Monetizing Your Music:
Licensing your songs helps create revenue for yourself for creating music!
You will get $3,000 for reaching 1 million streams on Spotify, which is extremely hard for many people. Though there are other methods in earning $3000 such as:
These are much more achievable than getting 1 million streams on Spotify unless you have a large enough audience to reach that goal. Doing a variety of genres for your music can help gain an audience. It might be best to stick to one genre, but having a variety of genres as a small artist can make you unique and super niche to the community.
Getting an audience online is also still difficult for many. As social media grows there’s more competition and gets harder for many to grow. Along with that, your creations won’t get paid much, so you have to accept offers from companies or advertisements to gain royalties.
Make sure you are consistently creating music (this applies to any other creative works too). Spend a portion of every day creating so your creativity and motivation keeps up. Stopping this flow would disrupt your creativity and it would be hard to get back into it. So spending even a few minutes creating something will keep it fresh.
Selling Stock Music:
Audacity:
Making Music
Piano:
White keys are the “natural” notes you will mainly play.
Black keys are sharp and flat notes.
Interval - Distance between notes. There are whole (2 semitones) and half-step (one semitone)
Major Scale notes have a more light and happier feeling to it, while minor scales have a darker and melancholic feeling to them. They both can still be used to convey the opposite emotion if you use them correctly though.
Minor chords consist of a 2nd note that is 3 semitones higher than the root note.
D Minor: D-F-A
Major chords consist of a 2nd note that is 4 semitones higher than the root note
3rs note is 7 semitones higher (1 ½ above 2nd note)
Inversions are transposing a note within a chord to a different octave
A DJ’s job is to combine music together to create a new sound people can enjoy!
Making a Beat:
Music Production:
You can sing your ideas out. Improvise parts randomly when you're creating and develop them afterward. Also, create drum sounds, it will be the basis of your rhythm and you'll be able to think of ideas from it. Experimenting with sounds can also surprise you. You might just be messing around with instruments or your music program and you suddenly make a beat that you never made before that you really like. Building texture is also important.
You need to have vocal improvisation, making up stuff as you sing through. Focus on the rhythm the most, you want your listeners to like the rhythm. Also have a joyful sense of experimentation, playing around with many things to make a unique sound. Having a generous sense of collaboration also helps, making music with other people needs lots of collaboration. You want to make sure everyone harmonizes together while still having fun.
Even if you think you’re at a disadvantage because of a certain blockage such as only having one arm, you can still play music. Don’t let anything stop your way of doing what you love doing.
Music Jobs:
For the writing assignment, I wrote a blog about my experience at Techie Youth! I posted it on Linkedin.
I wrote the main goals of Techie Youth, what I do there and what it's like there, and even talked about Eric's Youtube channel! I presented some of my artwork and provided a link to even buy it if people want!
Writing this blog about what I did here was fun!
Data Entry:
You need really good typing skills, so it's similar to transcription. The only difference is that it involves numbers more, which I am not used to.
My WPM decreased drastically from 60 WPM to around 40 WPM or less when the typing quiz got numbers involved. My fingers get confused when it comes to numbers! I'm going to practice more so I can get used to typing numbers much faster. I am quick with numbers when it comes to the formatting on a calculator, the 3x3 one with a zero at the bottom. But with all the numbers laid across horizontally, I get confused.
Why work as one?:
Working as a data entry is easy, all you need to be good at is typing quickly and you're done. It doesn't need many skills so you're able to do this no matter what.
Why you shouldn't work as one:
Working as one is easy, but it is very boring. You just type what you hear and see and nothing else. Unless you enjoy typing then this job isn't for you. It's also low pay, you can't make a living off of just doing this. Putting this in your Upwork profile wouldn't do you much good, as this job isn't worth much when other people look at it.
Running A Social Media Account:
I made a Twitter account and tweeted things about Techie Youth and some of my experiences there! I recommend Techie Youth to some of my followers and hope they check it out!
Grant Writing: The process of applying for funding provided by a private corporation or government grantmaker
These jobs are very competitive, so you have to really stand out from the crowd to be chosen. Funders don’t just exist to fund your organization, they have their own missions and goals and only support organizations that connect with their own missions. Each funder wants something different, so make sure your goals are similar before you propose to them.
Always think before you write, clarify what your intent is. Don’t use any jargons that no one outside of your company will understand, use familiar words that anyone can understand. Don’t put any long sentences, it will only bore the audience and will ignore your writing. Write in short, but meaningful specific sentences. Be clear and to the point, don’t put any unnecessary details that will bore your audience. Write in a storytelling approach in order to keep your audience invested. Make sure the details and numbers are correct, don’t give any false information that harms your acceptance. Make sure you show your passion in your writing and show that you’re determined to go on with this business.
Your writing has to be memorable, you don’t want people to just forget it after you read it. Put down an active voice and an interesting story that catches people’s attention. Keep in mind that you are writing to persuade. Have ethos, pathos, and logos in mind when you are writing. You have to convince the reader that you are worth investing in. If you have any sort of connection to any people to the funder you are writing to, put down their name. The funder will recognize this and will ask the person you listed down if you are truly worth investing in.
Requires:
Average Grantwriter salary: $69,831
Technical Writing:
It is focused on providing detailed descriptions and instructions for people to follow. It has very minimal creativity, so creative writers might struggle adjusting to technical writing. They need to make high-level material into easy to understand and process to the people that are using it. You need to communicate about technical and specialized topics that a lot of people struggle to understand. Provide clear and thorough instructions regardless of how technical the task is. It must be presented in the most professional and accessible way possible. It must be clear and easy to understand to the audience. They should not be confused on what to do or what’s going on.
Technical writing is increasingly becoming more common due to the high-tech nature that the world is adjusting in modern day. Professions like: financial services, manufacturing, energy consulting, medical business, enginerring, software development, academia, government, broadcasting, transportation, energy, telecommunications, health, security, publishing, are all types of jobs that uses technical writing for one of their jobs.
Technical writing process:
Always plan beforeyou write. If you edit your writing as you write it will only make things harder for you. You first start off by getting a request by a client to make a document. You need to know the document type, subject area/content, goal, scope and audience. You can discuss this with your client to get a better idea on what to write and get details on whatever you need to start.
Always have the target audience in your mind. Revise your writing based on the reader’s context. You don’t want them confused or not know what’s going on in your text, you want them to fully understand the material. Gather as much information as possible about who will use the document. Know what the reader is looking for when they read your document, the document should fufill their needs and answer any sort of questions they may have. Know the initial questions, likely problems they might encounter and the most effective solutions in order to solve the problems.
Questions to ask yourself before you prepare your document:
When writing a document be brief with sentence structure. Don’t use any unnecessary words that drag out the sentence, make the text as concise as possible. Do not use any jargons (words or phrases only a certain group of people will understand while outsiders wouldn’t), you’re writing this to a group of people who don’t understand whatever you are selling, so don’t use any words they wouldn’t understand. Using pictures will also help a lot, making it easier for a person to understand and know what to do.
Different Types of Documents:
Technical reports: Provides instructions or recommendations. Provides enough background on a topic
Technical manual: Provides instructions on how to use a device
Emails: share information, persuade or instruct
Technical proposals: provides an introduction to a new project
Make sure you are writing in a niche that you enjoy doing.
Requirements to be Technical Writer:
Salary Average: $62,000
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Transcription: Typing out words from the audio you are given.
Need: A good typing speed and accuracy
My WPM: 69 WPM (typing speed) x 92% Accuracy = 64 WPM (Net Speed)
There’s not many transcription work, but it can used to get work experience. You will only be paid from the length of the audio that you are given, not that amount of time you spend transcribing it.
Types of transcribing jobs:
General transcription: Transcribes audio into text regardless of the industry
Legal transcription: court recordings, witness testimonies
Meidical transcription: Needs prior training before doing so
Backlinks: are links to a page from one website to another
They help the search engine determine which pages they should rank the highest in a query
Increases referral traffic
People are able to discover your page easier
Having topical relevance can increase your page visits
Having authority, quality and quantity of your backlink can increase traffic\
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Reference Content: Linking a page to further explain what a certain subject is
Avoid:
Public blog networks
Dofollow blog comments
Getting Backlinks:
Authority transfer technique
Writer longer, but it has to be thoughtful and has depth. If it’s too long without any point the reader will lose interest
Build relationships, the relationships you build can benefit you a lot
Making money with backlinks:
Makes $100 - $20,000 a month
Factors that impact the amount of money you make:
Quality of link
If what’s given fits other people’s values
Authority and trust
Sign-up for backlinks.com
Create newsworthy, educational, helpful, content that brings value to people
Customer service and correspondence:
Working at home:
Communication and problem solving
Don’t work on your bed
Can self start
Customer Service email tips:
Personalize your email interactions
You’re knowledgable and friendly
Use customer’s name, and show your face. It shows that you are truly human and not a bot
Always say “thank you” even if it’s a complaint. A complaint shows that the customer took interest in your business and is providing feedback in order to make it better.
Canned replies
Tag conversations
Define your email style:
Chat fundamentals
Respond in complete sentences, but keep them short at the same time. Write around 2-3 sentences per exchange, don’t overwhelm the customer
Put only one issue per exchange
Use customer’s name, it’ll make you sound more human and will let you connect with the customer more
Always use a semi-formal greeting no matter the situation
Always thank the customer
Try the solution before suggesting it, you don’t want the customer feel like they wasted their time
Blogging:
Need:
Blogging Sites:
Income:
If you’re committed to blogging:
Year 1: $1k-$10k
Year 2: $10k-$30k
Year 3: $30k-$50k
Year 4: $50k-$100k
Year 5: $100k-$250k
Year 6: $150k-$350k
Year 7: $200k-$500k
Year 8: $300k-$600k
Year 9: $400k-$800k
Year 10: $500k-$1mil
Profitable Blog Topics:
Least Profitable:
Profiting off of Blogs:
Guest Blogging:
Becoming A Guest Blogging:
Best Practices for guest Blogging
Author Bio:
Ghostwriting:
Use Textbroker:
Copywriting:
What to use:
Salaries:
Freelance Salary:
Becoming a Copywriter:
Blog:
Can be used for:
Getting Money From Blogs:
Traditional Publishing: the established system of getting a book deal. Submission to multiple agents
Pros:
Cons:
Self Publish: Doing everything yourself
Pros:
Cons:
Editing red flags
Self Publishing:
Earnings for an author depend on:
Traditional Publishing:
Self Publishing:
Committing to being an author:
Magazines:
Magazine writers:
start with a quote that hooks the reader
Journals:
Aims
Audience
Awareness
Articulating
For one of my assignments, I had to create an artwork that represented Techie Youth and put it up on an art-selling website.
I created a person guiding a child and showing them a computer. It represents that Techie Youth teaches children technology-driven careers. The red and blue for both the adult and child don't mean anything, but it helps differentiate the two characters. It also made me only choose colors from their respective colors. For the adult, I only had to choose colors that are red and for the child, I only chose colors that are blue.
I had fun creating this! I'm glad I was able to show off my skill in this program.
Where to sell art:
Art agent/ Art representation agency:
works on behalf of an artist to represent, promote, and sell their work"
Seek art representations for more than just wanting a larger audience
They could also provide:
Jobs in the Art Industry:
Art Consultant:
Selling Art Online:
Social Networks for Art:
Artists with disabilities:
Art Scams:
Vanity Galleries:
Art Competitions:
5 Art Rules
(Slightly off topic but the video "Make MONEY as an ARTIST in 2020!" was extremely relatable to me, mentioning things I was familiar with and even mentioned an artist I recognized, Ross Draws. I just thought that was really really cool)
Selling Art Prints:
Selling Art with Social Media:
Instagram:
Art of Purchasing
Maximize Profit:
Hiring:
Firing:
Laying off: Didn’t have a job for the person (Least painful one)
Termination: Doesn’t want the person in the job anymore (What people mostly mean by firing)
Firing: Violated legalities (What you don’t want)
Telling someone they’re fired:
Selling Art:
Think of these factors when getting a commercial space:
Obtain Funding:
Lean Operations: Provide as much resources as you need for the immediate future, not present.
Money for start-up:
Start up funding:
Winning People Over:
Using Silence to your advantage:
Sales and Marketing
Co-Founders:
Finding One:
Hipster: Helps make your company aesthetically cool
Hacker: Helps code for your company
Hustler: Helps work hard for your company
Partnership:
Business Plan:
NOT:
IS:
Milestones
Business Strategy
Financial projections
Includes:
Executive Summary:
Includes:
Paragraph 1: Overview of business
Paragraph 2: Target market, competition, marketing strategy
Paragraph 3: P[erational highlights, skill and experience, plan for success
Paragraph 4: Sales projections, Break-even
Paragraph 5: Financing? Sources? Repayment?
Business Entity Formalities
Branding:
Avoid using cliches
Dont be trendy
Dont make it low quality
Create a mood board for your logo designer to know the vibe of your company
Do research on logos and what’s appealing
Profit model: a company’s plan that aims to make the business profitable and viable.
Starting point: understanding value production
Value production: a statement detailing all the products and services that the company offers to a market and what makes them of value to potential customers
Driving force: when a customer is making a purchase is the value that they will obtain from using that product rather than any other product offered in the market
Types of Profit Models:
Production Model: the creation of a product/service
Purchases raw materials for the production process
Add value to the product in order to obtain a finished product
Is then resold by a wholesaler or retailer
Rental/Leasing Model: renting/leasing things such as motor vehicles, buildings, machinery and equipment, land, office furniture, and computers.
Temporary usage from consumers. After the time limit is up the property reverts back to the seller
Advertising Model: providing an advertising space that businesses can use to promote their service and product offerings
Mainly used by media companies that rely on free information to the public and relies on ads to make money
Sell advertising space in newspapers, magazines, television, websites, and mobile applications
Commission Model: charging a fee when offering a service to another party
Components of a profit model:
Production and operating component
Forms the backbone of the profit model
Production component: the process that a product undergoes before it can become available for customers to buy.
Must operate at max efficiency to produce high-quality products that give value to customers
Must operate at the lowest cost
Operating component: Comprises both personnel and production equipment
Must be efficient in work
Well-skilled and experienced workers
Sales and Marketing Com[ponent:
Advertising the product should gain consumer’s attention
Remain open about advertising ideas
Delivery of goods and services:
The buyer receives products in a timely manner
Failure will waste efforts spent on the product
The company should provide a communication channel customers can use to submit feedback
Focusing on a single profit stream can be more beneficial for you
Break-even point: how many sales or how much revenue do you need to achieve in order to be earning more than you are spending
Create a realistic plan to reach that
Customer and Market:
The psychology:
People are driven by emotion not logic
People want to feel important and needed
No one likes to be criticized
Realize who YOU are before figuring out what people want
Obsess over customers
Invent:
Figure out solutions
Invent on the behalf of customers
Think long term
It's ALWAYS day 1, you can start anew whenever.
Know what customers want
Differentiate company from competitors
Competition can be beneficial
Learn from standards for that market
Learn what they’re doing now, know what’s working and what’s not
Exit Strategies:
A plan of how the company could reach its end via a positive desirable outcome
Successful exits require reasonable planning
IPO: Sell a portion of your company in the public markets
Strategic Acquisition- Another company buys your business
Contingency Plans:
What are the weak parts of your business?
Think of any problems that could occur throughout your business
Expect the unexpected
Entrepreneurship:
Anyone can be it
Can pop up in all types of industries
Need a strong passion to be it
They will see a need and take the financial risk to start a business to accomplish that need
Gig Economy:
Contract work
Temporary hiring
It’s mader easier for entrepreneurs to find people to get their business going
Allowed early stage entrepreneurs to find flexible work to support themselves.
Cons to Gig work:
Could probably not be a person’s passion
Fewer legal protections:
No mandatory breaks or standardized pay
No insurance and retirement accounts
Being an Entrepreneur:
You have lots of freedom on what you do
You are your own boss
You wield the power on who you hire and what you do with the money
Failing:
Failing is perfectly fine when running a business, it’s expected even.
You learn from your mistakes. As long as you’re able to go back up from where you dropped than failing is fine.
You can expect many failures, especially if you’re doing this long term.
First steps in Entrepreneurship:
Know if what you’re doing is needed and if people are willing to spend money on it
If what you’re doing is important to others or not.
Know everything you’re getting into: Financial stability, feedback, etc.
Team up with people you know, BUT with people you know that are SKILLED in the area of what you are doing.
Listen to feedback. Don’t hide your ideas away, tell people about it and see on what you can improve on before absolutely committing to it.
If most people say your idea isn’t good, then it’s best to not invest in it.
Talk to devils advocate, don’t ask people who will only agree to everything you will say, talk to people who know a lot in the field or are more critical than others.
Have contingency plans and back up plans
Always have concrete plans, no “maybe this will work” plans.
If no one in the WORLD hasn’t done it yet, then maybe don’t do it either.
And if your business idea doesn’t work, then it’s best to learn from your experience and move onto another business idea.
MVP: Minimally valuable product
least amount of effort to start your business
The things you need to get your product selling
Customers:
Main source of money
Having your customers stay with your business is absolutely valuable
Understand the psychology of why people buy your product, don’t ruin it
Keep them satisfied
Business Model Innovation:
Broad audience appeal
Simple to use
Causes a shift in a certain industry it focuses on
Revolutionized an industry
Experiments and learns what their consumers likes
Facebook Groups:
When creating a Facebook Group keep these in mind:
Your target audience
Your main goal
If you have the time and resources to maintain it
There are different types of Facebook Groups:
Public Groups: Can be found in searches and anybody can join without a problem
Private Groups: Can be found in searches, but people have to request and wait for an admin to allow them inside the group
Secret Groups: Cannot be found in searches. People have to be invited by the owner personally to join in.
How to grow your community:
Stay active and keep your audience engaged
Promote
Do fun events
Invite as many people as possible
Post new content consistently
Stick to a niche
Do the 80/20 rule. 80% of your posts should be almost anything, just interacting with your audience. 20% of your posts should be the MAIN post, the content that’s most related to the topic of the group.
Interact with your members consistently
Avoid posting links
Avoid being demanding (Don’t say things like “Press the like button and comment!” or anything like that)
Using groups as a business:
Build long lasting relationships with customers
Increase organic reach, don’t do anything like advertising.
Learn valuable market research data from members
Use Private Groups over Public Groups
You will be able to block of spammers or unwanted people
Can control membership better
Pausing and Deleting:
Pause: Members can’t post any new content
You might want to pause your group of you want to put it on hold for a bit if you can’t maintain it.
Delete: Erasing your group forever
You might want to do this if you lost interest in running the group. In order to actually delete this though you have to remove each member manually and then leave yourself, which is time consuming depending on the amount of members you have. Pausing your group is more efficient and loses the risk of permanently losing your group.
Pinterest:
Post your own photos/gifs/videos
People can save, comment and follow you
Can create boards that can focus on a specific niche
Can insert links on your photos, people can click on it and check you out
Skills:
Curiosity and imagination
Creativity
Know what’s appealing
Internet marketing
Photo editing skills
Photo composing
Popular Niches:
Do a niche you are absolutely interested in
Niche that is long lasting instead of just the moment
Profit:
Brands might reach out if you have a few thousand followers
Managing Pinterest accounts for other people
People who are interested in your products you post on Pinterest might check out your links
Snapchat:
Limited content, posts last for 24 hours
Unique QR codes people can scan to find your Snapchat accounts
Different filters you can put on your photos
Geofilter:
Can make a filter set in a certain location you can make
You have to pay for this filter
Can schedule this filter
Smart Loyalties:
Conflict Avoidance:
Phone Interviews:
Wechat:
People can get work done anywhere when doing remote work. While this sounds like a dream, there are certain things you have to do in order to do work sufficiently.
Most importantly, having a good computer, wifi and a phone are key items to remote work. Without a good wifi you will be unable to do any work at all, and without a computer or phone you can’t communicate or do work.
Removing all types of distractions is important too. Put away your phone, close your door, have headphones that block of noise, and be in a comfortable spot.
Taking regular breaks will give you energy to work too. Take some time to get off work for a few minutes and stretch or do some movement to your body so you get energy. Working at home gives the privilege of avoiding embarrassment when you choose to move around to get some energy for yourself.
Remember to take care of yourself too when working at home. You might not get the signal that work time is over unlike how it is in office workspace where you might also leave when other workers leave. You don’t want to over work yourself and ruin your mental health. When work is over, work is over. Don’t do anything work related and take the time after work to spend time with friends or family.
It’s much harder to communicate and socialize in remote working than it is in in-person working. During lunch breaks, take the time to socialize with some workers. Don’t say any basic “How was your day” questions, and ask humorous questions like “Which music do you absolutely despise listening?” This will allow you to get along and know more about each other.
Saying No:
In any type of space, having the strength to say no is important. You don’t want someone to have full control over you and you need to speak up when you know it’s wrong or you just cannot do it at all. Being a yes-man to everything will hinder your mental health and will make you a target for throwing work at. Saying no to things you cannot do will maintain your health and shows to others that you are strong.
Knowing where to put your money in the future is important
You can put your money in:
Retirement funds
Checkings Accounts
Necessities
Emergency funds
Debt payoff
4-8 months payroll
These can keep you financially stable.
If you are able to do side hustles, you can gain som extra money to pay for what you need.
Detecting scams:
You can detect a scammer if they are extremely desperate for your money. They would do anything in order to trick you into buying what you think they are giving.
When a scammer detects that you are extremely urgent than they will up their game and boost your expectations. Don’t show any signs that they can take advantage of.
If the things the scammer is stating is too good, then it’s too good to be true. They want to hype up your expectations and make it seem like they are providing more than what you want. But know that this random person you encountered on the street or website can not actually give you that dream.
If they ask to pay upfront then it’s absolutely a scam. They can easily take your money and not provide anything to you back.
You’ve seen these types of gags in TV shows, ALWAYS read the fine print on everything. Even if the fine print is a thousand pages long, READ EVERYTHING. This can easily get you out of a scam.
Power Networking:
Making connections for your business is important in order to grow your business.
Going to business meet ups is a way to meet new people for your business. But don’t immediately start off about business talk, you have to get to know the person first. Start off with a non-business related topic, like a TV show or their clothes they are wearing, you need to get along with the person. Then from there you can transition into a business talk.
If the person you’re talking to doesn’t fit your criteria of what you want, you can politely make an excuse and move onto another person. Do this carefully as you don’t want to hurt the person’s feelings of course.
After a conversation, you can ask for the person’s business card. Never ask for it at the start as you haven’t established a relationship yet and it just feels plain rude. Think of it as asking some stranger on the street their phone number, it’s exactly like that.
If you’re struggling on who to talk to, try looking at who looks more appealing based on their appearance. If they dress really nicely than they are probably more professional. Don’t always think this though since, like the old saying goes, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Someone can look really nice but is extremely rude, while someone can look unprofessional but is actually really professional.
Don’t be afraid to be the first to start the conversation. Someone has to make the move or else nobody will make progress.
Job Interviews:
Interviewing for a job is an extremely important step. It shows what you are like and why a job should hire you. Knowing what to say during an interview will heavily impact your likely hood of the job hiring you.
Do practice interviews. Search up common interview questions online and have a friend to practice with. Practicing lets you know what and how to say things and allowing you to perfect what you say. You will be prepared for possible questions that you will have to answer.
Always have your own questions. It shows that you are actually interested in the company and want to know more about it.
Do research on the company before the interview. Find out what it’s history is and what it’s culture is like.
Wear something professionally. Wear a suit and tie, unless the company themselves specifically states to wear something else.
Showing up early shows that you do care about this job. Showing up 10-15 minutes early allows you to analyze the inside of the company.
Remember to show respect to the employers, not just the person you’re interviewing with. These are possible future employers you might be working with if you get hired, showing bad first impressions towards them wouldn’t get you a fun time while at work. Along with that, the interviewer could be notified by your behaviour and not hire you at all.
NEVER state that you never tried the product/service from the workplace. It’s extremely disrespectful and shows that you truly don’t care about the job you are trying to apply for.
Elevator Pitch:
An elevator pitch is an extremely short introduction of yourself, getting a point across and making a connection with someone. It’s called that because its roughly the same amount of the time as it takes for someone to take an elevator. Your main goal is to get some form of contact from the person.
Having a good role model is what motivates us into doing something. Our role models are usually celebrities or people we follow online. Though when it’s revealed that they’re actually bad people, it affects us deeply, hurt that they’re not the positive role model we thought they were.
That’s not to say that having a role model is bad, no no, having a role model helps us see more of the world. It lets us understand what to do for a certain subject and how to do it correctly.
To be a role model you have to truly show yourself. Celebrities usually show a persona of themselves in public, a “perfect” version of themselves so people can look at them positively. To be a good role model for people you have to embrace your complexity, duality, bad sides of yourself, not be afraid of failure, passion and authenticity. Without embracing these you cannot be an idea role model for anyone.
Knowing how to financially save is important in your life. Without properly saving your money you can be in debt and in deep trouble. Changing how you live and what you spend is key to saving financially.
Create a list of monthly expenses:
Having a list of what you need to pay monthly in order to live will help you know how much you should spend and how much you shouldn’t.
Having emergency funds will help you when you’re in need of something.
Review and tweak your budget. See what you actually really need and see what you can remove in order to pay less.
If you work on commissions make sure you aggressively save up your money to help cover times when your market is slow.
Necessities and Luxury Items:
Necessities are items that are absolutely needed in order to live.
Some items that are necessities are:
Food
Housing
Clothing
Health
Luxury items are items that you don’t really need but want.
Some items that are luxuries are:
Art
Jewelry
Fancy clothing
Despite luxury items not being needed, they’re just as important as necessities. Luxury items are what make us feel good about ourselves and can make us feel accomplished. If we only spend money on stuff we need we won’t get the enjoyment of life unless we spend some on luxuries. Of course, this doesn’t mean to only spend it on luxury items, only spend it if you have enough money.
Smart Purchases are items that hold value very well. You can resell these items in the future and gain lots of money from it.
Another way to save money is to pay less (of course). Find or negotiate for lower prices on things you purchase.
Purchasing less is another way also. Buy fewer items or buy alternative items at a much lower cost. You can also find an item that's reusable, such as: if you’re going to buy paper towels you can instead buy a towel or sponge which can save you lots of money.
Having a passive income is another useful way to gain some money. It shouldn’t be the main way to earn money for a living but is a way to gain some extra money on the side. Doing things like online commissions can earn you some passive income.
Learning how to manage your time is extremely important in organizing your work and in general, your life. Managing your time will not only get your workflow much better, but will improve your mental health.
When managing time, you have to prioritize what to do first. What is most important? What do you have control over? Can you get it done in a realistic amount? These factors will help you know what to do first and will significantly decrease your stress each day.
Your time should be spent gaining new skills, socializing with friends, and enjoying life. You can have some moments of playing video games or watching TV to get a good rest of your mind, but most of your day should be spending your time well.
Don’t gold plate things, (adding things nobody wants) it will only increase the amount of time wasted for you to do other things. And don’t invest your time on things you don’t have control over, such as arguing for a sports team. Arguing over things will get neither sides nowhere and will only just negatively impact the relationship.
Removing distractions will also help manage your time much better. Turn off your phone, remove electronics, remove any type of things that will distract you while you are doing your work. It will only make your work last longer, and you wouldn’t gain anything from said distractions.
You should always focus on one thing at a time, multi-tasking will only cause even more stress and distraction from your work. When multi-tasking, you will get nothing accomplished and will only ruin your mental state even more. When you focus on one thing, all of your energy goes to that single thing and you can manage to get that thing done then if you were to do multiple things at once.
Also acknowledge Parkison’s Law, which means the more time you have to do something, the more time you spend to finish that, and vice versa for if you have less time to do something. Though if there is no deadline then you might never get that work done. Acknowledging this is important because if you have a whole month to do something then you might spend most of the time doing nothing, and then the last few days actually working on it. If you set a much more shorter, but realistic, deadline for yourself, you’re more likely to do the work.
You can also benefit your mental health a lot for free by doing these activities:
Sleeping - easier said then done, but there are certain things about sleeping to be utilized at its fullest. Getting a good 8 hours of sleep will drastically help you and decrease stress. Having a meal 2-3 hours before sleeping will make sleeping much better.
Moving around - work has you sitting around most of the time. Getting up and pumping your blood by moving around will refresh your body and will make you into better shape into working.
Meditating - Meditating has so much benefits in doing it. It can counter stress, stimulate the vague nerve, provide clearer thinking and better decision making. Doing it once 10 minutes a day will improve your life.
Digital breaks - Too much screen-time on electronics will harm you. Taking time to forget about electronics and enjoying nature or just taking a stroll outside will improve your health.
These may seem easy to do, but it might be hard to break from your current lifestyle. Do these things for 21 days, as that’s when it comes a habit. Continue doing this for 90 days and then that’s when it becomes a lifestyle. 90 days is around 3 months, so spending 3 months to practicing these healthy activities is absolutely worth it. You can apply to this any other habit or lifestyle you want to include in your life.
It’s going to be hard to control your thoughts, but it’s much easier to control your actions. Trying to smile when you’re sad can help you a bit. Sending thoughtful, nice, and appreciative messages to people you love will come a long way. We learn from other people’s behaviour, so spreading positivity will lead to even more people spreading positively.
Today at Techie Youth I learned the differences between Paypal, Stripe, Square, and Merchant Accounts! There were many things about credit cards I never knew about, so learning about them was intriguing.
Knowing which ones to use depends on what your business is like. Some factors are:
Price
Software integrations
Number of products you sell
How you sell and deliver them
Paypal, Stripe, and Square are payment aggregators. They’re easy to set up and don’t really need any additional steps aside from the basic sign-up ones. The problem they do have is that the algorithm can freeze or shut down your account if it detects any suspicious activity. This can be a problem for a lot of users since people can just be doing something with the money and then suddenly it freezes because the algorithm detects said activity as suspicious.
Merchant accounts are dedicated bank accounts. They are used to deposit money from your credit card transactions and are exclusive to your own business. If it detects any products sold that aren’t listed in it, it will freeze your accounts. In order to avoid this you have to inform the bank company about a new product or make a new credit card for that product.
I also checked out the “Stress Management” section in the “Improving Your Quality of Life” unit. The tips in the videos and readings were very helpful and ones I will use the next time I get into a situation related to it. I learned that I have to be patient with myself and basically everything else. Expecting myself to reach the top in a very short time span is not only unrealistic but sets up false expectations that will cause me to go even lower than I am in the future if I can’t reach that goal. Expecting change to happen in a matter of years or even a decade is much more realistic. Along with that, I have to make sure I take action on what I do. If I say to be patient with myself then I have to learn and actually be patient with myself. If I’m unable to do this then I am basically just wasting my time over nothing. I will gradually learn to be patient with myself and expect growth gradually instead of instantly. As long as I commit to action to the goal, then I will someday get there.
There will be people who will put you down in your life, and most of the time it will get to you. You will feel bad, but why should you care about what they say about you, you are you. You shouldn’t care about what other people say and only care about yourself. Doing what you enjoy is what will keep you going in life. If you do things to impress other people, then you’re not making the most of your life. Do things that will satisfy yourself and buy things that you enjoy. Your money should be spent wisely, but it is okay to spend money on something that makes you really happy even if other people call it stupid. It’s what you enjoy and nobody can stop you from it.
Dealing with stress is always an unpleasant feeling for everyone, so learning how to manage it is very important.
When dealing with stress, you have to learn to be comfortable with what happens to you. It may seem extremely hard to do, but learning to accept the faults in life is what will help you move forward. Always prepare for failure, it’s okay if you fail because there’s always going to be another chance one way or another.
Trying to see everything as a “little thing” instead of a “big thing” is another way to deal with stress. If you see everything as something that’s easy to manage it will decrease your stress and it will help you plow through life.
Setting up expectations can lead to downfall. If you set up a large expectation for yourself and then you never reach it, it will only hurt you. If you set up realistic expectations for yourself then it will improve your mental state of whatever you are doing. If you can’t manage to reach that large goal, then try expecting yourself to reach a much smaller goal, and then that goal can lead to another, and then it will slowly, but gradually reach that larger goal you wanted to reach first. Not only will this decrease your expectations for yourself, but you will feel accomplished and feel a sense of progress whenever you complete a much smaller expectation. If you set up small goals before the big ones, your journey to that goal will be much smoother.
Earning Money Online!
Last week I accidentally skipped the Prerequisite Units which I am required to do before anything else, my mistakes! But now I got that figured out and now I’m working my way towards completing them.
I’ve only gone through one unit, but even so I’m still not done with it! There’s so much information for me to take in.
Remote Learning:
I learned what it is like to work remotely. When working remotely you can be in control of your work environment. Since you are at home you can organize your desk as you like it, get a good meal and eat during work, or just feel comfortable being inside your room. There are multiple factors that can help improve comfortability when working.
Hiring workers remotely can greatly benefit your business too. Having workers all around the world can let you gain new information from another part of the world. Finding workers can be much easier online since you can find a variety of people who can join your workforce.
Getting up from bed and quickly preparing yourself for 10 minutes is a pain for most people when it comes to in-person working. But in remote working, there’s no need for traveling, waiting in traffic, or paying gas bills to get to work. People can just get up from their beds and immediately get to work without any problem.
The spread of diseases can greatly decrease with this type of lifestyle. With COVID-19 still being around, remote working can help a lot with stopping it. People also have more control on what they eat instead of relying on the vending machines or their small lunch. It can greatly benefit their health just from working at home.
Downsides:
Despite how nice remote working may sound like, there are drawbacks to it just like everything else in the world:
While you do have the freedom to set your own hours, you may not know when to start or to stop. It’s easy to slack off during work since you’re at a place you are most comfortable at. And it’s difficult to know when to stop because your household is your workplace, so it’s hard for your brain to get the message to actually start or stop work. In in-person working, your brain shuts off the “working” mindset because of leaving the office building, but in remote areas your brain doesn’t do that. So you keep on working and working and you get no free-time for yourself. In order to do remote working you have to set boundaries for yourself. Have self control on what to do and not to do.
Having workers across the globe sounds neat, but comes with the drawbacks of being in different timezones. It could be nighttime for someone when it’s morning time for you and it can be really inconvenient for meetings. Interacting with them can also be a pain, trying to find the right time to message them.
You can’t socialize with workers, or be remembered that well when working remotely. You can’t find yourselves in awkward situations that could strike conversations like, bumping into each other, having a talk near a water dispensor, or just seeing random moments with each other. You have more control on what you are able to show online, but in real life you don’t. If you accidentally trip and fall, you’re able to make it into a memorable moment and laugh it off. People will remember you for that and might even see you as the “guy that tripped and fell that one time.” They might not remember your name, but they recognize your face, which remote working cannot do.
This doesn’t mean remote working shouldn’t be an option at all, these are just some faults just like how in-person has its faults too. If you’re able to handle these faults then you can handle remote working.
Digital Nomad:
A digital nomad is a person who travels to many places around the world, but still does work remotely.
Being able to freely travel across the world while still being able to work sounds like a miracle. Traveling lets you gain a much more broady view of the world and could just be fun for you. Though to even start this you need:
Lots of freedom on how to spend time
Lots of money
The type of situation you are currently in
This lifestyle isn’t for everyone, so these options might not be available for them. But for the ones that do, make sure you spend the money wisely. Don’t spend your money on 5-star hotels, you can find a cheap one or you can even rent for a cheap price. Doing this helps save a lot of money and lets you travel more.
You have to change your mindset on your life. Being a digital nomad isn’t an easy task, but is a rewarding one.
You have to put in the effort to be one. If you’re not motivated to do this then you won’t work as efficiently and the whole lifestyle will just crumble. Be sure you’re completely prepared for lots of traveling. Also gain the mindset of earning money ANYWHERE you go. Use your spare time to gain new skills to gain even more money.
Having an interest that you can easily make money off of remotely can greatly benefit you. Jobs such as: video making, video game designing, art, etc. are all jobs that can be done remotely. If you do not have a strong passion for what you are doing it will only lead to burnout and will cause your workflow to worsen. You have to consistently love your job and do whatever it takes to monetize it.
A digital nomad can be difficult to maintain, but is very rewarding letting you gain a larger view of the world and having a lot of spare time going across the world.
Vlogging:
Vlogging is a job that can be done remotely and might be fun to try out. It may seem simple but there’s a lot to take into account.
When vlogging yourself, you HAVE to be yourself. If you’re pretending to be someone else to try to fit into that “cool, appealing criteria” you have the huge risk of hurting the trust of your subscribers when your true self inevitably peaks out. It can be tiring to put up an act to be appealing to others, there is no way you can keep it up for a whole job. Don’t be afraid to hide your emotions during your vlog, if you feel sad show it- it only makes you more human and relatable to your audience.
Don’t expect a huge audience right off the bat though. Everyone starts off somewhere small and it will be a gradual growth. Learning to use social media can help with this growth, giving updates on your videos, or things unrelated to your videos. Also take into account criticisms your audience might make. Connecting with your audience is a key factor in growing.
Having the proper equipment is important for the best viewing. Having great camera and mic quality can let your viewers stay watching without feeling annoyed by the quality of the video. Editing your videos can also greatly improve your audience enjoyment. Keep in what seems more entertaining, cut off or speed up moments that seem unimportant or boring to your viewers.
Vlogging is a fun way to earn money while enjoying doing things in your life.
Using Social Medias:
Using social media (in a business standpoint) can be a nice way to gain some extra cash and connect with people online. The most important factor is making people stop scrolling and check out your posts. Some factors to increase the likelihood of this are:
Eye-catching photos
Hashtags
Videos
Polls
These are usually what gets people’s attention and using this to your advantage can let your social media following increase.
Posting consistently is extremely important when running an account. Post too little and you might get no engagement, post too much and your followers might be overwhelmed and ignore your posts. There needs to be a balance of what you post and what you don’t. Having one post everyday, or every few hours in a day can keep a balance and lets your audience interact with you without feeling overwhelmed.
Using hashtags also helps in growing. People search through hashtags to search for content the hashtag specifically states, using this lets people see your content that uses that hashtag and might be engaged from it. On instagram you can use as many hashtags as you want since there’s it’s own box to put it in. But on Twitter, using one or two hashtags is most ideal because the hashtags are part of the post itself. Using a ton of hashtags would make the post feel awkward and bad leading to people not interacting with it.
I learned so much from just today and I can’t wait to put these skills into use in the future!
Today is my first day at Techie Youth and I learned so much! I chose my elective and did “Entrepreneurship: Earning Income Independently” because in that section it has art which I am interested in. But before I could even get into art I did “Entrepreneurship and Leadership” first because the red text told me to start off there. While I’m not interested in those kinds of things, I was actually invested in what I was learning. I learned so much on that skill today!
Starting Off A Business:
Being passionate on something is a key factor in success in your business. If you aren’t passionate on something then it will only lead into failure as time goes on. Along with that, you don’t want to spend your whole time on something that you don’t even care about.
Forming a group of people in your business will also help it strive. The more people means the more work you are able to get done. Collaborative efforts is what makes work more efficient and fun. Working alone would only make things more difficult for you.
Taking risks is important in a business. You want to take financial risks that could benefit your business money growth. But that doesn’t mean you should take risks all the time. You could gain or lose a massive amounts of money depending on the risk you take.
When in a Business:
Taking into account criticism is important no matter what in a business. People don’t critique to put you down, they do it to let you know what you can do better and what you can improve on. It’s for the better for the business, not the harm.
When giving criticism make sure you give what type of person you are talking to in account. If you know they cannot handle harsh criticism, find a way that lets them know their faults without hurting them. Knowing what kind of person a person is can let you know how to critcize them in the most effective way.
Hard Skills and Soft Skills:
Hard skills are skills that are needed for the job. For example, if you want to do architecture for a job you need to know how to build and stuff. These are skills that can be learned from classes and college. They are the main skill needed for the job, but not always enough to get hired.
Soft skills are extra skills that are flexible for every job. Skills such as communication can be used for any type of job. These cannot be learned from classes or colleges and can only be learned from real life experiences. Socializing with friends or new people and asking them on how to acquire those skills can help you learn. Soft skills are what makes a person stand out from the rest more, it gives more of a reason why on why someone should hire you.
Main Goal:
No matter what, the main goal of your business is paying customers. You can spend a ton of money on advertisement and everything that makes the product look pretty, but if nobody is paying for the product then it’s just a waste of time. Know what your audience wants from you, accomplishing that goal helps achieve more success in your business.
Being aware of competition is also important. Doing something alone isn’t enough for an audience to want to choose your product if there’s a million of other businesses that does something similar. You have to show why your product stands out from the rest or else you will get no sales. Keeping up with trends will benefit you business and can create more sales.
Conclusion:
I learned so much just from this single day of work at Techie Youth. I’m definitely going to use these skills in the future when I get a job.