5 Simple Ways To Earn More Money

The first rule for financial success is spend less than you earn. The last post was on the first part of the rule (spend less), and we looked at five simple ways to ensure you are spending less. This post points to the other part of the equation:increasing your earnings.

Increasing your earnings gives you more money to pay off your debts, save for things you want to own some day, and build a foundation for the future, be it in retirement or going into business.

There are countless ways to earn more money, some of which we have looked at in this blog, and today we look at 5 simple ways to earn more money. Remember, we first do the simple things, then look at complicated strategies.

1. Don’t waste time at work. We are all victims of this. The time you spend sitting idle,on the internet, Twitter, Facebook or chatting on IM with your friends cannot be recovered. Most of us spend hours on the internet taking in information that we rarely do anything with, useless information. Instead, invest that time in something productive, even if it’s not directly related to your job.

Experts say if you study one area consistently for 1 hour a day, you become an expert in 4 years. Why not purpose to invest 4 years in building expertise at something, then make money off the skill learnt?

2. Learn new skills, especially general skills that would be useful in any career path. These include writing, presentation skills, public speaking, time management etc, and use these skills at your current work place. For example, most companies tend to operate without documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Take time and craft SOPs for your department or even the entire organisation. This will not only raise your profile at work, but will force you to develop skills that are transferable, you could even become a consultant in the area, especially if you use your time productively as suggested in the first point above.

3. Build strong relationships with as many people as you can in your field. Using Twitter and LinkedIn, you can start conversations with people you admire in your career line. Take advantage of networking opportunities to meet with people, send them emails thereafter (how many cards have you collected and didn’t contact the people?), and build relationships. Whenever you have an opportunity to connect people that can help each other, do it immediately. Always strive to give more than you receive, it eventually pays off.

One good way to build relationships is to volunteer to work for someone you admire. Use your Saturdays to work side by side with a mentor, and in return, you learn useful things that will serve you in future.

4. Turn your passion into a side business. Don’t wait for the day you retire or are laid off to turn your passion into a business, instead, invest extra time in it now. Where does the extra time come from? Well, we all have 24 hours every day, we spend 7 hours asleep, maybe 3 hours eating, commuting etc, 8 hours at work, that leaves us with 6 hours to spare that sort of disappear into the internet, coffee meet ups or just into space. If you spent 3 of those hours working on your passion, in a year, you’ll have spent around 1.5 months of your time building your side business. There are different things you can do, we have looked at them here and here, but my advice is that you find something you’re passionate about, and you have fun doing.

For example, I invest a couple of hours a week building this blog. I haven’t yet figured out how it translates into income for me (if ever), but I’m sharpening the sword. By having the blog, I’m forced to study more, and widen my expertise in finance, it’s good use of my time because I am using it on two things I’m passionate about; internet and finance.

5. Step up at work. Most of us have a defined job description, which we try as hard as possible to stick to, and rarely do anything more than what our employer expects of us, when we do, we feel like our employer cheated us out of something. It’s good to do your job well, but whenever you find opportunities to explore your other talents at the work place, don’t hesitate. It’s an opportunity to sharpen your sword, and also to make yourself stand out at work.

These are hard economic times and most businesses are barely able to stay afloat. Use your skills to not only make yourself indispensable at the work place, but to stand out, and earn that bonus, when no one else is doing so because they stuck to doing what is in their job description. Just to give a personal example, 4 years ago I stepped up to run our hotel investment after the manager was abruptly let go. That experience has been the most valuable use of my time and is what turned me into a business consultant. I got a chance to run a business first hand, turn it around and I’m now expanding it. Had I stuck to my Financial Analysis guns and ignored the  opportunity, I doubt my career would have been as interesting or challenging. I doubt I’d be heading a business right now. So step up!

Whatever extra you earn from doing the above five things, keep it aside. Remember that our goal here is to spend less than we earn!