Where You Are Now

You know that nice paying, comfortable job you’ve had for the past several years? Yeah, that one. It can be taken from you in the blink of an eye. As long as their is someone above you (management, VP, CEO, etc…) you are putting yourself at risk; especially if you are not planning for the worst that could happen.

I like the way that this article is titled: Unemployment affects the finances of families

And believe it or not, it’s true! If you lose your income you will have an affect on your family finances. And with the way that the economy has been for the last two years, your job and thousands of other jobs are being cut. If you are not planning for this possibility then you my friend, are living in a dream world.

Unemployment is real, and abusing government handouts is real too. Please, don’t be lazy, get a job.And if you don’t want to go back to working the 9-5 drudgery, get creative about what you can do to earn an income. The possibilities are truly endless, and working for yourself can be a nice change of pace (as long as you can manage your time…). If you lose that steady income by being laid off, your new job is finding one. And if that means creating one, then you create it!

Here are some ideas to get you started (on the work for yourself path):

Learn something new

Go beyond your bubble and learn how to do something that makes you stand out. Be it HTML, PHP, blogging, SEO, etc. Whatever that one thing, or that combination of things, is that makes you more competitive and stronger than the person next to you – learn it and do it. Hard. [source]

Cut grass

It is that time of year and cutting grass is one thing that a majority of the people who live around you will not want to do. Walk your lawn mower around town and offer to cut yards for $30 (or whatever you see is a reasonable charge for your time). Then, when you are finishing up, offer to come by next week. Do that for each house and you’ll be busy.If you have a pickup truck, drive to the next neighborhood and do the same there. Before you know it you’ll have to hire some help.

Sell on eBay

I’ve talked about using eBay to earn extra cash for the holiday season but there are thousands upon thousands of individuals who earn more than extra cash, they are using the auction giant to earn a full-time income. Start by looking around your house. What can you put up on eBay that will sell? Don’t worry so much about the value, at first. Just put something up that you know will sell and will get your feet wet. Once you have done that, dig even further in your home for items that you don’t need but would be of value to someone on eBay. List it. Once you have done that a few times, offer to sell for your family and friends. Charge them 15% of the final value fee. That’s a taste of making money to sell items on eBay (which is easy). Then, tell them to tell all of their friends and coworkers that you can sell items for them on eBay. Give them a business card and let word of mouth do the rest. Leave flyers on your neighbors doorsteps….you get my drift.

Once people start calling you will get a taste of how much crap some people have. They will think that it is priceless but you will not lie to them and agree with them. It is not worth your time, especially if you have other clients calling you. Create a fee structure like this one: if the final value is is $50-$200 you charge 25% of the final value. If $201-$500 you charge 20%. If %501-$1,000 you charge 15%. If above $1,000, you charge 10%. This is just a suggested starting point, feel free to use it and adjust it.

If you start making your own path and aren’t relying on a 9-5 income, do this one thing and I can personally guarantee that you will keep the clients coming: Treat each and every client like they are your only client. Do this and they will keep coming back.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you and get you thinking outside of the cubical box. If you lose your job, create one.