Sure, it all adds up if you don’t order that meal at that restaurant, go on that date night or order that coffee on the way to work. But do you really want to live your life scrimping, saving, and missing out on the little things? Sometimes it can’t be helped, but what if there’s an alternative to, er, soaking your own chickpeas?
The world’s financial experts agree: starting your own business can be a great way to get a regular income that is far more than what you’d usually make from workin’ for the man. If you come up with a really clever niche, you can even get a steady flow of residual income i.e. make money while you sleep!
You might hear “online business” and think either “scam”, or “competing with countries where $1 seems like a good wage”. But there are plenty of people making a ton of money from online businesses. Do a Google search for “online business success stories” for some serious inspiration.
Have you shopped online in the last year? What did you buy, and where did you go? The odds are, some of it was from small businesses, maybe even for bespoke items like on Etsy. You can often start up that sort of business with very little start-up costs.
If you’ve got some sort of expertise in virtually anything, from the obvious like nutrition or graphic design to the more obscure (raising tropical fish, or juggling, maybe?), then you can share those skills. It costs very little to make a website, and you could even think about creating an online course on a site like Udemy – if you have a look at some of the popular courses there, you’d be amazed by what a wide variety of fields catch people’s interest! Marketers refer to finding your “tribe”; if there’s people out there who are passionate about something, then you’ve got a target audience who will love your work and spread the word.
There’s also people making good money as freelance writers, translators, marketers, designers and more. Do a brainstorm of the skills that you have, and you might be surprised how many of them are transferable to the online marketplace. There are some huge freelance portals, and while a lot of the work on these sites pays badly by developed-world standards, if you spend some time tweaking your search settings you’ll be able to find the high-paying jobs very easily. (Have a look at Amazon for some free e-books about how to make money online in your chosen niche: there’s some great resources out there.)
You might be able to start your own business for free, with only the cost of a bit of time spent in researching your client base and how to reach them! But if you do have start-up costs, it may be worth considering a loan. If you’ve got an existing debt, that doesn’t necessarily stop you from doing so: you can find a reliable lender who can provide you instant cash even without credit check, and a loan now could be your enemy of debt in the future.
It’s also worth seeing what innovative business ideas have worked overseas, have been popular on sites like Kickstarter, etc. As Mark Twain said long before the advent of online business, “there is no such thing as a new idea”! The marketplace has changed so much since his day, and even changed an awful lot in the last few decades; in today’s “ideas economy”, it’s easier than ever (and probably much easier than you’d expect!) to come up with something that will sell, and change your life.
photo credit: E-mail marketing puzzle via photopin (license)