Earning More | brokeGIRLrich
We took a bit of a hiatus on this topic here, but we are back with the other half of the budgeting formula.
Spend less than you earn.
If you want a quick primer on how to make a budget, check out this post from a few weeks ago.
If you’re interested in kick starting your frugality skills, check out this post about how to spend less.
Today let’s look at things you can do to earn more.
Your Primary Job
Your first attempt at earning more starts with negotiating your contract. A recent survey of stage managers pointed out that the majority of us aren’t even attempting contract negotiations.
I totally feel you. I also am terrible at this step. And working in the arts can make you used to the idea that you should just feel lucky to have a job.
Never forget that if you do your job well, the company is just as lucky to have you.
Then look at what investments you can make in yourself to improve the jobs you get or strengthen your stance in negotiations for your next contract (or performance review, if you live a more normal 9 to 5 life).
There are several certifications that are useful to any job and can be worth paying for. If you’re just looking to strengthen your position before your next review or interview, there are also a plethora of inexpensive or free certifications that can beef up your resume or provide you with a talking point.
Do not lie about how much you learned getting these certifications. I really like learning and I run this blog, so I take darn near any reasonably priced certification course I can find. Sometimes I do it to review them for brokeGIRLrich.
That also means that if I’m hiring an ASM and they try to harp on their mental health first aid training they got through the Red Cross during COVID-19, I already know it was like a 45 minute slide show that taught you very little.
I don’t hate if you mention it in your resume or have a giant list of trainings on your website – heck, I’d be happy you are also constantly on the lookout for new and useful knowledge – but don’t try to oversell something that didn’t teach you much (on the flip side, there is a mental health first aid training course in NYC that is much more extensive and legit and I’d be happy to hear you discuss how you apply what you learned there to your work).
Investing in yourself with skills like CPR, first aid, and OSHA 10 or 30 training is a worthwhile investment that should definitely be mentioned upon hiring or review (of course, if the job listing required you be CPR certified or have an OSHA card, this is not really a negotiating card anymore).
During this pandemic, most of the folks I know are killing it at investing in themselves. There are piles and piles of free training available online right now.
Outside Your Primary Job
You need a side hustle plan. I remember being super intimidated by this at first, but I started small with this mindset of what my grandma called pin money.
I would do tiny things like mystery shopping to just bring in a few dollars and knock a few bucks off my grocery bill.
On a larger scale, since the main thing every adult in my life who didn’t work in theater told me in college was that I was going to starve to death, I also developed my plan B for if no stage managing work ever happened and that was substitute teaching for me – something I can still fall back on when I need to between contracts.
I would say I spent about three years experimenting with all kinds of little projects to bring in a few extra dollars including apps like Gigwalk, UserTesting, selling things on eBay, transcribing, and product demonstrating.
Some of them I liked well enough. Some of them I hated. There was no way to figure it out other than trial and error.
My main side hustle these days wound up being this blog, which started out as just a hobby. Then in became a pin money level side hustle. Nowadays, it’s usually like a paycheck for an extra week of work, to do something I really enjoy (most of the time – I do not love anything about the backend of blogging or sorting out issues with the tech side).
Also, by training myself to be in a constantly hunting mindset, I found one of my favorite gigs, doing weird voice over work, that I don’t make much doing, but when I do get an offer, it’s a quick and fun way to make $40.
There are literally tons of ways to make extra money, if you start experimenting you can probably find one that works for you.
I think a key thing to remember when starting out is that nothing changes overnight. It’s just one foot after another for quite a while, but when you look back, you realize how far you managed to come – even if those steps seemed so tiny on their own.
