Vanya Wryter Consulting Services

Tag: Income

  • 3 Ways to Increase Your Income If You’re Self-Employed

    3 Ways to Increase Your Income If You’re Self-Employed

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    One of the biggest challenges of being self-employed is doing everything yourself, from the actual work to accounting to marketing your business. Eventually, the self-employed want to become successful enough to get a steady workflow and make their ideal income.

    Some self-employed freelancers or business owners stop there, but others want to reach higher. Their reputation is established, and they are getting so much business that they cannot do all the work themselves. Here is an opportunity to double or triple their yearly income.

    Eventually, instead of being a one-person business running every department, they might hire employees. However, some business owners may want to avoid the headache of managing several people. They may wish to continue as an independent freelancer.

    Hiring employees isn’t the only option for increasing one’s income, although it is the first one that comes to mind. Here are three ways to increase your income if you’re self-employed and the pros and cons of each method.

    1 Hire employees

    You’ve always wanted to become your own boss. That’s why you started your own company and became self-employed. The next step is to scale up your company by hiring employees.

    Pros

    Depending on the nature and size of your business, you could step back and hire people with the right expertise to manage the company. You could hire an accountant and human resources person. Or you could continue with a hands-on role in the company.

    When you hire employees, you have resources dedicated to completing your work. You control their time and schedule because they signed a contract to work part-time or full-time, at specific hours of the day for you. If they want time off, they must let you know first.

    Having a dedicated team allows your business to scale. You can provide the same services you did before or add more services now that you have the cash flow and resources to hire experts to provide those services.

    Cons

    Once you hire employees, you are expected to provide a specific number of work hours for your employees each month. It becomes more crucial that your lead flow is steady to ensure you continue to operate at a profit.

    You’ll have more management details to look after. Whether you manage your business yourself or hire someone, you will deal with work contracts, tracking employee hours and pay, and other details related to human resources and taxes.

    2 Subcontract your work

    It’s a wonderful milestone in your career when you have so many clients that you can pick and choose which ones to keep by raising your rates or ending contracts. However, you may want to keep all your existing clients and add new ones instead of turning them away.

    One way to scale up your business is to work with subcontractors. For example, if you write articles for your clients, subcontract your work to writers who are building their portfolios and writing experience.

    Pros

    You can take on more clients and work assignments by working with subcontractors. They provide the same service as you so, in a way, you are duplicating yourself. You charge your clients your usual rate, keep a percentage as a management fee, and use the remainder to pay your subcontractors.

    If you enjoy management, you will coordinate what assignments need to be done, which subcontractor needs to complete them, and get the assignments to the client on time.

    Cons

    Most likely, your subcontractors are developing their writing experience or don’t have steady clients themselves. Part of your time is spent managing their work, from assigning to checking what they do. If you dislike management, you could hire someone to look after these details.

    Another challenge is if the subcontractor’s work isn’t up to standard, you’ll find a lot of your time is spent editing their work. However, when your subcontractor gains more experience over time, they will charge higher rates and want to work directly with their own clients.

    3 Collaborate with businesses that offer complementary services

    You are highly talented at what you do, but what if your clients need services related to what you do – but are beyond what you offer? For example, you offer writing services and you notice that your clients often want graphic design as well. You could become a jack of all trades. Or you could start an agency or hire employees.

    Another option is to collaborate with other freelancers or business owners who offer services that complement yours. Partner up with a graphic designer or website designer so your clients can find the services they need in “one place” instead of looking for them independently. When you refer a client to your collaboration partners, you get a commission based on a percentage or rate that you’ve both agreed upon.

    Pros

    If you’re very talented but building up your clientele as a freelancer, working with successful collaboration partners will help to get you clients. Their clients already trust them, so they extend that trust when they refer business to you.

    Whether you’re referring or receiving business, this partnership expands the services you can offer to your clients without learning those skills yourself. You also can handle learning how to manage a company or employees.

    Cons

    The relationship relies on a certain degree of trust. When you refer a client to a collaboration partner, the client’s trust in you is on the line. If that partner provides the quality of service your client expects, your reputation will also be protected.

    Another challenge is your partner’s availability. They may not be available when your client needs their service. When that happens, your client may work with another service provider so you won’t get a commission.

    Accounting is also a consideration. You’ll need to figure out how much commission (or referral fee) to give your partner for each contract and how to keep track of those amounts.

    Key Takeaways

    It’s a sign of success to face this decision: turn away clients or keep accepting new ones although you don’t have enough hours in the day to do the work. At this point, you can scale your business by hiring employees or subcontractors. Or, you can rely on your client’s trust in your reputation to recommend them to your collaborator partners. Any of these choices can increase your income and your ability to provide more to your clients.  

    Related posts:
    How to Negotiate and Secure a Retainer Fee with a Client
    Work-Life Balance: Enjoying Your Job

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  • How a Positive Attitude Makes You Money

    How a Positive Attitude Makes You Money

    Believe it: how you see yourself and the world around you affects what makes you money. It is crucial to have a positive attitude if you want to take the next step in your personal growth and expand your wallet. Having a positive mindset will affect your income, appearance, friends, and actions.

    Attitude of gratitude

    If you approach life with a positive mindset, you will focus on the winning aspects of life. One way is to have an Attitude of Gratitude. Think of all the things in your life that you are grateful for, such family, friends, health, wealth, a vacation, or even the weather. Sometimes it becomes too easy to get caught up in everyday problems such as mortgage payments, a lousy commute, or an annoying coworker. These issues can drag you down and bring you negativity.

    Instead, focus on the positive aspects of your life. Be grateful that you have a good friend who is there to listen when you need some advice. Be grateful that you have a source of income to pay for your upcoming credit card bill.

    Having a positive mindset is the foundation for additional growth. You set your own boundaries on what you deserve. If you believe you are someone who owns a one-bedroom condo and your income is $50,000 a year, then that will set the limits of your life. You can dream about increasing your income to $1,000,000, but until you believe you deserve it, your situation isn’t likely to change.

    Thinking positive starts the foundation to increasing your limits. People who are negative tend to be more cynical about opportunities. As a result, they limit themselves. What makes you money—and the income you deserve—is what lifestyle you believe you deserve. Only then will changes occur.

    You are the average of your social circle

    “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”— Jim Rohn, motivational speaker

    Having a positive mindset is key to bringing positive changes to your life. But your circle of friends also affects the outcomes in your social life, career, and family life. There is a saying that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, whether those five people include your significant other, friends, or coworkers.

    One way to think about that average is this: What are the life goals of these five? What is the average of their income? What do they do in their free time? What is their health and fitness level like? When you have the average for all of these answers, figure out where you fit in. Is your income the highest? Is your health somewhere in the middle?

    If you’re looking for a drastic change from these five people, this change that you desire may be met with conflict. For example, you may be the first one to get married and have children. Or you may be the first one to want to start a business, instead of working for an employer.

    Well-meaning friends may advise you against starting your own business because they feel more comfortable with job security and remind you that many startups fail. They don’t want to see you fail so they try to protect you.

    You may have a positive mindset when you start your business, but the lack of customers and the advice of your well-meaning friends may start to replace your positive thoughts with negative ones.

    The key in this situation is to stay positive. A positive attitude makes you money and gets you closer to your income goals. Positive people see opportunities everywhere. They will not obsess over disappointments or failures. In the long run, even if they meet short-term setbacks, their persistence will help them to prevail and meet success.

    For this reason, it is important to be with others with the same mindset as you. For example, socialize with successful business owners who believe in you and support you. Their encouragement will help you maintain a positive attitude as you seek a new form of financial success.

    People are attracted to positive people

    Positive people attract all kinds of people, whether they are positive or negative because of the energy they radiate. Positive people gravitate toward positive because they lift each other up.

    The optimism of positive leaders motivates others. When they share stories of their struggles, people become inspired by their messages of hope.

    Negative people also gravitate toward positive people because of their ability to motivate. Negative people see the problems in the situation and don’t necessarily become proactive about changing their situation. They seek leadership and hope, but can’t seem to keep themselves afloat. They can pull positive people down.

    Strong leaders are positive people who can motivate others, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. People are drawn to their ability to find solutions. They’re the ones asking, what opportunities are out there that make you money? Increase your connections? In the business world, these types of leaders are needed to take a business to the next level or to increase its revenue.

    Small steps lead to great outcomes

    People who are positive don’t give up easily. They focus on getting things done, instead of putting things off. When faced with a huge task, such as cleaning up a messy house, they will start with picking up one object and putting it away. Large projects start with small accomplishments.

    Similarly, when faced with a task, they will not focus on perfection right away. Nor will they set up mental roadblocks for themselves. Procrastination is incredibly destructive.

    For example, if the goal is to learn to write a thank you email quickly, they can start with the easy stuff, such as typing out the recipient’s name and writing a sentence to explain what they are thanking them for.

    They won’t focus on grammar or spelling. They won’t fuss about whether they are choosing the best words or research if they’ve used the latest fonts or formatting styles. Working on any of these details will only delay the process and completing the task.

    Similarly, when taking on a goal such as an increase in their income, positive people will make a plan and stick to it. They will map out the process they need to take to achieve that goal, and they will keep working to reach that goal every day.

    Even if they hit setbacks in their plan, they will keep going, knowing that eventually, they will reach their destination. It’s that positive mind that makes you money and improves your financial situation.

    Taking action, even if the actions are small, imperfect steps, is more important to them than planning out the perfect result and not taking action at all. They don’t fear failure. They are believers that the tortoise, and not the hare, can win the race.

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