Leverage is something that anyone who is hoping to improve their net worth should understand and utilize. It can come in many forms, but nothing is more impactful than leveraging your life through your network.
We develop networks for the primary purpose of improving our circumstances. In many cases the motivation that drives our desire to build a network involves strengthening our financial standing. When you have the right people in your inner circle it’s exponentially easier to build wealth. Here are three ways you can leverage your network to improve your net worth.
Improve Your Skill Set
Apprenticeships were much more common decades ago than they are today. In many professions, specialized skills were passed down from one person to the next, and that was the only way to acquire them. Despite all of today’s educational facilities, there are still many skills you can’t necessarily learn in a classroom.
Skills can translate into higher income. And when you tap into your network, you gain the ability to leverage the expertise of others. As long as they’re willing to share their time and knowledge with you, you can circumvent trial and error learning and avoid costly pitfalls. You’ll save time (which equals money) and save yourself a lot of frustration (that can deplete motivation) while gaining the skills you need.
Landing a Promotion
Most people look at networks as a way to advance their careers by building key relationships that make it easier to move up in their chosen field. They seek someone out who has or has had the job they want and can show them how to get there.
These are the career mentors of your network. They can give you a blueprint for advancing your career, introduce you to the right people and help you focus on the things that matter most. To be fruitful, these relationships can’t be one-sided. You have to willingly offer as much as you take.When you have established career mentorship relationships in your network, you dramatically increase your chances of improving your net worth through professional means. If you don’t yet have these key relationships in your network, download our relationship guide for advice on how to cultivate them.
Finding Investors and Making Investments
Money is ONE Thing that is heavily leveraged. Countless articles have been written about famous investors like Warren Buffet and their amazing ability to leverage a small amount of money, or even debt, to make huge profits. Your network can also help you on the investing front in so many ways.
They Invest in You
With the rise of crowd funding, networks have now become even more directly involved in peer-to-peer investments. When you’re trying to raise the capital to start a business, expand a business, launch a product, etc. your network can prove to be your best source of investors. You may even have enough investors to leverage within your network to avoid traditional financing all together. The best part is when you succeed, the people within your network benefit as well.
You Invest in Them
The opposite could also be the case. Someone within your network may give you the first opportunity to get into their business or a venture they are putting together. If you’ve done your due diligence on the venture, the chance to take advantage of your network and be among the first investors could prove to dramatically improve your financial standing.
They Teach You When, How and Where to Invest Your Money
It’s always a good idea to build a diverse network of people that can help you make headway in different areas of life. Having a financial expert in your network can prove to be highly lucrative. Someone with that type of skill set can teach you the best practices of investing, how to identify a good opportunity and where to invest your money.
Leveraging your network makes wealth generation much easier because you aren’t doing it alone. You’re pooling the skills, knowledge and resources of many people to accomplish things you might not ever be able to do on your own. If you’re looking for a good place to start your financial journey, check out our Financial Wellness Guide as your first step and let your network help you take it from there!