This is one of my mother’s most appreciated paintings, showing how a human being gracefully ages through life.. 

My mother holds a professional degree, but she has never worked professionally. She has been a homemaker. 

I grew up in South Mumbai, and our family expenses were quite high. 

My school friends belonged to rich families without exception. My father had a government job, govt salary. 

While I didn’t personally suffer for lack of money, my parents would frequently argue about money. It was painful to watch.  

Government jobs paid low salaries back then, unless someone was corrupt you could not be rich as a govt employee. 

I grew up amidst a lot of tension and anxiety in the house, specifically over money. 

Then, my mother decided to earn money to help my dad foot our expenses by earning a side income. 

This was the ‘90s.

She couldn’t pursue a full-time job in Mumbai despite having a professional degree because she wanted to be available to take care of our family, and to raise me. 

However, she had a few hours of free time everyday when she could work at home.

It would take another 30 years before remote work became viable and mainstream. Computers were found only in science labs. Smartphones were science fiction.

So my mother resorted to oil painting on canvas, a hobby that she nurtured as a college student. 

This time, she tried to make a small side gig out of it. Maybe it could even blossom into a full-fledged career, who knew?

She made a few paintings in 3 months, and then we booked a stall in an exhibition which would potentially be attended by the Who’s Who of South Mumbai. 

I was 10 years old back then. I wanted to help and actively supported my mother. 

For 3 days, I tried to sell her paintings in the event, actively speaking to everyone who walked by our stall.   

We didn’t close any sales initially. 

Nita Ambani was the chief guest of the event, and she visited our stall with a cavalcade of her following. We thought she’d buy something, but even she didn’t. 

Eventually, a couple of paintings were bought, at throwaway prices. We didn’t even recover the event cost. 

We didn’t have the experience of building or running a business back then.

In our world, these were heavy losses to shoulder, with no learnings for the future and no access to doing things better. 

My mother gave up. 

I would later realise what mistakes we made when I was building my own startups – iPleaders, LawSikho and Skill Arbitrage. 

Anyway, our money problems did not change in the years ahead, until I went to college. 

By then, my father had quit his job and moved to a top corporate law firm as a senior tax partner. Then everything changed for our family. 

But it makes me wonder, how would life be different if my mother had the option of remote work available to her back then? 

Would my mother have had to sacrifice her career and ambitions for me if I was born in 2018 and not in 1988?

Definitely not. 

In some ways, 2024 is very different from 1994.

You have artists like my mother becoming famous on instagram and selling their paintings like hotcakes.

Here is what changed:

1. My mother was restricted to our neighbourhood in South Bombay. What if she could reach a larger audience of art lovers through social media – which has become possible now?
2. What if there were online e-commerce platforms to sell art as we have today? What if she could create a shop on Etsy and sell art to foreigners as many of my artist friends do today?
3. Forget art, my mother was not married to being an artist. She just wanted her work to be recognised, to have an identity, to get success and money on her own merit. What could she do if she had access to the internet, remote work and AI tools as we have today?

Is it possible that she could at least have worked remotely for high-potential startups and SMEs? 

She could have assisted them with administrative work, been a virtual assistant and earned a side income, like hundreds of women whom we are helping to do this today. 

Look, you have probably made the same mistake as my mother a few times – tried to build a business locally, tried to offer a service to friends, neighbours and relatives. 

Don’t do that. That is too small a market.

When I started a business, my friends and relatives and neighbours were more sceptical. There were strangers who trusted me. 

This will happen to you too.

You must go to a larger market.

Think of JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter. She was rejected by 19 publishers. Then she got accepted by one, and the rest was history.

You have to go to the larger market, you have to find the people who will appreciate your skill, who will pay you your worth, people who will take a chance on you.

It is very unlikely that those people will be in your town, in your friend circle, or on your facebook friends group.

My mother’s story is proof that having talent or skill is not enough to succeed. You need access to a viable market before you can get fruits of your labour.

Because I understand this secret deep down, I have helped hundreds of women like my mother (and like you) kickstart the 2nd innings of their career.

Here are just a few selected examples, out of the hundreds of women from varied professional and educational background, whom we have supported to succeed with international remote freelance work: 

Hema Vaithianathan, (September 2023 batch), B.E. graduate from Kancheepuram, based in Puducherry, was on a career break since 2018 after her marriage and then she had a kid.  She now works as a remote virtual assistant with a Toronto-based startup, earning approx. INR 50,000/month by giving 6 hrs/day for 5 days a week.

Rachna Keshwani, (July 2023 batch), a 2009 graduate of Gujarat University, lives in Ahmedabad. She had banking sector experience but then took a career break of 7 years. We helped her secure a remote position as a virtual assistant with multiple startups in South Africa & Indonesia, earning approx. USD 5-6 per hour, working for 2-3 hrs per day. 

Swetha Subramanian, (July 2023 batch), a 2011 BTech graduate from Chennai, secured a project as a virtual assistant with a UK-based startup to work for 12 hours per week and earning USD 5/hr. She secured several other projects later. 

Christy Sara George, (July 2023 batch), a 2011 B.Sc graduate from St. Berchmans College, Mahatma Gandhi University, based in Kerala, secured an opportunity to work as a Virtual Assistant at Paragon International, based in Europe and earning USD 5/hr. 

Pooja Khicha, who had work experience but had to take 4 years’ leave post maternity, joined us in May 2023, and as of date, has secured many clients from the UK, US, Australia and from India for performing work as a virtual assistant and startup generalist for just 3-4 hrs per day. She has secured multiple full-time remote job offers. Currently she earns INR 60k/month working in a part-time remote job.

Neha Yeul, (July 2023 Batch), a 2019 graduate, has secured multiple projects for editing books written by clients in the US and UK, and she earns approx. INR 60-70k per month for working 5 hours per day. She uses several AI tools for her work. 

These are just a few out of the hundreds of women whom we have assisted to work with international clients. 

They are able to get initial results in just 2-3 months by following our foolproof roadmap.  

In fact, anyone who lives in a small city or town where local opportunities are not rewarding, or who wants to quit low paying jobs to earn more, or someone who can only work part-time, has this opportunity available to them.  

Today, Indian women do not have to sacrifice their career to raise a family, and can work from anywhere as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.