Learn about finding money

Learn from people who are 2–3 steps ahead of you. They are usually 1 dm away.

If you read How to Ask for help?, you know that I try to ask 1 help every day now. And I start with people who are 1 dm away from me. Today, I got my first help on how to find money through contracting. And got my second help too! I got a mentor who is willing to help me to figure out entrpeneurship (happy screaming in my mind!) She even said I don’t need to propose my plan to her. We can write it together! OMG OMG OMG

Okay, sorry I was too happy but let’s get back to the topic of finding money. My friend Ba has been building his own business and contracting on the side, so after I listened to his explanation, I immediately drafted some sample messages and asked him to give me feedback. Super helpful!

How to find people?

Ba told me I needed to get paid $80–100 USD an hour and that was possible. Really? But he said so. He said the best way to find people who need help is through friends. Whenever you’ve done one, things will come in on a rolling basis. If they don’t have things for you, ask them if they know anyone who might need help.

Oh okay! I do know a lot of founders. I never reached out because I don’t want to do full-time with them. But we can indeed try some short-term work!

Strategies

I wrote this example and showed it to Ba.

I saw you are hiring for a FTE and I wonder if you will be interested in doing some contract work together before you find the next hire?

Ba suggested that if the person said no, I could add on this.

I also want to ask if there is any founder or company you know that will be interested?

Ba said the most important key is to follow up. Most people forget this or don’t feel comfortable doing it, like

Hi! I saw you recent tweet xyz…

Gotcha! Yes sir! Ba also feedbacked me on this template to reach out.

• Write down the problem they are currently working on
• Mapping to what you have done
• Ask for a conversation to offer help

Wow! Simple but smart. Of course, I need to do thoughtful mapping, why didn’t I think of it?

My biggest problem with contracting work is that I don’t think I have strong skills, so no one will want me.

Mindset

Ba told me to not try to sell myself. He said, “When we are young, we try to sell ourselves to others and that doesn’t work.” “

He taught me I needed to think of myself as a buyer, even though I’m contracting/working for others.

For instance, it’s better to work on a project that I’m highly interested in and want to learn. This idea sounds weird but is actually a solution for my confidence problem in searching for a contract. I’m more likely to have experience with things that I’m interested in, and this opens lots of doors where I can look for contracts that benefit myself and others.

Action Plan for Esther

• Go to incubators with Ba to meet founders and see if anyone needs help.
• Email some companies that Esther interacted with before for contract ideas
• Ask around if this contract idea is feasible for edtech people
• Ask another friend, W, who is really good at contracting

Growth in the room

Presenting myself confidently being a challenge, Esther presented her own project by herself during a hackathon yesterday! First time! Hooray!

Usually, she went to hackathons to work on her own project without presenting because she was too shy and felt other people were famous and good. The hackathon yesterday was a supportive one where we learned how to launch in public and comment, share, and like each other’s Twitter, GitHub, Product Hunt, and HackerNews. And she gave it a try!

Esther doesn’t care much about creating famous posts but she is so happy that people actually leave thoughtful comments and questions ❤️

Proud Proud Proud!