Why is that?
There are a couple of reasons. Here in Ghana, we are having a bit of a power crisis and that means we do not have electricity for the greater part of the working day, up to 3 to 4 days a week. It sometimes even goes off 2 or 3 times a day and at night. This makes working and freelancing very difficult and unfortunately, hive drops to the bottom of priorities when I need to fight to get other things done.
This was compounded by a total lack of internet about a month ago with the disruption of the undersea fiberoptic cables this set me behind for about a week and there have been periods of very slow or spotty internet since.
Even though I left my job managing the beach resort at the start of the year I have tried to keep very busy with a number of projects I will give a run-through of here.
As the website designer for Finding Your Juicy Spirit, I'm thrilled to present this project as a showcase of my skills and creativity in WordPress development. Working closely with the client, I transformed their vision into a visually captivating and user-friendly website that embodies the essence of their spiritual guidance services. Leveraging my own photography as stock images added a personal touch to the site, enhancing its authenticity and appeal. Additionally, I curated and published three unique and relevant blog posts to launch the site, enriching the user experience and establishing the client as a thought leader in their field. Despite content limitations, I utilized AI and my expertise to craft compelling narratives that resonate with the audience and elevate the visual aesthetic of the website. From intuitive navigation to engaging content presentation, every aspect of the site was meticulously designed to inspire, inform, and empower visitors on their spiritual journey. Finding Your Juicy Spirit is a testament to my dedication to delivering exceptional web solutions that exceed client expectations and drive meaningful results.
This was the next project I banged out for a tour company here in Ghana. They did not have any content or images so I ended up having to create all the content and use my own pictures to get the project done and get paid. I requested some additional funds for this service but the customer did not see the value in paying extra for this. So it goes at times. I know they will be back for additional work when they want to add hotels and rental cars so I will make sure to get charged accordingly then.
This business has been in the development phase for about 3 years now and finally, I have been able to launch the website. This is a partnership with another guy in the UK and we are looking to streamline business travel for executives entering new markets. This was a very large website with about 50 pages and around 30 country fact files. It took a lot of time to get the right look and get all the information online and the correct visuals. In the next week, it will transition to a .com domain and we are starting our email marketing campaign with about 5000 executive-level email addresses around the globe. Since this was a business startup with no revenue yet it often got pushed back in priorities for projects that are paying now. I hope that will change and we will start seeing some revenue soon.
This site is so fresh it has not even gone live yet. Hotel digital marketing solutions were my bread and butter for a number of years. I have worked with around 300 hotels in Ghana, Togo, and Benin. This slowed down and almost died after COVID-19 and it has been a very slow recovery. In addition to the slow market, I have been slow to put my resources and time back into it. But I have started doing some email campaigns again and one of our long-time customers gave a number of great referrals lately which led to this sale. For a project like this, I will go to the hotel to gather all the information, stay a night, and shoot all the photos for the property's new site. This is important because the photos are very important if you wait for the customer to provide them you can wait a long time and receive garbage low-resolution images that they WhatsApp to you. This one was a fun one because it is not far from where I live and my wife and I go there frequently anyway to enjoy some food and the sea breeze.
It may seem like I have enough work but I still need more and I particularly need $ in my US account to help things on that side. In February I started working on getting on Upwork.com a site dedicated to freelancers and connecting them with jobs. This has been an uphill battle especially when comparing my profile and skills to many of the freelancers on Upwork.com. It is very competitive. It took a long time for some of my reviews to show up, it took even longer to get my first gig, which was just as simple little UX/UI review that didn't pay much. I have submitted a lot of proposals and only got a few nibbles I will continue to work on my profile and hopefully get some good jobs and reviews that will help get the ball rolling.
I recently landed a contract for one day a week coaching and helping a woman get her hospital and housing development business up and going here in Ghana. This started 4 years ago when I helped her come to Ghana for the first time from the UK, this was the start of the Travel Business Assistance concept also. Then I got her a car and driver and set up meetings with accountants, lawyers, and architects to get started. A lot has changed since then but she is now in Ghana and has acquired 30 acres of land in the mountains which she is developing into a healthy sustainable community with a hospital at the center of it. She needs my help in learning how to automate some of the admin work with AI, get her business plan together, get her website up, and put together a pitch deck and proposal for investors. This has been very fulfilling so far and something that I think has really helped her and something I am quite good at. It does involve a long day though with about 2 hours of driving in the morning and the evening to meet up.
If you need a website or know someone who does, feel free to refer to my upwork.com profile or my LinkedIn. Or start a conversation here. I am sure I can work out something for a referral.
