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- Stay tuned for something big....
Stay tuned for something big....
Plus: our first ever giveaway, using AI to get a job, and plenty of remote opportunities!
Conor Walsh
July 3rd, 2023
First of all, a warm fuzzy welcome to our 11 new members. And if one of your friends shared this email, feel free to subscribe!
Here’s what’s in today’s email:
🚀 Big changes at Business Builders Africa
🚨Some cool tech news
🏅Our first giveaway is coming!
🤖 This week in AI
🎯 This week’s remote jobs for Africans
Big changes at Business Builders Africa
You may have noticed that I missed last week’s email.
I was traveling in Zambia and Zimbabwe for a client, spending the week at a fancy hotel and sightseeing at Victoria Falls.
I’m not sharing this to brag, but simply to show you what’s possible when you get really good at content marketing, and then work with excellent clients.
This is also a good opportunity to update you all on what’s happening behind the scenes at the newsletter.
I’ve been running this experiment for 3 months now. In that time, we’ve grown quickly, then plateaued. Then grown quickly, before plateauing again.
We’ve hosted two 3 meetups: 2 in Nairobi and 1 in Johannesburg.
We’ve shared nearly 200 remote jobs and freelance gigs hiring in Africa, including numerous exclusives shared with me directly.
And, most importantly, the feedback from job seekers and business owners has been immensely positive. We’ve only had 1 unsubscribe in 3 months!
But… writing this email every week takes a lot of time.
Compiling the job list alone requires ~4 hours of work.
And there’s plenty of content I don’t currently have time to write, like:
How-to guides for building successful online careers and businesses in Africa
Deep dives and case studies into successful African freelancers, marketing campaigns, and bootstrapped businesses
Course reviews and workshops
Career coaching and mentorship programs
Much more
So, I’ve set a goal. When we reach 1,000 subscribers, I’m going to launch a premium subscription.
The weekly email will remain free forever – including the job list.
But premium subscribers will get:
Early access to job posts
Exclusive content
Discounts on software and courses
A members-only online community
Monthly workshops and “office hour”-style career guidance
Reduced tickets to meetups
Exclusive in-person events
Member profiles (for easy hiring/job matching)
Referral bonuses (get paid to invite your friends!)
Much more.
I’m still figuring out how the premium community will work, so this is your chance to contribute.
What would you like to see from a paid community for African freelancers and business owners?
And…
Some Cool Tech News This Week
beehiiv has raised a $12.5m Series A to continue growing its newsletter platform. We use beehiiv for this newsletter and absolutely love it. Clearly, we’re not alone, as newsletters continue to grow in popularity and beehiiv is by far the best place to host one. (beehiiv)
Rwanda’s efforts to become “the Singapore of Africa“ might be working. Two of Africa’s biggest fintechs, Chipper Cash and Flutterwave, have recently opened offices there. I’m sure recent regulatory issues both companies faced in nearby Kenya had nothing to do with it… (Semaphor)
Flutterwave has partnered with Microsoft to build its payments infrastructure on its Azure cloud platform for the next five years. The agreement includes every current Flutterwave product and any currently in development. (TechCabal)
South Africans are using a popular load shedding app to make money online. EskomSePush was launched in 2014 to update residents of power blackouts in their areas, but recently features have been co-opted to sell everything from baked goods and handyman services to marijuana. (RestofWorld)
💡 Why does all this matter?
1. As beehiiv grows, businesses and creators using the platform will start looking for help. This is a huge opportunity to get in early to an emerging career – beehiiv consultant/VA. People have been looking for behhiiv consultants for at least a year.
2. As Rwanda grows in dominance, expect more investment into the country, plenty of job opportunities based there, and hopefully, copycat inititiaves from other forward-thinking governments in the continent. as competition between major hubs heats up.
3. Hopefully, by utilizing Microsoft’s gargantuan infrastrcuture, Flutterwave can make e-commerce payments in Africa cheaper, faster, and more reliable. This is good for anyone who does business online on the continent.
I only ever used Flutterwave once. I opened a merchant account, deposited $100 and then tried to withdraw the $100 back into my PayPal account. My money vanished for a week, until I wrote a scathing review on Trustpilot and it suddenly reappeared. So, forgive me if I’m still a little sceptcial….
4. There are opportunities everywhere, if you know how to look. 😉
Our First Giveaway is Coming!
Do you love free stuff?
Of course you do.
Well, good news. In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching our first giveaway: a B2B writing course that helps freelance writers land high-paying B2B writing jobs and helps African startups understand how to market your products better.
All you’ll have to do is share the newsletter with 10 friends, and you’ll be in with a chance to win.
And yes, this is a marketing ploy.
But it’s a marketing ploy that saves you money and helps you earn more at the same time.
So… we both win!
(Keep opening your emails to find out when the giveaway happens!)
This Week in AI
Worried AI is going to take your job? Follow this guide to using ChatGPT for interview prep, and use it to actually help you land a job instead.
10 AI Chrome extensions to boost your productivity – this is the only list of the many thousands out there I’ve actually bookmarked and used.
Tired of boring, repetitive, time-consuming tasks holding you back? Learn how to (secretly) automate your job using AI tools. Specifically ChatGPT plugins, Zapier, and Make.
Remote Jobs This Week
The following remote jobs and freelance gigs have been filtered for people living in Africa. Currently, our focus is on content-related roles, but if you’d like to see us expand to other roles/career paths, send a request!