The current recession has wiped out a lot of our savings, reduced property and investment values, removed jobs (that may never return), and reconfirmed our suspicions that the big corporations can’t be trusted and that there is really no job security (if there ever was). With these problems, comes a desire to take back control and make some extra cash to help us get back on track.

As bad as it is today, I prefer to see it as a blessing in disguise. I’ve been ‘out of work’ for over a year for the most part, and this has allowed me to finally focus on my passion, which is helping people by teaching them what I’ve learned whether that be how to play guitar, or how to start a website business online. I’ve made many mistakes and learned a lot over the last year.

To me, it’s never been a better time to start a business. This is because you can start one for almost nothing these days, especially if you do it using online tools. Instead of building the usual ‘brick and mortar’ business, which requires a large capital investment (for office space, equipment, employees, etc) you can start one with low overhead. Work from home, do everything yourself at first, or my preference – build an online business.

This can sound scarier than it is. All you really need is a website and something to sell. It doesn’t even have to be your own products. You don’t even need to incorporate, just start as a sole proprietor. A solo proprietor is basically the same as being an employee but you get to deduct your business expenses. Websites are incredibly easy to set up these days as things have progressed substantially on the Internet with many free software tools.

If you have a job and hate working there and commuting, or aren’t following your true passion, you can start this on the side after work and on weekends. This can bring in some extra cash to build back up your savings, pay off debts or for fun money. I know it’s hard to do this after a long day of work and commuting but it has to be done. But this is not a get rich quick scheme, you will have to put in some work!

If this sounds exciting to you, then stay tuned for future posts. If you have questions and can’t wait feel fee to contact me.

Just like sports athletes and actors you are a brand but at a much smaller level of course. Sponsors often want to attach their products to the famous people’s brand. With people online there are tons of ‘content experts’ in all sorts of niches which is attractive to advertisers.

So the two main ways to make money are to sell products (yours or others) and advertising. While programs like Google Adsense haven’t been that lucrative (except for my YouTube videos), there are new exciting models such as Sponsored Tweets and Ad.ly. I know a guy in British Columbia, Canada who just got paid $1000 for one tweet!

As you know part of my monthly income comes from having a membership site for guitar lessons. If you pick up a copy of the Wishlist Member plugin for your membership site (the one I use) during this month of October, you can get a free copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s newbook called “Crush It”. The second gift is an exclusive interview with Gary. Later this month they will be interviewing Garyin person and during the interview they’ll dig deeper into Gary’s strategies for creating anonline following and how it relates to membership sites.

You can get more information about the Gary Vaynerchuk Special Offer on their home page (click the image).

Instead of sending the links directly to your friends, why not create a blog first? Put the videos, links and articles in blog posts and then post the link to your blog instead. YouTube videos are easy to embed. This way you get traffic to your blog and you can add relevant affiliate links to your posts to make some extra money. You can use Wordpress.com to create a free blog, hosted by them and it’s super easy to set up with no coding or installations.

Blog posts are great for search engines too so you will be found by people searching for your topics as well. To take it a step further, you could also create your own information products for sale.

Many of the guests got laid off and never expected to be unemployed. Many of them never saved any money. But the biggest fallacy that many had was the expectation that many recent grads have – they’ve been promised that if they study hard, get a degree and work hard, they will live the American dream. The reality is there is no job security and there probably never was.

As challenging as getting a degree and finding work is, it’s trained us to work for others, and lose that natural entrepreneurial spirit I believe we all have. I always think back to blacksmiths, general store owners, people selling food, and trading services amongst each other before the industrial age kicked in.

Take this opportunity to find your true passion and start your own business – becoming an entrepreneur. Sell your expertise online through information products, start consulting out of your home or develop some other home-based business. You might have to support this with a part time job, but resolve to never be in this situation of dependency again! Who knows, with hard work you could be one of the next entrepreneur success stories.

There’s never a better time to start your own independent consulting business now! http://thewealthyworker.com/

The action plan is that you:

• order your credit cards from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate
• make sure you are paying the minimum on each card, then
• pay off your highest interest credit cards first (see: finding money section)
• take the payments you were making on the first card, add those payments to next highest interest rate card
• once all cards are paid off, save 8 months worth of monthly expenses

There are a tons of specific problem scenarios and what you can do about it.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ve hopefully been doing this already, because you know that debt will reduce the sense of power you emanate when you negotiate for higher rates. It’s hard to turn down an offer or ask for more money when you can’t afford to lose the job/opportunity. Also, you don’t start to save ON the rainy day, you start BEFORE it rains! But if you haven’t started, it’s good time to do so now.

The HUGE missing piece in this book is the part about making more money. Suze’s great at explaining credit card debt, Roth IRAs, saving for college, mortgages, how to spend less, etc but nothing on making more money!

That’s where this website comes in, whether it be by starting to contract, or building an online business to supplement your income. As a contractor, I have no worries about the current economic situation, haven’t been working on a contract since November. My mortgage is paid off and I bought another house on the east coast. I get calls about work and turn down certain opportunities (that currently would involve travel). I don’t budget or restrict my spending. But I don’t go to shopping malls, spent nothing at Xmas, and don’t have anything on my credit cards. I pay off the card each month if I have a balance (for purchasing online, donating to charity, etc).

There is another reality out there, but you have to consciously work to make it happen.

You rarely see anyone talking about how to make more money, especially when times are tough. I think this is a fatal mindset. You need to be taking action at all times. As I mention in my ebook, you need to find a niche market. This is probably the number one thing you can do to increase your rates. Getting higher rates is also a matter of psychology – how you feel about yourself – that comes across in discussions and interviews.

Another area you might want to consider if you have a full-time job is to start an internet business. These can be started fairly cheaply these days. It’s a good idea to test your idea first, but creating a small basic offering and test it with some Google adwords for example. I’ve seen many people invest their life savings into an idea they’re passionate about and end up broke.

My advice is to create some information products like an e-book or better yet a membership site. If you don’t have any specialized knowledge (most of us do) such as a hobby or job skill, you can find someone who does and partner with them. They provide the content and you set up and run the site for them. If you don’t have any technical knowledge drop me a line and I’ll send you some pointers. I’m looking at setting up a new site to help people like you set up their own membership site step by step. Most of it isn’t that technical, there’s no software to install for example. And you can work on this on the side. At a minimum it can help pay off some of your debt, and best case you can quit your day job and work on it full time!

The people you could ’sub’ will be those colleagues that you’ve worked with on other projects. You can ask around for sample contracts, modify ones you have signed yourself in the past (if you have the original word docs) or worse case hire a lawyer to create a new subcontractor agreement for you. It will have the typical statements such as non-compete and non-disclosure clauses. You can have your subs invoice you monthly and you pay within 30 days of receiving the invoice. So you have to manage your cash flow because you will likely be paying them before you get paid by the client. Some people put clauses in the agreement that they will pay you after they get paid (which is easier to manage).

This concept is known as leverage. In this context, you are using leverage to subcontract other colleagues, leveraging your clients, and their trust in you.

Your task for this week: Are you getting high hourly rates? If you’re not, ask the contractors around your office what kinds of rates they get. Have you been able to subcontract others to your existing clients? Please post your findings in the comments section of this blog entry.

But before you negotiate there are many other things to consider which affect your ability to get the rate you want. Some of these you might not even be aware of but they come across in your discussions.

Hopefully you have researched the rates for your skill and have a general idea of what you will get. A rough ballpark could be $75-95 per hour considering that the larger consulting firms might charge upwards of $150 per hour.

Other issues to consider are:

• Are you comfortable asking for these types of rates?
• Can you walk away from the negotations without getting the contract?
• How much debt do you have?
• Have you practiced this out loud with a friend?
• Do you believe you can handle the technical requirements of the project?
• Do you really want to get this contract?

If you’re not comfortable and confident with these rates it will definitely come across in the negotation. If you are in desperate need of a contract because of debt or you haven’t worked for a while, it will come across. If you don’t think you can do the job, it will come across.

The last issue is interesting. You have to show that you would like to help the client, but you can’t come across as desperate. You can take or leave the contract, but you show genuine interest in helping them out. Either way is fine.

This should definitely be part of your overall plan. I always say ‘It’s not what you make but what you keep’.