One of the tasks I have been assigned to work on during the morning is the creation of an employee handbook. I labor over how many vacation hours an employee at my company can earn so that he can see his daughter’s Christmas play at school or take the family to the country. Oh the poor suckers who must stick to these rules and regulations that I enter onto my screen!

My boss is at the gym, buying large elaborate Starbucks beverages, and taking time to look beautiful for the day while I work. …while it hits me. She won’t have to follow any of these policies. I’m getting paid by the hour to make up rules for myself and co-workers. Working for someone else feels like a loss of freedom.

I know that the best thing that I can financially and economically do right now is to continue writing this policy manual and following the commands of my employer. But I’d like to generate more income.

An employee finds a second job. An entrepreneur finds an opportunity.

My weekends are tied up with an out-of-town investment project for the future. Yet the rest of the week?

My current schedule Monday through Friday:
7 to 5:30 spent preparing for work, working, loading the dishwasher, and not really feeling productive in my personal development. Sure I feel that my boss benefited from my day, though I’m not sure if I have. So I’m left with the rest of the evening. Aridni articles are being written. The daily tasks like laundry, dinner, and bills are being paid. But what about the rest of the time?

I have set a goal: develop supplemental sources of income that are capable of generating enough money to pay my half of our monthly housing expense, $400.

Questions I am asking myself as I prepare this journey that you should consider for yourself:

1. Why have I chosen my goal—what’s so important about it? And what is the purpose?
2. What nonessentials am I willing to cut from my life so that my goal can happen?
3. What’s my deadline? Or am I even setting a specific deadline?
4. If my goal isn’t achieved by one strategy, will I give up or will I try another strategy?
5. What types of resources and support systems do I need to tap into?
6. Is my husband willing to stand by me, listen to my ideas, and encourage me? And when he isn’t there to fuel my tank, can I still survive?
7. Where am I going to hang those little sticky notes of motivation in my house?
8. What are those stick notes going to say?
9. Every night, ask myself: What did I learn today that can make my performance better for tomorrow?

1. Build a team. I was offered a position at a commercial construction company yesterday. What do I know about construction? Absolutely nothing. Most places hire you for skills that you already possess. This man was looking for ambition, someone with heart, someone ready to use her resources with an open mind to learn and grow with his company. I think that he was on to something.

2. Target your pitch. I love the phrase, “narrow your focus; broaden your appeal.” I think it’s exactly what has to be done for success.

3. Be consistent. Providing a constant level of results, processes, and attitude seem essential. Nothing like finding a roofer that does fantastic work on one property for you only to discover that on the next project you hire him for, the roof leaks cats and dogs and the bill is twice as much.

4. Smile. Sometimes, I want to grit my teeth—how could someone be so stupid? Yeah, I get frustrated rather quickly. Yet no one will do business with me or return to me if I’m bitter. Be nice, Katie, be nice.

5. Jump the cliff. We have two ways to live: in safety or with risk. It seems to me that every truly successful person lived the life of risk. A lot of unsuccessful people also lived the life of risk. But you never know if a risk is going to generate a million bucks or send you to ground zero. Are you willing to jump?

6. Find free cheerleaders. Anyone believes in you if it means they can get a few more bucks out of the deal. (Readers, are you thinking of real estate agents, too?) The key is the people who do this stuff for free…i.e. your family. I think they have to be behind you to some degree—you know, pick you up when you’re bouncing off the rocks when you chose to jump the cliff.

In case you haven’t heard, the Alaskan oil pipeline just broke. Eight percent of the nation’s oil supply is now cut off. It only took a four percent hit to cause the energy crisis during the 70’s.

We have to find a way for energy other than oil. Let me amend that last sentence, we have to implement an energy source other than oil.

While it really wouldn’t end any oil dependency that America has, what about the coal-to-oil idea? It becomes profitable when crude reaches $35-$40 per barrel. We’ve got ethanol, biodiesel, and who knows what else is out there. So where is the next Rockefeller and what is the hold up?

There is a fortune to be made by whoever implements a solution for energy. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a young company that will tackle this. The only questions are when and what company? Who is going to be the Google of energy?

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about why gas is cheap at $3.00 a gallon. Then when the article was linked to by another site, the person basically said that I must have invested in crude futures. While I hadn’t at the time and still haven’t done so, it might not such a bad idea.

Last night, we saw the legendary EVEL KNIEVEL. He’s a 60-some-year-old man infamous for his motorcycle jumps, crazy stunts, and daredevil ambition. Evel isn’t the kind of man that we ever connected to Aridni. But why not?

He’s an icon for risky achievements. No, the man doesn’t have any outstanding world records. He can barely walk now, and every jump and dare he’s ever dared to do has multiplied by three by younger generations that follow his footsteps. Nonetheless, this guy is gonna live in history. Evel did something that was very new in his day. The people following him won’t know such success, even though they do more daring motorcycle stunts today because they aren’t the first; Evel was the first. If you do the same in your ideas, you might find success, too.

This week’s guest writing team is… Todd’s family. Todd was notorious for finding niches to hit it big as a vendor. This motorcycle event was always one of them. The family checked the party out since Todd couldn’t do his regular sales.

Potential for wealth abounds. The problem, of course, is that we haven’t quite found that copper vein in our minds. Keep digging, though. Watch the world, and talk to people. Focus on these three points:

1. Invent or start something. New gas station, automatic orange peeler for the home?
2. Re-invent something already out there. Another cut of jeans or sluce box?
3. Find a new way to present something. Chinese hair grower in the USA? Bubblegum lip gloss for men?

Do you want to get some financing for your new product, invention, or company? Lets take a look at what some of the standards seem to be, based on the Venture Capitalism’s three c’s for loans. This article is essencially geared towards taking your business and expanding or improving it by taking out loans.

And of course those three c’s would be cash, credit, and collateral.

1. Cash - It is important for you to be an investor in your own project. If you are throwing down a good portion, say 20% for example, then you are laying the groundwork of good faith. If people know that the person they are investing in cares enough to lay down his own money, they are more likely to invest.
2. Credit - Even though as they say on the investing commercials ‘past performance does not guarantee future results’ it can give you a clue. If someone’s FICO score is awful, there is a good chance that they do not know how to manage their funds. Then on the other hand that person could be great from then on out.
3. Collateral – What happens if you spend the money expanding the business, only to find out that your idea was a flop. The investors are not going to be particularly happy about that. With good cause too, you could have just lost all of their money without anything to show for it. By having collateral, you are saying ‘If I can’t make payments, I’ll back it up with my house’ Could be risky for you, but if it means getting your loans you have to be able to take that risk.

These c’s can be basic rules of thumb for any type of loans. With that, you are one step closer to getting your business set for growth!