do it yourself FREEDOM

Impacts: Work, Money, Time

“Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.” – J. Paul Getty

Many people have a single source of income, their job. Finding additional ways to make money can help relieve your financial dependence on your day job. The more sources of income you can find the closer to financial freedom you get.

You might think this is just for rich people with money to invest. I would agree that the more money and time you have the easier it becomes to diversify but the first steps aren’t impossible to take, just hard.

Before you begin be careful of opportunities that sound to good to be true. The old saying is true, if it looks too good to be true it is. Real opportunities tend to be the ones you make for yourself doing things you know best, not the schemes cooked up by others.

Most of us have hobbies or interests and have built some level of expertise. It might even be something you thought could never make any money on the side. Start by looking for examples of people making a living in that field. Look carefully to see what they are doing to make it work. Ask questions, talk to people online, continue to explore this area of personal interest with an eye for business opportunities.

Before jumping off into a business venture be careful and take on little risk. Remember you’re trying to make a little money on the side to remove burdens, not add them. If your plan includes taking out a loan, spending a lot of money, or a lot of time, rethink your plan. Instead start small. Test the water. Have fun with it and don’t gamble.

Some people may tell you that taking risk is a requirement of any business venture but if you’re not an experienced business person any risk may be too much. Once you get the hang of it taking on more risk for the potential of more gain may seem like the right thing to do, but by then the experience you’ve gained will tell you how much risk is acceptable.

One simple example of a young entrepreneur I met illustrates what I’m taking about. He was trying to run a little eBay business online. He’d buy and collect things to sell. Often he wouldn’t make any money on things and sometimes I suspect it cost him in time and money. It’s easy to get caught up in the adventure of the venture. Try not to loose sight of the real goal like he did.

Taking on more jobs might also seem like one way to diversify your income. The trouble with jobs is that you’re essentially selling your time. Your time is really the most valuable thing you have. Instead look for things that continue to make money without your constant direct involvement.

A simple example that has popped up in the last few years is blogging. When people write about things they know, other people want to read it. Sharing ideas online through blogging has become an effective way of connecting with other people and sharing ideas.

Google and others have made it easy to monetize blogs with ads that are relevant to the content. These ads provide some value to the reader because they usually compliment the topic of the web page. They benefit the writer by providing a small steady source of income. As the popularity of the blog increases the revenue from the ads tends to increase.

The blogger end up spending time writing about something that interests them and the writings live on indefinitely, drawing more readers and more revenue without any more work. So every quality post you write can be considered an investment in a sense.

You could think of writing books in the same way. When an author writes a book they receive royalties over time as more people buy the book. The revenue fluctuates with the popularity of the book but until it goes out of print the author receives some side income.

Finding alternative ways of making money shouldn’t be your top goal by any means but it can give you more flexibility to do the things you like to do especially if you can find ways to automate making money.

Take Action

• Make a list of the things you like doing.
• Looks for books on these topics and research the author online. Try to imagine their life and how they might be spending their time.
• With a grain of salt, read the The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
• Learn more about Google Adsense.
• Learn about self publishing at Lulu.com.