Four Hundred and Nineteen (419) Ways To Make Money: How Creativity Can Help Turn Your Career Into A Money Making Venture.

Insights from Creative Consultant, Ibrahim Ganiyy (Part 1)

Esther: How can one be more relevant at one's vocation and also make more money?

Ibrahim Ganiyy:

There are many money making opportunities passing by us day in day out. We all don’t have excuses. We can even apply creativity to the vocation we already have. To apply your creativity, look out for problems around you that need to be solved. And there are so many around. Let’s take a look at a simple buy and sell business like pepper selling.

 Creative Pepper Selling:

Image from http://www.rna-seqblog.com/tag/chili-pepper/

For example, I believe a pepper seller does not need to look like a pepper seller. With a little bit of creativity, any graduate can sell pepper and make it something totally different.

Promote: Give out your call cards for regular buyers so they can call ahead and pick up their buy without having to cue.

Deliver: Get customers to book ahead and you can offer to deliver to them at a fixed time of the week at a price.

Display: Display pepper on a proper clean tray and make your goods look attractive to prospective customers.

Packaging: Put in a paper bag or nylon bag with your name printed on it. Or put in plastic containers.

Hygiene: Wear apron, hand gloves and look very neat.

Quality: Sell fresh tomatoes and not crushed ones.

Brand: Give it a nice name and brand your business.

Impact: With this you could be encouraging the other women to emulate you. They could come to you for enquiries and you can even supply and sell your materials to them and that’s another business.

You will be remembered. People would want to buy from you and refer you to their friends. You will make money.

Often time it’s a little bit of creativity that can turn a career around. 

The Creative Accountant 

 

Image from http://www.basicsites.com/basic-sites-content/basic-sites-gallery/accountant/

Another example is a way for an accountant to be creative and make more money. As an accountant, you can offer to do accounting for small businesses once a week. You tell them to write down all financial activities, and then you come in weekly to look at their books and help put things in order.   Then you write them a report every month. You charge 10,000naira or less which is far less an accountant will be paid.  So you show up 4 times a month in one client’s office and if you have 5 clients you would go out to work Monday to Friday and you would make N50, 000 in a month.  You have even gone beyond being a practicing accountant to being a consultant. In the long run you would need to hire more people when you have more customers who demand your services. You could end up not having to go to clients’ offices anymore but simply manage the business from your office and by your own staff over.  

Creativity has to do with adding that bit of extra touch to what you do. 

 The Creative Doctor

Image from http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/5-situations-when-you-should-question-your-doctors-advice

Imagine a doctor who publishes and (distributes in his hospital) a weekly comic book newsletter that educates children and parents on health matters, generally details that helps his business.

He would have people wanting to come over the hospital just to pick up the comic book newsletter. Children would love to go to his hospital because of the free comics they will get. Parents will be delighted because of the enlightening information he provides on his weekly newsletter.

I believe creativity is life. It is not limited to the arts. It is about every aspect of living. I preach applied creativity.  Creativity can be applied to just about everything and it is a very broad entity.

Do think in these lines.

Cheers.

Profile:

Ibrahim Ganiyu is a creative consultant, renowned Illustrator and professional graphics designer. He is the CEO/Creative Director at Imperial Creations Studios Limited, a creative hot house based in Lagos Nigeria. 
icstudiosng@gmail.com
ICStudios Limited on Facebook

I hope this piece was helpful. Have you thought about it? How can you apply creativity to what you do presently so as to make more money? If you are unemployed, how can you be creative and start a stream of income for yourself? Do share.