#CrossBorderHustler— How did this teacher hit financial freedom? Freelance!

Hi, thank you for speaking with me today. Let’s start with a basic introduction. Who are you and what do you do?

M: Hello! [laughs] I am Miss Adewole Moromoke Abidemi. I am a freelancer and I provide writing services online. Before getting into freelance writing, I was a teacher. I’ve taught primary, secondary and tertiary students at different stages of my life for about 9 years. 

Wow! That’s a lot! Have you also been doing freelance writing for 9 years…or?

M: [laughs] No, not really. My freelance writing journey is 2 years old thereabouts. It’s probably longer than that but, if I was counting officially, I would say 2 years. In the beginning and for the most part, my freelancing journey started from getting writing gigs from uncles and other relatives. So, I was not always getting clients from apps.

Wonderful. But when you do use apps, where do you mostly go?

M: I offer teaching, proofreading, translation and writing services primarily on the Superprof platform.

Oh, cool. Do you remember what inspired you to go into freelancing?

M: [laughs] So, my journey basically started from university where I studied English and Literature Education. During the course of my study, I started to appreciate writing a lot more, especially as someone who read a lot. From there, I started to build on my love for phonetics and grammar to pursue teaching and writing.

I would say that my first gig came from an uncle abroad who gave me a research project to work on. When he gave me the gig, I wondered whether I should take it or not and whether I could do it or not. Eventually, I accepted the task and started working on it. When I started, I was very wary of plagiarism and so I got apps like Quillbot and Grammarly to help check my grammar and avoid plagiarism. When I finished and saw the quality of the work I was able to create, I was motivated to do more and that uncle helped introduce me to his friends and colleagues who eventually gave me other gigs as well. 

So, I would say that my inspiration to get into freelancing came primarily from school, and from the uncle who trusted me that first time. 

That’s a very interesting origin story. Can you think of anything that has happened in your freelancing career that made you think “I made the right decision”?

M: There was this gig I collected one time on the subject of communication. At that time, I had a lot of work on my desk and when I have a lot of work like that, I like to give some to others to help me work on. So, I gave the task to someone else because I couldn’t do it at the time and that person gave the task to another person for another reason. By this time, the gig had changed hands multiple times [laughs]. 

So, the person who eventually did the task completed it wrongly and uploaded it without me seeing it. Then, a few hours later the client called me and was furious because the quality was below what  was expected. I had to quickly apologise and redo the task.

Three and half hours later, I was finished and sent the document to the client to do the plagiarism check themselves and submit the assignment. After a short while, he sent me a recording of a call with his lecturer basically saying they were surprised by the first submission because they knew that the person had a good track record. At that moment, after navigating that situation and delivering the project on time and at the expected quality, I knew this was something I wanted to do long term. It felt great to contribute to the success of that client. 

Wow! That must have been a rollercoaster of emotions!

M: It was! Thankfully, it all worked out well. 

Do you still give gigs to others to do for you?

M: It depends. Mostly, I don’t. But when I do, I try to make sure that it is someone I can trust and I encourage them to keep me in the loop at all times. 

Now let’s talk about getting paid for your work. As a freelancer in Nigeria, how do you handle the challenges that come with receiving payment?

M: Receiving payment has been difficult for me, like it is for most people. Honestly, may God help Nigeria [laughs]. I used to work with a third party to help me receive payment but recently, when a client sent me money, I discovered that I had lost almost 3 pounds due to charges. 

I was frustrated with this so I started looking for an alternative. I downloaded and uninstalled a lot of apps trying to find something that would help me receive payment seamlessly. Some of the apps I found were either too expensive or too complicated. I had 3 days to find something I could use or I was going to lose payment. 

Eventually, I reached out to my friends and classmates and one of them eventually suggested Cenoa. At first, I was skeptical. But I considered the fact that all the ones I had tried, their names were starting with P, E, G, etc. so I decided to try one that started with C [laughs].

From the very beginning, I felt like this app meant business. From the verification process to the customer support to the app flow, everything makes sense! I got my USD account, then I was able to receive payment directly to my wallet and from there I can just send money anywhere and even leave my money there to grow. The whole thing has been impressive for me. 

Oh, yes! I’m happy to hear this part of the story! [laughter]

M: Honestly! Since then, I have told many people about the app, I have introduced the app to my fellow freelancers who are struggling with getting paid and things like that. For me, the Cenoa app has been a final bus stop. 

Excellent! What feature do you like the most?

M: I would say that my favourite thing about the app is the opportunity to invest funds in the app. I have not used it a lot, but the few times I have used it, I appreciate it. 

Oh, great! I hope that you get to use more of it in the future! 

M: Yes, for sure. I am looking forward to using this platform and I thank you all, especially the customer support team, for your support and for making it easier for me to get paid and thank you for speaking with me and sharing my story.