Supplementing Your Income

At a local conference I got into a discussion with a mortgage broker dealing in commercial real estate. He confided in me that he hasn’t been selling much lately and was looking to supplement his income while still working in the real estate market.

I am hearing this more and more often these days. And, it is a common problem not limited to a downturn in the economy. No matter how high one climbs on the workplace ladder, folks are regularly looking for additional or supplemental income sources. From the CEO of a large company who sits on the board of directors of other companies, to the administrative assistant who works weekends in a retail store, everybody's looking. Man (and woman’s) inability to satiate material desires has created a secondary income market – not related to second income family but a regular second income for professionals.

Online marketplaces like eBay have made it easy for anyone (even experienced and educated professionals) to sell merchandise on the Internet. I know a successful executive at a big finance firm who is selling environmentally friendly light bulbs on eBay. I know another executive at a recruiting firm who makes extra income buying and selling used books online.

So, my advice to the mortgage broker is not to go out and start selling trinkets from around his house on eBay (leave your wife’s glass animals alone for now). But rather, focus on an asset you could leverage. Let me beat around the bush for a moment. I have around 20 years of experience in technology marketing. One would hope that my knowledge is an asset that I could leverage to not only create marketing strategies for my current employer, but also it is an asset that someone is willing to pay for my advice, opinion or strategy.

Not too long ago we would call this a consultant: a company would engage my services for one to three months, and I would produce numerous reports, presentations, etc. Thanks to the Internet, there are now “expert networks” where experts are folks like me (presumably far better) and the buyers are companies seeking to gain access to expert knowledge and experience. I signed up for one of these networks, and lo and behold, I was paid a few hundred dollars to give my advice on email marketing to an investment firm. I provided quality service (or at least I think so) and the buyer got what they wanted without needing to engage me with a retainer, out of pocket expenses, travel, etc. The two sites I recommend are: www.glgroup.com and www.bitwine.com which is a network for advice, which again provides cash compensation for doling out advice.

Now, perhaps the mortgage broker isn’t an expert on urban affairs or corporate construction – nor would anyone expect one to be. But what a mortgage broker has that is valuable are top-level relationships with numerous companies in numerous industries. As a broker, you have sold or are trying to sell to businesses of all sizes: from startup companies to midsized to large enterprises; from travel agencies to law firms to high tech companies. A broker also has high-level relationships inside these companies as they are dealing with the decision maker, the CEO, the owner or the controller. Don’t you think that there are companies, marketers and other selling professionals that would pay for access to these folks? What if you actually knew that your client needed to outsource the IT services or would be interested in getting a coffee vendor - would that knowledge be valuable to the vendors that provide those services? We think so, and that's why we created www.salesconx.com.

Have you ever referred someone as a job candidate? A site that provides compensation for referring candidates is www.zubka.com.

Though there are a lot of online scams for ‘getting paid to survey’ there are some legitimate ones too. I recommend www.maximumpaidsurveys.com.

While we are all hoping for a rebound in the market, the Internet has made it a bit easier to add some extra money to your wallet.