The Virtual Freelancer: The Future For Young Kenyans
I was just reading this great article in the NYT about the changing work force around the world. Everyone who works should read this article because it highlights what is happening to jobs around the world today. A quote from the article follows:
“A new generation of online service marketplaces is giving small companies more opportunities than ever to find specialized expertise and affordable labor. Main Street businesses can shop a virtual international bazaar of freelancers to recruit computer programmers in Russia, graphic designers in San Francisco or data analysts in India.
These online marketplaces are fueled by several trends. The recession and recent wave of downsizing have forced many corporations to eliminate in-house services and use independent contractors instead. Buyouts and layoffs have pushed many skilled professionals into the freelance marketplace”.
I remember talking to a friend about this issue a while ago and I was telling her that the days when you could hope to get a “good” job where you have these wonderful benefits & retirement plans are really coming to a slow end. Yes, those jobs still exist, but the trend is clearly changing and it’s going to become harder and harder to get these jobs.
I myself have used these virtual freelancers before and I’ve worked with people from Bosnia, India, Russia and Bangladesh. It’s the reason I started noticing this trend a few years ago and to be honest, it was quite scary for me at first because that’s when I really realized just how competitive this global economy had become.
The other point this article highlighted for me was just how the high speed cable line will help young Kenyans who are looking to tap into this virtual world of freelance work. They’ll be able to do it now by offering their skills to anyone in the world while sitting at Java house enjoying a cup of coffee. This is how high speed internet will help young Kenyans. Forget about starting an outsourcing center for now. Freelance work is where it’s at.
And guess what? if you do this, you won’t have to depend on government tenders and all of that corrupt, wheeling & dealing culture in Kenya because your clients will be coming from around the world. So, whether Kibaki is in statehouse or whether Raila comes in, will not affect your bottom line.
Do you guys see what is happening here?! It’s astounding. You won’t be like Transcentury or Equity bank, businesses run by old men whose success depends on their access to statehouse, with their customers confined to one country, all operating in one incestous semi-criminal economy. You’ll be able to pull yourself out of that system, virtually and literally.
Of all the articles I have posted here, I think this one is the most important in terms of telling us where the world is headed.
** Soon, you’ll no longer have to listen to scam artists at the vision secretariat illusion office.
I think that when you say this:
…just how the high speed cable line will help young Kenyans who are looking to tap into this virtual world of freelance work
you mean young Kenyans with the education, skills and resources to take advantage of increased bandwidth to begin competing in a global marketplace, and who are able to market themselves sufficiently to stand out in what is already a very crowded environment. Oh, and who have technical skills that are rare or in demand elsewhere.
Right?
I’m a freelancer, and have been since graduating. My advice? Start working on your portfolio and body of work before you decide to go freelance full-time. Nobody will hire you if they don’t know what you are capable of. And marry rich! There is nothing more miserable than a two-freelancer household when neither has any work and the mortgage payment is due. If you can’t marry rich, marry someone with a regular income. Freelancing is by no means a stable career choice.
KE.
With this article you are making some very important points. In one of my posts I indicated that the work of govt is not to spoonfeed people but to create an enabling environment. Some have been talking passionately about the hunger stricken 10 million Kenyans. Whereas I fully empathize with their plight and support calls to have them fed. It isn’t a sustainable policy to expect the govt to feed this people for ever.
This is why I support the govts focus on infrastructure. The fibre-optic cable is like a highspeed highway similar to the German Autobahns. They should be used by the populace to find profitable ventures to feed, educate and develope themselves and their families. The sooner Kenyans realise that their future destiny is in their hands the faster they will free themselves from the shackles of poverty.
The fibre cable will bring something perhaps even more important and that thing is knowledge. Kenyans love to whine, complain and blame anyone and everyone except themselves. It’s time we as Kenyans took charge and forgot about govt. Afterall you want less govt in your life and therefore the inefficiency of our govt could be viewed as a positive opportunity for us to go our way.
The cable allows people to become freelancers but it also allows you to form a company and market your products to a global market. In addition it also allows one to acquire the necessary skills to compete. So as Dr. Friedmann stated it makes the world flat. Young Kenyans especially will be able to take advantage of the internet to learn then monetize, package and sell their products.
By the way you have to remember that e-commerce doesnt just mean outside Kenya but also within. So a person with a one acre piece of land who grows onions and tomatoes and keeps some cows for milk can know where the price for his commodities is highest within Kenya and make a good profit. Young programmers who design games can sell them to an African audience like SA or West Africa. The possibilities are endless.
Inari:
My experience with these virtual freelancers has shown me that you just have to start. You can’t wait on the sidelines till all the stars are lined up in your favor.
What I think will work if you are new is to begin by offering the lowest prices and then make sure you deliver your work on time and get it done well. If you do that, you will get good reviews and slowly begin to build up your portfolio.
Yes, but you are right. This is mainly for the young, university graduates who can’t find jobs in Kenya. Based on what I’ve seen with the Indians who I’ve worked with, I think a young, university educated Kenyan can absolutely compete. Some of those Indians can barely write grammatically correct English. Yes, they have some programming skills, but so do the Kenyans.
The problems I’ve seen with the Kenyans is that their rates are too high for people with no experience and no portfolio. They’re charging like $50 dollars an hour and the Indians are charging $10 dollars an hour.
For any young Kenyan who might be reading this and thinking about it, my advice to you is to charge around $10 an hour and start from there.
The Kenyans are greedy. They expect quick money and this is not what it’s about. This is about slowly building up a clientele by using your sweat equity, but you have to be honest, hardworking and patient.
I have run many ecommerce businesses from when i was 22 where i started working in a cyber cafe. I built my company SpaceKenya.com without any government help and the worst internet connection in the world possible. Business is about drive and passion and i just wondering whether schools teach this in Kenya. I was lucky to have very enterprising parents who taught me how to work from a young age these are the skills we need to impart to the next generations. Because the fibre optics could also lead to a technological colonization of Africa where we are hooked to western media and content.
Good one KE
KE
I like your video on Preciss International. This is the kind of motivation that is good for building the country. People also learn that there is hope in life even in Kenya.
Thats a very positive interview. Now you can see why I am so obsessed with fibre-optics.
John:
I just looked at your site (spacekenya.com) and it looks like a web hosting service. So, I have a few questions for you:
1) Were you getting your bandwith from a Kenyan based company or from outside then sub-letting it?
2) How did you get clients and did your clients fit a certain profile? i.e. what kind of people in Kenya would be willing to buy web hosting space from a small company such as yours?
Jellyfish:
I’m really trying to get away from discussing banks in Kenya because I’ve found that there’s too much emphasis on banking, especially with the other Kenyan business blogs and as I’ve said before, that wheeling & dealing culture of banking is too intertwined with the corrupt political system.
It’s also too old school: just a bunch of old men with shady backgrounds using their connections to statehouse to take money from the poor & everything thinks their a bunch of business geniuses.
However, with companies like Preciss and even Kencall, your beginning to see people getting away from that wheeling & dealing business culture and these are the companies that will survive regardless of who is in statehouse.
Yes K.E. Intially i was subletting space on one account such as yours but as my business grew i was able to acquire some servers and i even provide dedicated SMS services.
Its still an Small Enterprise so i am hoping to expand over the next few years and that is why i am hungry for information from blogs such as yours. Did you see my blog JohnKaranja.com and JellyFishes blog quite impressive.
I still contend that you are grossly underestimating Equity bank. I went to their Headquarters and i assure you there is no such building in Nairobi totally futuristic yet depicts African cultural aspects. This attention to detail cannot be from a company which is a short term bus.
Between did you know Dyer and Blair is implementing a 150 million realtime online shares platform. You will be able to trade instantly with a dollar account. Anytime Anywhere. Their current system aint that bad as well. I use it from outside Kenya.
John:
Are your servers based in Kenya or outside Kenya and who are your clients?
Also, do you have a customer service line for when the servers are down? That’s been my biggest complaint with my host company and I would presume, the toughest part of running this kind of business. i.e. providing good, technical support when things go wrong, which happens very often.
On Dyer & Blair:
I’heard a story of a high net worth individual at D&B, whose millions were almost stolen when they tried to forge a check he had left with them. I just don’t trust these brokers, but everyone is free to come up with their own conclusions.
on Equity bank:
Having a nicely built office with good interior designing doesn’t persuade me (did you see that guy R. Allen Stanford’s banks in the carribean? they were beautiful, with lovely gardens & marble floors). Even Madoff had beautiful offices. That’ll always get people. You can’t get people’s money if you don’t look rich yourself.
You raise very pertinent issues here regarding freelancing. I am a freelancer, and like Steff said, it is not a steady career choice but with determination it can. Of course for any aspiring freelancer, please have a portfolio if you want to be competitive.
My main problem with these virtual marketplace is their insistence of paying through Paypal, and to the best of my knowledge Paypal services are not available in Kenya (unless of course am mistaken). So, how can the young people enjoy this if receiving payment is an obstacle.
There are marketplace for freelancers here in Kenya though the are not well known or the people involved have not marketed enough. I did interview one of them. Follow link to read their views and how they are putting Kenya in the marketplace map.
http://nairobi.tujuane.com/fea.....0&ID=9
kenyanfreelancer:
I believe bankelele (http://bankelele.blogspot.com/) raised this issue of not being able to receive his google check from blogging because paypal wasn’t in Kenya.
However, in my experience as a consumer with Elance, paypal is not the only form of payment they accept. They accept credit card payments from Visa & Mastercard. So, as long as you can find a way to receive electronic card payments in Kenya, you can get paid.
I don’t understand why this is such a difficult issue for so many: just set up a website and put an e-commerce payment system up. They’re not that expensive anymore.
From my short time with dealing with kenyans who were looking to get on-line, their basic problem seemed to be their unwillingness to spend even one penny on their online businesses! They want everything for free and are even unwilling to spend $7 a year to buy a domain name. They also don’t want to pay for server costs, they want you to design their websites for free. Basically, they want all the money, but don’t want to do any of the work or spend any of their capital.
Where do you think this attitude of expecting to get things for free comes from?
Anyway, no internet businesses will happen in Kenya until people find ways to accept electronic credit card payments from their clients. Why are so many people having such a hard time with this electronic payment issue?
Hi Jellyfish the dreamer! Still drinking kool aid. You are possessed with fibre thing…Its only a tool for people already in the industry…it wont make a dent in kibera…okay?
KE,
U said it right…Kenyans are Greeedy..way to greedy…a lesson from their mps..aka hyenas.
@kenyanentrepreneur
I believe you misunderstood my query. The issue is that most of the online gigs I have applied for almost always request for one to have a PayPal account. I have requested for other modes of payment…lets say the story did not end well.
And no, am not scared spending of $10 to get my own domain name. First things first.
kenyan freelancer:
I see.
1) Do you know why paypal isn’t in Kenya yet? Is it a problem with Paypal or with Kenya? or what?
2) Also, have you tried to sign up with elance.com?
And you’ve just reminded of another issue I’m seeing with trying to do online transactions from Kenya.
Recently, someone I know wanted to purchase tickets to fly to America & so they sent someone in the states the money for the tickets (via wire transfer) & the person in the states then used their credit card to purchase the tickets for them on-line from their end.
I then asked why this person couldn’t just have purchased the tickets from Kenya. They have laptops, they have internet access, why not? I got a long, rambling answer about it being more expensive, more difficult, blah, blah, blah….it was not an issue of money because the money had already been wired before the tickets were purchased.
An aunt of mine also did the same thing. i.e. had her son who is based in DC, purchase the ticket on-line from his end, arguing that it would have been much cheaper than doing it from kenya.
So, my question is: why are kenyans who are internet savy & who have internet access, choosing to use this circular route to purchase airline tickets?
Mobile banking with things like MPESA has taken off. So, if they can do MPESA & succeed, why can’t they do other forms of electronic money transferring? or is the issue just paypal?
I do believe that people are just scared of fraud and the like. About PayPal in Kenya, am made to believe it works with a bank or other financial intermediaries to facilitate for collection of money(unconfirmed). But, am able to shop for stuff using the account and get things shipped to me. On elance, am not a fun of bidding sites. I would rather pay a premium where clients value your time and work, and the compe is not that stiff.
KE & All,
Am amazed with the amount of ignorance most of you are portraying! The subject topic is very crucial and many a young Kenyans are ready for the challenge, in fact the undersea cable is taking too long to arrive!
KE, its not our(the young Kenyans) fault that we do not have policies in place to allow for e-commerce. Here are a few questions that i wish to put across that explains why the likes of PayPal do not service Kenya. Are you aware of the ICT Bill? Is it operational yet? Can you explain why companies like Kenya Airways have been contracting oversees pay companies to accept monies on their behalf for any online transactions?
The Undersea cable shall arrive in Kenya but without a proper legislation in place…..it’ll all be a pipe dream!!
Arafathi:
Give us more information on this issue if you have it. Like I said, we are all trying to learn from each other here.
KE,
Apparently information is indeed missing over board, a visit to http://www.information.go.ke & http://www.ict.go.ke you will get little if any!
Sometimes back i came across an interesting piece published by my friend Moses http://moseskemibaro.com/?tag=ict-bill
“There is no better channel than the internet as well as mobile media for distributing and selling music. However, the main problem in Kenya today is that we do not have the required legislation in place yet to address this issue. This, we hope should not be a problem in 2009 when it is expected that the draft ICT Bill will be passed by parliament. This is a crucial bill that the Kenyan parliament needs to pass since it will address e-commerce, m-commerce, digital intellectual property and content regulation issues for Kenya. However, its key that this legislation is done right and already a few red flags have been raised by ICT industry stakeholders since some clauses need to be amended, removed or added to make the bill comprehensive and current.”
Anyway as indicated on my previous post, ICT legislation in Kenya is core to opening up the industry.
Having said that, i wish to point out that indeed the ICT bill was passed in parliament early this year and His Excellency President Kibaki appended his signature to it consequently making it Law! Do you remember the ‘Media Bill’ that brought alot of fuss…yeah that was it!
So we have a Law that restricts we Kenyans from sending alarming text messages via our cellphones…..
Its important to note though that the Media fraternity backed by some dishonest politicians put pressure to having the law rejected by President Kibaki even after it had been passed by parliament. Owing to the pressure, His Excellency directed the Hon. Attorney General to amend if necessary what was thought to be ‘punitive’ towards some section of the Society.
As far as ICT is concerned and if you read the Law properly, you will note that the Communication Commission of Kenya has the mandate to regulate the Industry.
I have reliable information that the CCK is trying to formulate a program of legislation that allows companies such as PayPal be licensed to service Kenya. Better still CCK has to act with urgency as the undersea cable is on its finality before it goes live in a few days.
Once the CCK establishes structures to regulate the Industry with licensing and what have you then some of us Kenyans are more that ready to spend more than $7 for e-services!
Arafathi:
I have a hard time putting the words “law”, “parliament” and kenyan government together.
I no longer know what is regulated, what isn’t, what the law is, what it isn’t? who knows?
they should just get the cable in-country & leave the entrepreneurs to figure out the rest.
the future of global business is here. Having business partners that are in countries you have never even heard of. One question though. Since people are going online for business, which government will be responsible for tax collection? Wont people that are well informed on the tax loopholes in a country take advantage of them at the expense of a country, Lets say a country like kenya, where as best as i can tell has flimsy ICT laws. If i make money online and wire transfer it to a far away country before taxes what then. Those politicians should fix the loopholes in the law because in this information age they wont say hidden for long to modern investors and they will prey on them to death and move on to another country with the same issues
http://kenyantykoon.wordpress.com/
Kenyantykoon:
Worrying about taxes is not an issue for most people who are just starting businesses. Their main problem is revenue generation. So, talking about taxes will not be an interesting topic for most kenyan entrepreneurs. It’s the least of their worries when they are first starting out.
this is a brilliant site cant believe i came across it today! great content great debate and wonderful POV and approcach to issues. keep it up
While i think connecting Kenya to the world through fiber is great. I think the excitement is somewhat misplaced
All the hype about the fiber indicates to me that in Kenya the purpose of the internet is to connect Kenya to the world and the only opportunities that better communication provides are available outside Kenya.
Here in the US people did not wait for broadband before they started conducting business on the net. when the fastest modem was 14.4k modem people were already setting up businesses and businesses were already using the internet to conduct business they didnt sit around and wait for broadband to arrive.They just innovated around whatever constraints existed.And even then people were already outsourcing – eg medical transcription. Neither did they wait for regulations regulations follow innovation and not the other way round
On the issue of outsourcing – its a 2 way street. bear in mind that costs of doing business in Kenya are much higher than in India and china and so businesses in Kenya can outsource as much as businesses abroad can outsource to Kenya so the net longterm effect maybe 0.
And why oh why do we keep building a dual economy
why should everything that i geared towards serving foreigner organized and sophisticated while everything that serves Kenyans is substandard and rundown. its the same old story we have a sophisticated horticultural industry, modern tourist hotels, now we will have high speed internet except like everything else its designed to serve other people.
Louis:
You raise some very good points about not waiting for everything to be perfect before you launch a business.
However, in terms of trying to get foreign clients in the west, frankly, people do it because that’s where the money is! African countries are still very poor and they just don’t have the spending power. So, you have to go where the money is and I suppose this is simple capitalism.