When deciding on what to do to generate income, I’ll offer the following suggestions:<\/p>\n
A lot of people get hung up on an hourly rate.\u00a0 Beyond making sure you can support yourself working a reasonable number of hours (no more than 50), I don’t get tied up in a knot about it.\u00a0 However, if it’s important to you, it’s important to keep in mind. \u00a0I do earn considerably more per paid hour on direct client work than I ever did in any other job.\u00a0 But I almost never have a full work week of directly paying work.\u00a0 Few people who are self-employed do, unless they’ve become employers themselves.\u00a0 I can’t teach you much about that, as I’m moving Heaven and Earth to stay a one-man shop.\u00a0 But later chapters are going to deal with the ratio of paying work v. non-paying work.<\/p>\n
Classic example would be a magazine article.\u00a0 You sell first serial rights to the piece, then it’s yours to flog around in other place.\u00a0 Short story anthologies where the story originally appeared in a magazine are another good example.<\/p>\n
If you develop a course, certainly try to teach it more than once!<\/p>\n
Keep your overhead down.\u00a0 There are things you will want to spend plenty of money on, sure.\u00a0 You want your tools to be as good as you need<\/em> them to be.\u00a0 But don’t be too seduced by the shiny.\u00a0 No one gadget is going to be the Perfect Tool to Make You Rich. You were born with that one.\u00a0 It’s between your ears.<\/p>\n There’s a difference between the shiny nifty gadget and the useful tool to do the job.\u00a0\u00a0 Learn that.\u00a0 I could<\/em> theoretically do my job on a dial-up Internet connection, but it would be like trying to cut wood with a blunt saw.\u00a0 The high-speed Internet connection isn’t a nifty gadget, but a genuine tool.\u00a0\u00a0 A netbook, as cool as it would be to have a computer I could tuck into my purse, is just a shiny gadget since I’d have to have a more powerful computer for some of my work, anyway[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n People like to learn whether or not they’re autodidacts.\u00a0 Whether it’s how to sew, how to do something specific on a computer or how to assemble food as art, there are probably people who want to learn how to do it.\u00a0 If you create a once-a-week course in something, your local community center might be willing to offer it.\u00a0\u00a0 While not necessarily an enormous money-maker, it’s cheap advertising.\u00a0 It gets your name and business out there, and associated in people’s minds with fun, usefulness or both.\u00a0 It also combats the natural isolation of being self-employed without an office to go to.\u00a0 Never underestimate that!<\/p>\n Everyone has life experience.\u00a0 Yes, even you!\u00a0 You may think you’ve lived a completely ordinary, pedestrian life.\u00a0 I’ll let you in on a little secret:\u00a0 Most lives feel that way when you’re taking it a day at a time.\u00a0 Rock stars spend more time waiting on tour buses, or practicing music than they do performing, you know.\u00a0 You and your life is a unique perspective and you’ve got genuine value to offer, so start looking for it!<\/p>\n Okay, time for another exercise!<\/p>\n I’d like you to spend some time thinking about everything you’ve done in your life.\u00a0 Screw the Seriously Impressive stuff.\u00a0 What have you done that’s normal and pedestrian as well as what’s impressive?\u00a0 We so often undercut the value of the stuff we see as normal and pedestrian, when it turns out people are willing to pay<\/em> you for it!\u00a0\u00a0 For me, a good example would be writing a blog.\u00a0 My God, talk about dailyness at its peak!\u00a0 Yet, I really do make a fair portion of my income writing blog entries on the most amazing range of subjects.<\/p>\n So, sit down and make a list of at least fifty things you’ve done — earned a Girl Scout badge, written to your Congressman, made a meal for twenty people, volunteered at your church (list what<\/em> you did), made a martini… \u00a0It doesn’t matter as long as you hit fifty items.<\/p>\n We’ll be building on this later on.\u00a0 But the principle and the though pattern that I really want you to grok, and I mean drink it down into your soul, is that you’ve done useful things that people need and really will pay you to do!<\/p>\n And be prepared next week for a very long series on self-management.\u00a0 It’s the second most important lesson you’ll learn.\u00a0 (The first is to be willing to ask people to pay you to do stuff!)<\/em><\/p>\n \n When deciding on what to do to generate income, I’ll offer the following suggestions: Services tend to have a better hourly rate than goods. A lot of people get hung up on an hourly rate.\u00a0 Beyond making sure you can support yourself working a reasonable number of hours (no more than 50), I don’t get … <\/p>\n\n
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Exercise: I Done Did This!<\/h3>\n
[1]<\/a> Though if everyone reading this wants to club together and buy me a netbook, I wouldn’t say no<\/em> to it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"