Vast potential online for Jamaicans

With the high unemployment rate casting a dark shadow over the lives of young adults in Jamaica, a young woman is imploring her companions to jump into the realm of online work and dispel the myth that only scammers can earn money online.

"When I was introduced to working online, the first thing that came to my mind is that it is not possible, it must be a scam, I am not gonna get paid. But it was not until I saw persons around me earning online and I could actually see them getting their money, I started to take it serious," Yanique Walters, the founder of Adept Inventions, a company that trains Jamaicans to earn money online, told THE STAR.

Walters, who started her online business two years ago, said qualified and unqualified persons can make a decent living for themselves working online.

"Anyone with a computer and the Internet can have an opportunity to earn money online," Walters explained. "There are simple things like data entry that a person can make US$5 per hour working online. Persons who have qualifications in specific fields, like accounting, can focus on that and make way more."

According to Walters, many small companies in the US are outsourcing their work to freelancers online so as to avoid the complications which come with employing a person full-time.

"If people can cut back on the cost to buy furniture and utility bills, they are going to do that. This is why more and more companies are outsourcing work for their businesses to freelancers online, to cut back on expenses," Walters explained.

Walters' company trains persons who now work as data entry clerks, website developers, voice-over artistes, customer service agents, and virtual assistants.

EXTRA CASH

Although she was employed at the time, Walters said she was in need of some extra cash when she begun to discover the vast potential of working from a computer in your living room for people who live over 600 miles away.

"I had a job as a data entry clerk and I was making like US$10 per hour and working 40 hours a week," the 30-year-old recalled.

Now that her company has trained and placed over 30 persons in jobs online doing work for companies outside of Jamaica, Walters believes it's time for Jamaican companies who are thinking of cutting back on expenses to outsource work to Jamaicans online.

"We really do believe that there are a lot of small start-up business owners who have some work to do and don't know how to get someone to do it without employing someone full-time," Walters explained. "If they know that they have someone in Kingston who they can call and say, 'I want someone to do this for me, do you have anyone available?' it can expose more people to work."