Saturday, July 19, 2008

Giving yourself a Pay Raise with Extra Income.

Extra Income opportunities are basically work-from-hope opportunities that help augment your regular income. Many people are opting for these work-from-hope opportunities fro the following reasons.

1. Most people think they are losing the battle to balance work and family, time wise and income wise. If they are going to work 12 hours a day outside home and just manage to scrape the bottom of the vessel for survival, finally coming hope to family too tired to spend any time with them, is worth the effort ?

2. A burning desire to be financially independent and successful by adding that extra income to their regular income with popular work-from-home opportunities.

The very fact that these extra income churning work-from-home opportunities have become popular is due to the above mentioned factors. These opportunities present a lot of flexibility in spending time with family and children, social commitments and of course financial liberation. These extra income generating opportunities also give you a chance to be your own master and work your own times.

How to find a suitable extra income generating opportunity ? Here are some dos and don’ts :

  1. Analyze yourself and find out what your core competency is, is it marketing, writing, programming or anything else that you excel in.
  2. Analyze what your friends and family see in you, what they praise you for and what they criticize you for. This will help in narrowing down your options.
  3. Try and find out how different or relevant it is to your regular job or work that you do today.
  4. Ask yourself about the job satisfaction that you have today and you might have if you get a suitable extra income generating opportunity.
  5. Analyze the skill that you possess but have gone unused since you have been working. Ask yourself, if you would be comfortable bringing them out to generate that extra income.

After doing the above, research and analyze the opportunities available by talking to people who already have extra income coming their way or use the internet to find opportunities that match your skills. Make a list of opportunities in descending order of your preference with at least 5 entries.

Get going in a small way, spending about an hour a day. Try it out before you commit to something. Analyze if you like the work after a period about 1-2 months and see the extra income you earn. If you think that the work is suited to you and the work has enough potential to earn you the extra income that you were targeting for, try to spend more time and energy on it to increase that extra income. If you see that you really don’t enjoy it, shift the focus to the second opportunity on the list.

Remember these opportunities are basically work being done for other professionals and they have to be treated with professionalism and care. You cannot take them lying back expect returns. The only advantage is that you will be doing what you love to do and get paid handsomely for it.

To your success !


Monday, July 14, 2008

Extra Income

SELECTING AN EXTRA INCOME

Extra Income means an income that you can earn apart from the regular income coming in from employment or normal work. This earning can be used to payoff your outstanding debts or build up a capital account or spend it on luxuries that you could only think about before.

Everyone seems to want a second income but no one wants to work a second job, so the extra income is normally seen as windfall.

When we compare income levels in different countries, it is evident that the average income per person is less that $ 15,000 a year – in other words, where many people are near breadline – Extra Income really does make people happier and improves their lifestyle.

But countries which have average income above the normal subsistence level of approximately $ 15,000 a year, happiness seems to be income independent. For example, an average American ranks richer than an average Indian or an Austrian, but also less happy.

Why does this happen ? People always look at their income relatively with some norm or the other and the norm keeps rising all the time. And this norm is what increase the spending, more or less in direct proportion to the income. Two things drive up the norm with which people compare their incomes. One is the income that they themselves have experienced – which habituates them to higher standards of living. And the other is the income that their colleagues or neighbors get, and which they try to outdo.

The extra income options available today are targeted to generate employment and are targeted specifically at people who can use their skills that are lying dormant to make some more money for themselves. To achieve a moderate success in generating an extra income one should be aware of their strengths and weakness. This would greatly help in selection of a most suitable way to generate extra income.

The selection process consists of logical steps. Firstly one should ask themselves of an honest of their strengths, what they excel at ? What do people around them keep complimenting or criticizing them on ? Are they perfectionist ? For example, if you are a computer literate you could help your neighborhood in upgrades, repairs or installation of software.

The extra income can also be augmented by doing extra seasonal chores like raking leaves in the fall or clearing snow in winters. These are just a few ideas, but making an extra income augmented with self analysis will take away the need for a second job.

Today the internet and the general market have a lot of ideas for generating extra income. Network marketing in general market terms has been successful to some extent. Internet offers something similar that says affiliate marketing. The internet also offers a host of other options like writing, advertising and simple technical non-technical jobs which can highly augment your regular income. The extra income that can be earned from these opportunities depends on how good your skills in the field of your selection.

All the best.