The money-saving sensation, I’m Broke Baby, has multiple success stories under his belt regarding
business start-ups, content creation and utilising his financial knowledge. Starting at a young age, he acted on his ambitious ideas and soon gained success across multiple industries. Now, sharing his attained knowledge from personal experiences and business ventures, he has popularised across social media platforms.
Luckily, he joined us for an in-depth interview about his entrepreneurial start-ups, unmatched business
success and money-saving tips we can implement into our everyday lives. From side-hustles and cleaning businesses to social media influencing and winning awards, I’m Broke Baby, has amounted vast and valuable experience of the business world. Trending on TikTok and Instagram for his financial advice, we were able to ask the questions you are dying to know the answers to.
You ventured into entrepreneurship quite young didn’t you, with your first business. How did you
get into it, and how has your journey been so far?
I started my first business when I was 18. I had a job and I was getting a lot of disposable income. I wanted a way to make some more money and keep myself occupied and a bit more driven and focused. So, I started a side-hustle, which was a sneaker-flipping business, and that actually turned into a full-time business after four or three and a half years. So, at first it was to keep myself occupied and then the more skills I picked up, it eventually turned into a full-time business.
Amazing, and you’ve created quite a few other businesses in lots of different industries since then,
haven’t you? Can you talk me through some of them?
Yeah, I’ve had a lot of businesses! The most random one I had was a cleaning company where we used to do end of tenancy cleaning and stuff like that. Right now, I have a dance competition. I can’t dance at all so that’s pretty random for me [laughs]. But it’s going really well, I love starting new businesses, I love seeing them grow from the ground up. So, anything that I feel like I can add value to I’ll get involved in.
When you’re thinking about new business ventures, what makes you decide to begin? What made you
want to go into a cleaning business for example, or dancing?
So, with the cleaning business, a lot of my friends and people I knew, their parents were cleaners. Then I started to get to know estate agents and I thought if I can just be the middleman in between, then there’ll be some money to be made. So, I used my network to get into that. With the dancing as well, I’m quite active on TikTok, I’ve got a big following on there, and I always see these talented people. I thought I could use my platform and my network to put together a solid dance
competition.
Amazing, it’s all about showcasing people and giving them somewhere to show their talent, isn’t it?
Yeah, so I think with creative people or just people in general they’re good at one thing, but they might
not necessarily have all the parts to get it to the next level. They need an entrepreneur or someone whois good at organising things to come in and help build that step for them.
Definitely, for creative people sometimes the business side can be quite difficult or vice versa. Would
you say that you’re more of a creative person or a business person?
I think I have a good mix between both to be fair, I know my weaknesses when it comes to creativity – like anything to do with rhythm. Ideas-wise, I could have all the ideas but might not have the talent to
implement them and that’s when I get the creatives involved.
You also started your influencing journey recently, how did that come about? Were people asking you
for advice?
Yeah, to be fair, the influencing only started about two and a half years ago so the end of 2019, I’d say.
With my sneaker business, I built a big platform on Instagram and then I took it to TikTok, when it
started getting bigger in 2019, early 2020. And then, where I was trying to promote my business, I would do videos in the stock room about the general day-to-day, so people were asking me more business-based questions rather than being interested in buying the shoes. When the business tips started to kick off people were asking me general personal finance questions because they found out that I was a business owner and home owner. They all wanted to know how I had started that. I began sharing my past journey and the tips I’d used in the past. Then that blew up, and I brought it over to Instagram as well, and since then I’ve just been focusing on that.
Your following has grown a lot and we can see why, because your advice and tips are super relatable
for people since we’re living in a financial crisis at the moment. You said that you are a homeowner,
how did that come about? How did you become so disciplined with your money and savings?
When I bought my house, I wouldn’t say I was mad disciplined. I had a really good job, I was an engineer, so I was getting a good salary, plus I had a side hustle. I was very disciplined but at the same time I could afford to go on holiday and go out every week because I was making a lot of money. If you’re trying to save for a house on a single wage, or maybe you haven’t got the best wage, there are loads of things you can do to supplement your income. For example, if you’re spending a lot of money on clothes and fashion is your thing, then make sure you’re using cashback. At the end of the year, you might have enough money to go on holiday without taking out of your savings, and you can end up saving for your house. So, everyone’s situation is going to be different but there’s loads of little things you can implement to save up.
What small tips and saves can we do to get by right now in this living crisis?
Saving wise, I would make sure you are maximising or utilising everything that’s out there. So, I’ve
mentioned before, cash back. Anytime you buy something, double check if you can get cash back. This can be online, or if you have a cash back debit or credit card or a store card. At the end of the year if you have five or six hundred pound in your account from cashback then you can use it to treat yourself, or you can use it to pay a bill. Also, planning ahead. So, if you’re doing food shopping, present shopping, or Christmas shopping, try to make sure you’re not doing it on an impulse. Make sure you have a list and plan ahead. If you’re planning ahead, there’s loads of tools online that can actually help you shop for cheaper, like Google Shopping. There are price comparison sites for your food shop. So just pre-plan and you’ll end up saving some money that way.
So it’s about being more organised with your finances and being disciplined with what you’re working
with?
Exactly yeah, organisation is key.
For the shopaholics out there and also for people that want to go out and socialise. How can they do
that generously without being scared to look at their bank account the next day?
[Laughs] For shopping, I’m pretty sure people are aware there are websites like Depop, Vinted and eBay. Once you’re done with something try and list it on there straight away, especially if you know you’re not going to get any use out of it, as long as you can get some money back out of it. One of my friends is a sneaker-head. So, he has a one-in one-out policy. So, you’re still getting the enjoyment of a new outfit or pair of shoes but you’re doing it on a budget. For going out also, I think everyone’s probably done this, have your money in one account that you’re willing to spend and try not to transfer from your savings if you need an extra drink.
It’s hard not to though!
It is hard not to [laughs]. It’s better if you can allocate what you want to save at the start of the month
when you get paid before you spend the rest, instead of saving what you haven’t spent. I think there’s a saying called ‘pay yourself first’, so from your wages you pay yourself into your savings account and then anything that you have left over you can spend, rather than the other way round.
Do you have a general ratio of how much you separate your money and things?
Personally, because I’m a business owner I do things a little bit differently to utilise some of my allowances. But before that I was trying to save. Say I earned two thousand pound a month, I would try to save at least a thousand of it, which is hard now because rents have gone up and everything.
So, back then my rent was about eight hundred pound a month, then my bills might have been about four, five hundred pound a month, but I was getting say an extra six hundred pound a month from one of my side hustles, so I would try to save my wages first and then use my side hustle to spend on going out and enjoyment. Yeah, rather than take it from my wage. Because with your wage you know it’s guaranteed every month. But with a side hustle, if you didn’t make as much money that month, you might have to cut back on some other things.
When did your side hustle become your main thing?
I did an apprenticeship in engineering when I was 17 and then I left that when I was 22, so it took about five years, constantly working on it every day. I was probably putting full-time hours into it to be honest. I was spending a good 30, 40 hours a week on my side hustle. And then when I saw that it was making consistent money for about a year, I knew that for it to grow I’d have to put more time into it, that’s when I left.
I also feel that during Covid everyone had a side hustle, didn’t they? They tried to do something creative and make a little bit of money through something that they enjoyed.
You need to find something that you enjoy for a side hustle and it needs to fit around your schedule. If you enjoy it, it’s most likely going to be done during your down time. If it’s something that you don’t enjoy, it’s going to be like another job at the end of the day. There’s still a lot of new side hustles that are coming, just from the way that the world’s changed. Everyone’s moved online so there’s a lot of things you can do in your free time to get some extra cash.
You talked about utilising things like cashback and credit cards. A lot of people our age can be quite
scared of getting credit cards. Do you have any sort of advice on how credit cards could benefit different people, or how to stay disciplined without exceeding your credit limit?
With credit cards I think a lot of the fear comes down to lack of education. When I was growing up, I was always taught that you use a credit card because you don’t have the money. I think you need to get out of that mindset. If you have credit, you’re basically still spending your own money, but you’re getting rewards from it. Any time you make a transaction, someone gets paid from that. So, if you go into the shop and you use a credit card, the card provider is getting their 3% from that. So, they want to incentivise you to use their credit card, and you can leverage that by just paying it off in time and receive reward points. To start off, if you’ve never had a credit card before, there’s two really good ones called Aqua and Vanquis. They won’t give you a high limit, they might give you two or three hundred pounds to start off. They have loads of online tools too, and they’ll tell you when your limit is coming up and when to pay it off to avoid paying interest. After you’ve used that for a few months, and you feel more confident, then you can start looking at comparison sites. These will match your credit score with the credit cards that you can get and that’s when you can start getting some really good rewards. So, you can get cash back, you can get points to fly, you can get hotel stays. As long as you’re paying off your balance in full, and you’re not paying any interest, then you can really leverage credit cards to actually make you some extra money.
So, investment, everyone talks about the importance of investing. Have you gotten into investment
yourself and if so, what’s the best way to start?
Yeah, I invest quite a lot. Right now, it might be a scary time to invest because the market’s all over the
place, whether that’s stocks and shares or crypto. The best way to start in my opinion is to download a platform that will give you a free taster. There are platforms like Freetrade and Trading 212 and they’ll give you a free share once you sign up. You have to deposit a small amount to get that free share, but I found that when I started that just looking at how the free share went up and down in value, it actually gave me an interest and a bit more of an understanding of the market. So, instead of risking your own money, maybe just do one of those. Have it for a few months, keep tabs on it, and you can see the price going up and down. Make sure that you’re following the right people online, there’s loads of good platforms out there that will introduce you into investing, rather than jumping straight in there because now is a very scary time to invest. The market are all over the place, so you don’t want to be put off. So, I would say dip your toes in and take it slowly.
In terms of property, everyone is saying that it is not quite the right time to get on the property ladder. Is this the case?
So, I’ve been keeping tabs on the property market. Personally, I think it’s a good time if you have the
money for the deposit. If you were thinking of buying this year and you haven’t quite pulled the trigger,
because obviously the interest rates have gone up, there’s going to be a lot of motivated sellers soon. So, potentially if you have enough deposit or if you can buy in cash, perhaps from an inheritance, it could be a good time to buy. But with the interest rates right now, especially being on a variable rate, I don’t think it’s a good time to buy. If you just had enough to scrape the deposit, I probably would hold off.
Sick, so my last question is, it’s coming towards Christmas time and everyone’s getting or wanting gifts. Have you got any other tips for keeping our bank balance in tact?
When it comes to buying gifts, I know a lot of your readers are probably into popular, new fashion that may sell out quickly. And then you might end up having to pay more than the retail price from a resell
platform. There are websites out there that help you keep track of when things are coming out in different retailers. There’s one really good one called Stock Informer if you’re looking to buy toys, game consoles, I think they even do shoes now. You can make sure you get it for the original price and save some money that way, so you don’t have to pay resell price. Sole Supplier is also good for shoes and clothes. Make sure that you get things at the best price through web apps like Honey and Pouch, which will tell you every time there’s a discount code available. Also, there’s a little trick that works on lots of websites. If you add something to your cart and you don’t buy it, some websites, maybe an hour or two later, will send you a discount code to incentivise you to check out. So, you might get free shipping, you might get 10% off. It’s about being savvy while you’re shopping and planning ahead, this will save you a lot of money over the Christmas period.
Thanks to Jordan @jayvsop you’ll be able to get the most out of your gifting spree this Christmas. And to benefit from I’m Broke Baby’s money advice throughout the year, Jordan has an affiliate marketing ebook available on his website or find it on his Instagram. With a little help from Jordan, maybe we won’t be so broke baby.
Interview By Veronica Wong Diffa
Graphics By: Arundhati Das
