Last year an app called Money4Jam or M4J was launched on WeChat, which is basically a micro-jobbing service so you can make money doing small jobs.

Apparently the platform has paid out more than a million rand to jobbers around South Africa who carry out jobs in their area. I thought that this would be a utility for students to earn quick and fairly easy money to pay for airtime, or another beer and burger while out on the town, but it turns out that it’s a lot broader than that, like one mom, Nirvana Maistry, featured further on, who has earned money while studying and looking after two kids. Two weeks ago I chatted to another young women whose micro-jobbing has paid for most of her bills, and who has saved up enough money to start her own small business.

Here’s a bit more about M4Jam and how it works…

And here’s a cool story about how M4Jam has worked for 30-year-old mom Nirvana, who lives in Joburg with her husband, son Darian (6 years old) and daughter Alisha (3 years old).

Says Nirvana:

Being a stay-at home mum was great for a little while. However,  as much as I love being at home with Alisha, it gets a bit lonely. I miss the social interactions of being in the workplace and also I felt as if my brain was slowly dying. I decided that studying would be the best way to keep my mind fresh and once Alisha starts crèche it would make re-entering the workplace easier. I decided to study law (straight LLB) and I’m completing my second year.

I love it and am so grateful to my husband for supporting our family financially, supporting my maternal desires and my dreams. I am finally ready to go back to work as next year Alisha starts crèche.  

I came across the M4JAM ad on DStv (I iron and watch TV at the same time, which means I do more watching then ironing but it makes my least-favourite chore more bearable).

I knew it wasn’t going to be something that would make me rich or turn out sums of cash that equate to regular paying jobs but it di interest me that I could possible earn bits of cash for doing simple tasks in my spare time with no impact on my busy lifestyle.

I only choose jobs that can fit into my schedule, for instance the SAB Castle Lite Lime job, which was easy to do. The location was a bottle store in a shopping centre a few hundred metres from home. I went over, bought the beer and gave it to my hubby as a little treat. I tested it for myself so that I could complete the task and then got paid for my opinion, and reimbursed for the beer.

I did a few surveys too and any job I choose is done either on my way to fetch my son from school or on my way back from dropping him off at school.

I also choose jobs that are on my route or very near to my location so cost and time are not an issue and the jobs usually take a few minutes to complete.

The weirdest job I did was a masculine job. It was a little embarrassing taking pictures of myself with male a deodorants in a busy shop, especially for a shy mom, but it was also fun when the family and I scrolled through the pics later at home. The kids had a good laugh.

The best job so far was the Castle Lite job because it was nice to give hubby a treat that didn’t actually come from his salary (we share a bank account and even when I worked our salaries got paid into one account and we worked off that account but now that I don’t contribute to it I feel bad and I really miss being a contributor to our family expenses).

I love that with the M4JAM platform I can earn something and do something other then just being a mom and a student. I can feel useful again, and feel good knowing that I earned something and that when hubby’s birthday comes around in September I have something that I earned myself to buy him something, which is the best feeling ever. 

I enjoy jobbing and I don’t see myself ever stopping. Imagine going out shopping and there are a couple of check in places to verify? why not do it and earn a few rands, it costs nothing takes very, very little effort and you can save up that money for whenever you need it.