How To Earn Extra Money

This is more of a poll than anything else right now...consider it an idea I'm kicking around. I'd like to get some measure of how many people would be not only interested in having me help them set up their own Internet profit stream, but would also be willing to commit to doing their part for no less than three months to make it happen.

What I'm envisioning is something like this:

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After a personal financial disaster, most people are left wondering what to do next. In fact, significant financial loss is such an incredible psychological setback to some people that they feel there is nothing they can do to recover from it. Divorce, suicide, and other tragic events occur every day because Americans find themselves in financial ruin.

This is going to be a multi-part series of articles discussing the process of financial recovery. I will be basing this series on both my own experience with financial recovery, which is just beginning as I write this, and the lives of people that I have entered due to their quest for tax debt relief.

The first place to start is to define financial disaster. Just because you're deep in debt doesn't necessarily mean that you're in complete financial ruin. Different people are all going to have their own interpretation of what it means to be financial ruined, but for the purposes of this series of articles I'm going to use my own definition. Here are the things I classify as financially destroyed:

• Straight up insolvency.
• You qualify for chapter 7 bankruptcy.
• You just lost your primary residence to foreclosure (or eviction because you couldn't pay rent).
• Creditors have seized assets, levied bank accounts, and garnished wages.

There are probably more things I could put on this list, but I think you get the idea. This situation can be created by any number of factors, too. Business failure, expensive medical problems, divorce, inability to pay tax debt, extended job loss, poor money management, stupidity...all of these can contribute to being broke and belly up.

Also, you don't necessarily need to be homeless and jobless to be financially ruined. There are very high income earners that get deep into debt, just as there are low income earners that turn into millionaires over time.

After defining financial disaster for yourself, the next important step is to take a reality check and admit to the fact that you're there, or are approaching it. People tend to live in denial when it comes to their financial situation, if they even know what their financial position is at all. It's important to take stock of where you, including analyzing your income and expenses and looking at your assets and liabilities. If that starts to sound like a budgetary counseling session in progress, it's because it is. Your finances are one of those few things about yourself and your life that you can distinctly quantify, and you can't figure out how to get where you're going if you don't know where you are.

In the next article in this series, we'll get into the process of figuring out where you are and making decisions about your plan for financial recovery.

To your success,

Jassen Bowman

Some people say it takes a special breed of person to work from home. Even when you have children, a spouse, or human company in the house with you, it can seem grueling to sit in the same room each day in front of your computer.

At some point, you realize you just have to get out of the house, even if only for a little while, especially if you haven't spoken out loud to a single other person all day. You start feeling isolated from the real world, and probably zapped of mental energy.

The simplest solution to the problem is to work some 'outside the home' time into your schedule as often as possible. You may even consider choosing specific days of the week that you'll move your office to a different location, like a coffee shop or library.

At a minimum, though, you can break your day up more effectively if you schedule 'out of the house' visits and errands in a distinct block of time. In other words, decide which time of day (e.g. morning, afternoon) you work best, and schedule everything else around that.

What this does is give you a better sense of the boundary between “being at work” and “being off work.” You could go for a walk or shopping for clothes from 8:00 a.m. to Noon, for example, then work from Noon to 6:00 p.m.

Experiment with your schedule to see what works best. You can do that. That's the beauty of being your own boss.

Another option to consider if you simply can't stand working alone is to share 'office space' with other self-employed individuals. You can find out what resources are available in your area by checking out the 'CoWorking Wiki' at: http://coworking.pbwiki.com/.

~||~,

Jassen Bowman

Generating serious income from a home-based Internet business requires more than 'good ideas' or hard work. It requires a step-by-step system that is proven to convert prospects into customers, all while letting you work 'smarter', not harder.

An effective system, no matter what it is you're selling, should revolve around the following process: Target Your Market -> Target Your Offer -> Drive Targeted Traffic To Offer -> Follow Up.

Let's talk about each component now in a little more detail.

*Target Your Market

This is always the first step when starting an Internet business. If you're already in business and not making much money, I would recommend going back to review your market research. Improper targeting can bring your whole business to its knees no matter what else you do.

*Target Your Offer

Once you find a hot market, you must find an appropriate offer for that market. This means bringing unique products/services to that market that truly address the market's needs, problems or concerns.

Pay close attention to the difference between targeting and relevance. What's 'relevant' is not always targeted.

For example, a warm coat would be relevant to someone living in Alaska because it's cold there; but, as a product, it wouldn't be very targeted unless the coat had some special feature that people there would use. This is a subtle distinction, but an important one.

*Drive Targeted Traffic

Targeted traffic is market-specific traffic. In other words, you want to draw visitors to your offer from market you're targeting. This is not just about using the right keywords, but also about advertising on market-related websites using text links, banner ads, signature files, classifieds and anything else at your disposal.

*Follow Up

You should try to capture as much of the traffic to your site as possible onto an opt-in email list. This list will allow you to keep your offer in front of your prospects until they convert into customers. It will also allow you to generate repeat business from existing customers.

If you follow these four steps, you're on the way to having a winning system that can generate significant profits for you now and in the future. The steps are based on solid marketing principles and will work for you in any niche market, which means you can put the system in place in as many Internet business as you like (which, by the way, you should).

To your success,

Jassen Bowman

It's true that there's a lot of money to be made online. At the same time, there are a lot of unscrupulous people selling scam business opportunities by hyping up how much money you can make online.

So, how do you sort through which ideas are 'too good to be true' and which ones are worth pursuing, when even the legitimate biz opps sometimes rely on hype?

The answer is: you need to get clear on which criteria truly matter when it comes to the feasibility of any online money-making system. The list of questions below will help you evaluate your options effectively.

1. Does this business serve a real market?

2. Is the market highly targeted?

3. Will I sell/promote products that are truly in demand?

4. Is there a clear system of traffic generation?

5. Is there a clear system of lead generation and follow up?

6. How much power do I have over the way the business is run?

7. How much support is provided if I need help or have questions?

8. When, where and how will I get paid?

9. How will the products be delivered?

10. Does this really let me be my own boss and make the executive decisions?

If your answer is “no” or “I don't know” to any of the above questions, be very cautious. While there's still a chance you might be looking at legitimate opportunity, there's also a good chance you're looking at a scheme that isn't going to work for you.

Real Internet businesses follow the fundamental rules of marketing, have a clear sales system in place and allow you to grow your business based on your own judgment!

Until next time,

Jassen Bowman

One of the biggest challenges with exploring alternative ways of making a living is knowing how different decisions will impact your finances for the long haul. While formal classroom education, seminars, home study courses, and books are all a wealth of knowledge, actually getting out and applying that knowledge is really the only way to obtain the wisdom and experience that comes from being in the trenches.

Most people are probably familiar with the game Monopoly. They're probably also familiar with the stark differences between the game and the realities of life. It's incredibly difficult for a game or simulation of any sort to match what happens in real life. Some attempts are much better than others, and the free online simulator at Learn To Be Rich is definitely one of the better options out there.

LearnToBeRich.com is currently absolutely free. All you have to do is register for the game, and a password will be sent to you. Once you're in the game, the array of options that you're presented with can be somewhat daunting, so take the time to read through the options and read the tips that are on the screen during each turn, it really does help.

Every time you play the game, you are lead through the complete working life of your character. Each turn of the game corresponds to one month of real life. During each turn, you are free to take one of many, many different actions relating to your overall financial picture. For example, you can choose to focus on your career and try to get a raise, you can meet with a stock broker to look at potential stocks to buy, and you can start businesses. Every action you take has certain risks and rewards that correspond to the risks and rewards of the similar actions in real life.

The overall purpose of the game is to allow you to see the results of your financial decisions over an entire 45 year working life. The game throws in things that do happen in real life, such as the surprise stock that takes off like a rocket or the rapid increase in operating expenses for a particular business. The game models an amazing array of factors, including inflation, individual industry sector performances, housing trends, cost of living raises, marketing performance, and much more. All of these factors are based on real life historical performance and trending of the actual variable, along with the occasional random surprise factor thrown in to reflect the reality of booms, busts, good times, and tough times economically.

A recently added feature to the game is the ability to see where you stack up against other active players. You can compare ranking for bank account balances, real estate portfolio performance, net worth, and more.

The game was developed by James Orr, a professional real estate investor and Internet entrepreneur. The amazing part is that James is actually one of those rare guys that practices what he preaches, rather than just riding the seminar and infomercial circuit. James has built a sizable portfolio of rental properties, and has operated a number of very successful online ventures. The game is something that he does as a hobby to teach others the things that he's learned the hard way. He recognizes a severe lack of financial education out there, and he says, "You can learn a lot by modeling life and making your mistakes in a game rather than in real life with real money."

I would agree with his statement wholeheartedly, and this game is the best effort I've seen at providing an environment for learning this way. To check out the game for yourself, just visit http://LearnToBeRich.com.

Until next time,

Jassen Bowman

Being a tax wonk and a statistics junkie, I'm highly intrigued by data such as this:

New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows. The new data shows that the top-earning 25% of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5% of the nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86%). The top 1% of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2% of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4% of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1% of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95% of tax returns.

So, what does that mean? In short, it means that rich people are the one that support the vast majority of all federal programs. The top 1% of all income earners paid in 95% of all total taxes collected by the federal government.

The reason I like to point this out is because, as a tax preparer and tax consultant, I hear a lot of people complain about the tax breaks that rich people get. However, it really just isn't so. A huge example is that the Earned Income Credit that lower income families receive, which is the credit that enables them to receive thousands of dollars in tax refunds every year beyond the tax liablility they had had, is actually PAID FOR BY RICH PEOPLE. Yes, the money has to come from somewhere in the IRS system, and it comes from other taxpayers.

The other thing I like to point out is that rich people are usually the folks that own the businesses that the rest of us work for. In other words, the wealthy, evil rich people and evil, wealthy corporations are the ones that provide the rest of us with a job. Working that job is a voluntary arrangement, so if we don't like it, we're welcome to leave.

That right there is the reality of our economic and tax situation. So, the next time you hear somebody complaining about how unfair the system is, keep these things in mind. Particularly with the earned income credit, the IRS is acting as a wealth distribution service to GIVE FREE MONEY to lower income families that was taken from higher income families that actually EARNED that money.

There's the old saying, "Don't steal, the government hates competition," and I personally believe it's true. The system will never be fair, but it's actually quite balanced. Lower income earners get free money they never earned, and higher income earners, through their businesses, get significant tax write-offs that not everybody does.

Thus ends my rant for the day.

Be happy, be great!

-Jassen

I had an interesting experience the other day: Somebody came to mystery shop me. It was pretty interesting being on the other side of the fence for the first time ever, and I think I took away a few things from it that might actually help me in my mystery shopping and field inspecting endeavors.

First of all, keep in mind that the person you're mystery shopping or auditing is somebody very similar to you in many respects. They're at work, doing there job, making a living. When I go mystery shopping, I try to be as pleasant and upbeat as possible, since some people might freak out a little bit about getting graded at work. The individual that mystery shopped me was by no means rude, but definitely carried an overly authoritative attitude and was not a pleasant person to speak to. I wasn't busy with any customers during the entire time they were here, nor was I in any way stressed by their presence, but my partner on duty was with a customer and appeared slightly uncomfortable having somebody watching over her shoulder. In short, try to make your mystery shopping experiences positive both for yourself and the customer service person you're auditing. Obviously, the person that mystery shopped me was an announced shop, so it was no secret. A lot of mystery shops are unannounced, meaning the person being evaluated doesn't know and likely never will.

Second, it appeared to be a husband-wife team that did our shop. One person was taking the photographs (which are usually required to ensure that we, as a franchise, are maintaining the required corporate signage and image to the public), and the other person was actually doing the audit. If your mystery shopping company allows you to do tag team like this, it's a great idea, particularly if you have a large volume of shops to conduct.

Third, be sure to take your time and be thorough. This can be difficult to do if you have 10 shops to get through in a day, but keep in mind the fact that you're being paid to be the eyes and ears of the company that hired you, and by accepting the shop you agreed to meet there standards. One of the best ways to get on a scheduler's good side (schedulers are the people that ASSIGN mystery shops to you) is to do good work, be timely, complete, and accurate in your reporting, and to do the little things that are slightly above and beyond what's expected. This might include waiting for somebody to vacate the restroom to inspect it for cleanliness, rather than just marking "restroom unavailable" on your report form, or perhaps meandering through the store for a few minutes and coming back to observe a cashier's interaction with a customer at checkout, rather than just marking "unable to observe/no customers at checkout" on your report form.

These are just some thoughts off the top of my head. Incidentally, since I wasn't with a customer, I had hopped online and completed my registration with the company that sent that auditor to us before they had even finished up and left. I'll be adding that company to the roster on the mystery shopping jobs board.

Stay positive, be enterprising!

-Jassen

My goal with the whole HowToEarnHQ.com project is to show people
how to make a few extra hundred dollars per month. I'm not promising
people that they'll make ten bazillion dollars in 30 days with no
work - it doesn't work like that.

Since I don't charge anything for access to the job lists, work
tips, etc., I often get asked why I do it. One is to share what I
know, since so many other sites that claim to do this type of thing
either suck or charge too much money. I love teaching, I love
writing, and I love helping other people, so I get to do all that.

Of course, I'd be lying if I said I didn't make any money from doing
this. You know all those Google ads you see on the site? Well, I
make a tiny, tiny amount of money (we're talking nickels and dimes,
literally) anytime somebody clicks on one of those ads.

Big deal, right? Well, actually, yes, because it adds up! Those
nickels and dimes add up to about $8 per day, on average. That's not
steady, sometimes it's double that, sometimes I go days without
anything at all, period. But, it averages out to $8 a day. That
all comes from the folks, just like yourself, that read these emails
and go check the job board for updates, read the blog, etc.

OK, so 8 bucks a day. No biggie. Nothing special. Right??? WRONG!

Think about it. Eight measly dollars a day equals $240 a month.
That's over $2,800 a year!

So, what does $8 a day REALLY get you? Well, let's think about some examples. For some of you, $240 a month might make the difference between paying your rent and having to live in your car. For some people, $240 means the difference affording their life-saving prescription medications or not. Now for other people, $8 a day pays for the latte and bagel that they just don't want to give up every morning. $240 a month is a fairly decent car payment. $2,800 a year can buy a vacation just about anywhere in North America for a small family.

So why am I telling you all this? I promise that it's not to brag or anything like that. It's simply to illustrate how you can take something you like to do, and do it, but also monetize it by contributing something to the world. Seriously, this web site started as a hobby, and it's a decent percentage of my monthly income.

Action Plan

Here's what I want you to do:

1. Make a list of your favorite hobbies, interests, etc. Your list can include ANYTHING.

For example, here's my honest to goodness interest list from my Facebook profile:

Humans, extraterrestrials, areology (planetary geology of Mars), geocaching, Australia, Israel, wonderment, real estate, change, hiking, driving, alternate realities.

2. Take your list and start thinking about which of those things you would most enjoy writing about.

For the sake of this example, I'm going to pick Australia, since I've recently become fascinated with everything to do with the country, since I'm planning on visiting there this summer.

3. Go set yourself up, either on your own web site with your own domain name, or visit Blogger.com (a free Google blogging service) and create a blog for yourself to write in.

Following my example, check out http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com for a GREAT example of somebody that took there passion and created a great web site about the Australian outback. This is NOT my site, but read through it and notice what they did - it's a good ol' travel site, but with Google Adsense ads!

4. Create a Google Adsense account, and then just start writing! The great thing about doing this on a Blogger.com blog is that your entries automatically get indexed by Google.

5. Learn how to do other things to intentionally drive traffic to your web site, and start gathering in those clicks and get paid YOUR nickels and dimes!

Now, this is by no means meant to be a comprehensive guide to creating what is often called an "Adsense site." This is just a basic example of how to turn an interest or a hobby into a small side income.

Take care!

-Jassen

I had an email exchange with one of our Jobs At Home readers the other day. Lissette asked, "I was wondering what business you were in and how you have access to all this great information?"

Since I get this question often enough, and the answer changes all the time, I thought I would post my response:

That's a question I get a lot, actually, and the answer is that I'm in MANY businesses.

I'm a licensed real estate agent, a beginner real estate investor, tax preparer (seasonal, of course), mystery shopper, paid survey taker (made $8 this morning!), field inspector, freelance customer service rep, writer, audiobook publisher, insurance inspector, Internet marketing guy, online travel rep, certified disaster housing inspector, and occasional contract-basis administrative assistant, sales rep, and probably a few other things I can't think of off the top of my head because I don't do them as regularly.

Basically, when I got out of the Navy in 2001, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do for a living, because I can't stand repetition and doing the same type of work day in, day out, plus I really like being independent.

So, all the information I pass on comes from stuff I've learned and stuff I find. I'm constantly learning about new industries that I never knew existed. For example, did you know that there are people that live in there RVs full time and travel up and down the oil pipelines between the US and Canada, inspecting every section of pipe they come across, looking for leaks and other damage? The pay isn't much more than minimum wage, but they're mostly retired folks with pensions or Social Security, so it's a great job for them.

I also network with a lot of people locally and online, so I'm always coming across people that have new programs or need people.

I had sort of an epiphany today. A lot of people, myself included, make strides to isolate ourselves from the overall ups and downs of the general economy. While I think it's impossible to do so completely, excepting perhaps if you live completely off the land and choose not to participate in the economy at all, I think there are ways to, in general, insulate yourself against the broader economic fumblings going on around you without dropping out of society.

This is something I've been exploring for years on a thought experiment sort of basis, in particular. I think I finally had a breakthrough about it today. In retrospect, it seems kind of obvious, and what I'm about to write is by no means profound, but here it is anyway. In general, I believe that there are certain goods and services within a modern, civilized society that are fairly critical. If you can associate yourself with one or more of those critical functions, and do so in a way that precludes removal of you as a worker, then I think that the probability of long-term economic success drastically increases. This relates in particular to the idea of working in a field that will more or less always be around.

I have no intention of making an exhaustive list of what these essential occupations in an economy would be, but I think I've come up with some generalities. For example, in general I think there always has been, and always will be, a place in the world for the person that can make broken things become fixed things (e.g., construction trades, repair personnel, mechanics, etc.). On the same line of reasoning, I think there will always be a place for people that can take an idea and turn it into a time or labor saving physical device (such as designers, engineers, builders, etc.). In other words, if you're "good with your hands" you'll probably always be able to at least scrape by. Even in the event of the collapse of civilization, these kind of folks will have a better grasp on how to become self-sufficient and maximize the use of materials they have at hand for survival.

Also, look at the things that are essential for life. I think that if you're able to participate in the production and distribution of food and water, you've probably got some good job security. In this day and age, you could probably also add in jobs relating to the extraction and distribution of raw materials and energy. Computers are so tied into our daily lives that the world of information technology is also likely to have long term economic stability.

Life and death happen to be on the guaranteed side of things, too, so I think that those workers in healthcare professions will always be around. At the very least, doctors, nurses, and morticians should be with us for quite a while.

What actually got me thinking about this today was that I was thinking about the necessity of two of my own professional interests: real estate and taxes. Everybody needs a place to live, as the saying goes, so being involved in providing that housing is a good long term bet. Also, whenever you get large groups of human beings together, some sort of government usually tends to emerge from the ether (be it for better or worse), which invariably leads to taxation.

A lot of this sort of thought process definitely involves making assumptions about the future and the world in which we live. I could definitely see how a person's viewpoint on the world could impact there thought process here, particularly based on political and religious beliefs. Some people think we're less than 2 years away from total global annihilation, while other people think we're only two years from some Utopian paradise where nobody wants for anything and all humans have flying cars condensed into their briefcases.

In general, though, I think it's safe (and sane) to assume that in 20 years, much of our world will be fairly similar to what it is today. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. There might be major system changes to society similar to what the computer brought along, but even then, most of the basics for living in a modern, civilized environment tend to remain similar.

A profound example of this is that, despite the growth of online sales, the retail sector remains as strong as it is. Yes, there have been changes in the retail landscape, but that landscape is still there and it's still really, really huge, economically. If you're involved in retail trade or customer service, I think there's long-term job stability there, too. People still want STUFF. The nature of that stuff might change, but stuff is what we tend to accumulate. Maybe this year you're selling iPods on eBay or as a sales associate in a retail store, or providing telephone customer service for that iPod, or selling accessories for it out of your trunk in a parking lot, etc. But it's still connected to retail, and "stuff". Next decade, that "stuff" might be micro-miniaturized verboplasm power packs that power every device known to man, but somebody still has to sell, service, repair, provide tech support, account for, set up displays, rotate inventory, collect sales tax, ship/transport/deliver, and who knows what else in support of that gizmo, so again, in general, those related retail and service professions will still exist, in some way.

So, in closing, let me just say that I now believe that if your primarily goal in planning your future work is to achieve maximum probability of being able to work, I think it's important to build a history of connection to some of these essential things within life and society, and stay on top of the learning curve when it comes to the slow, gradual changes that move these fields along.

Now, also keep in mind that ensuring employability isn't the ONLY thing. Many of the fields I've mentioned in this post tend to be lower paying occupations these days. So, if you're more motivated by extremely high earnings, then maybe you need to look at other factors for selecting an occupation, instead of what I've discussed here. Or maybe you're motivated by the excitement of a rapidly advancing field, regardless of long term employment stability or money. Only you can decide that for yourself, of course.

Make it a GREAT day!

-Jassen

Ten basic rules from the dating world, applied to sales. Specifically targeted to real estate sales, but heck, I think it covers some good bases for any sales endeavor:

10 Dating Rules For Sales

Robert Kiyosaki talks about the importance of “financial education” over and over and over again. And the reason he talks about it so much is because he’s right - financial education is the most important type of education to have if you ever want to get out of the “rat race” and become financially independent.

People need to understand basic financial terms, how the money and banking system works in their country, and how credit, income, and other factors all interplay to produce a person’s overall financial status. Even if people are in a bad financial status and already know that, it’s important to understand how they got there, what all the good and bad stuff means, and how to start making changes.

The absolute best resource that I have ever found on the Internet for basic personal finance information is at http://www.GetRichSlow.com. Seriously, you can delete all your bookmarks to CNN/Money, Kiplinger’s, Motley Fool, and all the other personal finance portals out there and learn everything you really need to know from GetRichSlow.com. The beauty of this web site is that it was put up in 1996 and literally has not been updated since then. This makes all the examples on mortgage rates, housing prices, salaries, college costs, etc. a bit outdated, but the principles themselves are still valid and probably will be for as long as we have our current style of economic systems in capitalist countries.

So, if you’re just starting out, read GetRichSlow.com….every page. It’ll take a couple hours for the average person, but it could quite likely be the most valuable reading you ever do, in financial terms.

Now, when it comes to financial education and business, we enter the world of a very, very, very broad range of things. Here are just some of the things that a new business owner has to think about: how to set up your business entity, how to get paid and accept payments (credit cards, merchant accounts and other methods), how to deal with inventory or drop shipping, how to deal with websites, web hosting, domain names and e-mails, accounting and taxes, business plans, affiliate programs, start up money and financing options, cost analysis, insurance, budgeting, record keeping, licensing concerns, setting goals, staying motivated, and marketing.

Look at it: That’s a boat load of stuff!

And once you start learning all this stuff, it can become overwhelming. The sheer number of books, tapes, courses, gurus, etc. that are out there trying to teach all this stuff is phenomenal. Weeding through it all can itself become a full time job.

Every business owner needs to understand the basics of all those things, too. But where on Earth do you start???

First off, visit your local library or bookstore and grab the most generic looking book you can find about starting a small business. There are some good titles in the “…for Dummies” and “Idiot’s Guide to…” series. Barron’s also publishes a great series on business startup and small business topics. I would also encourage you to look up your local Small Business Administration (SBA) office and see what seminars they have in your local area. They are often free or very low cost. Your local Chamber of Commerce can also be a great resource.

Once you have the basics of all those areas covered, and even after you’ve become proficient in a number of areas, you need to ALWAYS be learning. Continueing education is a requirement in many professions, and it should be important to you as a small business owner, also.

Here’s an example. I like to consider myself fairly intelligent and pretty well educated on the basics of most business topics. When I got into real estate investing a little over 4 years ago, I had to overcome a steep learning curve about real estate, and I continue to learn more and more about real estate and related areas of the process.

Along the way, I took the class to become a licensed real estate broker. I also took a loan origination course, became a certified housing inspector in a very niche specialty, and am also contemplating taking the registered appraiser course next year.

People ask me why I do these things. These courses, certifications, and licensing are all mainly part of continueing my financial education, but they also bring certain perks. For example, being a real estate broker allow me to have direct access to the MLS, quicker comps, and certain databases that my local MLS service subscribes to for agent’s to use. On top of that, it’s a great side income.

Although I don’t actually originate loans, it’s nice to be able to keep up on the changing scope of interest rates and products without constantly bugging my own mortgage broker. In addition, if I ever find a deal that I really want to do for some reason, and saving money on origination fees and closing costs makes the difference between being able to buy the property or not, I can originate my own loan myself and save quite a bit of money.

Being an insurance hazard inspector and now a certified federal disaster housing inspector has taught me many things about what to look for in a property that I didn’t know 2 years ago, and has also provided a steady source of income that helps me get through the ups and down of my other business operations.

And why take the appraiser course? Not to become a licensed appraiser, but to get a better idea of where appraisers are coming from when they do MY appraisals.

All of these things contribute to the overall picture of real estate investor education. I would encourage you to seek similar continueing education in your own area of business. While continueing to learn your trade or business, you might also pick up industry certifications, licenses, etc. along the way that open doors to increased credibility, special resources, and additional revenue sources that might not have existed before.

I really didn’t do much in the way of “work” in the year 2006 until November rolled around. I had a great vacation, but it quickly came to the point where I needed to get back into replenishing my savings and building my businesses. After all, even though my living expenses are pretty cheap, they’re still there.

In the 6 years that I’ve been out of the Navy, I’ve done a number of things to make a living. Finishing college was a major life goal, and I managed to turn college attendance into a profit stream. I’ve also done mystery shopping, merchandising, nuclear and hazardous waste contracting, insurance hazard inspections, and a myriad of other tasks.

The problem with a lot of these kinds of things is this: The low dollar value of the task. Here are some examples:

- A typical mystery shop, where you evaluate the customer service at a retail location of some sort, might pay $5-$15 on average. Some pay upwards of $100, but they’re fairly involved. The per hour rate from mystery shopping for me worked out to about $10 an hour.

- Something I’ve done more recently, since obtaining my real estate license in April 2006, are Broker Price Opinions. These are typically done on behalf of mortgage lenders and equate to a Comparative Market Analysis. It’s cheaper to have a broker do these than to order a full appraisal. I can typically expect to be paid $50-$65 for a BPO, which requires a visit to the property to take a few photos and make repair estimates. On top of that, I have to find sold AND listed properties (through the MLS and property tax records) to use as comparables and essentially perform an appraisal to arrive at a market value for the property. I like to do them right, and can easily put two to three hours into a BPO. This breaks down to an hourly pay rate of $16-$32 per hour.

- Packaging hazardous waste in an anti-chemical suit in the sweltering heat pays $12-$18 an hour.

- Insurance inspections typically pay $15-$20 each, and I can usually knock out several on a route. To be thorough takes about half an hour, plus travel time and entering reports online. Typically, I can average $15 per hour doing these.

There’s an old saying in business that goes something like this: “If your goal is to make $100 per hour, you need to stop doing $10 an hour work.”

One of the problems with insurance inspections, BPO’s, and similar work, especially in my part of the country, is that there just isn’t ENOUGH of it to make a living. Although the per hour pay, from the perspective of your average worker, isn’t necessarily bad, there just isn’t the volume you need to make a living. I’ve basically discovered that such work is great for somebody that doesn’t need to make a lot of money or doesn’t want to work a whole lot. For most of the past several years, that’s been me. I either had other sources of income that produced the bulk of my income (such as nuclear work) or I simply didn’t want to work and was in a position such that I didn’t have to all that much. In fact, I think I’m eventually going to write an e-book on the subject of all the varied ways I’ve discovered to make extra, part-time money.

But, now days, I think a bit differently. I can live just fine at the income levels that I’m used to ($35k-$71k per year), but I have the goal of retiring early. Very early. Say, in 5 years. Also, I eventually want some land out on the flats of central Colorado with a nice, contemporary style home, not the small downtown condominium that I live in currently. Add in the fact that I’d like to dedicate a good portion of my life to public service in the political arena, and it quickly becomes obvious that finding the road to financial independence is crucial to achieving the things I want to do with my life.

I hope all this doesn’t come across as materialistic, because I am anything but. I just think there are better things to do with my limited time on this world than spend it all in a cubicle.

I promise, I am getting to a point. And the point is this: I have to quit doing $10/hr, and even $30/hr, work. In fact, based on how I want to live my life, the number of hours per week I want to work, the amount of travel and playing I want to do every year, and how much real estate I desire to acquire in order to fund my future retirement, I actually need to be doing more along the lines of $150-$200 per hour.

I would encourage everybody reading this to make the same evaluation of your own time.

James, my real estate mentor, is great with this sort of thing, and has perfected a system whereby he either massively computer automates elements of his business or hires other people on a project basis to complete tasks. He also has, over the years, assembled his real estate dream team in Florida that allows him to do real estate deals smoothly and with significant delegation of tasks.

I used to run a flat-fee MLS listing service, for example. For a one-time fee of $197, I would allow For Sale By Owner properties to be listed in our regional MLS to increase their exposure to a greater pool of buyers. Here’s what I discovered out of that first process: I needed to automate every single aspect of it. Between pulling comps, preparing the listing contract and other documents, visiting with the family, taking pictures, entering the information into the MLS, and other tasks, I spent roughly 4 hours taking one listing. Since my employing broker keeps 35% of the take, I just made $32 an hour.

Is that a good pay rate? By most standards in the United States, YES! But there are two problems. First of all, I would have to take 781 listings per year just to make a six-figure income, which is simply impractical. Secondly, my market research indicates that, at best, I could conceivably obtain 10 listings per month for this flat-fee MLS concept.

How do I fix it? I convert the web site to a long copy sales letter, allow people to pay online, upload their own photos, download the listing contract and mail, fax, or email the signed copy to me, and have them fill out a copy of the MLS listing sheet directly online for me. Then, all I would have to do is copy the listing data over, rather than having to hunt for it all, file away the contract, and a few small administrative tasks. Total time: Less than half an hour. Hourly pay rate suddenly jumps up to: $256/hr.

I like that much better.

Yours in success,

Jassen