Everyone has a special and unique God-given gift. It’s something you do very well. You probably never thought you could get paid well from it. Once you identify and embrace this gift, it is possible to monetize it.

The question that arises is how?

In Women Lifting Women Series 9, Caroline Gikonyo, a Business Coach at Biashara Threesixty  shared 5 Steps to Monetizing Your Expertise. Below is a summarized version of Caroline’s presentation.

How to Monetize Your Expertise

The 5 steps are:

1.   Identify Your God Given Gift/Talent
2.   Adjust Your Mindset
3.   Get Paid What You’re Worth
4.   Package Your Expertise
5.   Take Action

1. Identify Your God Given Gift/Talent

It is important to first identify what your talent is, as therein lies your expertise.

Chances are that you often help out your friends, family and acquaintances to do a particular thing. They keep coming back to you over and over again.

Whatever it is that people keep coming to you for is your unique expertise. It is a high time that you recognise that and stop doing it for free or at a low cost.

2. Adjust Your Mindset

The next step is to acquire the right frame of mind. It is important to eliminate all self-doubt about your capabilities. Instead nurture confidence in yourself. Seek out people who encourage you and see your vision. By so doing, you will have set your mindset in the right path of success.

3. Get Paid What You’re Worth

A great place to start is to research what the market rates for services similar to what you are offering are. Your rates should not be below the market rate as that is undermining your worth.

Your worth has already been proven by those that come to you for help. However, it’s possible that the people you’ve been helping are not your target market. You need to identify and market to people who need you, and who are able and willing to pay you at your rate.

4. Package Your Expertise

Every product or service needs to be packaged in a manner that is market ready. Branding and packaging go hand in hand in creating a unique selling point. It must be one that people can easily identify with. It must be clear what your package is offering to solve and the methodology for execution.

5. Take Action

As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. In the same way, planning without taking action is futile. You must have an action plan that’s executable. This is once you have identified your unique expertise, priced it and branded in a market ready format. It is now time position yourself in the marketplace. Don’t focus on the possibility of failure. Challenges will come along the way and you will deal with them as and when they arise.

COVID-19 has challenged humanity in an unprecedented way. One of the biggest lessons is that things can take a drastic turn overnight. In this season, many business and companies have collapsed. Careers and jobs will be lost. At the same time, there is great need for experts. This is something you can take advantage of identify your unique talent and monetize it.