Jobs You Can Do Over Christmas to avoid ‘Njaanuary’ Blues.

By Ruoro Kairu
December holidays, for many people, is a time of reflection and meditation over how the year has been. Traditionally, we all used to travel upcountry to be with our extended families. However, as the cost of living is on an ever-increasing curve, more people are resorting to staying in their homes during the holiday season.
Nonetheless, the festive season is one that people tend to spend more money than at any other time of the year. Unfortunately, the unrelenting January –or Njaanuary if you will, is just around the corner, waiting with endless bills and scorching heat.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a side hustle through the holidays to give you an extra coin in preparation for 2019? If you’re stumped for ideas, consider this list our Christmas gift to you.
1. Catering
Since a good number of people are not going upcountry to spend their holidays, they’ll end up hosting parties in their locales. You may not be an experienced caterer, but you can engage some of the catering companies and get a part-time job.
If you are confident in your culinary skills, you can moonlight as a caterer during the festive season.
2. Babysitting
Babysitting is not widely received in Kenya, especially since we just call on family members if we need our kids watched. However, there’s still a market for babysitters.
You can start with your list of friends, and grow from there. If you’re good with children and easily bond with them, babysitting will be an easy task for you.
3. House Sitting
This is another relatively new concept in Kenya. Basically, house sitting is temporarily moving to someone’s house while they are away.
The Christmas holidays are rampant with burglaries and break-ins. House sitting is, therefore, a valuable service for those who are traveling for long periods of time.
4. Delivery
Kenya is known for quick adaption to technology. One of the rising trends has been online shopping. Yet, many of these online shopping platforms take forever to deliver.
You can offer to make deliveries from stores and shops to their customers at a reasonable fee.
5. Tour guide
Throughout the festivities, we get a fair share of tourists and visitors. Some of them don’t want to go through the routine channels and be shown around the same sites by the same tour and travel companies. You can look for tourists and offer to show them around at an agreed upon fee.
6. Rent out your space
As aforementioned, we are a pretty technologically advanced nation and platforms like Airbnb have caught on relatively well. If you have an extra room or space, you can advertise it on Airbnb and get some passive income.
 
If you have some free time, you can utilize any of these ideas and earn some money in preparation for Njaanuary.
Merry Christmas!