It’s been a while since I’ve written a post and it’s so easy to get out of the habit. I can blame all kinds of things that are going on in my life but honestly I have no excuse. I’ve watched FAR too much television for there to be any excuse.
So I’ve been on this journey where I would like to have my own business and find work that I love. Now that being said I read something last week that said NO job is perfect every day. I think that’s important to keep in mind and I think that’s something I can completely get behind. No job is perfect because something occasionally goes wrong.
So in order to do this one must take many small steps. Action is what will make this happen. I’ve seen it and read it but now is the time to implement this! So as part of that is setting up some goals. Goals help drive you in a direction. They are like a personal mission statement.
Goals:
- Make money by working from my laptop
- Explore the world
- Make a difference in the world by sharing my knowledge and the surplus in my life with other people.
So I want to be able to work remotely. I want to be able to work from my laptop. I want to add value to businesses and people’s lives. So with the ideas I have and the help of people that I currently know I can start small and develop some different ideas that should create some income on a monthly basis.
Working remotely means virtual businesses or potentially traveling to a business’s location. Those are both options and skills I have used and developed over the past 20 years of working. I’ve also made plenty of connections that support that kind of work. This will take work and I’m not going into this blind. I fully expect that I will need to develop this slowly.
In order to get started…
Thinking ahead I can see one thing being critical and that’s doing debt reduction. We all have debt and some of us are increasing that debt instead of reducing it. I’ve been on both sides of the fence at different times of my life. I think we can all agree though that having fewer bills to pay on a monthly basis is far easier on life in general.
So the main debt that I need to focus on is credit cards. Credit cards can be great and help you if used right. By using a credit card you can earn points towards all kinds of services, merchandise and travel.
A side effect to paying down my credit card debt will be an increase in my credit score. Your credit score drives so many different big ticket purchases that require a loan. A higher credit score means a lower interest rate many times. That is a side effect that will be a HUGE plus in life.
One expense I can be thankful isn’t big in my life is the cost of an automobile. Currently I don’t have a car payment because I don’t have a car. So that’s a large debt that many people have in their lives. Here in San Francisco I can get around easily by taking public transportation or by using CityCarShare, Zipcar, taxis, Uber or Lyft. It’s all about your schedule and how long you have to get between point A & B.
At some point I wouldn’t mind having a car but the thing I have to keep in mind is that unless a car is my main source of income I don’t need that expense here in this city. If I lived in a different city it would definitely be a different situation.
Analysis Paralysis
So many people get caught up thinking about all the things that they need to do. The truth for me and many others is that you just need to put one foot in front of another and start doing something about my goals.
This past weekend I was working on one of my small side projects and I found that there was some money I was owed. There was some tax information that needed to be updated but after a short email exchange it’s been resolved. The take away from that … I MADE MONEY!
OK it wasn’t a huge amount of money but it was something and it paid for my investment. So now I have motivation to more with this project. Additionally I know that there is potential income as a result of my actions. That’s hugely important at this phase because in my mind income equals success.
What’s next?
The next step for me is to invest a little more time into that project that produced some money of course. Potentially I could make more money and more money means more success. More success will also drive all those feelings empowerment that help us lead happy lives.
I have a second micro-business that I’ve already done which I know can generate money. Again money equals success in this case. Sadly I lost my focus and stopped supporting it. With no support it can’t succeed. This week I’m going to support that micro-business and bring home another win for the team.
Both of these micro businesses can be done from anywhere and support my first two goals. If it supports my goals and it empowers me to do more/better then I need to do it more, right! The other good thing is that the extra money I make can also go to the support goal of reducing debt.
WIN WIN!
