Money Management Simplified (Part 3)

In Part 1 and 2, I explained how to simplify managing your money. If you have not read them yet, please Click Here to read up on what you’ve missed.

In this article, I will finally explain how to increase your “take home” per month without adding any additional bad expenses for you!

Let’s begin. For this article, I’m going to start calling “Take Home Money” =  “Income Streams”. The end goal is to increase your income streams so that it will be more than your expenses. Look at the diagram below:

So let’s focus on Income Streams. Simply put, there are really only 2 kinds of income streams that you have to understand and concentrate on to increase the money flowing into your lives. These are

1.) Your Main Income Stream – What pays for the Necessary Expenses

2.) Your Additional Income Streams – What will get you from scenario 1 to 3

For those who have No Income Stream at all, then good news, this article will help you get started on your first income stream.

Now for those who have a Main Income Stream already, you must Keep and protect your Main Income Stream (at all costs) and keep on adding Income Streams to it.

Today, I will give you two of the most doable ways to start or add an income stream and explain how to do it step by step. By the way, you are not limited to doing just one of them, you can actually add both streams at the same time!

Additional Stream 1: Turn your “Good Expenses” into Income Stream(s):

Step 1: Make an inventory of all the items that you already own and classify them into either of 2 columns “Can be sold” and “Can be rented out” like below:

Can be sold	Can be rented out
Ex. 1. Wedding gift Toaster Oven	Ex. 1. Play Station Game Console
2. Old Cell Phone	2. Chocolate Fountain (Or any other gadget)
3. Old Comic Books / Collectibles	3. Re-usable College / High School text books
Etc…	Etc…

Step 2: Create a price list. Here’s a quick guide on how to do that.

• Come up with a reasonable price for each item. If the item is new (you never got to use it) then sell it or rent it at current market price (it can also be lower than market price, just make sure that you still make money from it), if it’s slightly used, sell it or rent it 10% – 50% lower again, just make sure you still make money on it.

• If it’s for rent, you may ask for a refundable security deposit. The refundable amount would ideally be how much the item cost you or an amount that the customer is willing to give and would want to get back. (Just make sure it’s realistic)

• Add delivery costs if you will deliver it. Or you can say prices are by pick up only if you can’t deliver it.

• Include a nice quality photo of the item whenever possible and remember to make it look presentable.

• Then place instructions on how they can pay for it. You can use this line: “Hurry First come. First served, contact us now at (your telephone number). For your convenience, you may deposit payment at (Bank Account Number) Or you can use G-Cash (Globe) or Smart Padala (Smart).”

Step 3: Advertise it for free by holding a “Virtual Garage Sale”.

-A “Virtual Garage Sale” is very easy to do: Email the list in step 2 to all your friends and tell them that you are selling your stuff and would like them to check out the items that they want to buy. This saves you the trouble of organizing a Physical Garage sale especially if you do not have the space to do so.

-You should also try selling your items on www.Ebay.ph , Facebook, even Multiply. Go to the respective websites, open a free account by following instructions and start posting. This is also free.

Now, don’t be limited to just these ways, there are lots of other places for you to advertise your list for free, all you have to do is go to http://www.google.com and type: “Free Directory Listing” then start posting in those sites.

Additional Stream 2: Turn your Skill into additional Income Stream(s):

Step 1: Make an inventory of all your skills like so:

My Skill	I can offer:
Ex. 1. Good in Math and loves kids	Ex. 1. Freelance Tutoring Services
2. Good with Computers	2. Freelance Computer Repair Services
3. Good with cooking	3. Small Scale Catering Services
Etc…	Etc…

Step 2: Pick one skill, test the market, and gain experience by offering to do your first 3 to 5 jobs for free. Here are a few guidelines to doing this right.

• Start by offering your services to family and friends only and say that you want to try this out first with them. Limit the “Free” service for 3-5 clients / projects and see if this service is something that you would enjoy doing for a fee.

• Ask for honest feedback from your family / friends about your service and if they would be willing to recommend you to their friends. Get their honest inputs and improve based on that.

• If within the first 3-5 jobs you feel it’s not for you, go back to your list and pick another skill and test the market again. Do this until you figure out what you are passionate about. Once you figure out what skill you are willing to sell, proceed to Step 3

Step 3: Price it, and advertise it for free by word of mouth and through the Internet.

-Let your Family and Friends be your advertising machine. Word of mouth is always the best advertising there is.

-You should also start advertising yourself on Social Media Sites like Facebook, Multiply, and possibly even start your own Blog to highlight your skills and who you have served.

Now these are just 2 ways to start increasing your income streams as soon as possible. There will be more to come in succeeding articles of mine. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I hope that you learned something from me today and start building your income streams now. Good luck and all the best!

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So and his wife Jhoanna Gan-So regularly teach their straff to manage their money responsibly and have created a money coaching club for their employees. If you would like to start a money coaching club for your company, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com. To read more of Mark’s interesting and life enriching articles you can go to his blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com