Greetings to one and all. This is Jack Lookman welcoming you to our series:
Jack’s Curated Business Ideas.
Today’s topic is:
Empowering Online Beggars.
Please note that the words, ‘beggar,’ ‘service user’ or ‘client’ may be used interchangeably.
The Inspiration
From time to time, I encounter beggars on social media; they tell a story and then beg for assistance. Some repeat this cycle over and again. They are very tenacious.
Do I teach them how to fish or do I continue feeding them with fish?
The Idea
Since most of them are apparently educated and computer literate; since there’s a lot of content online, and since I’m a mentor and coach, to add to that, I’m a potential philanthropist and entrepreneur; why don’t I leverage these bits and pieces and make a positive difference?
Accountability
The beggars shall be accountable for their actions or inactions. Like it’s said, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ You also need to ‘search before you can find.’ These are some of the accountability issues for the beggars.
Assignments
As part of the process, you shall give the beggars assignments periodically; these could be multiple choice or open-ended. They shall be submitted digitally. There shall be rewards for early submission and sanctions for late submission. There shall also be cumulated rewards and sanctions for good and poor performance.
Benefits For the Beggars
• Empowerment and inspiration
• Skill enhancement
• Improved mindset
• Improved confidence
• Added societal value
• Optimized skills and passion
• Opportunities for side or full hustles
- Enhanced income
Charity
This may sound irrelevant, but it could add to the value on offer.
You should encourage the beggars to partake in acts of charity. These could be kind words, assistance with his physical strength, guidance to those who seek it, putting smiles on sad faces, etc. The beggars shall be encouraged to partake in one or more of these acts of charity.
Checks And Balances
For the business, you need to put systems and structures in place:
- to mitigate fraud
- to prevent abuse of process
- to make the business and processes more effective
- etc.
Could I profit from this business?
There may not be much financial reward. However, you could add great societal value. Those whom you empower might be there for you if the tides change. Your acts of charity could open doors of greater success; it could give you recognition and collaborative opportunities.
Courses
You could create relevant courses or signpost the beggars accordingly. By signposting them you could earn Affiliate Marketing commissions. Endeavor to signpost them to courses which will benefit them. You could make a financial contribution towards the purchase, or get the beggars to pay the full amount for the courses. If they don’t pay the full amount, they may not value such courses.
Curriculum
This shall be work in progress, to be updated as necessary. It shall be tailored to each beggar. You could collate a bank of content and share to individual beggars as necessary. You could do this via a blog or other means. There may also be the need to profile each beggar as necessary.
Dressing
For the beggars, encourage them to dress well, look good and to be presentable. If they can’t afford new clothes, they could explore 2nd hand clothes. These might be a gateway to opportunities.
Expectation Management
Right from the onset manage the expectations of the service users. Let them know what is expected of them and let them know what to expect in return. Let them be aware of the phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ Let them also be aware that optimal results demand optimal effort. And that results don’t happen overnight, as well as the fact that only a small percentage of the service user may become millionaires.
Funding
To fund this business model:
- You may require investors
- You may require collaborators
• You may seek donations
• You may seek grants
• You may crowdfund
- You may seek sponsors
- Etc
Incentives
In order to keep your clients engaged, you may need to incentivize them. You may give them financial or other rewards, progressively.
Interest Or Passion Audit
Get a list of his interests, that is, the things and content that the beggar enjoys. These could include what he reads, listens-to or watches.
Marry the interests of the beggars with his skills, and guide him on optimising both. The beggar could leverage these sooner or later, and optimize his potential with less pain.
Legalities
- You need to include relevant disclaimers and protect yourself against any possible litigation.
- You need to effectively manage expectations.
- You might consider having an online contract or agreement.
- You may need to update legal documents, as necessary.
- You need to be mindful of intellectual right issues.
- You need to comply with relevant legislations, e.g. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- You need to be proactive in protecting yourself legally. You could do this yourself, or engage the service of professionals.
Leverage Online Content
There’s so much content on the internet in text, audio and video formats; and a lot of them are free. You could take advantage of these, and signpost the beggars accordingly; you could also guide the beggars on how to search for content on the internet.
Marketing Plan
You could do your marketing via:
- referrals
- word of mouth
- social media marketing
- email marketing
- email signature
- influencer marketing
- testimonials
- sales funnels
- etc.
Mentoring And Coaching
As you journey through the process, you’ll get to know the serious and genuine beggars. You could do some filtering, and invest in these selected few. You might incentivize them and give them much greater value. You may purchase deeper courses and help them on a lifelong journey. You may mentor them and have 1-1 interviews. You could explore different Curated Business Ideas of interest. They might even partner with you in doing what you do, and this may end up as a great fairy tale.
Mindset
You need to work on the beggars’ mindset and ensure they are the right fit. You could do this yourself or via useful online tools. You could automate the process and have multiple-choice questions and answers. If they have the right mindset, then most of the job is done. You could then build on strong foundations.
Monetisation Plan
This isn’t really a money-making venture. It’s more about improving societal value. However, if your inclination is to monetize, you could do so by:
- having a donation button on your digital platforms
- by having sponsors
- by doing affiliate marketing on your digital platforms
- by having adverts on your platforms
- by leveraging Google Adsense
- etc
Course or Business Name
For the business, think of a good name. It should be concise, memorable, and relevant.
For the complementary website, consider a .com, .net, or suitable URL extension. Examples of your websites might be: baara.com, beggar.com, helpme.com, supporter.com, supportme.net, dontbeg.com, opportunity.com, etc.
Networking
Encourage the beggars to partake in beneficial networking. Opportunities may result therefrom; these could be at social engagements, either domestic, official, or otherwise. You never know from where opportunity will knock. You could also encourage the beggars to partake in beneficial voluntary work.
The networking initiative could be physical, online, or both. They might join suitable social media platforms by you signposting them to such, or you’ll teach them how to seek for such.
Opportunities
- It’s an opportunity to give back to society.
- Also to build social capital.
- You could add immense value to society.
- You could monetize.
- You could make the beggars more independent.
- You could learn skills along the way.
- You could be recognized by unnoticed observers.
- Opportunities may beckon from least expected sources.
- It’s also an opportunity to be charitable.
Platforms
The platforms for discharging your activities could include:
• A blog
• YouTube channel
• Tiktok
• Social media
• Podcast
- Membership sites
- Email marketing software
- Emails
- Etc.
Process
If a beggar approaches, here are some potential processes to follow. They are not in any order.
- carry out a text interview as necessary
- send them a questionnaire
- give them an initial small stipend
- stipends could be given in stages
- the questionnaire shall capture their skills and interests
- it shall also capture their hopes and aspirations
- You shall then share relevant content from the internet
- These could be texts, videos or audios
- This could particularly be from YouTube
- Give them assignments as necessary
- Give them additional stipends as necessary
- The content that you share shall also be on mindset
- as well as useful content for side or full hustles
- Set targets as necessary and encourage them
- At the end of the program, they should be empowered or inspired
- They could be more self sufficient
- You could have a spreadsheet of categorized Youtube videos
- You could share these with the beggars as necessary
- Some of the processes could actually be automated
Psychology
As the process continues, you need to leverage psychology; some questions that come to mind, are:
- why they should not beg
- why they need to make an effort
- how they could improve their earnings
- how they could add value to society
- how they could improve their self esteem and maintain their dignity
- how they could have self-belief and
- how they could optimize their potentials
- etc.
Questionnaire
You can ask questions:
- about their skills
- about their interests
- about their strengths
- about their past
- their plans for the future
- about the present
- ask about what’s impeding their progress,
- how they intend getting out of the rot.
- get their contact details
- and bank details
- whatsapp number
- ask about their ambition and aspirations
- ask about their role models
- ask if they are interested in side, or full hustles
- etc.
Requirements for Beggars
• They shall be literate
• They shall have basic information technology skills
• They shall have a bank account
• They shall be truthful
• They shall commit to the process
• They shall have a positive mindset
• They shall take action
- They shall share their social media handles
- etc.
Research and Development Skills
The beggars shall be taught basic Research and Development skills, especially:
- how to research content on Youtube and other social media platforms
- how to leverage such content
- how to manage expectations from the content
- how to avoid scams
- how to save such content for later use
- etc.
Role Models
Get the list of the clients’ role models:
- This could also be on the application
- This could guide you on his interests
- You could then tailor relevant content accordingly
- You can also get a list of the content he consumes and ask for the links of these from the previous week.
- These could be links of content watched on social media
- As well as websites visited
- You could guide them on how to do this.
Scholarships
For those beggars who have excelled through your processes, consider giving them scholarships. This should be within your budget and should be realistic. If you haven’t got the funding, you may seek for funding, or signpost the beggars accordingly. You could also purchase beneficial digital products for them.
Side Hustles
- Expose and guide the beggars to different side hustles
- let them pick and choose as necessary.
- Prepare their mindset, emphasizing that nothing good comes easy
- Guide them on searching for these side hustles by themselves
- Set targets and review results
- Keep a database of current and past service users
Sign Off
You may sign off the service users based on your discretion. Some may leave early, some may stay longer, however, upon sign off, ensure that they don’t return, except as supporters of the cause. And of course, don’t forget to have their details on your mailing lists. You could market and re-market products and services to them.
Signposting
As discussed previously, signpost the beggar to useful content especially on Youtube. The relevant links could be sent as part of your value proposition. The content should align with his short- and long-term goals. Teach him how to search for similar content, hence, ‘teach him how to fish and not always expecting fish.’
Skills Audit
Let him list his skills, knowledge, experience and exposure. You could interview him and add to the list. Alternatively, you could send him a tick sheet of different skills. This shall help align your support, to his areas of strength.
Asset Audit
Explore the clients’ assets:
- Their physical assets
- Their intangible assets
- Their network
- Their knowledge, experience and exposure
- The emotional assets
- Their skills
- Their interests
- Their physical build
- Their looks
- Their strengths
- Their spirituality
- Etc
Explore leveraging what they have, to get what they want, in ethical ways.
Skills Enhancement
In the course of you administering the process, you may acquire hidden and obvious skills. The service users shall also do likewise. At the end of the journey, it ends up with all parties being winners.
Spirituality
Encourage him to explore his spiritual side (in ethical ways); to seek guidance and the wherewithal; and to pray for success and better fortune.
Threats
Some threats to this venture include:
- abuse of process
- fraud
- time wasters
- getting adequate funding
- sustaining the project
- getting collaborators
- etc.
Conclusion
The presentation was basically about adding value to online beggars, to society and maybe to yourself. You may or may not make financial gain, but it could open opportunities for you sooner or later. The business may be good as a non-governmental organisation, charity or social enterprise.
It opens opportunity to give back to society, and thereby making society fairer and richer in quality.
Crime could reduce, individual income could increase, and life could be more worthwhile for one and all.
Value?
We hope that you got value. If so, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing and reposting. Also, please consider checking our other platforms by visiting jacklookmanlimited.com . We’re on social media, blogs, membership site, and we’ve written several books.
This is Jack Lookman signing off.
Ire o (I wish you blessings)
Ire kabiti (I wish you loads of blessings).
Thank you John Tosin Adekunle for your input.
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