“You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget. Those are your friends.”

-Unknown author.

Are you a homebody? Do you enjoy getting out and meeting new people? Do you avoid social events? Are you a social butterfly?

These are all important questions to ask yourself because meeting new people is very important when it comes to business and life in general. If you stay home all of the time and never make the effort to get out, you won’t be able to grow past your current level. Do you want to move on to the next level or do you want to stay at the same point forever? Do you want to meet amazing new people?

Why do I think it’s important that you get out and meet new people constantly?

A whole new world of opportunities.

When you meet new people you can be potentially introduced to new opportunities. There are many ideas out there that you don’t even know exist right now. It’s like when you first started college or joined a new gym. You get exposed to ways that you never would have thought of before. There’s no telling how far these opportunities can take you. Instead of being nervous about these new chances, it can benefit you much more by embracing them as they come. What do you have to lose? Get out there and see what opportunities are awaiting you.

Explore new ideas.

We all look at things differently. This is why I try to discuss business concepts with those that are polar opposites of me so that I can gain a perspective into the other side of the argument. When you surround yourself with those with similar mindsets you’ll never see things from a different angle. When you interact with someone that sees things completely differently, you’ll be surprised by what exists that you never thought of. This is why I always speak with a friend that I know will share a different side of things before every business decision. You want to cover all of your bases. Especially when you’re taking big steps. You don’t want to miss out a specific angle on something just because you never took the time to address it with someone.

Get out of your shell.

Do you ever meet someone that appears to be really awkward? This person just hasn’t stepped out of their shell just yet. A younger friend of mine went away to college last fall. He asked his few friends for some tips on how to meet people. We simply told him to get out of his shell and do things that he normally wouldn’t do. This includes saying hello to strangers and speaking to the most beautiful girl in class. After a few months his Facebook profile grew exponentially and he had more contacts on his number than he could keep track of. Getting out of your shell can be very risky for the introvert. However, the benefits will be seen in many ways. You’ll have more friends, an easier time finding work, and you won’t be intimidated by social situations as much as you were before.

Increased knowledge.

By meeting new types of people you expose yourself to new knowledge. Think of what you didn’t know about the human body before you started working out? Think about what you didn’t know about different cultures until you started working in a diverse workplace? I could go on for a long time with this. Essentially, the more people you meet the more you increase your knowledge on a variety of topics.

Better understanding of life.

It’s difficult to understand why certain people behave in a certain way. Instead of judging people that you perceive as being different, you can stand to benefit much more by taking the time to speak with them to see what they’re all about. This will eventually give you a far better understanding of life as well.

At the end of the day, the benefits of meeting new people far exceed not getting out there to take chances. What are you waiting for? Have you met any cool people recently?

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It took me a while (there were some negotiations involved with my wife ) but I can now confirm that both my partner and I will attend The Financial Blogger Conference in Chicago this October. For the record, it’s now my conference (mind you, I thought of charging Phil Taylor from PT Money, the creator of this conference for using The Financial Blogger ). However, I thought I should go just to “protect” The Financial Blogger’s trademark, lol!

But seriously folks, this is the first financial blogger conference ever. There are a lot of conferences about personal finance and many seminars about the internet and blogging. However, nobody had thought of combining both finance and the internet at the same conference until now. Since there are probably more than 500 financial bloggers around the planet, I guess that there is definitely a market for such a conference!

Since the conference is in Chicago and we are based in Montreal, we took a couple of months to decide whether or not we should go. The weekend will probably cost around $1,500 to $2,000 so it does represent an important investment, even though we can recover the cost within the same month.

But when I look at how many great people were attending, I decided to make the jump. The truth is that I don’t know how much to expect from the seminars and the speakers. However, I know what to expect from networking with these guys:

The Financial Blogger Conference Attendees:

Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

Definitely the most inspiring guy of the moment. I’ve referred to him as Spiderman in my Financial Blogger’s Superheroes article. I’m definitely looking forward to speaking with him in person. However, this will be a hard task as I can tell you that he will be the “star” of the conference.

Tom Drake from Canadian Finance Blog

He’s a fellow Canadian Blogger and I’ve been corresponding with him since the beginning of his blog. He is in the same business as we are as he is developing several sites aside from his main blog. It will be a great to share our techniques throughout this conference!

Jeremy Vohwinkle from Gen X Finance

Probably one of the funniest financial bloggers attending the conference. I don’t know much about Jeremy but he is always of a great help when I am shooting questions to him via email. He is now living from his online income so he is a great inspiration for me too!

Mike Piper from Oblivious Investor

Mike’s model is pretty interesting as he is making most of his online money through selling his investment related books. Since I want to write more E-books in the future, this is definitely a reference to speak with in this area.

Mike Holman from Money Smarts Blog

Mike Holman is literally my Toronto Alter Ego. His name is Mike H (my name too), he has 2 kids (about the same age as mine) and he is a financial blogger… If he is bald, I will have to believe in human cloning!

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents

I admire Jeff because he is able to combine both his financial blogs along with his career as an independent financial planner. If you look at his main blog, you will see automatically that is he probably the most knowledgeable financial planner in Illinois!

Gyutae Park & Andrew Schrage from The Money Crashers

We have been dealing business with these guys in the past and we recently met Andrew in Montreal for a beer. They have built a financial blogging empire bigger than ours (so far ). This will be a great pleasure to meet with them.

Peter Anderson from Bible Money Matters

I’ve been doing a lot of business with Peter since the beginning of our company since he also owns Logos for Websites. It’s always fun to meet people that you are dealing with! Peter was also a great reference when we used to own Gather Little By Little since he authors a Christian personal finance website.

Ryan Guina from Cash Money Life

I’d say that Ryan is one of the most accessible financial bloggers I know. His blog is super big and still, you can send him an email and he will reply as fast as he can. He is also very helpful when I have questions and doesn’t hesitate to share his knowledge.

Philip Taylor from PT Money

Philip is the guy behind The Financial Blogger conference so I am really looking forward to buying him a drink . It was an awesome idea and I know that it’s a lot of work. Kudos to Phil for putting this together!

J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy

I’ve talked to J over Skype and via email as well, he is a very nice guy! He also owns a few websites so it will be interesting to see how he manages everything. I’m sure we will have a great time together as we had a lot of fun over our conversations!

Adam Baker form Man Vs Debt

This guy is so amazing that I have written a full post about how this guy is brilliant. He has helped me a lot through coaching sessions in order to put my ideas in order and have a clear direction for each of my websites.

Martin Dasko from Studenomics

The last but not the least; one of my VAs! Martin has been working with us for about a year and I have only good things to say about him. He is motivated, creative and I love the special touch he includes in his articles.

There are still tons of other people I want to meet but writing about them would take me another hour .  I’m sure the Financial Blogger Conference will be a great hit! Will you be there?

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Everyone always tells you that networking is key. We all know that it’s not what you, but who you know. This is good to know. The only problem is how do you actually get started? What if you’re starting off without any connections? Are you doomed? Nope. The beauty about building connections I find is that you can start at any given time and anyone can get better at networking.

Let’s look at how you can create connections in life that can benefit both parties in life:

Places to create connections.

School.

School is likely the easiest place to make connections because you’re forced to communicate with people. From group projects to group study sessions, you’re bound to be surrounded by your fellow students more than you likely see your family. Both in high school and college you’ll make connections that can last a life time. The sweet part is that with Facebook and smart phones it becomes really easy to stay in touch with these friends. My only advice is that you make it a point to touch base with your college friends every few weeks or so once you graduate. You don’t want to lose touch with a friend and then call them four years down the road asking for help. That could be weird.

Work.

Your current workplace is a perfect place to start building connections. These are people that you have to interact with on a daily basis. My best networking experiences in the workplace have come from reaching out to managers and being honest with them. Once a manager trusts you, I find that it benefits you in many ways. You can also try to create connections in different departments and with higher level employees to improve your own position in the company.

Gym.

Gyms are a networking goldmine. Not only can you find solid workout partners, you can also create valuable connections. The reason I find that the gym is great for networking is that everyone is essential equal when in the weight room or on the mats. Some are further along with skill. Everyone is equal in the sense that your outside life doesn’t matter. You can take advantage of this by connecting with people you would not normally have the opportunity to interact with.

Online.

If you’re naturally an introvert you can easily use the internet so start meeting people without the fear of approach. You can use Facebook to approach people that intimidate you in person. You can use email to get in touch with old friends. You can use Twitter to reach out to people in your industry that you have no other way of contacting. You can essentially use the internet to attempt to connect with those that you might not be able to with in real life.

Extended circle.

You never know how helpful a friend of a friend can be. You’d be surprised who you can meet just by getting in touch with your extended circle of friends.

How can you build on these connections?

My favorite book on networking to this day is Never Eat Alone. I’ve recommended the book to all of my good friends. I view it so highly that I think every high school senior should be forced to read it. The only issue is that I don’t have the book in front of me right now is because I’ve passed it along to a friend that’s taking forever to finish it. I’ll do my best to remember the key points on building connections from the book…

Offer to help out.

You should always strive to help out in any way that you can. You might not always have the resources (money) to help out, but you certainly can find the time to offer yourself. By always offering to provide assistance in any way that you can, people will remember this and will hopefully be willing to reciprocate down the line when you need help yourself.

Connect people.

You obviously won’t always be able to directly help someone. This is why the author (Ferrazzi) recommends that you always try your best to connect that person to someone else you know that can help them out. By connecting two or more people together you’ll help out many people at one time and build a solid reputation for yourself over time.

Don’t keep score.

It’s really each to get caught up with the “you still owe me” mentality. I mean you don’t want to be the one that’s always helping out people and nobody ever seems to help you. The problem is that this creates a selfish approach to helping others. It’s advised that you don’t keep score because you never know when someone can come through for you in a large way.

Those are my three favorite points from the book that touch upon building relationships. Let’s move on the other side…

Things to avoid when building relationships.

When it comes to networking there are many things that you also want to avoid. Regrettably I’ve made many of these mistakes. I’ve also seen others make these mistakes directed at me without realizing it.

Always thinking about yourself.

We all have that friend or co-worker that’s always talking about their problems. They think that their problems are the most important ones in the world and nothing else matters. Well we all know what happens to them, right? Everyone starts to avoid them. I find life to be much more meaningful when you actually take interest in others and focus on your friends instead of yourself.

Always asking, never giving.

You don’t want to be seen as a user nor do you want others to get fed up with always having to do something for you. By always asking for help you may frustrate those that you’re trying to build relationships with. This will only make things worse for you. This is why it’s recommended to take a genuine interest in everyone around you, instead of selfishly asking for others to care about your problems.

In the last few years I’ve learned a lot about creating connections and networking. Of course, I still have a really LONG way to go. I was hoping that you guys could share your best networking tips with us. Thanks!

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We all know that money doesn’t come easily. We also know that $10,000 takes a long time to save up. Let’s just try to have some fun today and think about what you would do with an extra 10 grand. Let’s just say that an investor or someone approaches you with free money. There’s just one condition for this money. The condition is that you must invest this money into a side business that you’re working on.

How would you invest 10 grand into your business? Lets look at some of the common options.

Outsource work.

This can be a perfect opportunity for you to create more time for your value-added business projects by cutting out the tasks that take up a major chunk of your time. In this day and age we are all very busy as it is. Outsourcing certain tasks allows you to cut out things that you dread. Think of all of the mundane activities in your life that you can’t stand. Now imagine cutting all of these out by paying someone else to do it. I personally have always outsourced all back end work on my blog because I have no patience for coding and design work. I also almost shut down my blog by attempting to edit some coding one time. Outsourcing work also means that someone out there that’s better at something can do it for you.

Expand your business.

Has expansion been on your mind? There are many ways to expand any business. For an online business you can purchase a new home office setup, an innovative laptop, or even rent out space to have your own productivity space. If you have a physical side business you can dabble with purchasing a new property, hiring more employees, or expanding your product line. Expansion does come with plenty of risk because either you or the market might not be ready for this growth. Expansion could also help you take things to the next level.

(I know with 100% certainty that Mike would buy more blogs.)

Hire a full-time employee.

There’s nothing like having your own full-time employee working for you and only you. My good friend runs a Subway franchise and his quality of life has improved greatly ever since he hired a full-time store manager. Sure it cuts into his profit, but he’s now essentially earning passive revenue at its finest. The store manager takes care of literally everything.

Depending on your business and how much authority you’re willing to pass on to someone, a full-time employee can free up a lot of time for you. What would you do if you could hire your own full-time employee? You could work on more important projects or think about the long term focus of the business. There’s many possibilities.

Revamp something.

Your business might be in need of a face lift. You can spend this money on aesthetic purposes. This means a new design for a blog, a new store front for a physical business, or a new wardrobe for yourself. I was getting sick of looking at my lame blog design a few years ago and I decided to just suck it up and invest the money in a new theme. When the new design was ready it felt like a much needed revamping. Is there anything that you would like to revamp?

Take time off.

This doesn’t seem like a good idea at first. However, time off can be just what you need. A little time to relax and think about where you want to go next can help you prevent burnout and allow you to recharge your batteries. As glorified as it is in society today to work 18-hours a day and never sleep, it pays to take some time off to recharge.

An extra ten grand to put towards your business would go a long way. I just listed the ideas that came to the top of my mind. I’m sure that I missed some really creative ways to invest this money.

Ask the readers: How would you invest a free $10,000 into your side business? How would you invest your money into your business? Is there a difference?

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If I won a million dollars, I would do 2 things (in this order):

-          Quit my day job

-          Put 500K into my company to buy more blogs!

I know that there are tons of ways to make my million profit (invest in stocks, bonds or CDs, buy a franchise or finance private mortgages). Most people would think that investing their money with a financial institution or buying an annuity would be among the safest ways to:

a)      Protect their capital

b)     Create a revenue stream

However, I think differently. I think that buying more financial websites would insure a bigger cash flow and that my original capital would grow even faster. Why? Because blog prices are going up!

Once upon a time…

A scant few years ago (around 2008-2009), financial blogs and most websites were selling at 18-24 times the monthly income multiplier. Therefore, a blog making $500/month would sell for $9,000 to $12,000. If the site was smaller or if you were a fierce negotiator, it was even possible to buy blogs for 12 times the monthly income. Back then, we made a few purchases:

Intelligent Speculator (our first purchase)

Gather Little by Little (which we sold back a year later)

Green Panda Treehouse

The Dividend Guy Blog (2010)

The market was good for buyers since there weren’t many (actually, we kind of started the trend along with the guys from the Money Crashers). Most revenue streams were unstable and nobody knew if online income would continue to grow in this specific niche. We had decided to take the jump and see what would happen… this was probably my best financial move ever.

Now the game has change – There are more players

As with any other good financial opportunity, when it is a really good one, you will see other people jumping into the crowd. We are now a few people in the game (I won’t disclose the others as I don’t know if they want to be “public”). So what does stable revenue streams and more investors mean in any investing field? It pushes the price up!

This is what is happening with blog values. I have never been a fan of “appraisal site websites” as they use questionable algorithms with limited access to data in order to determine the value of your blog. This is why I have designed my own business model to buy blogs. However, over time, I had to make a few modifications… such as increasing the multiplier from 18-24 to 36 the monthly income as a base. The model can now go up to 48 times the monthly income (yup, 4 years!). This would obviously concern very solid and established websites (3 years or more, very stable and diversified income, etc.).

If prices are going up, is it the time to buy?

If I had more liquidity, I would buy more blogs in a heartbeat. Why? Because values won’t stop going up. We see huge websites being sold for 7-8 times the yearly income. I think we will see this trend affecting smaller websites in a few years.

After all, putting your money in an investment that will generate 25 to 33% returns annually is still pretty good.  This is what is happening if you buy a website at 3 to 4 years the annual income. So in the upcoming months, you will be sure to see us putting more money aside in order to buy another website ;-D.

In the meantime, we will continue our focus on creating our niche websites. Our latest one, What is Dividend, is growing rapidly. Now I think I have found a great formula to create similar small money making machines ;-D.

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