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01/30/12 | Uncategorized

5 Tools For Getting Started As A Micropreneur

By Hadiyah Mujhid (Co-Founder, Black Founders)
“A micropreneur is an entrepreneur willing to accept the risk of starting and managing the type of business that remains small, lets them do the kind of work they want to do, and offers them a balanced lifestyle.” – InvestorDictionary.com

Or you could substitute this definition with a more urban definition like: A micropreneur is someone who has a “side hustle.”

One of my favorite things about following the startup industry is discovering tools that can be used by my family and friends and get them paid. I also see these tools as a great way for people to use their passions and natural skills to generate income.

Here is my list of favorites and how you can use it to become a micropreneur:

  1. Etsy – Etsy is a social commerce website for handmade items. I have plenty of friends who sew, knit, crochet, or make jewelry or art. This is a well designed site to upload pictures of your crafts and sell it to make money.
  2. TaskRabbit – Allows people to perform personal errands for a fee. The errands can range from picking something up from a market, to help packing or moving, or event planning. The people who perform the errands are called rabbits. Rabbits are required to get background checks before performing errands. TaskRabbit is currently only offered in a few cities, but have plans to expand. If your city isn’t listed, you can send a request for an expansion to your city.
  3. Skillshare – Skillshare is a community marketplace for offline learning. Individuals can post an offer to teach their skill on the site. Some one who is skilled in any crafts could arrange a time and location (local libraries have community rooms) and post it on the site. Even skills such as braiding hair or cooking classes can be posted on the site.
  4. Culture Kitchen SF – Culture Kitchen teaches you how to cook authentic ethnic dishes. Currently, they are only based in San Francisco. But they have cooks from different ethnic cultures share their cooking dishes in a kitchen classroom. I can’t wait until they expand into other cities. I know plenty of cooks great at “ethnic” cooking and wouldn’t mind sharing some of their recipes, and getting paid for it.
  5. Vayable – I just discovered Vayable today. But I’m pretty excited about it. It can help connect travelers with the local perspective. For locals, they can earn money by showing visitors their unique view of the city, and get paid. Some profiles on the site offer to show travelers a personal tour of best shopping stores, or tour of local street art. Maybe, I can create a Philly Eats Food tour (pretzels, cheesesteaks, and water ice).

This post was originally posted at Engineers Don’t Blog.

About the guest blogger: Hadiyah Mujhid is an entrepreneur and software engineer currently working on early stage startups in San Francisco. She co-runs Black Founders, an organization that promotes diversity in the startup ecosystem. Hadiyah blogs at Hadiyah.me. Follow her on Twitter at @hadiyahdotme.

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