Obviously most of us don’t have the kind of capital that Bill Gates has to work with, but I feel that everyone could learn from his philosophy towards philanthropy. I admire that his approach is both compassionate and practical. He sees charitable endeavors as something well worth investing in, because ultimately everyone benefits from an overall better quality of life around the world. He sums it up himself pretty well: “[The] hybrid engine of self-interest and concern for others can serve a much wider circle of people than can be reached by self-interest or caring alone.” I feel like that’s a refreshingly balanced philosophy. Not only that, but as this Infographic shows, there are direct results that speak to just how powerful a well-informed and carefully invested philanthropist can be.

Read on to find out more about the powerful things happening at the hands of Bill Gates, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the legacy of philanthropy started by some of America’s most successful and most innovative figures. It’s nice to remember that success doesn’t always create greed — it can enable a powerful force of giving and problem-solving.

Update Much thanks to Matthew Herper at Forbes for pointing out that the vaccine Bill Gates spent $200 million to rescue was in fact for malaria, and not for polio as the infographic previously stated.

This guest post is from the guys over at WeWearKhakis.com. Christian and Shane write mostly about personal finance, self improvement projects, and how to have a fulfilling life on a budget.  Check out their site and learn how you can be an awesome guy or gal in Khakis too!

Just a few weeks ago my side hustles became my full time job. Naturally, I was reawakened to just how important having a side hustle truly is. To me, working side gigs has always been second nature, and finding work to do in addition to my “regular” day to day job came naturally. I might hear a co-worker complain about doing some tedious yard work they had no interest in, or maybe a friend mention someone had a broken computer, or maybe see an opportunity to do some freelance graphic design work, and I always jumped at any opportunity. 

Over time, word of mouth got around that I had certain talents and was willing to trade them for cash and as a result – I had my own steady side hustle(s) going.

I know what you may be thinking: “What about those of us who do not fall so naturally into freelancing or doing your own little side business?”  Well, starting from scratch and juggling extra work with kids, a normal work week, and life in general can be tough.

Allow me to break down how it has all worked out for me, then maybe those of you interested in starting your own little side gig can follow my example and possibly do it better.

Discover What You’re Good At

I know it seems obvious, but figuring out what are you good at, or more to the point, what you are good enough at that you could sell it to someone is the first step. My wife got on a kick where she really liked to make jewelry and I had the great idea that she could consign or sell it to small retail shops around town. After showing off a few of her pieces to a couple friends, we abandoned the idea. 

On the other hand, say you do have a knack for making awesome jewelry and do so regularly as a hobby. You might have just found your side hustle!  Point being – people have to want what you are selling.

For me, I have always been a tinkerer and loved building web pages and designing graphics. I used to spend endless hours of my own time in high school doing so. So making the leap from doing these things for fun to for hire, came naturally.

Maybe you have a knack for engines, cutting grass, building fences, or selling stuff on craigslist.  Whatever it is, capitalize on you skill, and you have now found your side hustle.

Learn How to Grow and Market Your Talents

The next step is actually getting work. I am not much of a salesman. I have never cold called anyone or done a single sales pitch. Instead, I listen out for people needing help, network, and offer free advice. Then I offer to help – which eventually turns into a paycheck. This type of marketing strategy (or lack thereof) does not lead to explosive growth, but over the last five years or so I have seen my business continue to grow and grow. 

If you treat your customer right and make them happy, they will probably spread the word about your services for you. I am also quick to do volunteer work for causes or organizations I believe in and hope that they too will refer me to new customers. I have had mixed success with this, but if it is a cause you care about, why not pitch in?

Now that my freelancing is a full time gig for me, I have began thinking more about proactively pushing my services and how I will go about it. I think the number one move is to keep it simple and personal. I plan on making as much face to face contact with people who existing customers referred me to as possible.

In the end, I think success in business relies on building trust and letting your network do most of the work for you.  Almost all of my “best” customers have come via direct referral from other happy clients. 

Find a Good Work/Life/Work Balance

I have heard my wife complain many times that even when I am home, I am not really at home. Instead, I am nestled in my cozy work corner designing away.  Having your own side hustle in addition to your full-time day job has a nasty way of sucking up all your time, especially as you become more successful.

For me, I love working for myself. The sense of accomplishment I feel developing relationships with clients all on my own, doing a great job for them, then being paid for it all, is a major source of happiness in my life. At the same time, I have to remember my family.

I try to set side hustle work hours for myself. These hours shift a lot for me, depending on what is going on. For a while they were from 5am to 7am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Before that my side hustle work day was basically all of Sunday morning. Now my side hustle hours are whenever I can squeeze them in between playing with my 3 year-old and changing my newborn baby’s diapers.  I love it!

I think the lesson to take away is that it is important to set rules for yourself and establish a structure. Otherwise you will find your work hours leaking into your family time.  Moms usually aren’t too happy about that.

Make it Legal

I have not had to deal with too many disgruntled customers, but after one close call, I decided I better make my side hustle official. This meant forming an LLC, getting a separate bank account, drafting service agreements to be signed before each project, and keeping solid accounting on the business.

Hopefully you will never find yourself in any kind of legal problems due to your side hustle and freelance work, but should you, make sure it’s the business being sued and not YOU! 

Luckily in my state, setting up an LLC is as simple as going to the Secretary of State’s website, filling out some simple paperwork and sending them a check to cover some fees. There really is little reason to hire a lawyer in most cases either. I used simple internet searches and websites like legalzoom.com to guide me.

Never Mix Work with the Side Hustle!

I have been lucky enough to develop some tight relationships with my clients. Some lean on me closely to keep the IT side of their businesses running. Sometimes something might go wrong during the day and I might find a client calling me for support at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday! What is a guy to do?  Do I leave work to take care of a personal assignment?

I made the mistake one time of actually helping a client out while sitting in my cubicle at work. The conversation I had afterwards with my boss was neither pleasant nor fruitful.

While I don’t have to worry about that anymore, my suggestion is, if the side hustle does start finding its way into the normal business hours of the day, set boundaries. In fact, I have decided to never make the mistake of letting a boss know about my side work again. If I do ever get another mid day call for support, I will politely ask them if I can call them back and take a short break. This usually means my lunches and coffee breaks are shared with client work. 

But hey – when this starts happening too much, it’s starting to look like a good time to change that side gig to a full time job!

Get a Side Hustle!

Yes, if you develop a fruitful side hustle, you are going to be putting in a lot more hours, but if it is something you enjoy and you treat it almost as a hobby (that you get paid for) then why not?

For me, my side income has been invaluable. It started helping me make it through college, then grew into a tool to build my savings, and later went on to help me pay for grad school! Then a few weeks back I found myself laid off work and now it’s helping pay the mortgage.

In addition to that, it keeps me active in the community, meeting new people, networking, and developing new skill sets. I also look pretty impressive as a guy coming out of an MBA program and being able to show a proven history of building my own client base and effectively running my own business. For me, the benefits have been immeasurable.

Find something you are good at, enjoy, or are even passionate about and figure out a way to sell it. It is as easy as that. Start out small and keep working.

Have your own side gig or advice for those looking to start out?  Let us know in the comments!

“Did you hear about the biologist who was the life of the party? He had to throw out his results. Apparently he had no control.” Ba-dum-chhh!

If you found yourself laughing uncomfortably loud on the last joke, you may just be nerdy enough for the rest of this article. I’ve always loved science. So much so that if you stop by our house on a Sunday afternoon you’ll almost certainly catch us watching a marathon of Discovery channel specials. I’m also a personal finance blogger so whenever I can merge the two, I’m in Artiodactyla Suinae heaven. Haha! Get it? Ok, that was a last one. I promise.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to make money with science…

Astronomy – the study of space

Become a NASA Test Dummy - NASA is currently looking for willing participants to come down to their University of Texas facility and be a part of a bed rest study. The study pays participants $5,000 a month to stay in bed for 90 days and let NASA study the impacts to your body.

The downside to this project is that they are studying your body for muscle/bone loss, similarly to what an astronaut might experience living in a zero-gravity environment. On the plus side, it’s 3 months of quiet time to read, watch TV, and play video games. Here’s a link to the application.

Climatology – the study of weather conditions over time

Invest in Hurricane Options – A new website called Weather Risk Solutions is promising to let users buy options on where they think a hurricane might strike. The site is still in its beta stages, but the idea is modeled off of flood options which are used by investors as a way to insure their capital against floods.

For an example of how this works, lets look at the Galveston, Texas option. If you thought a hurricane might strike Galveston this year, you can purchase an option for $30.50. If unfortunately, a hurricane were to strike Galveston, you would be paid $997.40.

Biology – the study of living things

Sign up for a Clinical Trial – This is probably one of those weird ways to make money that you’ve read about, but never knew how to actually do. Try doing a search for “make money research studies” and you’ll have enough spam to survive a cold winter, but you won’t actually find a study to participate in.

I’ve developed a little trick for finding out about studies in my area. I use the National Institute of Health’s website, ClinicalTrials.gov. It’s mainly used by doctors/scientists to research studies in their field, but it can be a helpful resource for finding a medical study that is paying in your area.

When I searched for my city I found more than 3,000 results. Each result will tell you the requirements in order to participate and gives you the contact information for the sponsors. Sometimes the listing will even include a website that will take you to their website where you can fill out an application.

Physics – the study of matter, energy and time

Get Paid to Reduce Your Energy Usage – One of the cool trends in the fight to reduce energy usage is that there are growing number of financial incentives. There are even a couple of websites that will pay you to do your part.

One such website is EarthAid.net. Once you’ve signed up for a free account, they will link up with your online electric bill and help you track your energy usage. Every month that you reduce your energy usage, you are rewarded with points that can be redeemed for cash and discounts to local retailers.

RecycleBank.com is another great resource, which among other things will reward you for pledging to shut off your lights before you leave the house. You can also make money recycling your garbage with Recyclebank and pledging to save water.

So what are you waiting for my fellow nerds? Start cashing in on your love of science.

If you aren’t up for these types of money-makers, here are another 40 business ideas to start from home.

Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater

Look for ways to cut costs, but never stop advertising. You can reduce your advertising expenditures without undermining your marketing strategy. Jay Conrad Levinson’s book, Guerrilla Marketing, published way back in 1984, revolutionized marketing for small businesses by focusing on unconventional, personal, sensational, or interactive marketing techniques. Now, more than ever, guerrilla marketing is the smart way to reach your target audience. The good news is that many of these unconventional techniques are also less expensive that traditional advertising channels such as the yellow pages, newspapers, and direct mail.

Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and consumers no longer feed at the trough of formerly reliable advertising media such as the Sunday newspaper or TV “events” such as the Olympics or Oscars. Nowadays everything is fragmented, granular and personal. So your advertising needs to be too.

That’s actually good news, because as a small business, you are in a much better position than a larger corporation to connect one-on-one with customers. Here are a few ideas advertize your business using a targeted approach:

Create a Website

Every business should have a website. For a few dollars a month in web-hosting fees you can create and maintain a simple website, as long as you don’t plan to do any e-commerce from the site. Hosts like hostgator.com or godaddy.com have entry-level packages with DIY templates and that will have your business online in a matter of hours. Don’t forget to set up an automatic email signature in your email account that includes your new website, so all of your outgoing messages contain your URL and a blurb about your business.

Try Signage

A sign in your yard, in a window, or on your mailbox can be an effective way to advertise your business within your local community. If your business mainly draws clients from your local area, a tasteful sign is an excellent promotional tool. Check for neighborhood association or zoning restrictions before ordering, and make sure the sign you order will hold up to the elements so that it looks neat and professional.

Hit the Road

Have a magnetic sign made for your car to advertise your business. Keep it simple so it can be read even while you are driving down the road. These signs spread the word about your business, even when you are parked at the grocery store. It also helps you start conversations with potential clients you bump into while making the rounds.

Post Flyers

Flyers under the windshield wiper may be annoying, but they are an undeniable way to get your message into your potential customers’ hands–as long as you have permission from the parking lot owner. Rather than papering the entire parking lot, focus on cars that meet the selection criteria for your business. For example, if you have a daycare business, you can place flyers on cars with car seats inside. Note that the U.S. Postal Service prohibits placing of flyers and other materials in or on mailboxes, and any items placed in or on mailboxes are subject to current postal charges. .

Wear Your Ad

Print t-shirts or hats with your business’ name and contact information, and wear them—a lot. Sites like Vistaprint.com and Zazzle.com have decent prices for even small orders of custom merchandise. Wear your ads to school functions, to the gym, to the kids’ soccer match, and don’t be shy about striking up a conversation about your business.

Take Advantage of Free Sites

While no one likes a Facebook contact who relentlessly spams his friends, restrained self-promotion is perfectly acceptable. Create a Facebook page to highlight your business, and post periodic updates about new products or services, promotions or special deals, and recent awards and recognition. It’s a good idea to also post hints and tips for potential customers to create a congenial atmosphere of trust. For example, a CPA can post tax tips at tax time, and a photographer can offer tips to help customers with their own snapshots.

Promote your business on Craigslist or other free classified ads site. A few kooks may reply, but you’ll also generate serious leads for your business. Craigslist can be especially productive if your business client base includes college students (for example moving services or tutoring).

Avoid the Yellow Pages, Unless…

National and Local Yellow Page advertising is expensive, and many marketing experts think the end is near for this musty device. However, if your business if in one of the top-yielding Yellow Page headings, you might want to think twice before yanking your ad. The most frequently searched yellow page headings result in reliable leads and a steady stream of customers. After all, when the plumbing backs up, most of us still let our fingers do the walking to the Plumbers heading.

Go Viral

Whether it’s a silly youtube video, a guy in a gorilla suit on the street corner, or an airplane banner flying overhead with a pitch-perfect message, try some alternative forms of advertising to create buzz about your business. Like the saying goes: any press is good press, so anything that causes a stir and gets people talking about your business will help generate interest and new leads.

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.

Frugal Dad recently had a guest post by MD on Why Young Entrepreneurs Should Hold Down a Job After College. This is the route that I took and so today I’m here to warn you of the dangers of this approach.

I have known that I wanted to be an Entrepreneur since my Freshman year of college, but I always saw myself getting a “real job” for a while first (because that’s what people expected, I suppose). And so after graduating I took a job with a Fortune 1,000 company in my home town.

Little by little, my Entrepreneurial spirit was worn down while working in Corporate America. When I visualized my future, I could see myself climbing the corporate latter to success. I no longer visualized myself starting my own company. After three years of this, I remembered what I had once known, and my passion for Entrepreneurship was re-ignited. What caused this change in me? Was it boredom? Frustration?

I am not sure exactly why I came back around to my small business dreams. I think it was the realization that I wanted more out of life. Whatever it was, it hit me hard. Within three months, I launched a blog, bought an e-commerce site, and helped my wife launch a business.

Whether you take a “real job” after college is a personal decision, but if you do decide to go that route, there are certain dangers that you should guard against.

Five Dangers Young Entrepreneurs with a Job should Avoid:

1. Believing that your performance on the job has any effect on your ability as an Entrepreneur.

Whether you thrive or fail, how you perform at your job is mostly irrelevant to your ability to run a business. I personally thrived, which made me think I may be better suited for the Corporate World. Others fail, which can either destroy confidence or “force the hand”. Some believe that if they can’t excel in the corporate world, they can’t cut it as Entrepreneurs, and others to believe that because they didn’t succeed that they should be Entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, whether you succeed or fail are based on a host of factors unique to the job. Consider the specifics: Did you hold yourself accountable? How did you do with managing others? Were you able to handle the administrative issues? These are the skills that will affect your ability to succeed as an Entrepreneur.

2. Forgetting what is most important (i.e. saving for starting a business).

One of the primary reasons that you took a J-O-B in the first place was to make money, right? So that you could afford to start that business you always wanted to, right? So then why did you move into a nice apartment and get a nice new car? Having a decent paying job can allow you to save up substantial cash for buying or starting a business, but only if you save it. Always keep your eye on the prize!

3. Letting your job drain all of your energy.

If you come home every evening miserable and exhausted, you won’t spend time working on that side project – whether it be a blog, freelancing, whatever. If you spend all of your free time trying to get ahead in the Corporate World, then you aren’t getting ahead with starting a business.

4. Contentment.

“The work isn’t that hard; the hours are reasonable; the pay is decent; Oh and don’t forget about the benefits! It is great to have affordable health insurance!” These are all things that I’ve said to defend my contentment with a 9-5 job. There’s a difference between being content and being satisfied. Being content is a justification for not achieving more.

5. Social Influence by your new Co-Workers.

Most people will never start a business – especially not ones deeply ingrained into the Corporate World. These new co-workers of yours will probably not understand why you save so much of your money or why you are busy working on side businesses in the evenings and weekends. They will want you to come out for drinks with them after work. They will want you to buy dump trucks full of whatever stuff their kids’ school is making them sell. It won’t be intentional, but they will try and derail your goals.

Be vigilant!

At some point during college in between the late night keggers and the 48-hour study sessions you may have caught the entrepreneurial bug. Even though you completed your studies you just can’t see yourself working in your field for a long period of time or for any time at all. That’s cool and all, but are you sure you want to trade in a boss for something worse?
Are you sure that you’re ready to be your own boss? I personally think and want to argue the point that all young entrepreneurs need to hold down a real job at one point.

Why I do think that young entrepreneurs should hold down a job after college?

Meet people/network.

I personally always see myself holding down some sort of a part-time job because I love being around people. I love meeting new people and interacting with co-workers. Depending on where you work, you can meet some amazing people at work. Some of my closest friends and people I look up today I met at one job or another. I even dated a girl I met at a previous job for a few years.

I imagine that sitting in front of a computer or working from home can get pretty lonely real fast. Sure you could meet friends at the gym or stay in touch with your current friends, but a traditional job usually brings a diverse group of people together.

Understand how companies work.

An excellent supervisor/manager can turn into a life long mentor. An entrepreneur may not be the best employee but you can sure learn how an operation runs. This experience can be very beneficial to you down the line because you never know when you might just re-enter the work force.

Test the waters.

It’s always a good idea to test the waters. All the entrepreneurship-hype might suck you into something that’s not for you. Some of us are meant to be intrapreneurs. That is individuals that display entrepreneurial characteristics within the work place. I mean there’s so much hype about working for yourself these days that it’s ridiculous. A job description shouldn’t be a self description. If you test the waters by holding down a job you could realize that a steady paycheck is what you need in your life. Not everyone is meant to travel the world and be their own boss.

Time management improvements.

For my first few semesters of college I kept on telling myself that I would get better grades if I partied less and worked less. Then one semester I decided to work a little less and stay in more often. What happened? I just watched more tv! This is at the point where I wrote that college is the best time to start a business. The sooner you learn to manage your time the better off you will be. More time doesn’t equate to more work done. By working and trying to start your own side business you’ll be forced to enter the art of time management (or you might get hooked on Red Bull).

Make some money.

As a recent college graduate you might have student debt that you need to pay off. Along with this you also need to save up some money. A traditional job can be what you need to pay down your debt and start investing towards your entrepreneurial goals. My income has allowed me to invest money into my online business (mailing list, design work, coaching) that I normally wouldn’t have. As you start saving money you can freelance on the side to see if there’s a market out there for what you’re offering.

Motivation.

We need a sense of urgency sometimes. We might think that a 9-5 job is not right for us. The only way to find out is to try holding down a job first.
We also might not have the motivation to hustle 100% with our own business due to the millions of distractions out there.

Chris Guillebeau put it best in his book:

All things being equal we generally resist change until the pain of making a switch becomes less than the pain of remaining in our current situation.

This means that we need to be pushed to take bold actions. A job you hate with a boss that acts like Michael Scott and co-workers like Dwight might be all that you need to get motivated to crush it with your new business.

Now that I’ve shared my thoughts I would love to hear what moves would you recommend for college graduates that are interested in entrepreneurship?

“Firing” myself was the very best thing I ever did – and it might be the best thing that you could do for yourself too.

Before you conclude that I’m completely out of my mind, let me ask you a question:

Do you continue to disappoint yourself in some aspect of your (financial) life?  Spending, budgeting, saving, investing, earning?

If so, you may want to “fire” yourself like I did and “hire” a more qualified manager. The good news is, life will improve tremendously.  Even better, it may not cost you a cent to do it.

Let me explain.

I have a small business and (at times) I’ve suffered from the “Superman Syndrome”.

I used to think that I could do everything better, faster and smarter than everyone else.  I’m not proud of this but it’s true and it’s cost me plenty

Of course, as time went on, the facts and results got in the way of my ego.  There were certain things that I did very poorly and even though I knew it, I continued this self-destructive behavior.

Let me give you an example.

I love to tinker with the computer and many years ago, I designed a system to automate a part of my business.  It worked….to a point.  But it had some flaws that continued to pop up – and each time a flaw did come up, it cost me time and money to fix.

Rather than realize what was going on, I threw myself into the problem.  I spent more and more time trying to improve the program I wrote.

Finally, after months and months of wasted time and money, I “fired” myself and hired a programmer to do the job for me.

As a result of his work, I’ve saved countless time and money.  In fact, the money I invested in him was paid back in the first month just in reduced errors.  “Firing” myself turned out great.

Of course, the idea of “firing” yourself goes much further.

I’d like to give you another example:

When I first started my business, I was full of fear.  My wife was working in our home.  Since I was the only one bringing in money, I was deathly afraid of what might happen to our family if the business didn’t make it.

I experienced real financial terror growing up (since I was homeless for a short time) and I was fully committed to making sure that wouldn’t happen to my wife or kids.

Nothing wrong with motivation….but I became obsessed.

I refused to spend money on anything other than the bare necessities.  Keep in mind that we weren’t in debt at the time and the business was generating a decent income.

Even after the business established itself, my tight-wad ways continued.

I stayed in the fear-mode much longer than even I could justify.

I wouldn’t go out to restaurants or movies.  I wouldn’t buy anything and I would “encourage” my family to live the same empty life I imposed on myself.

I was miserable and I’m sure my wife was too.  It was no way to live.

Fortunately, I “fired” myself before my wife did.

“Firing” myself saved my family and made my life enjoyable again.

I’m pretty passionate about this because I think it’s terrible for anyone to struggle when they don’t have to.  If you face similar issues, here’s how you can “fire” yourself:

1. Write down what part of your (financial) life is out of control.

What problem do you find yourself confronting all the time?  What comes up? Are you constantly taking the wrong jobs?  Do you have the wrong spending habits?  Do you promise to track your spending….but never follow through?  What is it?

How do you hold yourself back? How do you sabotage yourself?

We all have character defects. What are yours? Are you lazy? Is that why you stopped tracking your expenses? Is that why you’re sitting on the couch rather than looking for work?

Do you fight with your partner about money because you are selfish? Have you stopped investing because of your fear? Does your arrogance alienate others who might otherwise provide good counsel?

2. How does it make your life unmanageable?

What is the result of your “best efforts”?  For example, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop worrying about money.  I couldn’t stop clamping down on my family – even thought I knew it was wrong.

Do you or your family go without? Do you constantly fight?  Are you making your partner’s life miserable?  Are you stressed constantly – no matter what you do? Do you spend recklessly and then wonder why you have a huge credit card bill (and then repeat this process over and over again)?

If you really want to get to the next level financially, be honest. It’s this lack of honesty that keeps people buying financial books and systems. They keep looking for the magic bullet that’s going to fix their problems. Instead, look for your own character defects and become willing to do the work.

3.   What have you done to try to get this under control and what was the result?

Have you made promises to others (or yourself)…..only to break those promises sooner or later?  Have you signed up for classes that might help you get a better job – only to not show up?  Have you installed budget tracking software, and then failed to use it?

This reminds me of the smoker who explains how easy it is to quit smoking; it’s so easy he quits once every day.

If the result is always the same – failure – you need a different solution.  And here it is:

Fire yourself

This advice may sound strange but think about yourself as a business.

If you had an employee who continued to mess up time and time again, you’d fire him, wouldn’t you? If someone demonstrates a complete lack of ability to perform a given task, she’s gone. Right?

Let’s say you’ve tried and failed several times to track your expenses. You’ve made promises to yourself that you break time and time again. You’ve failed yourself once too many times— so fire yourself.

Hire a better manager.

One way to do this is to “hire” an accountability partner and “report” to her.  It can be a friend or your spouse.  Anyone who has the qualities that you want.  Someone you trust and respect.  Someone you are willing to take direction from.

Keep in mind, that when you “fire” yourself and “hire” another person, your mind will play tricks on you.  There will be a little voice inside that will keep lying to you. It will tell you that you don’t need to follow direction.  “You are a grown up and you can decide things for yourself” the voice will say.

This is a lie.  You’ve already proven that.  That’s why I asked you to write down all the steps you’ve taken to try to correct the problem and what the results were.  There is no shame in asking for help – but that little voice inside your head will tell you that there is.

Don’t listen.

You “fired” yourself.  That’s all you have to remember.

Don’t be embarrassed to ask for help.

Look around. There are plenty of people in your life who would be happy to be on your team. Tell them what it is you want to do and do it. Tell them you want them to be your accountability “boss”. Tell them the problem you are trying to solve, be honest about it, and commit to take action and report daily or weekly, as the case may be. Tell them that they can “fire” you if you fail to live up to your promises.

This one idea has helped millions of people overcome serious problems such as substance abuse, and it can be invaluable to you as well.

Stop thinking and take action right now.

If you’ve gotten this far, you know what to do. Get a piece of paper and go through the action steps I outlined above.  Go “hire” your new accountability partner. Make the call now.

Don’t think about it anymore. Do it.

Fortunately, these techniques work for me. I have to keep doing the work by checking in with my accountability partner but it does work if I do my work.

Do you need to “fire” yourself?  Have you already done so?  What has been the result so far?

Most of you know that I’m a pretty conservative guy. Let me say it another way – I hate risk! The idea of becoming an entrepreneur is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. But it is something I have wanted to try since the very earliest moments of my career. Until now it has been a pipe dream.

To overcome my fear of crashing and burning, and taking my family down with me, I’ve decided to implement a couple actionable steps that should provide an adequate safety net, both for my household, and my business.

Building an Entrepreneur Fund

1. Take an inventory of all household expenses. Make a master list of all household expenses using last month’s records. Apply no filtering here; just list.

2. Develop a projected household budget after leaving the workplace. When I turn in my notice, a few things will change around our household, financially. Some “employment” expenses will go away or be lessened (gasoline, clothes, meals out, etc.). Other expenses will increase (self employed health insurance, etc.). Get quotes on things like health insurance and office space rentals now, and factor those new expenses into your projected budget.

3. Save one year of projected expenses in an “Entrepreneur Fund.” Think of it as an emergency fund for your business. Worst case scenario – my idea completely flops after six months and I have to hit the pavement looking for work. In that case, a year of expenses in the bank would make me much less desperate!

Since I included a few self employment expenses in the mix, I recognize those go away if I give up the entrepreneurial endeavor. For instance, the expense of leasing office space eventually dies off with the end of a lease or rental agreement. Self employed health insurance stays around until I’m working again.

*From this point forward, the steps are highly individualized for my situation. Maybe it could work for you, too, or maybe not. Do what works best for your circumstances.

4. Move Entrepreneur Fund to an online savings account and schedule a biweekly draw to your personal checking account equivalent to half of monthly household budget. My income as a freelancer is somewhat erratic. There are a few forms of ad income that hold steady each month, but nothing is a sure thing.

To offset the peaks and valleys, I plan to “pay” myself the same amount from the Entrepreneur Fund every two weeks, just as if I was receiving a paycheck from my employer.

5. Transfer monthly profits from my business account to Entrepreneur Fund. At the end of the month, I will make two transfers to online savings – one to my self employment tax sinking fund from where quarterly estimated tax payments are made, and the second to transfer profits to my Entrepreneur Fund.

During months where earnings are high, I’ll be replenishing more than I’m spending. At the end of the year I’ll plan to do a re-balancing of my account taking the balance back down to 12 months of household and business expenses. The excess profits will be invested as profit sharing via a self employed retirement account.

In lean times, the Entrepreneur Fund will allow us to continue to receive the same draw in the form of a paycheck. In other words, temporary downturns will not affect your household. Of course, long-term downturns could be problematic as my Entrepreneur Fund balance slowly drains. Without cutting expenses, or turning around earnings, I’d be looking for other sources of income and fast, but at least I’d have a few months as backup.

If you are like me and have always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, I hope you will consider building a healthy Entrepreneur Fund before taking the leap. I believe many more businesses could stay afloat if they had a stronger cash position early on to survive that first inevitable income dip. Without savings, business owners are often forced to turn to borrowing to pay expenses, make payroll, etc. The debt creates yet another expense, and without a quick turnaround, only speeds up the demise of the fledgling business.

It’s the small and medium businesses that are hit the hardest; with not much of a cash cushion to help them ride out the storm, they have been forced to effect layoffs and salary cuts, measures that don’t win them any points with the employees that remain. One of the best ways to see off the recession is to tighten your belt and begin to live frugally, an initiative that must percolate down from the owner and manager of the business, to the most insignificant employee. You can start your cost cutting measures by:

• Reducing your electricity and water usage: Offices are infamous for leaving their lights on all throughout the day and night and for appliances and gadgets that are always on standby. This not only causes you to use more power and harm the environment, but also raises your recurring monthly expenditure significantly. Begin by asking your employees to make a conscious effort to not switch on lights during the day and to practice switching them off when they’re leaving a room for some time. Shut down computers, printers, fax machines and other appliances when they’re not being used for a long period of time or overnight. You could also save on paper by using both sides to print or by taking the email route for most of your communication needs. These are small measures indeed, but they sure go a long way in helping you save some money at the end of each month.

• Minimizing risks: It’s better to take calculated risks rather than foolhardy ones that put you in a hole of debt that is hard to climb out of. Most organizations have gone back to depending on cold, hard cash rather than leverage to do business. And even if they are borrowing money, they do so at low interest rates and pay their bills every month so that the outstanding does not keep rising.

• Keeping personal expenses separate: Just because you own the company, it does not mean that you have an unlimited expense account. You need to separate your business interests from your personal ones by spending only your salary or monthly allowance on yourself. Remember to look at the long term benefits of making your business grow rather than paying yourself more just because your expenses are too high.

• Not going overboard: And by this I mean that it’s not necessary to be penny wise and pound foolish – there are some people who try to do everything by themselves in order to cut costs. But there is a difference between being frugal and being plain stupid. When you try to do too much, especially if you’re not sure about what you’re doing, you end up making a mess of it and having to spend more than your original budget in trying to put things right.

This article was contributed by Nicole White, who writes about online web design school. She invites your questions/comments at Nicole.White222 @gmail.com.

1. Take a “day laborer” job. Check out the classifieds for listings looking for day laborers.  Often times contractors are looking for people to do some type of manual labor for a short duration, even as short as one day.  It could be cleaning up a job site on a new build, or tossing bricks up to guys on a scaffold.  You’ll probably earn minimum wage, or only slightly better, but for a couple days work you could clear $100.

2. Sell Your DVD Collection on Ebay.  Seriously, how many of those DVDs do you really watch repeatedly?  I can count on one hand the ones I would want to keep, but the rest could be sold and I’d never miss them.

3. Work surveys at CashCrate.  I’ve been a member of CashCrate for nearly two years now, and still work surveys for extra grocery money.  It may take a while to get to $100, but hitting the minimum payout can easily be done the first day. Talk up CashCrate to your friends and family and have them sign up under your name, as the real earning opportunity is in the referrals.

4. Ask neighbors if you can mow their lawn.  Even if you don’t consider yourself a “landscaper,” you could easily mow, edge and blow a couple yards for your neighbors on a Saturday morning and make $100.  You’d be surprised how many people will take you up on the offer just to take a week off from yard work!

5. Hold a yard sale. One of the faster ways to raise cash is to hold a yard sale.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising.  Simply buy a few pieces of brightly-colored poster board and a fat magic marker.  Write “YARD SALE” in bold letters, followed by the times and your street address.  Place the signs at major intersections to draw traffic.  For other ideas read more tips for a successful yard sale.

6. Sell gold jewelry.  Thanks to the recession gold prices are still running high. If you have some gold jewelry sitting around that you rarely wear, it might be worth offering it up to broker such as Cash4Gold, who will give you cash in exchange for allowing him to melt it down and resell it for a profit.

7. Be a medical guinea pig.  Medical research facilities and universities will pay participants to take part in trials, surveys, and other types of research.  Tread carefully here; some trials could have negative medical consequences, while things like surveys and sleep studies don’t seem so bad.

8. Donate plasma.  Most cities of any size have a donation center that will offer $25-$35 for a donating plasma.  And depending on your medical condition you may be able to donate up to twice a week.

9. Redeem your credit card rewards.  Even if you are like me and you haven’t used credit cards in a while, but are working to pay them off, chances are there are some rewards points accumulated from past spending.  Contact each credit card company and ask about your rewards balance.  Redeem what is available in the form of cash (check from company), or a gift card to a store you can buy some household essentials (Walmart, Home Depot, etc.).

10. Sell your books online.  Services like Cash4Books.com will provide an online quote for your books and even add a little extra for the trouble of shipping.  Books that don’t sell here may sell at sites like Amazon.com marketplace (a great place to sell textbooks) or eBay.

11. Take something valuable to a pawn shop.  Musical instruments, computer equipment, jewelry and sporting equipment in good condition all sell well at pawn shops, and owners are more likely to give you cash for these items.

12. Sell company stock.  If you currently participate in an employee stock purchase plan at work, consider cashing out if you are in need of cash. Company stock is not well-diversified, and often the cash could be put to better use, even if it is simply reinvested with a broader diversification.

13. Ask to work overtime.  With unemployment running high, and little budgeted for new hires, you may be able to work a little overtime if demand justifies it.  Talk to your boss about working some extra hours and you should have a little extra in your next paycheck.

14. Gather up loose change.  If you are like me you probably have a couple stashes of loose change – on top of your dresser, in the cup holder of your car, and the cracks between sofa cushions.  You can either roll the coins in wrappers provided by your bank, or visit a Coinstar machine in your area to convert the coins to cash.  Coinstar charges a fee for cash payouts, but you can get an Amazon.com gift certificate for your full balance, which could be used to buy just about everything under the sun.

Money Makers

• Cash4Gold wants to buy your unwanted gold and other precious metals from you today! Click here to get started!
• Take Paid Surveys At CashCrate.com
• Cash For Books – We Buy Books & We Pay The Shipping!