The Finance Castle

As a full time entrepreneur of sorts, I’m constantly brainstorming for new ideas. I try to come up with ways to make money on the side, think outside the box. To me, making money really adds up to a game of sorts. The easiest method for most people is simply to find a job that pays reasonably well, stick to their career path like glue, and hope that the economy doesn’t swat them down into poverty if their industry takes a hit due to unfavorable conditions.

But that’s no fun.

I try to break every income stream into a daily income measurement. If I do X activity for Y hours, I’ll make $Z per day. Add all of those little projects, side jobs, and fun stuff together, and you have my current annual income. There is, as you might expect, a certain amount of volatility to the calculation. Many of my writing gigs come and go, some are project based, and others are simply one-off articles. I have consistent income as a base, but everything else fluctuates.

One easy way to make extra money is to pick up a part time job, but from what I’ve seen, most part time gigs are unskilled, menial work. I should note that there’s nothing wrong with such work, as money is money, and I’m never one to turn that down when the opportunity presents itself. My wife and I have been dreaming of doing some more traveling this year, but we also have some repairs queued up for the house that we are saving for. That got me to thinking that maybe we could pick up some side work to fund those travel plans and have a more enjoyable year.

This is a bit of a tradeoff. I already have full-time employment through my “hydra” of income sources, so this would keep me extra busy. If I stayed with it too long, I’d simply get burnt out, so the work would have to be temporary. So we looked around and sure enough, there are a number of places hiring for the holiday season, This would mean an extra 15 or so hours a week of work for each of us, but only for a few short months. The pay isn’t great, but we are hoping to get to work together, and even a small hourly wage will still end up being a couple thousand dollars well all is said and done.

That means we get to travel, the house gets fixed, and we aren’t bogged down to something we’d hate doing for a long time. Sounds like a win-win to me.

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While I generally try to avoid the use of overhyped buzzwords, I always thought the term microbusiness had a nice ring to it. I have also always scoffed a little in my head when I read about small businesses with “only” 200 employees on Forbes or CNN Money. Aren’t there a lot of one or two person operations out there? Don’t plenty of people make their way financially via self-employment?

In that vein, I have been working towards a few one-man operations and a few collaborations with my older brother, a long time web developer who has long made his way towards breaking the shackles of the traditional nine to five in lieu of a more interesting portfolio of careers. He’s a professional beekeeper, for example, along with our current revenue from the portfolio of niche sites.

Which begs the question: Where to expand from here? Finding new business ideas that are small, nimble, and scalable may sound like they are easy to find based on motivational blog posts like the Art of Nonconformity, but I have found that isn’t the case.

The biggest obstacle, surprisingly enough, is finding something fun that makes money. I have heard plenty of friends that tell me that they just love logistical analysis, but you know what? That sounds pretty damn boring. Right now I can pay the bills, but expansion is going to be needed if I want to get where I want to be.

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Even after achieving what some might call “the dream,” which for me was working for myself wherever I like and when I want, I still seem to find plenty of room for improvement. I want to expand, grow, move, accomplish. This feeling of being driven and ambitious is something  I didn’t often feel when I worked in the corporate world. After all, who really looks at their next promotion and says “I can’t wait to climb that wrung on the ladder!”? Not me, anyway, but there are those types out there, I suppose.

Anyway, the last few weeks has been a time of introspection. I often find myself getting pulled in different directions. I wanted to own a house, so I do now, and with that has come a plethora of additional responsibilities and worries. I also want to travel more. Now. Right now, damnit! But I can’t just yet. I still have to work, still have to budget, and still have to make sure everything at the home base is running as smoothly as possible.

The conundrum really summarizes itself like this: Maintaining a home base costs money. Paying bills costs money. Travel costs money. Which do I want to prioritize? Certain parts of the financial picture cannot be compromised. I have to pay my mortgage, for example, and my last student loan. Thus I need a large enough income to wipe away the necessities and have enough left over to see the world, too.

Ultimately, that leads me down one of two paths. I can go back to my old career and grind out the 9 to 5 for more money, or I can continue to expand my own projects. Certainly the latter is more fun than the former, but it will likely take more time and the outlook is a lot more uncertain.  So far I have found a fair amount of success working for myself, but can I keep the ball rolling and expand out to the point that I can keep a home base of operations while having the financial capacity to head out abroad, too?

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For a long time now, I have dreamed of traveling the world. At first, I thought that once I was self employed I’d be able to go country hopping like some of my favorite bloggers. Yet I find that, unlike my more nomadic counterparts, I wanted a base of operations before setting out and globetrotting. My wife also works a more traditional 9-5, so she can’t hop a flight to London tomorrow like I, in theory, could.

So between that and our modest mortgage payment, it appears that we are going to have to do some shorter trips. As you know, however, more frequent flights is a recipe for spending a lot of money. I’m going to have to find ways to save on our travels, and one of those ways is by taking advantage of reward programs. Chris over at the Art of Nonconformity had a great class yesterday about a crash course in obtaining frequent flyer miles without needing to use a credit card (though we do) as well as one time promotions, ways to rack up miles in various airline alliances, and the like. He also has a site dedicated to the cause over at travelhacking.org.

So I am going to give his site a shot and come back in the next few weeks with a full review. If you are interested in traveling on a budget or just want to get started saving for some trips now, I would definitely recommend Chris’s site as a launchpad. Whether it has staying power and continues to deliver new and relevant information remains to be seen, but I’m excited to get started!

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I type this post while recovering from an unfamiliar sensation: An earthquake. Having lived my whole life on the East Coast, I have never had the experience of the ground shaking for no particular reason. Unexpectedly cool days aside, today I’d like to talk to you about brainstorming for potential sources of income. Even if you have your daily 9-5 job, chances are you could always use some extra money either to pad your savings or fund your travels. Here are some starting points:

Stick to What You Know

Personally, I hate the cliche that you should make money from what you’re passionate about, since in many cases, passion does not equate to income. Yet if you are looking to make money on the side, hobbies are a great place to start. My recent foray into Fiverr has taught me that while certain hobbies may not be able to replace your full time job, they can act as a useful supplement. Even Craigslist Arbitrage can be a valuable asset if you are buying and selling items that you can discern the value of.

Get Creative

One of the biggest issues people (myself included) seem to have is that they’re not willing to go outside of the box when it comes to earning more money. Generally, people that need more than they bring in look for a new job or look for a part time job to fill up the rest of their waking hours with. Instead, try to find activities that you can do each and every day for a small amount of money. Many tiny business ideas can be started for as little as $100.

Be Consistent

If you find yourself a source of income, you need to be able to harness that opportunity and, if possible, scale it. It can be an adjustment to learn to motivate yourself to get things done if you are used to an office environment where it is always someone’s job to keep you doing what you are supposed to. If you find an idea you are willing to move forward with, hit it and hit it hard.

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