9 practical ideas that you can use to make more money

million_dollars

A Million Dollars in Cash.. Wow!

These are simple ideas. You need not make drastic changes to how or where you work. You also do not need to leave your country. Some ideas can be applied without leaving your desk.  See which one strikes a chord with you.

1. Renegotiate your salary.

If you are in a job ask for a raise. Search online on how to do it, there are tons of articles on it. A basic plan is to be insanely valuable to your company and show it in black and white to the person who has the power to raise the salary – can be the person you report to or her boss. I am sure there are smarter ways to do it but this the best I know of. If you are not able to get a raise at your existing job then quit and get a better paying one.

2. Raise your  consulting  fees.

First step  will  be to ask your existing  clients  for an  increased  rate. If you are not confident of doing this, then continue serving your existing clients at current rates. Pitch and win new clients at a higher rate. Now fire those clients who think they are paying more than you are worth. If you run software as a service business then increase the price of your offering. Do not only increase the price, but also add some value to the product as a surprise. You also need to spend more time in front of your  potential  clients than you spend sitting in front of your computer.

3. Create a Parallel Path.

Develop  an earning through this. A good idea will be to create an online business that runs on an auto-pilot. If you want to convert an existing skill to an online business, feel free to  write to me. I will be happy to share some ideas.

4. Daily Kaizen.

Kaizen is a Japanese technique used in manufacturing. It is about  constant  improvement. Apply this to your life and do a little everyday to improve. When you do it for couple of months, you will see yourself improved. When you apply it to your skill set that helps you earn your daily bread – your earnings will increase. It will not happen automatically, you need to ask. But with an enhanced skill set chances are that you will be more confident asking and you will get what you want.

5. See who you spend your time with and how you spend it.

Jim Rohn has famously said thatYou are the  Average  of the  5 People You Spend  the Most  Time  With“. I am not sure how true this is. But if you spend time with optimistic people chances are you will be in good spirits. When your motivation and  enthusiasm  is high, chances  are that your productivity will be high. So avoid colleagues who are into useless gossip. Spend time  fuelling  your ideas with action. By all means be in touch with your friends. Offer a shoulder to somebody who needs to cry and a patient ear to listen to someone in distress. But do not spend all the time playing an agony aunt and by all means cut negative  influences  from your life – people or places.

6. Read about how to make more money.

Start with “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill; “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley; and “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. But do not stop at reading only, apply what appeals to you.

7. Think out of box.

Take inspiration from  One Red Paper Clip and  Million Dollar Home Page. Both created  significant  money by taking action on ideas that were hard to believe but innovative.

8. Write a book.

Sell it to a mainstream publisher or write, self publish and sell it online. This is for real. You now are living in times where Indie authors like J A Konrath and Amanda Hocking are making a killing along with thousands others who are on to earn  subsistence  money through  self  publishing.

9. Leverage geo-arbitrage.

Find high paying work on Elance.com or Guru.com and get it done at locations where you can get quality work done at a cheaper price. Word of caution – start with small projects, build trust with vendors and clients – before you move on to bigger projects. This has the potential to become a full-fledged  business. But  initially  you should be able to make some extra  money  by  spending  1-2 hours a day.

Bonus: Sleep an extra hour every day and exercise regularly. A relaxed mind and fit body is right vehicle to earn more. Also remove clutter from your workspace and home. Sell what can be sold online (eBay or Craigslist). You will create space for thinking and also get some chump change for stuff you would not have used anyway.

Last but not  the  least –  Do more of less and  help people make more money. Sure fire ways of earning more over long term.

What would you like to add to this list?

If you liked this post, you should me.

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Comments

  1. jigyasa

    Hi Mohit!

    I have questions again……

    Point 1 & 2: what should be the right approach for a raise. How prudent it is to either negotiate and end up closing an offer at client’s rate or taking a call to leave the project?

    One red paper clip is wow! I am yet to check the rest……….

    Thanks.

  2. Mohit Pawar

    First step for both 1 & 2 is to ask. Unless you ask it will not come your way.

    For a job – if you are looking at a raise and do not think you justify it with your current work – ask your boss what do you need to do (numbers/ deliverables/KRAs) to qualify for a 15% raise, also ask if there is a possibility of even higher raise based on deliverables. For people in sales it can be based on targets, for creative professional it can be based on creating award winning work for your agency/company.

    Before you do that make sure that you are “doing the work” and doing it well. As soon as you get in a new job or starting today, start listing your small and big accomplishments – on a day to day basis. Projects that you have started and (finished), also where you worked as a team member. This will all come handy when you go and ask for a raise.

    You also need to continuously keep on enriching yourself so that your skills are in demand. When you do the work for which there is a demand – you are most likely to get what you ask for – whether it is a raise, a good package to begin with or good terms for 6-monthly or annual pay rise at the time of joining.

    3 points to be noted here are – ASK, FILL THE GAP (skill-wise if any), ACQUIRE SKILLS IN DEMAND.

    That said it is good to negotiate always – simply because inflation increases all the time so does an individual’s skill set – so it is right to ask for a better price for your time as the time passes by. It applies for a consultant or a business owner also who provides her services to other businesses.

    Whether to walk away from negotiation or close at client’s suggested terms – depends on where you stand.

    For a new business trying to establish itself in the market – it will be good to accept business at client’s terms (if they are not unreasonable).

    Other strategy can be to look at it on a financial year basis. Set yourself a minimum that you need to earn during a year. Sell like crazy during 1st quarter – acquire as many clients as you can – even if they are acquired at a minimum rate you can manage with – and try to meet your minimum revenue required during this quarter. Start today if this strategy appeals to you – and work with a 3-months horizon.

    After this is done. Shift your focus on servicing these clients to the best of your abilities and ask for referrals after serving them for 3 months. Also continue your business development efforts – need not be as intense as during 1st quarter. Spend your spare hours learning, building your brand through blogging, online newsletter, and utilizing social media channels. Target to add as many clients as you added in 1st quarter during next 9 months.

    At the end of this year – measure the revenue generated by each client. List them in descending order (based on revenue generated). Renegotiate with 50% clients at the bottom of this list. Keep those who renew on higher rate. Say goodbye to rest. Repeat it next year.

    Hope this helps. Feel free to discuss further.

    Pleasure always.

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    1. Mohit Pawar

      Hi Rashmi,
      Where is this piece of land situated?
      How is the weather there?
      Also what is the size of land?
      You can create a farm, a resort, a party lot.
      A holistic education (experimental) school.
      Think about these questions and also what is your current skill set/area of interest.
      Good luck 🙂
      – mohit

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