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!

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I finally got an MRI and it showed a couple bulging disks at S1 and L5 and that my S1 disk didn’t fuse as it does for most people. But no one thought it was bad enought to warrant surgery so I started Active Release Therapy (ART). Turns out my piriformis muscle under the glutes was really tight. The ART or something triggered severe spasms in the piriformis. It was excruciating. I was working in Victoria at the time and having trouble walking until it would start to loosen, and I would also get brutal spasms at 4 in the morning. I was trying traction and core strengthening to help but nothing was working.

Back in Calgary I started Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) where they stick needles deep in to piriformis, much deeper than acupuncture. After a few months it started to feel better. I started to do a few exercises and it came back screaming fast. The IMS didn’t work this time, they tried another machine and finally sent me for a nerve root block at S1 disk level. The radiologist tries to hit the nerve before he injects the material. After a while he couldn’t find the nerve so he just released the material in the general area. I wasn’t confident that it would work. I couldn’t believe it but that made a huge difference within a day. I went back for IMS and the needle didn’t do anything (normally it triggers the muscle to twitch). So it made me think the origin of the problem is the nerve root itself. But the IMS staff didn’t want to do any more injections because they wanted to be conservative. They were worried about long term effects of the injections. But after reading some information online, I realized that the injections were often used as a diagnosis. To me the process hadn’t been completed since they only did one injection. In other words, they didn’t although they came close to discovering the root of the problem (bad pun), they really didn’t fully diagnose the issue to completion.

So I went to the walk-in clinic recently and explained the story. The doctor had no problem sending me for two more injections, this time in the facet joints. It pays to be persistent!

After a while I still had the problems in the morning, nowhere near as bad but a little annoying. It’s been about 2-3 months now so I went in for a couple facet joint injections and they don’t seem to be helping. So next I’m going to try a nerve root block at L5 and S1 (again).

Lessons learned: A person can persevere through a lot of adversity. And second, like any problem, you need to keep pursuing a solution and never give up. Okay, three, try to maintain good posture during work - use a lumbar support if your chair doesn’t have a decent support.

Instead use any problems you’re having as a learning experience for next time. As I’ve mentioned a ton of times, aim to start contracting and get a high rate in a niche as I explain in my ebook. Make sure you are saving money - forget 10%, I aim for 75%. I only spent a few thousand per month and the rest is saved. It’s really that simple, but it’s not really possible as an employee. Even managers making $150K will have a hard time after all the tax deductions, and government programs (like EI and CPP in Canada).

Having savings and paying off debt does so many things, even ones that are intangible. Like giving you confidence to negotiate an hourly rate, reducing fear of losing your job and so on.

Tell yourself ‘Never again’ and start preparing for the next downturn. Because there will be one.

I helped them out as much as I could, but it reminded me that as employees or contractors, we need to keep in touch with our network on a regular basis, not just when we need something. Perhaps forward a bit of interesting news, a relevant opportunity or just say hello. In other words, make it a two-way relationship. Don’t always be taking and asking from others.

So if there’s anyone you haven’t talked to in a while, drop them a line for no real reason at all!

If you’ve learned anything from this blog, it’s that I try to empower the individual. This means saving most of the money you earn, living below your means, and avoid shopping as much as possible. This savings empowers you because you don’t need to have a job, you choose to have a job (or not). Over the past few months I’ve been at home without any income. I haven’t been worried even in the slightest.

Now is not the time to panic and worry. If you haven’t been following my guidelines you may be feeling some pain right now. That’s okay, you’ve hopefully learned your lesson. To prepare for the next downturn (and there will be one) you need to do the following:

• make more money (see my previous blog posts and e-book)
• save more money
• spend less money

It’s really that simple. I got tired of getting an employee’s salary, with all sort of deductions. I could barely save any money. So I found a niche, started contracting and most of the money stays in the corporation. I pay low taxes in my company and personally since I pay myself dividends. I suggest you do the same.

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I recently started to work on a new business and realized how afraid I was to start it. Fear of failure, not sure what to do next, etc. And recently I was offered an architect role which is a bit higher level than I’m used to. One thing you can do is to keep reminding yourself that everything will work out fine. It’s worked out fine in the past and it will work out fine in the future. You really can’t know exactly what will happen but you need to have faith that it will be okay. Another thing you can do is remind yourself that you will find the help you need to be successful. In other words, don’t think you have to do it alone. Also focus on the possible rewards rather than the possible problems.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing people like you take the plunge and go for it.

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First, many of the Olympians had persevered through adversity whether it be death of a close family member, injuries, or sickness of their coach to name a few. In our careers and businesses we need to break through our challenges and mental barriers to achieve a new level of success.

Second, the Olympians had worked for 4 years (since the last Olympics) to get to the Olympics and win a medal. Some, like Michael Phelps set a goal of winning 8 goal medals. Many doubted it could be done. We need to set short and long term goals and truly believe they can be achieved in order to know where we are headed and to make them a reality.

When I’ve been teaching you about consulting, I’ve tried to explain that it is totally doable if you follow some of my techniques.  To me it seems so simple to do. I often see people with no confidence in their ability to pull something like I’ve done off and it’s hard to understand why they give up so easily.

I’ve recently decided to try a start a larger company, one that will most likely require venture capital, other partners, and lots of help with IT (web design, programming, support). This is extremely scary to me and is totally out of my comfort zone. But it’s helped me to put myself back in your shoes, when you’re first conceiving of moving to the next level but haven’t quite made it yet.

The things I can suggest to you and that have helped me recently are:

• realize your weaknesses (be honest about them) and find people to help you in those areas
• believe in yourself, that you can do anything you put your mind to (getting help to get there)
• write your plans and goals down
• decide that you will persist to achieve your goals no matter what happens
• face your fears and keep persisting
• enjoy the experience and celebrate any small wins or realizations

During my downtime, I recently started work on a new business idea. To tell you the truth it is really scary for me to think about going from an independent consultant to running a full-fledged business. Some of you who haven’t incorporated or gone on your own probably have similar fears. Can I leave my current job and start consulting? “Do I have enough experience, what if I can’t do the project, or what if the project fails?”, are some questions you may ask.

During this phase of ‘contemplating change’, you need to remind yourself of times when you were afraid of change, but you came out successful. Or maybe it didn’t work out okay, but you learned a lot and were better for it.  I have also been telling myself that if I don’t know something or don’t have experience in a certain area I will get help. I will form a great team of people who can support me. At one point, I considered paying another consultant to help me with a certain challenge during a project. While that may seem strange, spending a bit of your money to ensure success is worth it and something you may not have considered doing.

It’s best to ask empowering questions such as ‘How can I be successful with this change?’, or ‘Who can I get to help me be successful?’ instead of ‘What if I fail?’

Every once in a while stories like these can make you take stock of your life and whether you are following your passions.

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