3 Key Skills to Give You a Strong Income Edge
By Acceler8now.com Investing Education Team September, 2007
One of the key factors that can shape your financial direction and rate of progress is the income stream you are able to generate. Your income stream creates a potential, which if well-managed, should move you progressively towards your financial goals. Income-generation alone, obviously, will not save the day, because many things could go wrong with the income you generate, irrespective of the size. That's why your spending plan is also a key factor, just as much as your investment strategies. For many though, the challenge of creating income, which is a critical step, is a daunting one. Your sound financial planning and management ideas many fall flat or achieve very limited results, if the income you need to give teeth to them cannot be brought in. That's why the income planning component of your financial plan must be approached with that understanding that it is a major ingredient of the success you aspire for. This is particularly important at the initial stage of your quest for financial growth. When you have been able to plug some earnings into some good investments and achieved a level of diversification, your income sources will multiply while the inflow begins to grow. But before then, you have to struggle to earn enough income to help you programme your advancement into that autopilot status. Not an easy job, but not one to feel helpless about. You can do it and here are 3 key steps you can take to boost your income-earning capacity, as soon as you choose to:
1. Get a Basic Skill
This is the most important step you must take to guarantee an income. The income you earn will come from the readiness of other people to pay for a product or service you provide. To achieve that, you need a skill that helps you deliver what others want but can't provide to themselves. Choose one and specialise in it: medicine, engineering, law, trading, sports, art, teaching, welding, tailoring or whatever. It's limitless and the choice is simply yours, based on your endowments and passion. You must have some, don't you? If you can pick any and build it up, you are halfway to an income stream. To further enhance the effectiveness of that process, you must seek to achieve significant expertise and excellence in that skill. Chances are that many ther people will also be involved in the same activity, which immediately means competition. The only way to ensure you have an edge that commands economic advantage is by being at the top of your trade. To raise your potential for income, you must be highly competitive, which is what the expert edge
readily guarantees for you. So, work to become an expert in your field.
2. Learn to Sell
Selling is also a skill, which some people specialise in. You may not be a specialist in the field, but to optimise your earnings potential in whatever field, you need to acquire the ability to sell. Everything is about selling. When you seek a job, you are looking to sell your skills and experience to a prospective employer. A doctor sells his professional expertise to patients who pay for his services. A politician sells his ideas, personality and party programmes to the electorate. Musicians, footballers and indeed, everybody in the business of earning money all sell what they have to offer. Your ability to do so has a lot of bearing on how successful you will be in making money from the basic skill or product you have. If you have a weak selling power, you may fail to sell at all or may not realise a fair value or as much scope as you potentially should.
Engaging the services of sales personnel and marketing experts will just be fine when you can afford that, but sharpening your personal skills will help, especially when you cannot pay for a marketing service. Complementing your basic skill with selling skills advances you another major notch towards ensuring a healthy inflow of income. That's what will readily put your income stream into a robust shape.
3. Acquire Financial Management Skills
Round off your success strategy for income-generation by devoting some attention to acquiring personal finance and general financial management skills. Here again, some people are specialists: the accountants, financial experts, fund managers, etc. You don't have to be, but you need some basic knowledge that can empower you to really achieve full control, not just over how much and what income you generate, but also how you put all that to work to further expand your financial capacity. Everything you do eventually boils down to money or has financial content. You need to understand how money works and know its language. You need to understand the principles that are at the root of financial management. You need to know about relevant institutions and their roles and about key instruments and how you can use them. While using experts is always a good thing, having foundational knowledge will put you in the driving seat. Without such knowledge, success is still possible, but having it immediately gives a huge boosts to your capacity to accelerate your advancement.
Multiple Skills, One Objective
These three skills combined, will leave you razor-sharp in your bid to earn good income. You will possibly wonder why we have a lot of people that earn little or no income. Well, check it and you will find that the three skills will be lacking. For many, even a basic skill has not been acquired and so, the person offers nothing that others will be willing to put money down for. When you place your life at that level where you provide nothing that other people need and want to pay for, you have sentenced yourself to an empty purse. It won't matter how much you go blaming the government or people around you or for how long you do so. Income will elude you for as long as you haven't developed a skill that translates to product(s) or service that people want. When you have one, you must also go on to sell it for income. To change your fortune, take the right step now and develop your capacity to earn by acquiring a skill. Enhance the result you get from that skill by supporting it with selling and financial management skills. Your income potential will immediately soar.
Acquiring a basic skill or the complementary ones will not
be a herculean task if you have the will. Failure will more likely result from lack of commitment and the absence of the will-power to success. If you diligently pursue any of the many options that are already placed in you at creation, you will develop the expertise you need to be a success.
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