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Nazreen
Tue 22nd Apr 2008, 08:46
We are now living in a "multi" generation where you hear such words as multi-level, multi-platform or multi-tasking but have you ever heard of Multiple Sources of Income? In our day and age, it is not enough that we hold regular jobs, be hardworking and loyal to our company. Especially now with rising Inflation, companies are looking to cut costs and reduce company spending. Do you really think that your job is safe and secure in your company even though you've been a loyal employee for the past 5 or 10 years? Honestly speaking, your company would rather hire a new, young and inexperienced staff than keep the old ones. Reason being... their salaries are lower and they can always train them!

Let me ask you this very hard question and it would be good if your write down your answer in a piece of paper. How many days, months or years will you survive if you got sacked from your job right now? Come on let's be honest here, for me I answered just less than 6 months since Singapore is the top 7 world's most expensive place to live in!

If this ever happens it would be good if you have additional sources of income, right? No, I'm not asking you to work 2 or 3 jobs because if you do this, you'll be dead by the time you even get to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. What I'm asking you to do is to look into other avenues to earn money in addition to your regular job. This is where MSI comes in.

It is important that you don't spread yourself too thinly though that you risk becoming inferior to your competitors and at the risk of losing your primary source of income. As Fergal said...


Yes it is always nice to have something to fall back on should you lose your job. However, you should be careful that your part-time business does not require so much work and time that you become less effective at your job and risk losing it. Unless of course that it is growing fast enough to become your primary source of income.


I've listed below some MSI opportunities that you might want to consider.

- Internet Marketing

- Investments (Stock, Bonds, Properties, Unit Trust, Money Market, Fixed Income and others)
*** Take note that I didn't include bank's savings accounts here. Do you know why? Banks only give a pathetic 0.75% interest on your savings but because of Inflation (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=658), you're actually losing money. ***

- Forex Trading
*** Foreign Exchange or trading in foreign currencies ***

- Work at Home jobs
*** Please take note that more than 90% of Work at Home opportunities in the Internet are scams so please be careful in choosing ***

- Turning your hobbies into money
*** This, in my opinion, is the best because what's better than doing something you love and earning money at the same time ***

- Ghostwriting or Freelance Writing
*** There are a lot of websites out there that pay for articles ***

- Infopreneurship
*** This refers to an entrepreneur who makes money by selling/sharing information on the web ***

- Network Marketing
*** Otherwise known as MLM, it allows a parent multi-level marketing company to market their products directly to consumers by means of relationship referral and direct selling. ***


Use of Leverage to improve our MSI:
When we already have an MSI, we must learn how to make it faster, bigger and better. What better way than to use leverage.


When your business is already at the point where you cannot handle everything by yourself, it's time to hire people. When hiring people or looking for business partners, don't go to all your friends immediately and ask them to work for you or become your partners. You must first consider this very important concept about leverage - Work with people who have what you don't have. Usually your friends would have the same hobbies, same ideas, same perception and have the same social standing as you!

Leverage takes into consideration - RICE. I'm not talking about the rice that most asians eat but the following:

Resource ($$$ and Time)
Ideas
Contacts
Expertise

You must look and work with people who have $$$ (financial leverage) and time, who have different Ideas from you, who have different Contacts from you and who have different Expertise from you!


Your comments are greatly appreciated. If you know other types of MSI opportunities, kindly let me know so I can add these in the list. Thanks in advance!


Acknowledgements:
Thanks Fergal for stressing the importance of not spreading yourself too thinly :)

Footzilla
Tue 22nd Apr 2008, 14:02
Well I am too small to do jobs right now. I am only 14. When i ll be 16 or 18 then i ll consider doing a job. btw thanks for sharing

Nazreen
Wed 23rd Apr 2008, 01:44
Sorry guys, as I was going through the threads in Business Advice Forum, I came across the same topic but instead of MSI it was Multiple Income Streams (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=19) which are basically the same.

The points that should be noted from that thread are the following:
- the advantage to having multiple sources of income so that when one income stream or source of income dries up, you have other sources of revenue as backup
- the importance of not to spread yourself too thinly that can result in you being inferior to your competitors

I will be updating the main post later today to include these very important points so as to make this post as a guide for MSI (or MIS).

Again if you know of other MSI (or MIS) opportunities, kindly let me know so I can add in this guide.

Fergal
Wed 23rd Apr 2008, 07:13
Yes it is always nice to have something to fall back on should you lose your job. However, you should be careful that your part-time business does not require so much work and time that you become less effective at your job and risk losing it. Unless of course that it is growing fast enough to become your primary source of income.

There is always the danger that you spend a large percentage of your time on something that accounts for a very small percentage of your income. It is worth being conscious of this so that you don't put your main source of income in jeopardy. This principal also applies when you are self-employed.

Nazreen
Wed 23rd Apr 2008, 17:00
Thanks Fergal. I hope that you don't mind if I put your comments in the main post regarding the importance of not spreading yourself too thinly that you put your primary source of income in jeopardy.

I've also made additional research on MSI opportunities and added Infopreneurship and Network Marketing in the list.

Fergal
Wed 23rd Apr 2008, 18:55
I hope that you don't mind if I put your comments in the main post ...

No problem at all, good and useful article.

Nazreen
Fri 25th Apr 2008, 04:53
When you already have an MSI, we must also learn how to make it faster, bigger and better. What better way than to make use of leverage.

I've updated the main post to include my post from Hiring vs Doing it All (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=30&page=4) about leverage.

Alexis
Thu 8th May 2008, 15:51
Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of information.

Nazreen
Fri 9th May 2008, 15:05
Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of information.

You're very much welcome Alexis! :)

I've just came across two more MSI opportunities but it seems that I can no longer update the main post so I'm listing them here.

- Franchising
*** Franchising is an arrangement whereby a supplier, or franchiser, grants a dealer, or franchisee, the right to sell products in exchange for some type of consideration or compensation. ***

- Real Estate
*** This is different from investing in properties. I just came to know last week that a friend of mine is doing real estate (rentals and sales) part-time.***

Footzilla
Sat 10th May 2008, 15:55
- Real Estate
*** This is different from investing in properties. I just came to know last week that a friend of mine is doing real estate (rentals and sales) part-time.***

The thing I know is that you can earn alot of money by setting up your own real estate company. It's too profitable.

Fergal
Sat 10th May 2008, 18:43
- Real Estate
*** This is different from investing in properties. I just came to know last week that a friend of mine is doing real estate (rentals and sales) part-time.***

What country is your friend operating from?

Is it common for people to run part time real estate businesses there?

Nazreen
Sun 11th May 2008, 03:55
She's in Singapore of course. Sorry, I didn't know that you cannot be in the real estate business part-time in other countries. You can even be a part-time financial adviser here in Singapore. As long as there's no conflict of interests, it's okay.

Fergal
Sun 11th May 2008, 11:58
There isn't any law against it in Ireland but it is not common practice. Real estate deals are generally handled by established estate agents who operate full time businesses with a handful of staff and a high street office.

Maybe there is an opportunity for these part-time businesses in Ireland, now that the property market is slowing down. Operating part-time would allow for much lower overheads and these reduced costs could be passed onto the client.

BlueEew
Wed 14th May 2008, 00:29
I have never really looked into any of them types of thing. I guess it's something that is different in all countries. For example the law discussion that's been going on. It's different.

Nazreen
Wed 14th May 2008, 01:51
...For example the law discussion that's been going on. It's different.

I'm not sure I know what this law discussion that you're talking about here BlueEew. Can you elaborate more on this?

BlueEew
Thu 15th May 2008, 01:34
There isn't any law against it in Ireland but it is not common practice. Real estate deals are generally handled by established estate agents who operate full time businesses with a handful of staff and a high street office.

Maybe there is an opportunity for these part-time businesses in Ireland, now that the property market is slowing down. Operating part-time would allow for much lower overheads and these reduced costs could be passed onto the client.

This is what I was refering to.

All differnt business types have differnt laws. The laws for each are also differnt in other countries.

Nazreen
Thu 15th May 2008, 04:54
Sorry about that BlueEew.

I guess the difference in each countries' policies and laws will also affect as to how we conduct our business. Knowledge of these laws and policies will give any business a strategic advantage. With this, they will be able to manage their businesses more effectively.