This setup is great if you're suddenly jobless.

Another is selling while going live on FB (what I call FB Live Selling). This became a hit, with some of its proprietors making big money by the hundred thousands. But it's a lot of hard work. You do a lot of live sales talks and demos (as against merely posting on your wall with FB Sari-Sari Store), listing the orders, collecting payment and delivering the goods. 

The big disadvantage with both Sari-Sari and Live Selling is, no work no income. You have to do this daily. Auto-replies and many-chat features help a lot to ease selling, but eventually it's the same old story. You have to personally attend to a lot of queries at the end of the day and do some things manually. Customers can easily go to another seller once they become unsatisfied with your presentation and it's like losing a job again.

FB Account Deleted!

Worst scenario is if FB suddenly decides to suspend your  FB account or deletes it altogether, which has happened a lot of times to many FB sellers. Business was doing great but one morning when they woke up, their account was no longer there. They tried to appeal to FB, to no avail. All those patrons and "suki" from FB gone, just like that. Then they're back to square one, starting again from scratch. You see how painful that is?

Less-Work Online Businesses

There's also the less-work business or, Simplified Online Business. If you're a nonjoiner, you'll opt for this. They're on semi or almost auto-responder, like selling digital products (selling webinars, coaching, e-books, e-reports, the like). You let the selling system do its work, from targeting your audience, presenting the product, selling per se and following up, to delivery and collection. And all you do is check how much money has been added to your Paypal or bank account. See? Less work.

With coaching or webinars, some people prefer to have everything video recorded. Some prefer doing it themselves live. Whatever you choose, there's less (or near zero) work involved. How much money do you need to start this business? It depends. A digital business can start with P3,000 (though you can start with P500), which is relatively cheap because you produce your own digital products for free and create your own (free or paid) websites. Some started with P10k. 

No-Brainer Online Businesses

If digital products sound too complicated to you, there's another one. I call it Membership E-Marketing. Marketing products is through the membership, something like a cooperative, or a system like what SNR, Landers and the like are doing, but everything is online via a website platform. Sounds complicated but it's really easy. The marketing system does almost everything for you. You are also trained how to use FB marketing tools to get people's attention and make them pursue you for inquiries about the business, rather than you going after prospects and pestering them with hard-selling. Imagine hundreds of people messaging you, eager to know about your business!

I believe the key to any online business is the FB ad. If you create ads for your business on Facebook, you're business success is 90 percent done. But be careful not to violate FB advertising policies. Check them out.

Make Online Schooling Fun for Your Kids

Online classes are supposed to make things simpler, compared to its face-to-face counterpart, right? However, it's not as simple as it seems. Teachers have to prepare a lot more than usual and most of them, being not that computer savvy, find online teaching somewhat making things worse. Photo by Mohammad Shahhosseini on Unsplash.

I mean, just imagine learning the complexities of Google meet and suite the first time. Or Zoom. And that's besides preparing powerpoints you have to integrate on screen during the video conferencing. The most challenging is how you teach Math effectively online through powerpoints? 

But being at the receiving end of online teaching should make kids enjoy it more. For one, they don't need to get up too early to prepare for school and tackle heavy traffic anymore. Second, they enjoy it in the comforts of their homes often with their families. Third, it's an exciting new thing.

Anything new is exciting for kids. And teachers and parents should make it stay that way.

How? There's just one word--adventure. Keep it to the kids. Let them explore and discover online schooling for themselves. In short, never spoon-feed them. It takes all the excitement away. Let them work hard. Yeah, you may lend a helping hand now and then, but control yourself.

There's a big temptation to do the schooling yourself for your kids in online classes. You become your kid's secretary or assistant, doing the hard works for them. You answer their quizzes, do their projects, whisper answers during recitations, the works. Yeah, they'd probably get higher grades but they'd end up the loser after. 

And you end up getting all the fun, not your kids.

I remember in grade school (from grade 5 onwards) and high school when my parents were totally hands off about my schooling. They let me do everything and especially experience all the hardships. My projects and art works were often the pits but I was proud to have done them myself. It wasn't school; it was an adventure. It was fun.

I made my own belt, door mat, coconut shell coin bank, bamboo piggy bank and ashtray, leather wallet, dustpan and broomsticks as school projects, and various art works. I also did my own garden plot and planted and harvested vegetables. I learned how to cook meals and build fires and makeshift stoves. All these when I was just in grade 5. 

We got little to no assistance from our teachers, except teaching us the basics. Then they let us do everything. Whatever resulted from our manual labor and self efforts, that we submitted and got grades from. And it was so fulfilling. I can remember the feeling of adventure.

Yeah I suffered giving wrong answers and getting low grades during recitation and quizzes but I learned well from my mistakes and that helped me become more responsible and positively independent. I faced my own problems squarely, getting encouragement and guidance (not direct assistance) from my parents at home. I learned to study my lessons myself at an early age. 

All my parents did was look at my report card and sign on it each quarter. And of course, attend programs and PTA meetings, pay my tuition fees and provide my allowances. 

Let kids commit mistakes and experience getting low grades. It toughens their mettle and develops their self-confidence in the end. It prepares them for the next higher levels. It molds their character. Never do anything that will take these things away from our kids in this new normal and online schooling.

If we cheat to get higher grades for our kids, we only cheat ourselves and have our kids suffer from it in the end.

Remember, the fun in schooling--offline or online--is the adventure. When amid wins and defeats, our kids discover things for themselves and accomplish things from their own hard work.