Unless you set yourself up with a series of investments, everyone will need to work in some capacity to create an income to live. Even though these tips will be the most useful to you if you choose to work a nine-to-five, these will apply to just about any way you will want to earn an income in the future. People have been using these techniques for decades to create wealth for themselves without actually recognizing what they are doing.
I’ve been aware of these for years and have created a platform for myself in an unusually small niche to make extra money and keep myself employed in that niche. Now, as I venture into a new niche, it’s time to use these techniques to build a new platform and recession-proof myself once again.
There is an overarching theme to all of these and an overarching theme to making money and keeping yourself working when times get tight. That thing is making yourself useful to other people or solving a problem other people are willing to pay you for.
Recession Proof Yourself; Acquire skills to put yourself at the front of the pack.
Acquiring essential skills is the most critical aspect of making yourself recession-proof. To make yourself recession you need to keep expanding your skills and keep track of what others in your industry are doing. The idea is to never stop learning and to continue developing your skills to keep yourself at the front of your industry. Keeping yourself in demand will make you recession-proof.
So how do you know if you are at the front of the pack? Dig deep into the culture of your particular industry. Treat it not only as a way of making money but also as immersing yourself in the lifestyle and getting to know other people doing the same thing you are. Even if what you are doing seems to be just a simple job, others are doing what you are doing, working for other businesses. Network and find out where they are at skill-wise. Get on Facebook or other social media channels and get to know what other people are doing.
There are tons of resources out there to keep you updated. The most significant thing is not to let yourself fall behind. There are businesses out there where the entire system of people has fallen behind the times. Soon these businesses will fall apart, and the people working there will need to find employment elsewhere. Even if you fit in great at the company you were working at; you will need to sharpen your skills to keep up with the general marketplace instead of just your current workplace.
Recession Proof Yourself; Seth Godin calls it becoming a Linchpin
I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. I’ve read a bunch of his books, and there is gold buried in all of them. The one mostly about what we are talking about here is Linchpin. The core idea of the book is to make yourself a linchpin in your job or your particular industry as a whole. A linchpin is an older industrial term. In the mechanical machinery world, it is a pin that holds the critical components of the machine together.
Without that pin, the machine doesn’t work, or in worst-case scenarios, the whole system comes crashing down. You need to be that indispensable pin that keeps everything from crashing down. If you do that, I can assure you; that you will be recession-proof. I would suggest taking a weekend and diving into Seth’s Linchpin book. You will find it incredibly insightful. The way he writes is an easygoing tone, and he uses simplified analogies to explain very high-end components of business and marketing.
If you get online and type in Seth, he will for sure come up in the number one position in just about any search engine you try. There are little nuggets of gold in just about everything he writes. Here is a link to Seth’s Linchpin book.
Recession Proof Yourself; Develop fresh ideas to put yourself at the head of the marketplace
This concept will not only keep you recession-proof but could put you at the top of the pay scale in your industry. For this, you will need to dig deep into your chosen profession to not only keep the pace of what is going on but also create new ideas or systems to make your industry as a whole better. Developing cutting-edge ideas will go hand in hand with my next point, but you will need to understand the problems in your particular industry and develop ways to solve them.
You will need to be a trailblazer, not a follower. You will need to be thick-skinned because as you venture out and start experimenting, you will find people who will troll you and your ideas. Most industries don’t like people who upset the system. But, to keep yourself recession-proof, that is what you will need to do.
You will need to have a deep understanding of the foundation of your particular industry. It will take lots of thought and lots of independent studies to get there. Don’t think taking a class will put you even close. If they are teaching it in schools, it’s already behind or at the pace of what is currently going on. You need to go beyond it and do your independent research.
There is one exception if you find a professor in a school doing research or even a functional study group to join who is researching your particular topic, that would be worth getting involved in. But, the general class curriculum, will be middle of the industry at best.
Recession Proof Yourself; Build your brand and be recognizable in your industry
Now, businesses come and go, but to keep yourself employed and in demand in your particular industry, you will not only need to create an impressive resume but also build your brand. I’m a blogger, so I will say that everyone in the workplace needs a blog. A blog will replace resumes in the not-too-distant future. It is already happening in some industries, but you will see them more and more as time goes on. Think about it this way.
Let’s say you are in the running with a bunch of other people for a job. Everyone else has impressive resumes filled with work history, schooling, and maybe even some awards. You have a pretty good resume, but you also have a blog talking about your ideas in a particular industry. If a business owner were to get on your blog and be blown away by your insightfulness and your ideas on how to improve a business operating in your particular niche, I’d say you could even have a weaker resume, but be in the final cut for the job just because of your blog.
Start a blog and let your ideas and strengths be known. The better your ideas, the stronger your brand will grow. Like I said at the beginning of this article, the more indispensable you can make yourself the more recession-proof you will be. The goal of making money in any field, whether you are working for other people, or you have your own business is solving problems people are willing to pay you to solve. The more significant and more expensive the problem, the more money you can make by supplying the solution.
The best thing you can do is dig deep into the culture of your industry. Go all the way to the foundation to understand it at its core. That is where you will finally understand what the problems of the industry lie.
Be safe,
Kevin