Business is NOT about Making Money
Understand this and you’ll inevitably make a lot of money
I used to live in a tiny one-bedroom dingy house in Lagos.
There were rats in the backyard, cockroaches having family meetings in my cupboards and when it rained, water spilled straight into the house from the front porch.
I had no bed. I slept on a couch that served as my bed and sitting area. I thought it was better that way because a bed took up all the space in the tiny room.
I was okay with this for a while until I was not okay at all. One day my Mom had to sleep over and I sat idle in the corner of the room as I watched her folded in a heap on my tiny couch.
It tore me to see her sleeping on the couch like that.
The next morning I flung my hands in the air in absolute despair and yelled out to my ceiling at God, “I am tired! I am fucking tired of this shit okay?”
For several minutes that morning, I lay on the floor crying and begging for a release.
The depression had eaten through my chest and was burrowing at my heart. I wanted better for myself but I also knew that I had to start from where I was.
But all I had was my laptop, my phone, and the Internet. Starting an online business was the only reasonable thing to do.
At the time I had fallen in love with Instagram and already had five niche pages that I had grown past 5,000 followers. I decided I was going to start a new Instagram page to grow a niche audience of content creators.
The monetization plan was dead simple— Earn money teaching what I know by selling my own digital products.
I just wanted to make some money, to earn my own self-respect, to not have to go another day wondering where my next meal would come from.
So I committed myself to do the work, creating content, selling digital courses, getting clients, and eventually, the money began to pour in, even more than I imagined!
In less than one year, my new Instagram page had blown past 50,000 followers and I had earned more than $30,000 from monetizing my knowledge.
For someone who previously had no money in the bank, having more than $30,000 in one year was a big deal! I could send money back home to my parents, I could rent another house if I wanted, and I could travel to a different country.
So much can be made better with money!
But even though I had money to spare and spend now, it wasn’t the money that made me happy.
It wasn’t the money that made me get up in the morning.
The money by itself could buy things, and help me feel a little more secure, but it couldn’t satisfy me.
I realized that what really lit a fire in my belly was the people, the women I was helping, my clients, and my students. I wake up each day fueled by a desire to serve people and the return for this is money in the bank.
Even though I started my business because I needed a way to make money, it was my desire to help people that kept me doing it.
That’s what business is.
Business is not about making money. Business is about serving people and helping them get what they want. The by-product of serving people is that you make money.
I don’t wake up thinking about how I am going to make money today. I wake up thinking about the one person I am going to help through my content, my words, my classes, or coaching.
I wake up thinking about changing lives. That’s where true joy and fulfillment come from.
If you are in a place right now where you are desperate, anxious, or need to make some money quickly, I want to encourage you to flip the switch in your mind.
It gets easier when you stop asking -” How can I make money,” and instead begin to ask, “How can I help people with the gifts and knowledge I have?”
Making money is easier when you focus on people and how you can help them get what they want.
So start asking your audience — “What do you want?” then give them that.
Go kill shit today.
Hi, I’m Eva. I’m helping African creators monetize online with digital courses on kobocourse.com — but when I am not teaching or creating content, I’m building high-converting sales funnels for female entrepreneurs. Connect with me eva@knowledgeintoincome.com
