Do you ever see the ads from a tertiary school, a private school or even just a random person on Facebook, touting their new course and when you scroll through the comments, the first question asked is…”Do we get a certificate?” I see this happening relentlessly now and I keep having to ask myself, what is more important, the certificates or the skills?

The reason why this is becoming a problem has to do with the mindset of these individuals. Many people want the paper just to make themselves more desirable for employment but don’t actually care about learning the skill.

Here in Trinidad and Tobago, one of the big challenges we face today is still getting paid online and paying people online. As you know, the credit card penetration rate here is still around 10% and that doesn’t differentiate from the people who have multiple credit cards. Therefore, whenever you have your business online and are selling products or taking bookings, in a sense, we are very limited by the pool of people who can actually patronize your business online locally. This is why everyone needs a JMMB account in Trinidad & Tobago.

So it’s officially been 2 months since I accepted a job offer and when I had made the announcement, you guys/gals said that you would love to read about the journey of balancing my 9 to 5 and my business.

So if you don’t know, I have 2 businesses. There is Droid Island, which focuses on smartphone education and selling mobile devices as well. Then there is the Keron Rose brand. It’s the brand I have been really experimenting with to see exactly what I want to do and I have been kinda crafting it in my mind over the past few months. I am still a bit shaky on the exact wording or what I would classify myself as (I really don’t want to classify or limit myself but…) I would say that I am a digital entrepreneur and tech educator. I also manage social media accounts as my side gig.

Its been officially 1 month since I received that job offer and decided to get back on the 9-5 grind. So far it’s been great, I get up an extra hour earlier to ensure that I get my readings and my blogs done, I have a bit more disposable income to invest in the courses I wanted to take to upgrade my skills and invest into my business and because I was offered a role in which I excel in, I am not left feeling drained at the end of the day.

But being at that 9 to 5 made me realize something. The talks of promotions, bonuses, quarterly appraisals, salary increases, they all take REALLLLLLLY long to happen. To be honest, having my own business has spoiled but also enlightened me. So before we dive into today’s blog, let me ask you, all of my people who are in the 9 to 5 grind right now, are you waiting for that raise?