How to Make the Most of Your Greatest Resource

This guest post is by Mark Riddix of BuylikeBuffett.

What is the greatest resource you have? Your first answer may be your house, car, bank account, or some other financial asset. While these possessions may have some monetary value; they pale in comparison to your greatest resource. You may be wondering what is this valuable gold mine that I am talking about?

The answer is YOU! You are the most valuable resource that you will ever possess. Your gifts, talents, skills, and abilities are priceless. They can all be used to improve your life and the lives of others. Your knowledge base is far more valuable than your home, 401(k), and investment balances combined.

Making money using your most valuable asset

You may not know it but you can create an income stream for yourself by marketing your most valuable commodity. Our economy is based on the timely provision of services and information. Companies are always looking for knowledgeable, confident, capable people Many companies would be willing to pay you for your expertise in a particular area.

That’s right! The skills that you have developed can be turned into income. You can take your knowledge base and monetize it by either finding full time employment in an area or renting yourself out. You can rent out the knowledge that you have through consulting and freelancing.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that I have been able to turn my passion for financial education into a nice income stream. It is the best of both worlds because I get to help improve the lives of others and have been able to improve my life as well.

Here are a few of the steps that helped me turn my greatest resource into an income stream.

1. Find your passion.

I was always passionate about investing and personal finance so I had the idea to start writing about these topics a few years ago. It was an area that interested me and I noticed that so many people struggled with financial issues.
I would often run into people that would ask me questions about the best places to put their money and how to start saving for their kid’s college fund. I figured that writing would be the best way to share my thoughts on many of these issues.

2. Create a plan.

My next step was to craft a strategy that would enable me to build name recognition and awareness of my skill set. My short term goal was not to make money but to get an opportunity to write.

I began sending out letters and emails to newspapers, magazines, and other publications hoping for the opportunity to write a monthly column free of charge. There were many non-responses before I was finally given the chance to write my own financial column for a local newspaper. This gave me the opportunity to gain exposure and further develop my skills as a writer.

3. Be willing to take a risk.

Once I had written a column for a year, I had the confidence and experience to believe that I could launch a successful blog. I started writing for my own blog and focused on churning out content day after day.

There were some rough patches in the beginning where I thought about giving up but I hung in there. I wrote guest posts, networked with other bloggers, and worked tirelessly to grow my readership. I began to develop a modest income stream by taking small freelancing gigs and earning advertising revenue from ad networks.

4. Stick with it.

After months and months of blogging, I leveraged my experience as a freelance writer into paid writing staff positions. I would write for a number of different sites during the week which gave me the opportunity to generate a few thousand dollars a month in writing income. I continued to earn ad revenue writing for my own site as well. My site had become popular enough that I started to sell ad space directly to advertisers myself.

5. Keep growing!

As time went on, I received more and more offers to write for larger sites. The pay rates increased and all of these jobs led to more recognition for my site. I kept seeking to learn as much as I could about the financial arena.

Over the past year, I was able to compile much of my personal finance knowledge into a book. This along with writing my blog has allowed me to turn my financial knowledge into monthly income. My goal is to hopefully one day grow my site as large as Darren Rowse has done with ProBlogger. Hey, you have to have goals, right?

How will you leverage your greatest resource?

You can take your knowledge base and monetize it as well! Everyone has some gift, talent, and skill that people could benefit from. For example, if you are a lifestyle expert, you can address day to day issues that people are having. If you are a tech junkie, you can help people deal with their IT questions. I know that I could definitely use help with that! I am sure that there are plenty of other areas as well.

Never underestimate the things that you are capable of achieving. Every bit of knowledge that you have and information that you learn is valuable to you and others as well. Your path to financial success may just lie in how effectively you utilize the greatest asset that you have which is yourself.

Mark Riddix publishes his own financial blog, BuylikeBuffett.com and has written a personal finance book titled Your Financial Playbook.