COMMONWEALTH Bank has suffered a major outage of its Eftpos, Netbank and ATM services, with customers across the country unable to access banking services or pay for items.
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1I8aUXg
الخميس، 11 يونيو 2015
First Direct named Most Trusted Financial Provider of 2015
First Direct has been voted Most Trusted Financial Provider by the biggest survey of financial services customers in Britain.
Moneywise revealed the winners of its 2015 Customer Service Awards – in which over 30,000 people voted - at a glittering ceremony in London's West End on 11 June 2015.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1FWfQNC
Amazon Will Give You a $5 Gift Card to Download Their App
Hot off the presses! Amazon just announced a new promotion where they will give you a $5 gift card just to download the Amazon Shopping App.
The offer is only valid until June 21st, 2015, so grab it while you can.
Here’s How it Works:
- Download the Amazon Shopping App here.
- Open the App and sign-in with your existing Amazon user name/password.
- You should see the $5 gift card in your shopping cart within seven days. You will be sent an email letting you know when it has arrived.
- This gift card offer applies to first time sign-in for the Amazon app only. Other Amazon apps including Kindle Reader, Amazon Local, Amazon Music and Amazon Instant Video are not eligible.
How easy is that?
The post Amazon Will Give You a $5 Gift Card to Download Their App appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1I7ziIz
Murdoch to step down as Fox CEO
RUPERT Murdoch has revealed the succession plan for his global media empire, handing the reins to his son James.
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1IxK8KK
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1IxK8KK
Twitter CEO steps down
TWITTER chief executive Dick Costolo is stepping down and will be replaced on an interim basis by co-founder Jack Dorsey, effective July 1.
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1ILbRKU
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1ILbRKU
Twitter CEO steps down
TWITTER chief executive Dick Costolo is stepping down and will be replaced on an interim basis by co-founder Jack Dorsey, effective July 1.
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1cOvovy
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1cOvovy
Days numbered for illegal downloaders
DO YOU sneakily download or stream without paying? A crackdown on online piracy has passed a crucial hurdle, which may make the practice much more difficult.
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1cOvovs
Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1cOvovs
One Family’s Strategies for Saving Money During a Long Hospital Stay
Even when you’re planning it in advance, having a family member or friend spend days or weeks in the hospital is no fun for anyone. It’s draining, both emotionally and often, financially.
When she was three months old, our daughter had a planned heart surgery. She was supposed to be in the hospital for five to seven days. That turned into 40. Talk about stress! Not only the stress of the unknown, but the financial stress of being outside of our normal financial routines and savings.
I’m happy to say that our daughter is now a spunky, beautifully mischievous 6-year-old. But her time in the hospital taught me how to minimize the financial strain of a prolonged hospital stay. Whether your loved one’s hospital stay is planned or unplanned, here are a few ways to ease at least some of the financial stress.
1. Make Your Own Food
This first one sounds a bit silly, but it’s a big money saver. Do you know how much food costs at the hospital cafeteria and at nearby restaurants around the hospitals? A lot. Trust me on that one.
Making your own food to bring with you for the day or days you’re visiting or even staying at the hospital helps cut down on your costs. However, you’re likely busy juggling your commitments as well as your need to be at the hospital, leaving little time for grocery shopping and food prep. That’s where our next tip comes in.
2. Ask for Help
Ask people to help you make food, and even bring it to the hospital. Ask for help with gas money for getting to and from the hospital. Have children who need a sitter while you’re at the hospital? Ask for help.
While our daughter was in the hospital, my mom would make bag lunches and dinners for us several times each week. Then she and my dad would come and either drop off the food, or stay and eat with us. Some people in our church even made a sign-up list for people to schedule bringing a meal or donating a gas card.
If you have a close-knit support group of family and friends, they are usually more than willing to help when asked — but often, people aren’t sure what they can do. Just ask. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. Then someday, you can repay the favor.
3. Use Available Special Services
Depending how far away from the hospital you live, travel could be a major factor in visiting your loved one. If that loved one is a child, look into whether there’s a Ronald McDonald House nearby. The nonprofit organization offers a free or low-cost place to eat and sleep, and can be a big money-saving option for families.
If there’s no House, there may be a Ronald McDonald Family Room within the hospital itself. We spent many hours in the Family Room during our daughter’s hospital stay. Services might vary in different locations, but you’ll always find volunteers to assist you. At ours, there was a little living room with a television, a kitchen with a refrigerator to store your own food and drink, two sleeping rooms and a games room for kids. The kitchen even had free snacks and drinks. Quite frequently volunteers would bring family-style meals for those who wanted them, and the Starbucks across the street would sometimes donate their day-old baked goods.
If you’re not sure what services are available, ask at the information desk. You may find your hospital offers a surprising number of options, from specialists to toiletries to games to play while recovering in bed.
4. Double-Check Your Bill
It’s not the most fun thing to do, and I know it’s not at the top of your list. However, sometimes errors creep into bills, and you’ll want to make sure you’re not paying more than you should be.
In addition, ask if there are discounts for paying on time, or paying in full instead of in installments. Quite often, hospitals will offer a percentage off for paying before the bill is due and all at once.
5. Look for Ways to Save on Parking
If you’re visiting every day or staying for hours, parking fees can really add up. To save on these costs, use a few strategies.
First, ask about discounted parking. For instance, our hospital offered booklets of five parking passes for $5 — a significant savings from the $7 a day in the parking garage! Check at the information desk; at our hospital, all you needed was the patient’s room number.
Consider the time of day you’re coming and going from the parking area. In our experience, if you waited to leave until 10 p.m., after the parking attendants were gone for the day, you didn’t have to pay!
Finally, if you don’t mind walking, look for free parking a few blocks away from the hospital. Yes, it will take a little longer, but you might find it’s worth it — and that you enjoy a bit of exercise when you’re spending long hours sitting in a hospital chair.
6. Avoid Stress Shopping
This is a tough one. If you’re like us, you might have a tendency to want to make up for the pain or discomfort by buying things. Try to avoid that as you’ll most likely spend more than you’d like.
Our daughter was a baby during her long hospital stay, and it was tempting to buy cute stuffed animals and toys to put in her bed. It was difficult, but we talked ourselves out of the purchases, reminding ourselves that what she really needed was for us to spend time with her. That quality time is likely more comforting to your loved one than any store-bought gift.
I hope these tips can help ease some of the tension and stress that comes with a loved one’s illness or injury. And one more piece of advice: Make friends with the doctors and nurses. Buy them a coffee from time to time. Make jokes. Be friendly. They’ll appreciate it more than you know!
Your Turn: Have you dealt with a loved one’s long hospital stay? How did you manage the upheaval to your budget and financial routines?
Nell Turgeon is a stay-at-home mom to four rambunctious kiddos who has spent a lot of time with doctors due to her oldest daughter’s medical issues. Her family enjoys making the most of their time between appointments by finding new ways to be frugal and spend time together in the great outdoors.
The post One Family’s Strategies for Saving Money During a Long Hospital Stay appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1MtaSga
How a Food Blogger Made $150,000 Last Year
This food blogger made $150,000 last year — and in a recent interview, she shared how she did it.
Mallory, who spoke with Yahoo Food anonymously, has what any foodie would consider a dream job: She’s paid to blog, Tweet, Instagram and Pin about her favorite recipes. She told Yahoo Food she made $150,000 from her blog in 2014, and she expects to earn more than $250,000 this year.
Here’s her best advice on how to make money blogging.
How a Food Blogger Earns $150,000 a Year
Mallory earns some money from ads, but most of her income comes from being paid to write about a recipe using a brand’s product. In the old days, a brand might pay $50 to a blogger. Mallory says her average is 100 times that: $5,000. “I won’t do a post for less than $3,500 now,” she told Yahoo Food.
And when you compare Mallory’s rates with the cost of buying an ad on TV or in a newspaper, you start to understand why Mallory and other food bloggers are so popular. A national, 30-second ad in 2011 cost almost $110,000 — and a brand can’t even measure the ad’s full value.
On the other hand, Mallory has 300,000 followers combined across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, and she can tell a brand exactly how many impressions their sponsored post received. That makes $5,000 per post seem like a real bargain.
So there’s real money to be had here and, it seems, plenty to go around. How do you get your slice of the pie?
How to Make Money as a Food Blogger
Mallory told Yahoo she’s very active on all four social media platforms, posting multiple times every weekday, as well as posting two to three new blog posts per week.
She also works with other food bloggers to promote their posts; in exchange, they’ll promote hers.
Good photos are absolutely crucial. Pinterest-worthy food shots get retweeted and shared by followers, but they also get picked up by aggregators like Buzzfeed. “Being featured on BuzzFeed when you’re new? You get a ton of traffic and followers,” Mallory told Yahoo Food.
Once your blog is pro-level, it’s time to start pulling in the cash. Marketing agencies like Collectively, Tap Influence, Pollinate Media, Weave Made Media and CookIt Media connect brands with bloggers. Ad networks like BlogHer, Martha’s Circle or Google Adsense can help you start bringing in the dough.
Will You Make Money as a Blogger?
It’s important to remember that blogging is work, too. To make this kind of money, you’ll have to be super dedicated and put in the time.
“You’ve got to decide: Is this a personal thing or is this what I want to do to make a living?” Mallory told Yahoo Food.
Want to know more about how to make a living as a food blogger? Read the full story at Yahoo Food.
Your Turn: Would you like to make money as a food blogger?
Rachel Kaufman may or may not be two dozen hamsters masquerading as one human in a trench coat.
The post How a Food Blogger Made $150,000 Last Year appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1JHOIch
How Your Perspective on Wealth Changes as You Achieve Financial Goals
I still have a big pile of my old journals, dating all the way back to junior high. Those things are literally more than half a lifetime old and, at this point, they’re probably more relatable to my oldest son than they are to me, though I can still see big glimmers of myself in those writings.
The ones I really find interesting are the journals from when I really started to step into adulthood, during the last year or so of college and during the first year or two of my professional life. It was at that point that I began to actually have viewpoints that were backed up by life observations and informative sources rather than just parroting what my parents or a teacher had told me or whatever the fresh new idea of the moment was.
At that time, I had a negative net worth. In fact, my net worth was so far in the hole that I couldn’t see the “break even point” arriving within the next few years.
I was financially struggling.
Today, obviously, I’m not financially struggling. I managed to turn my financial direction around and today I’m in pretty good financial shape.
The interesting thing is that this transformation has really altered some of my most deeply held views about money.
When I read those earlier entries, I can see a lot of money and career perspectives peeking out at me that just don’t stand up to the experiences I’ve had over the last few years. I attributed a lot of my difficulties to the wrong things and often had the wrong perspectives about what would happen when I did solve my problems.
In fact, here are six viewpoints that I held when I was financially struggling that I no longer hold. In fact, in some cases, I hold almost the exact opposite viewpoint.
Financially Struggling Viewpoint #1: Money Will Solve All My Problems
During my years of financial struggle, I believed that if I simply had a big enough wad of cash dropped on my lap to pay off all of my student loans and my car loan and my credit cards and perhaps pay for a down payment on a house, everything would be good. I would be on financial easy street.
My idea then was that my debts were the primary things that were holding me back. It was the immense amount of money that I owed to various companies that was holding me in place more than anything else.
My own lack of control over my day to day spending? Nope, didn’t really matter. My relatively small salary? Nope, didn’t mean too much since I believed I would earn more in the future.
I believed that the path out of my current financial situation required a big chunk of money falling into my lap.
Financially Successful Counterpoint #1: Nothing Will Solve All My Problems, But Good Behaviors Help More Than Anything Else
Eventually, I learned that even if a big chunk of money fell on my lap, I’d still be stuck with the same problems if I didn’t get my daily behaviors in check.
You can have a million dollars in the bank, but if you spend recklessly and without forethought, that million dollars will go away quicker than you can imagine if you don’t have a good grip on your spending and good relationships to rely on.
If you want to get ahead, start by mastering good decisions regarding how you spend the money you do have. Don’t spend your money thoughtlessly. If you want to have a little “pocket money,” budget for it, but spend the rest of your money carefully and wisely. This becomes a great habit over time.
Another good approach is to surround yourself with good people who have positive career aspirations and are making positive financial moves. Build a social network of people who are moving in a positive direction and you’ll move in a positive direction. Build a social circle of people making positive choices each day and you’ll make positive choices each day.
Every single bit of financial success you might have will follow from those things, not from some magical wad of cash falling into your lap from the sky.
Financially Struggling Viewpoint #2: Rich People Are Greedy
Once upon a time, I believed that the only way a person could accumulate any sort of significant financial wealth is if they were greedy and spent their time doing unethical things. If an ethical person were able to earn a lot of money in some fashion, then that ethical person would give it to those more in need than themselves.
In other words, I believed that accumulation of wealth was a sign of an unethical person. I did not see how a person with a conscience could become wealthy.
That didn’t mean that a person shouldn’t be compensated well for their work, but I did believe that many people received far too much pay.
Financially Successful Counterpoint #2: Rich People Have More on Their Plate Than You Realize
Then I had children. After that, I started a small business. Both of those experiences radically changed my perspective on a lot of things.
Before I had children and before I ran my own business, I essentially didn’t have any responsibility for anyone but myself. If I messed up, I was the only person facing any real consequences from that mistake. Sure, I might cause some secondary ramifications for my boss or my parents or for Sarah, but those were minor – it wasn’t going to radically alter their life.
When I became a parent, that changed. My missteps would radically alter the lives of my children.
When I started a small business that grew beyond a part time gig, that changed even more. My missteps would radically alter the lives of the people I employed.
Once I had that perspective, it wasn’t hard to see how it scaled up from there. The larger my business grew, the more people I became responsible for. The same thing would be true of my personal life, to a smaller extent.
The thing is, people who accumulate wealth are often responsible for a lot more people than just themselves. If they look at that responsibility with a strong sense of making sure that those people and those things are well cared for, then they have a much stronger desire to accumulate wealth.
While I think there is definitely a role for charity in the world, I also understand why people accumulate wealth to a certain extent. If nothing else, it is insurance against what the world may do to you, your family, and the things you’ve put your life energy into.
Financially Struggling Viewpoint #3: I Might As Well Live It Up, Because My Financial Life Isn’t Getting Better
Each month, I’d look at my debts and realize that their overall balance was barely going down, if at all. I still owed thousands on my car loan. I still owed tens of thousands on my student loans. I still owed thousands on my credit cards. I was simply not making any noteworthy financial progress.
Given that I seemed to be heading nowhere in terms of paying off my debts and moving toward my goals, what was the point of really trying? Those obstacles were essentially permanent, so why not live it up?
This became a regular mantra for me. I’d look at my bills, realize that my debts were just about as big as they were the month before, and convince myself that I was never getting out of debt. Since escaping debt was something that was “never” going to happen anyway, there was no reason not to spend money on fun things, right?
Right?
Financially Successful Counterpoint #3: Your Financial Life Is Guaranteed to Never Get Better If You “Live It Up” a Lot
The catch was that it was all of that money spent on “living it up” that was keeping me from making any progress on my debts. It created a cycle that was pretty hard to break, a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Because I would waste a bunch of money each month on “living it up,” my credit cards never had a chance to go down in balance and I never gave myself a window to make extra payments on my other debts. I spent that money on short-term pleasures instead.
A much better approach is to be very selective about your hobby and entertainment and “eating out” expenses. Don’t cut them out entirely, but instead focus on the ones that actually matter and that you have actually desired for a while instead of the things that are fleeting. Then, take the money you previously spent on fleeting things and apply it toward your debts.
Not only is that really the only recipe there is for escaping from debt, it also doesn’t cause you to lose anything from your life that really matters. The stuff you really enjoy sticks around. The debt doesn’t.
Except for people who are exceptionally impoverished, debt is a choice. You choose to stay in debt based on what you choose to do with your money.
Financially Struggling Viewpoint #4: Society’s Deck Is Stacked Against Me
I really bought into the idea that the only real route to success for me was through my job. Sure, I could earn a little bit in my spare time doing things like collecting nickel refund cans, but it really wasn’t worth the time invested.
In order to build up a business or a freelancing career, I told myself, you needed either a big healthy chunk of startup money or a network of connections you’ve built over many many years at work. Without at least one of those things, your only route to financial success in life was by working at a job that made someone else more money off of your labor.
I believed that if you weren’t born on third base, society’s deck was completely stacked against you.
Financially Successful Counterpoint #4: You Are Surrounded By a Flood of Opportunity – It Just Takes Work
I started a business in my living room in 2006. I didn’t have anyone’s help, just an interesting idea of being very open about my financial state and how difficult it was to turn things around. By 2008, it was generating more annual income for me than my steady, stable job was. By 2010, I was employing a handful of assistants and needed serious accounting help. By 2011, I chose to sell the business.
I didn’t have a lot of money to invest. I didn’t have secret inside connections.
What I had was time that I was willing to rip away from my hobbies and the willingness to work. A lot.
My typical weekday involved getting up at about 5 AM to write for an hour and a half or so, taking my son to child care at about 7 AM, working from 7:30 AM to about noon, taking an hourlong lunch where I did some more writing while eating lunch, worked from about 1 to about 4:30 PM, went home to write for another hour or two before making supper and spending just a bit of evening time with my family, and then handling the deluge of emails and other things from 8:30 PM or so until I fell asleep in bed around 11 PM.
This was what every single weekday was like for me for two years or so. On the weekends, I often did more writing and other tasks that I couldn’t finish during the week, like incremental site redesign and so on.
I worked a lot. I gave up tons of “free time,” relegating what little I had mostly to Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings.
Right now, I see a ton of chances to throw a lot of work into something and turn it into something profitable. Those chances are everywhere. The only ingredient I really need for many of those chances are a lot of work and a willingness to invest most of my spare time into it for a significant period.
That’s the magic ingredient. Work.
Financially Struggling Viewpoint #5: You Need a Good Degree from a Good School to Get a Good Job – or Your Financial Future Will Be a Disaster
When I graduated, I felt I was really lucky. I had a degree in a hot field (computer science) from a fairly reputable school and I was able to use that to secure a job during the 2000-2002 economic downturn.
At that same time, I had friends in other majors that struggled to find work. I also had friends at other schools, even in my same area of study, that struggled to find work.
In my mind, that translated into the recipe for success. Unless you have a degree in a field with some demand and it was from a school of at least some repute, you were destined to be serving fries at Burger King.
Financially Successful Counterpoint #5: You Need a Degree – But a Professional Network and Other Traits Are Just as Important
Yet, when I look back on things, I see how important many other factors were. Most of the other factors were at least as important as the good degree from the good school.
For starters, I built a really strong professional network when I was in school. I knew most of the professors in my department really well, some of them on a first name basis. I wound up working as an undergraduate for three different professors at different times during my career and I left the employment of the first two under positive terms. I also knew some people in industry in my field. These weren’t pre-existing contacts that my parents made – I made them. I took the time to meet professors and people in industry and try to get to know them and become useful to them.
I also engaged in a ton of career-oriented extracurricular activities. I became the president of a community organization directly related to my field of study and participated in a few others.
I also completed some really noteworthy projects, none of them class-related. Two of them originated from my final job working for that professor, but others were done in my spare time. It was one of those projects that really helped me cinch my first job after college.
If I did not have these extra things, I would not have been able to find employment so easily. The degree helped, don’t get me wrong, but that degree just helped me get by the first pass of the hiring process. It was the other things – the professional network and letters of recommendation, the career-oriented groups and activities I spent my time on, the relevant projects I managed to complete and participated in – that made the difference.
You can add those things to your resume no matter where you went to school, no matter what you studied, and no matter where you are in your career. Those things are the things that set you apart in the hiring process.
Financially Successful Viewpoint #6: My “Future Self” Will Bail Me Out
No matter how screwed up my financial and professional life was, I never really worried about it too much. Why? I believed in my magical imaginary friend that I called my “future self.”
My “future self” would be earning a lot more than me. My “future self” will solve all of my problems. My “future self” will make all of these mistakes go away.
My “future self” allowed me to make horrendous financial mistakes.
Financially Successful Counterpoint #6: There Is No “Future Self” – There Is Only You
Eventually, I realized the truth. There was no “future self.” There was only me.
The only way I was ever going to escape from my financial problems was through my own actions and choices. There was never going to be some magical “me” from the future that would just fix everything. There was only the real me – the present me.
If I wanted a better future, I had to change how I acted. I had to change the choices I was making. I had to behave better.
So, yes, in a way, my “future self” did bail me out, but the truth was that my “future self” was the person I could have been all along. It was just the same old me, except that I was figuring out how to make better choices that would build up to a better future for myself rather than the same old choices that led to the same old future.
The opportunity to become that better “future self” was on the table all the time. All I had to do was make the decision to pick it up and become that better person.
Final Thoughts
The biggest difference between my financially troubled self and my financially disastrous self is actually a pretty simple one.
My financially troubled self always looked for someone else to blame for his troubles. It was society’s fault. It was the luck of rich people. It was this. It was that.
My financially successful self realized that virtually everything I have in life is up to me. It doesn’t matter if society makes things a little harder for me. I can overcome it. It doesn’t matter if someone else is born with more than me. I can overcome it.
All I have to do is make better choices than the average person. I need to work hard and not spend my money on stuff that is fleeting.
As I write this, it’s six in the morning and there’s a birthday to celebrate in my family. Because I’m willing to work hard, I’m up really early to get my work out of the way first so that I can spend time celebrating that birthday. Because I’m spending my money smarter, the person is going to only open a few gifts, but those gifts are going to matter.
If I compare that to how my financially disastrous self would have spent today, I would have slept in, filled the day with work, and had a ramshackle birthday celebration compressed into a really short timeframe, and it would have involved a bunch of forgettable presents that cost far more than what I spent on today’s actual gifts.
Instead, I chose to work harder. I chose to make better choices.
And that has made all the difference.
The post How Your Perspective on Wealth Changes as You Achieve Financial Goals appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Source The Simple Dollar The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/1Msts85
Your Purpose is What Will Lead YOU to Entrepreneurial Success
By Kelly Robbins Many women strive to live the entrepreneurial dream. They want to work from home, create a work-life balance that perhaps they didn’t grow up with, and they want to live an authentic life – a life of purpose. I am a firm believer that if you have the desire to accomplish a […]
Source The Work at Home Woman http://ift.tt/1JHy9xb
Source The Work at Home Woman http://ift.tt/1JHy9xb
I had to leave to upgrade with EE!
Buying a mobile phone is a little like trying to solve some ancient mathematical riddle such as Fermat’s last theorem. There are so many permutations you have to work through in order to find the right ratio of cost and benefit, that it kind of drives you bonkers.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1JMcna1
Want to Make More Money? Leverage the Power of Your Network
We’ve all heard the saying that we’re only as valuable as our networks. But when it comes down to real nickels and dimes, what does that really mean? How does your personal network equate to an actual income or salary for you? And what can you do to increase the value of your network… and therefore increase your income and salary?
It may surprise you to find out that the size and strength of your network can directly impact your health, happiness and income earning opportunities. But the best surprise of all is that simple, free steps can improve your network — and your earning power. ‘
Here’s how to make more money by expanding your circle and boosting your network.
The Link Between Your Network And Your Income
Humans are naturally social creatures, and happiness is being socially connected, according to many studies including one by the Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. The more connected and respected you feel within your network (and the larger that network is), the more safe, happy and healthy you will feel.
This fact sets the baseline for understanding how your network can help you earn more money: We achieve our peak performance in regards to productivity, engagement and creativity when we a “happiness advantage,” or positive mindset, according to the Harvard Business Review. So the first step in achieving your best income is making sure you build social and professional connections with other people.
Your network can directly affect your income, salary, career mobility and entrepreneurial prospects. Porter Gale, start-up advisor, public speaker, former VP of Marketing at Virgin America, and author of Your Network Is Your Net Worth, once wrote, “I believe that seeking out and working in collaboration with others who share your interests and values will provide a stronger foundation, enabling you to reach a higher level of success than you would on your own.”
It’s this concept of interpersonal security, Gale says, that can replace the financial reality of job security in this economic environment (that is, securing a new job when you get laid off), or help you tap into the sea of internal referrals (where who you know gets you the job). Maintaining strong connections with current co-workers, clients and personal acquaintances will help you be considered for new opportunities and prepared to make the most of them.
How to Increase the Value of Your Network
Fortunately, you don’t have to turn to tacky networking events and uncomfortable hotel conventions to increase your network, the value of your job and the income opportunities available to you. The best way to grow your network is to make a plan based on your comfort level and follow through on it consistently.
Actively Network on LinkedIn
Start with LinkedIn (unless they owe you money). Review your current connections and make note of how you met those people. Do you see them often in real life? Then take a few minutes to write a recommendation for them based on your relationship.
If you’ve never met them before, send a short note to invite them to connect for a coffee or just email a few short questions to get to know them better. You absolutely never know what can happen when you take the time to make a connection — you may be tapping into a whole new lucrative career.
As a freelance writer, my business skyrocketed once I stepped away from job boards and into my LinkedIn network. Working with referrals from within my network has helped established trust much more quickly than the typical call-and-proposal format, and many top writers have had the same experience.
When you’ve worked through your existing network on LinkedIn, start expanding it. Keep track of who writes the articles you read online and look them up on LinkedIn. Send a connection request and compliment the writer on their article. If possible, include a follow-up question that gets a conversation going.
Then, look through the networks of your connections (your second- and third-degree connections) to see if you’ve forgotten about people you’ve worked with, studied with or met through mutual acquaintances.
Find In-Person Networking Opportunities
When you first start networking in person, don’t feel pressured to move too far out of your comfort zone.
Start with the professional network within your workplace, building and parking lot. Then look to your personal network through your neighborhood, gym and church. Introduce yourself to people you see all the time and explain yourself honestly with a phrase such as, “Hello, My name is X. I see you all the time at X, so I thought I would introduce myself today. How are you?” Very small, regular introductions like this will help you get on your network’s radar and establish baseline relationships that can be mutually beneficial in the future.
When you feel comfortable with the progress you’ve made networking within your immediate environment, think about ways you can be more active. Are there relevant, fun conferences within your industry that you could attend? Do you have any hobbies or interests you could pursue in your off time that might help you meet more people? You don’t need to zero in on business-specific people because business relationships can blossom even in casual, friendly environments. What matters is making genuine connections with people with whom you have things in common.
Are you ready to boost your earning potential (and your happiness and productivity)? Then pledge to spend some time this month actively working on your personal and professional network. You never know how your connections will conspire to help you discover and attempt new opportunities — but you do know that these opportunities are in direct proportion to the network you actively build.
Your Turn: How has networking helped you increase your productivity and income? Share your strategies in the comments!
Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!
Sarah Greesonbach writes about career, personal finance and eating Paleo at Life [Comma] Etc.
The post Want to Make More Money? Leverage the Power of Your Network appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/1IwCBM5
الاشتراك في:
الرسائل (Atom)