This post may contain affiliate links, these are shown with a *. If you click on the link I may get a small referral commission, this does not affect the price you pay.
It’s no secret that tens or hundreds of millions of pounds can be made by those that are at the top of their game, whether this is in business, sport or film, so why is that if you turn the page of a magazine or see an advert on television these same people are promoting products from big business or a product that they have put their name to?
The answer is quite simply, they understand the importance of financial diversification or put simply having multiple income streams.
If you believe that you are already financially astute you might already be doing this, whether this is putting money into an ISA or savings account or selling items on auction sites or classifieds.
The problem is unless you are a canny investor or have stumbled upon a product that everyone wants and becomes the next big thing it is unlikely that this is going to make you millions.
Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying that “brand, you” is going to be able to get out of bed and have a number of advertisers banging down your door in the hope that they can pay you to promote their products or services or put your name on a health grill as they did with George Foreman, but there is something that can be learnt from these people, and I’ll repeat this now, financial diversification or the importance of having multiple income streams.
Why are we where we are?
From the moment we step into education we are told by our parents, our teachers and anyone else who thinks that they know better to keep our heads down, work hard, get good grades, go to university and you’ll eventually get the job of your dreams and a job for life, the truth is, in today’s economy this simply isn’t true.
I sometimes believe that this mantra was designed to help the few as it is only those sitting at the top of commerce that benefits financially from your hard work, of course, this differs from profession to profession, even if you receive a bonus your bosses and those heading up the company will always benefit more than you.
How would you manage if your monthly salary suddenly changed?
Your monthly salary can change almost instantly whether through redundancy, a freeze on your pay or a reduction in hours, with this in mind I believe it is important to consider how you would cope should any of these happen to you.
If you are in a profession where competition is fierce or your skills are out of date it is unlikely that you will find a job straight away, so how are you going to pay for those essential expenses such as food or housing? putting all your eggs into one basket is possibly one of the quickest ways of ensuring financial instability.
So what are your options?
- Freelance – There are always people out there that need a service that you might be able to offer, check out peopleperhour, upwork, or toptal
- Creating a blog – This takes time and is not something that will happen overnight, at first you will be perfecting your writing style, creating useful content often and trying to get your brand recognised through search engine optimisation, once you get a following and become considered an expert in your field opportunities to monetise will become available to you. You can monetize your blog through AdSense, affiliate marketing, or paid for posts or sponsored posts
- Dropshipping – Some wholesalers will allow you to buy direct from them and will fulfil orders made by your customers, whether this is a sale on eBay, Amazon or your own website. The advantage of drop shipping includes relatively low overheads the disadvantage includes lack of knowledge of inventory. Research is key in ensuring that you have a drop shipper that will ruin your reputation before you have properly begun your enterprise
- Write an e-book – Apparently, there is a book inside everyone. All you will need is some word processing software and a lot of creativity. for tips on creating your ebook visit blogtyrant and How to Create an Ebook From Start to Finish
- Peer to Peer lending – Not without risk, essentially you lend money to people or businesses through online services such as Zopa or RateSetter.com. The rate of return improves the longer your money is tied up
- Selling your skills/craft – at some point, someone somewhere will be looking to learn a skill you already have, so no matter how niche you believe your skill to be why not put it out there and see what interest you get from it. Sites like Udemy include a number of skills in which people are keen to learn, so if you are prepared to put in a bit of effort to create a course, this could be perfect for you.
Leave a Reply