What are 3 ways to fight inflation (in Pakistan)

I recently realized this: twenty years ago, around 2003, gold was approximately 6,000 rupees per tola. Now, in 2023, it is close to 200,000 rupees. In 2003, I was earning 30,000 rupees per month with my side hustle while I was in college. I was earning 5 tolas every month (!!) – that’s almost a million rupees in today’s terms, while pursuing a computer science degree.

That gave me a very personalized view of inflation.

Yes, times have changed. But not only in terms of price of gold.

Inflated Inflation

You may not know this, but for the past 10 years, and this Ramzan as well, Alhumdulillah, we were able to distribute food ration bags to hundreds of people. What started as a group of friends distributing 10 to 15 ration bags, has turned now into a food distribution of a 1000+ bags.

Each bag is food rations for a family of 4, and is good for about half a month. And I recommend you sign up on our WhatsApp notification group to stay in the loop on our fund-raising activities in the future as well. InshAllah.

But the point is this: this was the first time in the last 10 years that the price difference was this dramatic. Every year one would notice that the price of a ration bag has increased. But this year, the increase was just HUGE!

The food ration bag that costed us 4500 rupees last year, the same items were at almost 7500 rupees!

All in one year. Almost doubled in price.

What can you do?

If you follow the news, you may think that the inflation doubles every year, or that “mehngai” doubles every now and then. But this is not true at all. But this year, it was.

And these are basics, commodities and essentials, items like aata, ghee/oil, basin, rice etc.

Sure, inflation has really gripped us as a nation. That’s one thing. But if you see the news, you are presented with one horror story after another – the political situation, the inflation situation and the panic simply doesn’t stop.

Thankfully, I don’t watch the news (highly recommended that you also stop watching all political shows, period!)… but I do realize that times are changing now, and it is tougher.

So what can we do in times of inflation?

Step 1: What a Great Time to Remember the Fundamentals!

All problems are challenges. All challenges are invitations. You are invited to tackle this head on, to improve.

And how do you do that?

But going back to the fundamentals!

I have made a business out of fundamentals truth be told, they are that – well – they are that critically useful and necessary.

So I think the first step is to adjust our mindset. Yes, inflation is a problem. Yes, my grocery bill has doubled for the same items month over month. Yes, doubled. But this problem is an invitation to improve. And inshAllah, that’s what it is going to do.

How?

Step 2: Have a Clear Plan of Action

This is the most difficult in times of panic and crises. And that’s why Step 1 is so essential. You are now calm.

You see the problem – you are not hiding from it, and you are also not panicking. You see the enemy, and now you are ready to make a plan.

I have a blog post over at the blog where I list out the steps one can take to make a basic financial plan. But what I am recommending here is simply a quick revisit of your monthly expenses.

If you don’t have a basic budget tracking going on, that’s fine – you can start now. Again, use these tough times to adjust and improve.

Remember, “to improve something, first you have to measure it”.

So measure your expenses, measure your income.

Just the tracking alone will give rise to a plan, which brings us to step 3.

Step 3: Play the CEO of Your Self

The CEO of any company simply has the following strategy:

1. Cut Costs. The solution to rising inflation is sometimes to cut costs and that’s it. You may have that business subscription that you’re not using that you can pause for a month or so. Maybe Netflix can wait.
2. Increase Income. Earn more by starting your side business that can later replace your salary! And if you are already running your own brand, then know that in tough times, many businesses actually focus on the “Cost Cutting” part and don’t focus on the Increase Income part… whereas if your business is solving a need, you will still be able to find customers. I teach the three levers of business growth in our ProHobbyist 5 Week Challenge course, and just one lever of focusing on existing customers can increase income by 30% just in the first month of doing the tactic!
3. Work on Customer Satisfaction. For existing businesses, this is a great time to reach out to your customers, and offer them deals, or even free help to remind them that your brand is there for them in all times! And if you’re not a brand (yet!), then consider “stakeholders” in you, and reach out to them. Your family, your friends, your boss, your colleages… they all can be reached out in these times, if nothing but for a cup of tea, so you can learn more about their challenges and how you can improve the quality of their lives. InshAllah.

This is a how a High Performer would approach this.

Invest in Yourself.

Again, in tough times, people usually stop investing in themselves. Don’t make that mistake. The single biggest investment one can make is in increasing one’s own skills.

My earning capacity is in my hands, God willing.

Depending on where you are in your journey, this can mean:

• reading a useful book to increase your knowledge and skill
• learning about team development during crises so you can enable your team to function even better than ever before
• learning self development to further grow.

What Now?

Hope you found something in this email to help you deal with the inflation instead of panicking about it.

If you have more questions about how to deal with inflation, let me know. (Subscribe to the free ACE newsletter to email me directly, or you can use this contact form to get in touch!)

Also let me know if you have any questions about earning more and increasing your income. I’ll inshAllah write more about adding income to your monthly income/salary as it’s one of the most powerful actions you can take.

InshAllah talk soon.

Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can inshAllah help you:

ONE: You can join one of my affordable courses:

ProHobbyist 5 Week Challenge: if you want to convert your hobby, your passion into an online business, then this flagship course is for you. I hold you by the hand as you go from “idea” to “first sale”, using modern online methods. Do you want to discover how you can use a proven step-by-step system to start your online business without any IT knowledge or any confusion, then click here to join.

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