As the gig economy booms, Prin Munsamy from Metropolitan GetUp shares tips on how giggers can better navigate money matters by taking advantage of flexible financial solutions

Engaging in extracurricular ventures to make money is certainly not anything new. For years, people have started businesses, freelanced, moonlighted, worked part-time and hustled to make ends meet.

But now, several factors have given rise to a super-surge of the micro-entrepreneurial and ‘side-gigging’ economies – and for a country like South Africa that desperately needs an economic revival, it presents an untapped opportunity, says Prin Munsamy, Solutions Actuary at Metropolitan GetUp.

The SA gig economy is booming
It is estimated that South Africa currently has around 3.9 million giggers – a figure that is rapidly growing. The Stellenbosch Business School recently released its Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report 2021/2022, which revealed a dramatic increase in early-stage entrepreneurial activity among South Africans; from 10.8% in 2019 to 17.5% in 2021.

Munsamy says that: “Pandemic-related job cuts and loss of income led to consumers looking for new ways of making ends meet – and technology sped up this process.  It has enabled people to design and drive a variety of entrepreneurial ventures and side hustles; allowing new on-demand work opportunities to be leveraged globally.”

Munsamy says that the pandemic has forced South Africans to rethink their lifestyle and financial options.  They have acquired a taste for the independence, flexibility and untapped earning potential that their entrepreneurial endeavours and technology have facilitated, which has fundamentally changed how they want to work and importantly, how they need to think about their finances.

The financial needs of the gigger
He highlights that the financial needs, challenges and responsibilities of a micro-entrepreneur or gigger are very different to that of an employee earning a salary as his or her sole source of income. “These individuals are typically inventive, flexible and think outside-the-box. We should celebrate this, as these entrepreneurs and giggers have the potential to become key contributors to the economy.”

Munsamy says that these individuals also face many challenges, including fluctuating fuel costs depending on whatever job they’re undertaking at any given time (versus an office job, where transport is easier to plan and thus budget for). “The skyrocketing costs of fuel can make the cost of doing business an expensive exercise, especially those in the transportation, courier and e-hailing business,” he says.

Munsamy adds that some months can also be tougher than others for entrepreneurs and giggers who often face payment delays for services rendered or inconsistent remuneration patterns, which can put them in a tricky position from a cashflow perspective and make the scheduling of debit orders difficult.

He offers several tips to help giggers avoid their side hustle becoming a hassle, by looking at more flexible financial options.

1.     Have a rainy-day plan or fund – With income volatility, you must have a buffer for those months when things are quieter, to ensure that you can still cover your expenses. Aim to put away a significant portion of your earnings on good months, which will help ensure that you can make ends meet on the not-so-good ones. “If putting away funds is challenging, make sure that as many of your expenses as possible are flexible so that you can halt them when needed.  A good example is pausing your streaming service subscription, which you can restart again when your situation changes.”

2.     Know you have help during tough times – To buffer against the difficult months, look for financial providers that are flexible and able to help when the going gets tough. Metropolitan GetUp, for example, offers funeral products that allow payment skip options or ‘tokens’ that can be used to cover premiums in difficult months, ensuring you remain covered.

3.     Search for products and providers that offer increased flexibility – Insurance that protects you and your loved ones should always be a financial priority, and the industry is evolving to cater to the shifting needs of consumers – particularly those who don’t take home a paycheck at the same time each month. Spend a little time researching flexible solutions that accommodate your unique financial situation.

Metropolitan GetUp, for example, recently reinvented its offering by increasing flexibility while ensuring that clients remain covered. Its flexible payments are designed to supplement traditional premium collection mechanisms, such as debit orders, with a distinctly non-traditional approach. Available for its Funeral Plans and soon to be rolled out across its full suite of products, flexible payments allow clients to pay any amount (i.e. split instalments), at any time of the month, via any method (cash, digital payment platforms, Instant EFT, credit/debit card or as debit order), and by any person; meaning that payments can be made by several contributors, tapping into community-centric payment behaviours.