If you’ve been here long enough, then you know our HER conversations on X (FKA Twitter) spaces have been focused on tips to help the girls (and boys) get that bag.
On Tuesday, 9th September 2025, our speakers, Fiyin Toyo: Marketing Director, Nivea, &founder of Empower U and Seyifunmi Oderinde, Founder of WLB Consulting, talked us through everything you need to know before monetising your expertise as a professional.
We’ve put together four things to know before making that decision, and how to sustain yourself once you’re ready to!
1. Find Out Your Skill/Expertise
The first step to monetising your skill(s) is to identify what the skill is. Fiyin and Seyifunmi tell us that identifying our skills and expertise are not as difficult as we think. They define both as having the ability to do something or solve a problem consistently with results. The results we produce are translated to value, which is what we’re able to monetise. When selling identified skills and expertise, we have to identify how we can help potential clients make money or save time.
‘’How do you provide value? Value is money and time. So how do you save time? How do you help people make money? How do you help people with results?’’- Fiyin Toyo
2. Know When And How To Start Charging
Once you’ve identified your skill/expertise, the second step is knowing when and how to start charging. Seyifunmi’s answer to that is simply when you feel confident enough to put money on your time. It’s important to be intentional in providing measurable results while doing this. When it comes to pricing and charging, the options are endless. Fiyin provides us with a number of options to guide our charging processes. A cost-based pricing example is thinking of what it costs you to complete a task, and reimbursing and paying yourself for that. Value-based pricing is taking up a portion of the profit or value you help a client attain.
“When you feel confident enough to put money on your time, skills and expertise, you can start charging. The moment you think that you have something that can help sell value, you can begin to think about how to charge.’’- Seyifunmi Oderinde
“Another one is competitive pricing, which is benchmarking what people who are also in the industry are doing. You also need to be confident, don’t underprice yourself because of age or anything. Don’t let fear cripple you.’’- Fiyin Toyo
Also Read: 4 Nigerian Women on Financial Freedom Through Mobile Banking
3. Build A Personal Brand
One way to maintain a client base and keep green grass coming is to build a personal brand. Fiyin points out three C’s that are important in doing this. Clarity, which is knowing what your niche is. Once you’ve identified your unique area, the next step is to remain consistent. Consistency will help people identify your brand. It’s also important to remain credible, which basically means having people vouch for your integrity and the work you’ve done. Seyifunmi adds that confidence is just as important in building a personal brand, and that can only come from really knowing what you’re doing.
‘’Where are the people you’ve provided value for? Where are your testimonials? Focus on the platform that works for you. Be clear, be consistent and be absolutely credible.’’- Fiyin Toyo
‘’Your confidence is a function of your competence. Once people see value in what you have to offer, they will come back.’’- Seyifunmi Oderinde
4. Diversify Your Income Stream
Once you’ve started making money and built your personal brand,the next step is sustenance. One of the ways of achieving this is by diversifying income streams and taking advantage of social media platforms. Seyifunmi advises that we link our KPIs and OKRs to clients’ business strategies and work with tools that help us achieve this. X might be the preferred platform for one client while LinkedIn might be preferred for another. She also suggests creating a consultancy arm that helps us fit our expertise into diverse industries.
‘’Consulting is one word that encapsulates a number of things. Through this, you’re able to offer your expertise to different people in a number of ways. Digitising your knowledge and providing coaching services is also another way to diversify your income stream.’’- Seyifunmi Oderinde
Click here to hear more of what our speakers had to say, so you’re not missing out on anything.
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