The most important part of a Portfolio Career, for me, is the ability to choose the components of the portfolio. Like I've mentioned before, you would only choose things that you enjoy and that bring you a reward. This would in turn create a contentment in your everyday life, and you would really start to enjoy life.
Another term for this is 'Well-Being', and there has been a book called Well-Being by Tom Rath and Jim Harter which explains the factors that go towards achieving it.
Gallup, as in the company that run Gallup Polls etc., have analysed statistically the components that go in to well-being. They have concluded that there are five key areas:
Career Well-being, the job, or what you do each day.
Emotional Well-being, your relationship with loved ones.
Physical Well-being, your fitness, your health
Financial Well-being, how comfortable you are, having enough to support your lifestyle
Community Well-being, what sense of belonging that you have with a group of people.
Each of these in equal volume will work towards an overall sense of Well-being. Interestingly, 66% are perfectly happy with one of these, but only 7% are happy with the balance across all five.
This directly applies to what I am trying to do with this whole journey into a Portfolio Career. I want to improve my Career Well-being, and Financial Well-being, whilst maintaining the others.
When I read about this, it really resonated with my purpose. So much so that I am going to draw up a kind of Balanced Scorecard, in which I will list the activities that I do currently and allocate them into one of the five pots. I will then score these and calculate totals.
Then I will estimate a level that I am aiming to reach for each pot, calculate the gap, and plan what to do about it. I am hoping that most of the work that I am doing at the moment will go along way to plugging that gap, but it may pull out something that I have taken my eye off.
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Thursday 13 May 2010
Portfolio Career - Steps for Freelance Writing
The next stage to achieving a Portfolio Career is to start to establish the income streams. One of the potential income streams that I have identified is Freelance Writing. I think I will enjoy this area of work especially if I can concentrate on the appropriate categories.
Freelance writing is becoming a real boom industry at the moment due to the explosion of the internet. The amount of new information that will be produced in 2010 will be equal to the amount of information that has been published in the last three thousand years put together.
This is possible due to the volume of websites that now exists on the internet. All of these websites need content in order to stay relevant and attract people. If they attract people then they will earn more money in advertising.
So, the market for the writing of this content is huge. Due to the business models of websites they do not have in-house writers that are paid on their staff. They raise a request online for freelance writers to bid on and, depending on the level of expertise and quality that they are after, they will make a choice. There has been a rise in the freelance writing market places where projects are offered up and bids are collected.
In order to win a bid the writer must suggest a competitive price for the work, but also ratings are given to each writer, and also profiles of the writer can be viewed in order to give the employer an idea of quality. These three factors will go towards a decision being made. Obviously, therefore, if a writer is established and has many articles under his belt, all with high ratings, then they can demand a higher price due to confidence levels of quality.
How can you break in to this world of dangling pound notes? I have bought an ebook called Six Figure Freelancer and it describes the step-by-step process to establish yourself. Surprisingly it does not seem hard and because of these low barriers to entry, you can expect a large amount of competition. Also, as it is online it is opened up to the whole world and I will suffer from the impact of lower standards of living in developing countries. A person in India will charge a lot less than my hourly rate to produce the same work, and so I need to concentrate much more on quality. Once set up this should be okay, but breaking into it will be harder because of the lack of proof that I can back up my obvious quality. That obvious quality that purveyors of this blog could verify from the rooftops.
Steps required to take part:
- Register on the online market places
- Create a profile on said market places
- Bid for work, at first by either, 1) reducing the price, or 2) creating my own requests for work (clever)
- Once the ball is rolling, then create my own website that I can direct prospective clients to, and begin to establish regular income streams with the same people that begin to know and trust the quality that I produce.
Easy.
The good thing with all of this is that it can be done whilst I am still working 9-5.
I am concentrating at the moment on finally editing the book that I have written, and getting that to a stage where I will be happy to start giving it wings. Once this is done, I will then throw my energy into the freelance writing, and let you know how I get on.
Freelance writing is becoming a real boom industry at the moment due to the explosion of the internet. The amount of new information that will be produced in 2010 will be equal to the amount of information that has been published in the last three thousand years put together.
This is possible due to the volume of websites that now exists on the internet. All of these websites need content in order to stay relevant and attract people. If they attract people then they will earn more money in advertising.
So, the market for the writing of this content is huge. Due to the business models of websites they do not have in-house writers that are paid on their staff. They raise a request online for freelance writers to bid on and, depending on the level of expertise and quality that they are after, they will make a choice. There has been a rise in the freelance writing market places where projects are offered up and bids are collected.
In order to win a bid the writer must suggest a competitive price for the work, but also ratings are given to each writer, and also profiles of the writer can be viewed in order to give the employer an idea of quality. These three factors will go towards a decision being made. Obviously, therefore, if a writer is established and has many articles under his belt, all with high ratings, then they can demand a higher price due to confidence levels of quality.
How can you break in to this world of dangling pound notes? I have bought an ebook called Six Figure Freelancer and it describes the step-by-step process to establish yourself. Surprisingly it does not seem hard and because of these low barriers to entry, you can expect a large amount of competition. Also, as it is online it is opened up to the whole world and I will suffer from the impact of lower standards of living in developing countries. A person in India will charge a lot less than my hourly rate to produce the same work, and so I need to concentrate much more on quality. Once set up this should be okay, but breaking into it will be harder because of the lack of proof that I can back up my obvious quality. That obvious quality that purveyors of this blog could verify from the rooftops.
Steps required to take part:
- Register on the online market places
- Create a profile on said market places
- Bid for work, at first by either, 1) reducing the price, or 2) creating my own requests for work (clever)
- Once the ball is rolling, then create my own website that I can direct prospective clients to, and begin to establish regular income streams with the same people that begin to know and trust the quality that I produce.
Easy.
The good thing with all of this is that it can be done whilst I am still working 9-5.
I am concentrating at the moment on finally editing the book that I have written, and getting that to a stage where I will be happy to start giving it wings. Once this is done, I will then throw my energy into the freelance writing, and let you know how I get on.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Portfolio Career - Think and Grow Rich
Like a duck, the energy is all happening under the water at the moment in progressing my Portfolio Career. I bought the book called Six Figure Freelancer in order to learn how to initiate the freelance writing side, and with it came a bonus three books. One of these books is called Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.
It was first published in the 1920's, and the content still appears as relevant now as it did then. The specific examples of industry and fortune making are out-dated, but the 'secret' behind them is still true.
The 'Secret' is something that is written about in a number of contemporary books that I have read, and something that I can definitely identify.
The law of attraction is something else that it's called, and NLP and Cosmic Ordering are also based on it.
The primary concept is that you must yield a desire to achieve a result. In order to build the desire into an obsession and follow through with perserverance, you must first know exactly what it is that you are aiming at. Once you have articulated in detail the eventual target, you must then use all of your energy in reaffirming that it is possible, and visualising the person that you will become and the life that you will lead.
The point is that as long as you are concentrating on one outcome the universe, or the ether as the book calls it, will deliver opportunities that to a ready mind can be seized.
The book highlights many examples of the day where people have used the 'Secret' to earn huge fortunes, including; Henry T Ford, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller. All of these people particularly had received no formal education, but they had a laser focused goal to succeed and thought of little else.
Now, why am I mentioning all of this stuff? Well, firstly it confirms what I have read elsewhere and I am taking on board some of the exercises that they advise, in order to concentrate my mind on achieving. But secondly, by analysing successful people you build into your own personality that quality of success. I will be using the teachings to achieve my dream life, which is a long way from any of the names mentioned above. I do not chase this type of dream, but my humble dream of being in control and free to make choices on how I spend my time, and be able to spend that time with who ever I want, can be substituted in it's place.
It gives me a renewed belief that what I am doing is not only possible but also the best thing that could ever happen. This state of mind is fearless, but must be nurtured to ensure sustainability. So onwards and upwards...
It was first published in the 1920's, and the content still appears as relevant now as it did then. The specific examples of industry and fortune making are out-dated, but the 'secret' behind them is still true.
The 'Secret' is something that is written about in a number of contemporary books that I have read, and something that I can definitely identify.
The law of attraction is something else that it's called, and NLP and Cosmic Ordering are also based on it.
The primary concept is that you must yield a desire to achieve a result. In order to build the desire into an obsession and follow through with perserverance, you must first know exactly what it is that you are aiming at. Once you have articulated in detail the eventual target, you must then use all of your energy in reaffirming that it is possible, and visualising the person that you will become and the life that you will lead.
The point is that as long as you are concentrating on one outcome the universe, or the ether as the book calls it, will deliver opportunities that to a ready mind can be seized.
The book highlights many examples of the day where people have used the 'Secret' to earn huge fortunes, including; Henry T Ford, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller. All of these people particularly had received no formal education, but they had a laser focused goal to succeed and thought of little else.
Now, why am I mentioning all of this stuff? Well, firstly it confirms what I have read elsewhere and I am taking on board some of the exercises that they advise, in order to concentrate my mind on achieving. But secondly, by analysing successful people you build into your own personality that quality of success. I will be using the teachings to achieve my dream life, which is a long way from any of the names mentioned above. I do not chase this type of dream, but my humble dream of being in control and free to make choices on how I spend my time, and be able to spend that time with who ever I want, can be substituted in it's place.
It gives me a renewed belief that what I am doing is not only possible but also the best thing that could ever happen. This state of mind is fearless, but must be nurtured to ensure sustainability. So onwards and upwards...
Saturday 1 May 2010
Portfolio Career - List of Options
The search for a portfolio career goes on, and I am now moving in to the arena of actually making some of these ideas a reality.
Through the analysis of my own preferences that I have been undertaking for a couple of weeks, I now have a relatively good understanding of the types of occupation that would interest me and are worth aiming for immediately. The fortunate thing of pursuing a portfolio career is that due to its flexible nature you can initiate part of the portfolio whilst still in a full time career.
Below is a list of some ideas that I brainstormed last week as potential candidates to put in to my portfolio. Some are for enjoyment, some are for money, some are for both. Some can be actioned straight away and some will require training or experience.
Freelance Journalist
Novelist
Parent/Husband
Social Economics Commentator
Actor
Phobia Therapist
Mentor
Life Coach
Tutor
Entrepreneur
Mystery Shopper
Extra
Director
Charity Management
Also, depending on where my life takes me, the other very real ambition that Claire and I have is to own a holiday let. It would be high-spec and be available and accessible to all. This means that it would also be able to cater for disabled families with specific requirements. This is a niche market but one that I would consider to be a largely unmet need currently. There would be large initial set up costs but then the maintenance and ongoing costs would look after themselves once established. This idea would also give us a rewarding feeling because of the families that we would be able to help.
So, this is the list so far. At the moment there are two jobs that I can and will strive for whilst still in full time employment. 1) Freelance Journalist 2) Novelist.
To answer number two first, I have finished the book and I now need to go through the edit before anyone else can even think about looking over it. I am ongoing with this and I aim to have it in much better shape by the summer.
To the freelance journalism end, I have bought a book on how to get started and make a success of it. So I shall see how successful the book is and comment on it after I have read it. My intention is to start earning money as soon as possible with this though, and get the ball rolling.
I will keep you up-to-date with progress on both of these things in the next post, and I will also be keeping my eye open for any other opportunities that are congruent with my other ambitions.
Remember, all great achievements and earnings of money started with an initial idea. Do not under estimate this phase of the revolution.
Through the analysis of my own preferences that I have been undertaking for a couple of weeks, I now have a relatively good understanding of the types of occupation that would interest me and are worth aiming for immediately. The fortunate thing of pursuing a portfolio career is that due to its flexible nature you can initiate part of the portfolio whilst still in a full time career.
Below is a list of some ideas that I brainstormed last week as potential candidates to put in to my portfolio. Some are for enjoyment, some are for money, some are for both. Some can be actioned straight away and some will require training or experience.
Freelance Journalist
Novelist
Parent/Husband
Social Economics Commentator
Actor
Phobia Therapist
Mentor
Life Coach
Tutor
Entrepreneur
Mystery Shopper
Extra
Director
Charity Management
Also, depending on where my life takes me, the other very real ambition that Claire and I have is to own a holiday let. It would be high-spec and be available and accessible to all. This means that it would also be able to cater for disabled families with specific requirements. This is a niche market but one that I would consider to be a largely unmet need currently. There would be large initial set up costs but then the maintenance and ongoing costs would look after themselves once established. This idea would also give us a rewarding feeling because of the families that we would be able to help.
So, this is the list so far. At the moment there are two jobs that I can and will strive for whilst still in full time employment. 1) Freelance Journalist 2) Novelist.
To answer number two first, I have finished the book and I now need to go through the edit before anyone else can even think about looking over it. I am ongoing with this and I aim to have it in much better shape by the summer.
To the freelance journalism end, I have bought a book on how to get started and make a success of it. So I shall see how successful the book is and comment on it after I have read it. My intention is to start earning money as soon as possible with this though, and get the ball rolling.
I will keep you up-to-date with progress on both of these things in the next post, and I will also be keeping my eye open for any other opportunities that are congruent with my other ambitions.
Remember, all great achievements and earnings of money started with an initial idea. Do not under estimate this phase of the revolution.
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