Tired of work pressure, Kenyan youth earns big working from home

Annette Onyango- Founder Daido Executive Assistant Services

NAIROBI, KENYA: Frustrated by a demanding job and on the verge of throwing in the towel, Annette Onyango found out that she was expectant. Her new state required her to be financially stable. She was thus obliged to hold on to her job to make ends meet.

Two years down the line, the 28-year single mother is the founder of a Virtual Assistant Business called Daido Executive Assistant Services (deaskenya.com) that maintains online presence for businesses.

Ms Onyango pursued a degree in Business Statistics at Makerere University, Kampala and a post graduate diploma in Public Relations from Kenya Institute of Management. After campus, in 2009, Annette got a job as a flight attendant with Jetlink Express. “My salary then ranged between 40,000 to 50,000 per month as it was dependent on the hours I worked each month,” she says.

She held the position of a flight attendant for three years before she was promoted to be the flight purser in the last two years. After working as a flight attendant, she worked for one year as an administrator cum Business Development executive with an IT business consultancy firm in Upper Hill. She then took up the job of a client relations manager with an investment selling company in Hurligham for about five months.

DELIVER RESULTS

“I knew there was a better way to grow in my career and raise my daughter so I investigated all the options out there,’ she says on her decision to be self reliant.

The last office job she held was demanding, and Ms Onyango had to work Saturdays and Sundays while running an online venture. “I hardly spent time with my daughter. I decided to stay at home and give online work my best shot,” she says.

Working from home has not been easy as one has to set own goals and desire to grow and deliver good results to clients.

“Working from home is good because you can dictate the amount of work you want to do, you can avoid the morning traffic and you can work in your pajamas! I think companies should consider this option for their employees. You end up being more productive and less stressed,” she says.

“Just like a regular job, I plan my time well and I have time set aside for my daughter daily, although she sees me there all the time she already understands that I work and rarely interferes,’ she says. Online businesses are not as daunting she explains. “You only need computer knowledge, be proficient in English, have determination and a good internet connection,” she says.

RESEARCH AND WRITING

Onyango advises that there are several online sites for beginners to get jobs such as Elance and Odesk, mainly dealing in research and writing. “These sites are dominantly for online work. Some jobs pay on an hourly basis from $5 dollars(Sh430) all the way up,” she explains.

She observes that the business generates a tidy sum if one has a good number of clients and reputation.

“Rough estimate for beginners with no special skills general work, long term hourly projects would be part time (20 hours a week) about Sh30,000 per month and full time (40 hours a week) about Sh60,000. This can be higher with more skills and it also ranges from client to client,” she says.

Ms Onyango’s clients are mainly start-ups to medium sized companies overseas that prefer to outsource tasks rather than have employees to cut on costs. “I have clients in Kenya, USA, UK, New Zealand and Denmark. This list is still growing as I want to grow my clientele even further,’ she says. “This job doesn’t come without challenges. Working in the same environment that you groom your child can be a distraction, forcing her to work long hours. As the online platforms grow.”

Onyango plans to expand her business and employ more individuals while giving stay at home mothers insights on how to start online businesses.