Earn Money Archives - Page 6 of 15

Make Progress Every Day [Part 2]

09.02.2011 by Dallon Christensen //

In my article from last week, I provided the first two steps any aspiring entrepreneur needs to make progress toward self-employment every day. Those two steps, working toward small victories and setting blocks of time to focus on one task, will give help you from becoming overwhelmed and give you the confidence that you are making progress. The next three steps are designed to keep you organized as you increase your workload and keep you motivated as you progress to achieving work you love to do.

Create lists and projects

When most people think of a to-do list, they think of listing everything they need to do in one big list. This will not work, because a long list with no structure or priority will overwhelm you. For those of you who use Microsoft Outlook to manage your tasks, you know exactly what I mean. Even though you can assign high or low importance to certain tasks, it’s very difficult to see how those tasks fit into what you really need to do.

The key to effective list and task management is to organize your list into projects. David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done organizing system, defines a project as anything requiring more than one step to complete. If you must do three things to complete something, that’s a project. Writing an article is a project, because you must develop an idea, perform research, organize your thoughts, and write the article.

There is no shortage of tools to help you manage lists, tasks, and projects. I use a free and very simple application called Wunderlist, which is the first tool I’ve seen that balances ease of use with great organization. Wunderlist is available on the iPod/iPhone/iPad platform, Android, Mac OS, and PC systems as well as through the Internet. Wunderlist also allows me to create lists for any project as well as specific lists for article ideas or “backburner” items. If you tour the productivity app section in your phone’s marketplace, you will find plenty of options to help you stay organized.

Always have a way to record ideas

We are a mobile society. Whether we are working or doing personal tasks, being on the go is a staple of life. Ideas come at any time, so having a way to record ideas and “get them out of your head” is a critical factor to developing that next big thing for your business. It does not matter how you record your ideas, but you must develop a system that you will consistently perform. The goal is to not force yourself to remember ideas. If you cannot remember a seven-digit phone number more than a few moments (I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you since I can’t do this myself!), then have a way to capture those thoughts.

I use three things to help me remember ideas. I carry an Action Runner notebook from Behance, which is a 3 x 5 inch notebook with one side to record action items and another side to jot notes. I also use my iPod Touch’s voice recorded or a Roland R-05 digital recorder to record the thoughts that don’t go on paper.

Take time to celebrate your victories

Building a business is a long and difficult, but extremely rewarding and fulfilling process. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will not become an overnight success. As you build your business, you will have a series of small victories. You need to step back and celebrate those wins. Take your spouse to dinner. Buy the new smartphone you’ve wanted to buy. Take an evening off from building your business and sit on your deck with your drink of choice. Just take the time to sit back, reflect on what you did to make this achievement, and use it to motiviate yourself for future success.

Progress means moving forward. Even if that progress is not as fast or as big as you would like it to be, any progress means you are closer to your ultimate goal. It’s hard to not be overwhelmed as you make the leap from traditional jobs to self-employment. If you follow the five steps I’ve outlined in this post and part 1 of this series, you will face your journey with more confidence.

How To Make [Earn] Extra Money

08.31.2011 by Matt Jabs //

Who couldn’t use an extra $1,000?

Getting out of debt happens faster when lower expenses are combined with making more money. Historically we’ve written a lot about the former but less about the latter… it’s time to change that. I mean, who couldn’t use an extra $1,000 right?

One month to $1,000 Challenge – 1M21K

First let’s cover a sweet new challenge created by an awesome friend of mine – Josh Gordon aka The NonConformist Pa – that will help you earn and extra $1,000 in one month, then I’ll share a few specific ways you can earn extra money. Cool stuff. Basically Josh created the 1M21K challenge to help motivate you to earn an extra $1,000 in just 30 days – with a full money back guarantee. Sweet right!

Who is Josh?

Josh Gordon is an awesome new friend of mine who, like Betsy and I, left a life of corporate servitude to create a more meaningful life – on his terms. Josh left a job making $60,000 annually to focus instead on helping himself and others lead nonconformist lives of passion, mission, and meaning. He’s a great guy with a big heart and big ideas.

What is the challenge?

I’ll let Josh explain,

“The challenge begins September 1st, 2011 and costs only $67. You get 10 hours of ridiculously practical audio material, 12 killer guides / mini-ebooks stuffed with practical, applicable tips, and 4 tele-seminars covering the questions and hurdles that we’ll inevitably face. And, you’ll be hearing from peeps like Dan Miller, Justin Lukasavige, Pierce Marrs, Deb Ingino, Matt Jabs, and more.”

That’s right, I’m one of the people in the challenge helping you earn extra money! It’s going to be a blast.

Josh and I shot a video to introduce him and to further explain the challenge. Watch the video then head on over to Josh’s website to learn the specifics of the challenge.

Like what you see? Could you use some extra money? Been looking for something to push you to action, and a group of like-minded individuals to help you along the way? Good. Head over to Josh’s website to join the 1M21K challenge so you can earn extra money, build key relationships, and hopefully help others along the way!

Ways to make [earn] extra money

Now let’s give you some money making ideas to use for the challenge, or just to use of your own accord. Always remember to strive toward meaningful work you’re passionate about so you can enjoy what you’re doing and help others along the way.

Note: recent Census Bureau data shows that 26% of start-ups require zero capital and 36% require less than $5,000 – so even if you have no money starting your own business is always an option.

Have a garage sale and sell your crap.
Create your own art and or products and sell them on Etsy.com.
Start a website/blog about something you’re passionate about and want to help others in and monetize it with your own products or with affiliate products.
Tutor local children or adults in something you’re an expert in like music, art, social media, marketing, computer repair, etc.
Make your own homemade cleaners and sell them to your community at places like your local food coops and farmer markets.
Start a window cleaning business in your community… you’d be surprised how much you can make.
Have a nice riding tractor and a trailer? Mow lawns for your neighbors in your spare time.
Start a handyman service and market to single mothers, there’s a lot of them out there who need your help!
If you’re a very organized individual try starting a business aimed at helping wealthy women organize their homes, lives, and wares.
Become a coach either in your local community, or on the Internet, as a way to help others and make extra money.

There, now you have 10 ideas to get you started… now go join Josh’s 1M21K challenge so he can meet his goal to help you earn an extra $1,000 in one month!

God bless.

****

Make Progress Every Day [Part 1]

08.29.2011 by Dallon Christensen //

Unless you are very adventurous or have money to burn, starting a business means building slowly sacrificing short-term satisfaction for long-term opportunity. Starting a business takes a tremendous amount of energy, and it can sometimes be overwhelming to face this challenge. Over the next two weeks, I’ll provide five ways to help you focus on your goals and make progress every day as you work toward more meaningful and fulfilling opportunities.

Work toward small victories

Creating short-term goals and achieving them gives you the momentum to start thinking bigger and facing the challenge ahead with confidence. This philosophy closely follows Dave Ramsey’s “Debt Snowball” approach, where a person escaping debt pays off the smallest debt first. When you start with a small goal and achieve it, you naturally feel good about what you did. You tell your friends, and you receive encouragement from your friends. You eagerly focus on the next, slightly larger goal and quickly develop a plan to achieve that goal.

When I created the Whiteboard Business Partners blog, my first goal was to create five blog posts and schedule them on my site. I enjoy writing and wanted a library of posts so I didn’t always feel pressured to create something at the last minute. When I created those posts, I felt great. I had developed two weeks’ worth of content for the site, and I gained a lot of confidence in how I develop my posts. Writing continues to become easier for me now. The weekend I wrote this post, I blocked time in the morning to write blog posts and articles and time in the afternoon to build my podcasting studio. I set calendar time to hold myself accountable to finishing these tasks, and I followed through. You must determine how to best hold yourself accountable as I have.

When you focus on small goals, the final goal does not seem so overwhelming. As the well-known cliche goes, “What is the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”

Create focused blocks of time to work on specific activities

Starting a business is a lot like being a circus juggler. There are plenty of objects in the air, and your job is to not let something crash to the floor. When you look in the air, those objects can appear daunting. How do you focus on just one?

You must commit to spending large blocks of time on focused activities. If you attempt to spend just a little time on a lot of different tasks, you will never accomplish anything. Intentional, focused effort for an extended period of time will make you more productive and allow you to accomplish more in that time frame.

My friend Justin Lukasavige from CoachRadio is a master at this process. In a recent CoachRadio blog post, Justin gives a sneak peek into how he is accomplishing a three-day work week. I looked at this post with a lot of amazement and respect. Justin knows exactly what he is doing every hour of each day, and he maximizes his limited time.

I freely admit that I am not the best person at focusing and maximizing my time. I’m sure many of you share my concerns. After reading Justin’s post, I am spending time organizing my schedule and ensuring I MAKE time to focus on important tasks. For me, I’m using my calendar to block chunks of time to work on specific projects. I keep my calendar through Google Apps and link it to my iPad and iPod Touch, so I always have access to how I want to spend my days.

Focusing also means removing distractions from your time. For many of us, the siren song of the Internet and social networks continue to pull us toward time-wasting activities and away from what we really need to do. I am currently testing a system called Freedom, which is $10 and allows me to set a time frame for which I cannot access the Internet. If I try to click on a web browser, I receive the “Unable to access the network” message. I have found this tool invaluable so far and fully plan to purchase the full version. If you tend to lose discipline in your work, this tool is worth the investment.

My next post will offer two additional tips to help you make progress every day in your quest to find work you love to do. In the meantime, work on those goals and focus!