The University Times Supplement - Vol. 2, Issue 3

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Supplement

The Money Supplement Tuesday November 18th 2014

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2 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

CONTENTS

YAY, CAPITALISM! Tom Myatt Supplements Editor

S Financial Nostalgia Bernard Ryan gets nostalgic over the old notes and coins of his childhood.

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Stop Tech Worship Conor Murphy implores us to stop worshipping anyone who can create a goodlooking website.

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Blog to the Top Sinéad Loftus looks at the phenomenon of blogging, and how you can go about getting the most buck for your blog.

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Tuesday 18th November, 2014

o on Monday morning the rent was due. In anguish, I decided it was time to get on out of bed to stroll down to the cash machine. With a feeling of inaptitude and disdain, I arose from by warm bed sheets and soon found myself staring at a little, cold, heartless screen. Seeing my balance, my heart stopped. What was going on?

What’s wrong with my life? How did I get to this stage of my existence? I had but 1 euro and 43 cents to my name. It’s fair to say that the next two weeks were spent eating 50c bread, avoiding my landlady, and questioning every decision I’d ever made.

So we thought it was probably best that you don’t find yourself in this depressing and deep situation. And what way to do this best? A money-themed edition of The University Times Supplement! Here we have all the greatest and most awesome information about the world of business, money, and getting fucking rich. It’s always been the dream, in this age of tech entrepreneurialism, cheap business loans and a new-found sense of adolescent overconfidence.

Who’s to say we can’t achieve the dream of going on a cocaine-fuelled rampage in Las Vegas?

In all seriousness though, money is pretty much one of the very most important things in this world. If you’re going to live a good, happy, stressfree life, it’s usually a massive help if you keep on top of your finances. This doesn’t mean you have to be rich to be happy – quite the contrary – but no one

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It’s always been the dream, in this age of tech entrepreneurialism, cheap business loans and a new-found sense of adolescent overconfidence.

Who’s to say we can’t achieve the dream of going on a cocaine-fuelled rampage in Las Vegas?

is going to deny that financial security is a massive help to your personal living standards. If money is used correctly, it’s not too difficult to findyourself with at least some comforts from time to time.

This brings us to the benefits of the economic system with which we have been endowed. Although far from perfect, Winston Churchill once said that “Capitalism is the unequal distribution of blessings, while Socialism is the equal distribution of miseries”. Although some remain unable to eat while others get unnecessary shit like 200-ft yachts, society is structured in such a way that if you have an idea what humanity wants, and you can give it to the world, then you will be justly rewarded for your contribution. One need not look further than, say, Bill Gates. He almost single-handedly gave the world personal computing and was given his financial reward for the revolution in daily life that followed.

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He is now using the vast majority of that wealth to end numerous diseases in some of the poorest parts of the world.

However, much still needs to be done.

If not given a decent education, as is nearly impossible in large parts of the world, people are unable to contribute, even if they have something that could be of serious use to mankind. The Third World may be sprawling with more Steve Jobs’ or Mark Zuckerbergs, desperate to start a successful business empire.

But promoting entrepreneurialism and decent education is certainly something that markets have the ability to provide.

So this money supplement is going to attempt to give you some of the things you need to get money. Whether you want to start a business of your own, get the job of your dreams, or just are saving up for something, read our supplement. Like my ol’ grandpa always says: “look after your fucking money!”

Mark the Occasion Courtney Brennan interviews Mark Hughes, a senior freshman BESS student who’s taking his business into his own hands, and is breaking into the fashion industry with “Mark’s Experiment.”

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Just Another Title on Your CV? Marcella Caruso reflects on her experiences as an intern last summer – was it truly a worthwhile experience, or was it just another section on her CV? PAGE 12 COVER ILLUSTRATION BY MARY CORBALLY FOR THE UNIVERSITY TIMES

PHOTO BY BENEDICT SHEGOG FOR THE UNIVERSITY TIMES

The Money Supplement

Fresher’s Survivial Guide

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Tuesday 18th November, 2014

Launching Into Business

LaunchBox is a Trinity success story – a conglomeration of all the brightest minds, the most innovative ideas, and the fastest-rising stars of the entrepreneurial world, right on our doorstep. Paul Glynn takes a look into last year’s startups, and next year’s most promising ideas.

Paul Glynn Senior Staff Writer

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lthough not all of us plan to launch ourselves into the world of business and entrepreneurship after college, it’s a sphere that is certainly becoming easier and easier for anyone to break into. Seemingly incessant talk of startups, incubators, tech, crowdsourcing, web summits and other buzzwords may leave many rolling their eyes, but in fairness such a boom in interest in grassroots entrepreneurship has meant that access to the means of getting a potential business idea off the ground has never been easier. Many if not all of us have had a “Eureka!” moment somewhere in our lives. Sometimes it’s an intricate solution to a problem you face every day, any kind of trick that makes the most tedious task in your life just a little bit less awful. Whether you’re looking to turn your hobby into a career, or if there’s some gap in the market you think you may have found a way to fill, a spark of genius at the right time could be your ticket to an incredible – and maybe even lucrative – business journey. If all this sounds appealing, it might be worth your while checking out Launchbox – TCD’s own hub for business innovation.

For Trinity students, Launchbox is the on-campus jump-off point for going into business with these innovative solutions. Launchbox is a business incubator set up especially for students and recent graduates, and offers plenty of supports for those with an idea for a start-up business. The idea is simple: teams of young entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to experts. Then over the course of an intensive three-month programme, successful teams receive coaching, mentoring, seed funding, work space and networking opportunities, through the support of “Trinity Angels” – a team of experienced and successful entrepreneurs who offer advice and mentoring to teams of students with business ideas. The aforementioned “Angels” include Paul Duffy, current chairman and CEO of the Swedish-based Absolut Company; Shane Naughton,

co-founder of several successful businesses including ArmTech LLC, ArtTech LLC and TaxStream LLC; Alan Foy, CEO of telecommunications company Blueface, and California-Based investor and advisor Stuart Coulson. Most are Trinity graduates – all want to see success in the next generation of businesses by giving a helping hand.

Launchbox is based in Regent House, which is located right above the historic Front Arch entrance on College Green.

Although this is undoubtedly the more “historic” end of college, the presence of Launchbox, decked out with the “three key elements in any successful startup” of “super-fast wifi, strong coffee and comfy couches”, adds a nice splash of modernity and fastpaced innovation to a corner of the college normally famed only

for its past – and the stuffy former academic registry.

So how successful have Trinity’s Launchbox alumni been? A look at the teams of entrepreneurs who worked with Launchbox in 2013 shows an impressively diverse range of business ideas that came to fruition. Food Cloud, run by Alex Sloan, Emma Mooney and Iseult Ward, has seen incredible success in its first year – through an app, food retail and catering businesses post details of excess and unused food products, and charities are given the opportunity to take this extra food to give to those in need. The startup has won recognition from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, been featured by major news outlets such as TheJournal.ie, and Time magazine partnered with large retailers such as Tesco and, more importantly, has brought atten-

tion to the issue of wasting food in Ireland – FoodCloud managed to oversee the recuperation of enough food to create over 325,000 meals over the past year.

Another Launchbox-based startup that many of us might be familiar with through day-to-day college life is Hive, formerly known as AdMe, which offers a platform to effectively organise the running of a college society, including money management, membership lists and general organisation. If you’re a member of any college societies, chances are that many of the weekly member emails you receive make it to your inbox with the help of Hive.

The most recent batch of startups being coached by the Launchbox team show an impressively diverse variety of business ideas.

To mention but a few, there’s Lesson Prep, who organise online

and downloadable lesson plans and practical classroom resources; Aquachia, a company who plan to sell fortified drinks made from chia seeds and other natural ingredients, and InDieVelopment, a crowdsourcing tool allowing indie video game developers to network and raise funds for game projects.

The deadline for the advisory and pitching session for 2015 has sadly since passed, having taken place on the 13th of November.

However, if this article has just served as your first introduction to Launchbox and what it’s all about, and has evoked some inspiration in you, never fear. Although it may only take a lunch hour to think up the bones of the next big idea in business, the best ideas take time to mature. Give it a try in any case – thanks to groups like Launchbox, the resources have never been easier to come by.

PHOTOS FROM LAUNCHBOX,.IE

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4 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

Financial Nostalgia

In the age where money is increasingly digital, Bernard Ryan takes a look at money as a physical form – where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going in terms of our notes and coins.

Bernard Ryan Senior Staff Writer

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t’s midnight on New Years’ Eve in Vilnius, and all that celebration has gone to your head. You want a bottle of water? That’s 2.34 litai when you’re ready. Give the shop assistant 2.50 litai and you won’t get 16 centai back, you’ll get 5 cent. Euro cent.

In little under two weeks, any remaining litai you have left in your pocket from your New Years’ trip to Vilnius will only find use at the bottom of an empty coffee jar.

From what little grasp I have of Lithuanian, I’ve been keeping an eye on how the big change is going. Call me nostalgic, but as Lithuania pulls its suitcase into the Eurozone house, it brings me back

to my six-year-old self, when I first got a thrill from holding foreign currency (and as in foreign currency, I mean Deutschmarks, not dollars).

Back then, there was still an aura of excitement about going on a foreign holiday. Knowing the first thing on the to-do list was to go to a specific desk called ‘Le Bureau de Change’ at the bank was, believe me, actually a big deal.

It wasn’t just about going on holiday. Finding foreign coinage stashed in coffee jars made sixyear-old me more aware of Ireland’s place in the world.

Why did he care so much about the feeling of having currency?

Was it a statement of intent?

Bear in mind that we didn’t always use notes and coins for currency. There was a time when we bartered, when one would exchange a certain amount of grain

for a tool. In the case of fruit and wheat, there had to be an intermediary commodity, because fruit would perish before the wheat would be harvested. The intermediary commodity was money, be it in the form of shells and talents or notes and coins.

Suddenly, in 2002, twelve currencies were replaced by one – the euro. There was to be no more excitement in going to the bureau de change to get foreign currency, no more novelty at using different coinage on your summer holiday.

I still remember going around Ireland during my Christmas holidays and old men trying to get their head around having a new currency.

This wasn’t a long time ago though. I was in Senior Infants in primary school, the Republic of Ireland were actually one of the top 20 soccer teams in the world,

and Kate Winslet was actually more famous for singing than acting. That last fact scares me for a lot of reasons.

I still remember the conversations my parents’ generation had about the single currency. The feeling was Ireland had lost its soul, and why wouldn’t it have been?

We only had a currency of our own for 21 years, and that was merely because we had broken up a sixdecade marriage with the pound and were looking for love with Paris and Bonn. It may have been helpful in places like Luxembourg, where carrying one currency is less hassle than five simultaneously, but Ireland? Europe seemed exciting. We didn’t feel like we wanted to get frozen out of the in-crowd.

Nowadays, the local bureau only stocks two currencies: pound sterling and US dollars. You’d have to go elsewhere for the rest. Words

like drachma, markka, peseta and tolar once sounded special and significant, now they hark back to a simpler time. The only difference in euro is what’s on the flip-side of the coin. A harp, a bird, even a coat of arms? What’s the excitement in that, I say?

All those Deutschmarks, drachmae, pesetas and punts I collected as a child are stored in a coffee-jar in my bedroom. They say money talks, but what would they say?

To finish on a Lithuanian note, I went to the currency exchange on Westmoreland St last week in an attempt to treat myself after finishing an assignment. 20 Lithuanian litas cost €6.17.

In little under two months, this pretty pink note of a romantic poet and a war museum will only be useful as a pretty pink bookmark.

The Money Supplement

Fresher’s Survivial Guide

HOW TO BE LESS POOR: TIPS FOR SAVING Carla King-Molina Junior Editor

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alking down Grafton Street on the way to college the temptation to spend is endless. Whether you’re hitting up Topshop or grabbing a coffee, it’s no surprise that “I’m so broke” is the unofficial student mantra. Funnily enough it’s always those who have the spare fiver who wail about how broke they are. We can get two weeks of living like there’s no tomorrow and then trudging through the end of the month living off of bulk bought pasta with ketchup as sauce.

Well, if there’s anything college has taught me other than how to pull an all nighter, it’s how to ration my money to last me at least ‘till months end.

Planning is Essential There is nothing more basic than a budget, and since you probably have a smartphone you don’t even need to bother with Excel when you can just have an app that does everything for you. Nine times out of ten, it’s the little purchases that majorly eat into your budget.

First you need to collect all of your monthly income and then comes the less fun part, expenditure. So a good first step is to track all of your expenses for a week, it might be a pain but it’s worth it when you see why your wallet is so empty. Sometimes even scrolling past your bank balance on internet banking can show you a scary piechart of all your expenses.

Discounts, Food & The Power of Pre-Drinks You need to remember to always ask about student discounts, They’re there for a reason. More often than I care to think about I wasn’t clever enough to shop around or ask for discount when I could have potentially spent on a lunch out. When buying food that you’re actually planning on preparing by yourself you should just stick to own brand items. And try to have a list of meals in your head so you don’t just end up making pasta and eggs three nights during the week and getting take out the rest. Pre-Drinks are the most financially savvy way of saving money on a night out especially in Ireland, but not hitting up the fast food after the night out can save you a small fortune it can also save you from the freshman fifteen.

Don’t Jump on the Bandwagon As tempting as it might be to match your friends spending habits, it doesn’t make for good financial planning. It might be down to a part-time job or amazingly generous parents but you can’t always afford the same things as your friends and it’s easier to just accept this. You don’t really need a new outfit for every night out. And an apple or banana might seem less appealing than a trip to Jo’Burger, but it’ll be worth it when you don’t have to take an emergency €50 out of the ATM. If you’re not going to pass-out or starve, you’re probably better off waiting till you get home to eat. Making sure you can cover the essentials is definitely more important than getting yet another playsuit in Mango or buying everyone a round on a night out.

Savings, Holidays & More Making a budget and sticking to it might sound like the most unappealing thing in the world, even more unappealing than that online quiz. Not only are savings a nice cushioning from the world, You can use them for those inexplicably expensive College and Society Balls, as well as all those holidays and weekends away. Even putting €10 or €20 away every week can help you have an amazing summer away and make even more amazing college memories. Once you’ve dealt with these expenses and saving you can spend the rest as you please, worry AND guilt free.

Tops Tips: 1. First and foremost – don’t be afraid to ask for help! If you really need financial existence, and things are falling apart, ask your parents if you can, or seek some advice.

2. Use the discount cards that societies and the SU give out – they’re a really handy way to save money, and are handy if you want to indulge every now and again, but want to feel less guilty about it.

3. If you’re renting accommodation, always turn off lights, the heating and, now, the water. It seems self-explanatory, but the amount of people who don’t see this as a valid way of saving money is insane!

4. It’s a bit of a battleground, but the savings you can make by using the bargain fridge in Tesco are great - always worth a look around!

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Tuesday 18th November, 2014

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6 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

OBAIR DHEONACH AR SON BRABÚIS? Benn Ó hÓgáin Comhfreagraí Gaelach

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haith mé trí lá i rith seachtain na léitheoireachta ag obair ag an Web Summit, chomhdháil teicneolaíochta a bhí ar siúl san RDS. Bhí breis is 20,000 duine ann, agus thart ar 1,000 liom, mac léinn ach go hairithe, ag déanamh oibre dheonach.

Obair dheonach? Nach raibh costas dochreidte ar na ticéid, breis is €1000? Nach bhfuil comhdháil eile á eagrú acu i dTexas?

Bhí, agus tá, ach fós féin tá go leor oibre: post an uiséara, clárúchán, eolas, agus ar uile déanta ag daoine — mac léinn go hairithe — gan phá.

Ní raibh mórán scileanna seachas scileanna sóisialta ag baint leis an obair, ach bhí seal 6 uair an chloig agam gach lá. Bhí mé antuirseach ag deireadh gach seal, agus fuair mé lón as ucht na hoibre. Chuir sé ag smaoineamh mé faoi luach an phoist. Más rud é go raibh mé ag fáil pá don obair, fiú an t-íosphá, €8.65 in aghaidh na huaire, bheadh €155.70 agam ag deireadh na seachtaine. Tá €155.70 oiread 1000 oibrithe deonacha cothrom le €155,700!

Feictear dom nach raibh mórán fadhbanna ag lucht an Web Summit oibrithe deonacha a fháil.Ó cheann ceann na hEorpa a tháinig siad, mac léinn gnó nó ríomheolaíocht go háirithe. Bhí fear ón nGréig, cailín ón Rúis, fear eile ón Spáinn. Ach cén fáth a mbíonn daoine sásta an obair seo a dhéanamh saor in aisce? Chuir mé ceist ar roinnt mhaith de na daoine a bhí ar m’fhoireann. Dúirt siad go raibh siad ag iarraidh a bheith páirteach. Tháinig siad chun bualadh le daoine leis na tuairimí ceanna, nó chun infheistíocht a fháil ina gnólacht nuathionscanta (“startup”).

Ag deireadh na seachtaine, chuir mé ceist orthu arís? “An fiú é?” ar mise. “Is fiú”, a chuala mé arís agus arís eile. “Bhuail mé le daoine cáiliúla, arsa cailín amháin, “agus bhain mé go leor tairbhí as”.

“D’fhoghlaim mé go leor” uaidh leaid eile. B’fhéidir go raibh luach ag an obair mar sin, agus go bhfuil mise i mo chinicí.

Ach ceapaim féin, tar éis a bheith mar ‘cheann foirne deonacha’, nach bhfuil sé ceart go bhfuil oibrithe deonacha á lorg ag comhlachtaí. Fiú má tá an obair suimiúil, is ceart go bhfuil pá ag baint leis freisin. Déanfaidh mé obair dheonach arís, ach beidh sé ar son carthanacht luachmhar, agus ní ar son comhlacht brabúsach.

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

Fresher’s Survivial Guide

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The Money Supplement

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

STOP WORSHIPPING TECH START-UPS Conor Murphy Senior Editor

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lon Musk was at the Web Summit 12 months ago. After a nominal appearance before the adoring crowds, our Taoiseach Enda Kenny came out and basically did a risable impression of a 1950’s Irishman, ‘ah shure would you bring some jobs to Oireland’.

In response to events like the Web Summit, this year media organisations like the Irish Times published stories about some 14 year old who “is on their third startup!”, when really they’re on their third website. These are all indications of a trend to worship tech people far beyond what they deserve, and glorify them far beyond the limits of their skill set. This pushes these ‘tech gurus’ ever more into a state where the unquestioned privilege they have attained becomes more and more acute.

The fact that a head of state would be so deferential to a guy starting up some tech companies, nearly all of which aren’t making any profit yet, is worrying. But more worrying is the fact that this attitude is applied so ignorantly to all ‘startup guys’ without a second for critical thought. Elon Musk has actually done some pretty smart stuff. Half the people successful in the tech world are quite often only

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The idea of genius tech companies is kind of nice for us. It’s a type of religion. If someone is infinitely smarter than us, then they can fix our problems: they can understand the issues so we don’t have to.

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semi-competent people, who actually got really lucky. Both lucky that their idea took off and lucky that their mediocre skills happen to be in an area that is so highly valued at the minute. There is nothing more complex in building a site than making a shoe: both take a few years of practice to do well. Yet the constant bubble of this “otherness” of tech entrepeneurs only seems to be inflating, when it’s only getting ready to be popped.

That’s one major crux and result of this issue though. Everyone implicitly thinks they know how a shoe is made, but people think building technology involves voodoo dolls and incantations. It is rife in our parliament that has no engineers, our journalism with its tech illiteracy, and our general reaction to anyone involved with building websites or apps. There are plenty of reasons why tech illiteracy is allowed to continue so much in the general populace, but when it permeates professional media organisations (where they almost proudly say they have no idea what a 14 year old is doing) it starts to seriously damage how we deal with issues around technology.

One of thegreat strengths of Irish people, for me, has always been their ability to keep a head on their shoulders, even when insanely successful. Watch an interview with Colin Farrell and it’s more down to earth than any other actor you might see. Same with Dara O’Briain. Roy Keane, after a world dominating performance in the Champions League, dressed down a reporter for giving him too much praise, proclaiming “you don’t praise the binman”. So seeing any sign of Irish lumping on this tech celebrity worship is disheartening to say the least.

This is not to say there’s some big conspiracy that isn’t being noticed because we’re all too starry eyed

for the geeks. However, there are several things that get far too little attention. For example although tech companies dodging tax is big news, it’s almost told in a rapscallion sort of way. A naughty ‘ah ya can’t be doin that’ sort of tone is used, when really these companies should be hounded by journalists for avoiding their most basic duty as corporate citizens. They should be hounded like an oil company is after an oil spill that costs billions, because they’re costing billions every year with their tax schemes each. Even in England, Starbucks is always the big target for criticism, when Google, Microsoft and Apple are doing far more damage by dodging far bigger amounts of tax. And it’s all because tech companies have a weird special status in the world of the public, and reporters in particular.

It’s probably also because the idea of genius tech companies is kind of nice for us. It’s a type of religion. If someone is infinitely smarter than us, then they can fix it: they can understand the issues so we don’t have to.

However as more and more giant sums go relatively untaxed to these largely white male manchildren, it exasperates everything society has been railing against for years. Female-to-male wealth inequality vastly increases. The number of black people in tech in America is astonishingly small.

Money also goes to less and less

hands so general inequality will be even worse than ever before. As more and more of the next great financial powers come from tech, the fact that tech is so unequal, moreso than traditionally unequal jobs like Wall Street stock brokers, has for decades gone bizarrely unreported in mainstream journalism.

Economic power is the only major difference between the skill of shoemaking and building websites. If you build one perfect shoe, that will only even serve one person. If you build one perfect site, it can go to millions of users in days.

That’s the only reason tech people get so much money: software has economies of a scale that are astronomical, and are only getting bigger. It’s why this is such big business for people.

And that’s why it is so important to get tech literate. You, I, and our families need to all spend a few hours building a site. Because it’s easy. And because, when you see that, we stop worshipping them.

When we stop worshipping these men we critique them more. When we critique them more we normalise the profession. And when we finally normalise a pretty simple profession then, and only then, will the tech world, and the world’s next billionaires, start representing what people actually look like in all their diversity.

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8 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

BLOG TO THE TOP Sinéad Loftus Staff Writer

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before you can see the money rolling in.

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h, the humble blog. From its first appearance on our screens back in the late 90s, to the oversaturation of social media in the early 2010s, the blog has become one of the most powerful tools of free speech ever. Originally created to share our personal experiences, advice, tips, hobbies and activities, the blog was, and still is, a hotbed of inspiration. Nowadays, almost everyone is in some way a blogger. With Instagram pictures, Tweets, and Facebook posts , we create a story of our lives that is out there for everyone to see. Blogging is simply all these elements in one

place. It gives you the freedom to discuss whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want. Even better, it can earn you some serious cash. Professional blogging has become, in this decade, a respectable career with many professional bloggers entering into the worlds of motivational speaking, entrepreneurship, and publishing. The lucky ones can earn up to $500k a month alone for writing down their thoughts.

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post earns over $2.3m a month whilst Mashable and Perez Hilton, on average, earn $500k and $450k a month, respectively. The cash doesn’t come easily though.

The process of earning from your blog takes hard work, so if you are serious about doing so, here’s what you should know.

Niche Topics Tend to Make the Most Money

If you really are serious about making money, don’t write about what everyone else does. You may think that your cookery blog has great content but what makes it so different to the next one?

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It Won’t Happen Overnight Earning money from a blog, especially within the first two years, does not come quickly. In a study

by Problogger, researchers found that 63% of bloggers make less than, on average, $3.50 a month from blogging. However, about half of the participants surveyed had been blogging for less than a year. 85% of those who make more than $10,000 a month had been blogging for four years or more.

Blogging is not a ‘get rich quick’ solution. You need to build up an active and reliable audience, be active in your blogging (not just a few posts here and there), create a good reputation and promote your own, personal brand as a blogger

If you really are serious about making money, don’t write about what everyone else does. You may think that your cookery blog has great content but what makes it so different to the next one? This is where individuality comes into play. Blogs that focus on niche and not run of the mill topics, such as Irish Rugby, Louboutin shoes or Marvel comics, tend to make more money than blogs that focus on lifestyle and cooking, as they are generally harder to write for and can take up more time to read.

Niche blogs allow you to build a strong, reliable audience and expand your knowledge of a certain topic much faster. If cooking

is your thing, perhaps focus on a particular style of cooking, cooking with children, or how to create great meals in under ten minutes.

Make Use of Affliate Marketing & Ad Space Affiliate marketing is a great tool to make a bit of cash here and there without having to lift a finger. The process is very simple. If you advertise a product and someone buys it, you earn a small commission. The best place to capitalise on this when starting out is Amazon Associates. They pay you if someone buys something of theirs that you advertised. What you earn can range depending on what product you advertise. Somewhere between €4 - €15 is typical ,

but if you’re lucky, it can increase.

Ad space is also a great way to earn cash but only if you have a decent traffic stream. There are many different ways they can earn you money with the most popular being pay-per-click, which pays out every time someone clicks on an ad on your blog, pay-per-impression, which pays out whenever the ad appears on the blog page, and payper-action, which pays out whenever someone does what the company advertises them to do (much like affiliate marketing). However, in order to get ads in the first place, you need to prove that your blog gets healthy visitor numbers. Application processes to various websites that supply ads to blogs, such as Google Adsense, are normal and these companies may accept or reject your bid.

Give Them Something They Can’t Refuse One of the most popular ways to earn money, and probably the most profitable, is by creating your own product and selling it through your blog. Ebooks and podcasts are the most common examples of this as they do not include any handling charges and are received instantly. For example, if you blog about 1960s Rock and Roll, a podcast discussing the major themes of it may be a good product to promote. Similarly, if you blog about your travels, an ebook about the best places to visit in California can serve as good tool to earn money.

The best thing to do is to give your first product away for free and then charge for your second, gradually increasing the price each time.

This way, you can earn good cash

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

as well as building up a dedicated audience. Australian fitness coach and blogger, Kayla Itsines, is a brilliant example of this in action. She currently sells her fitness guides as ebooks as well as blogging about health and nutrition. Some of her week guides are free as a taster whilst her main ebooks can fetch around $70 each. Despite the price, she has earned herself a cult status, with millions of these guides having been sold worldwide. A product will not only earn you cash but also a strong following and possible further opportunities beyond the world of the computer screen.

So next time you are putting that photo on Instagram of your on point outfit or tweeting about that film you thought was incredible or that book you couldn’t put down, perhaps think about sticking it on a blog. After a while, those things might just pay for themselves!

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Blogging is not a ‘get rich quick’ solution. You need to build up an active and reliable audience, be active in your blogging, create a good reputation and promote your own, personal brand.

The Money Supplement

Fresher’s Survivial Guide

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Tuesday 18th November, 2014

MARK THE OCCASION Courtney Brennan Contributing Writer

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rom first impressions alone, Mark Hughes seems like the least likely person to spend his evenings by a sewing machine.

Despite the apparent “therapeutic” benefits of this hobby, Mark’s interest in sewing has more to do with business. Last year, Senior Freshman BESS student Hughes established his own clothing brand, Mark’s Experiment. During his leaving cert years, when Abercrombie polos and Hollister hoodies were just as common as revision books, Mark spotted a gap in the market for an Irish alternative. With start up capital funded by his parents, Mark bought a batch of t-shirts, got them printed with his logo, the distinctive “ME”, and sold them at a market in Temple Bar to test the reception to his simplistic yet essential collection.

Fashion mavens Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon instantly took notice, featuring his collection on their app, Frock Advisor.

Speaking frankly about his inspiration Mark says, “Mark’s Experiment and the ‘ME’ logo symbolise student empowerment.” The typical route of unpaid internships, a desperate attempt to get your foot in the door of a company, any company, was just not intriguing enough for Hughes. Mark wants to show us that being students doesn’t mean we can’t create jobs for ourselves, and even for others. It is easy to see how driven this young entrepreneur is, speaking enthusiastically about his big plans for the business. The everso-slightly cheesy slogan of “Made

by ME, with YOU in mind!” seems strangely on point, as Mark argues

that being a member of his target audience means he is able to anticipate consumer demands, and keep on track of trends.

Looking through ME’s website, it’s hard to believe that the photos were taken from the comfort of Mark’s own home, transformed by Hughes for the day of the fashion shoot. With the help of his friends in the more creative photography and graphic design fields, Mark was able to create a clean, crisp website to show off his products.

Mark looks content recounting his favourite parts of the job. “Doing something you love and being your own boss have been the best parts of my experiment.”

Unfortunately, establishing your own clothing line isn’t all fashion shoots and therapeutic sewing.

Mark stated the main difficulties

of being a young entrepreneur are “all the unexpected added costs and delays.” He expanded on how in the past he has received wrong orders and having disastrous photography errors. Taking a more serious note, Hughes noted that “the mountain of work that you are completely responsible for is what makes being a sole trader especially stressful.” Gaining recognition for your brand in the increasingly competitive world of online retailing isn’t easy to say the least, but for Mark social media has clearly been his best friend, strategically marketing his products through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with an appealing, minimalist and engaging social media strategy.

As his company expands, so does the work load. That is why after Christmas, Mark is looking to

bring on board students studying computer science, graphic design, and art. So if you happen to have the cross-section interests of fashion and technology, get in touch.

After talking to Mark its clear he understands his own brand incredibly well. Through his enthusiasm and natural knack for business, I’d consider Mark nothing short of an inspiration to future young entrepreneurs. He advises budding entrepreneurs to ‘’do it now, have fun while you can, before you have a wife and kids.’’ Mark has hopes for his brand to be endorsed by a major high street retailer like Topman or River Island. But even if this isn’t the case, one thing is for sure: the ‘’ME’’ logo will soon be making its first impressions on the world of fashion.

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10 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

Just Another Title?

Marcella Caruso talks us through her time as an intern in the City of Boston Law Department, and poses the question, is an internship truly worth all the trouble, or is it just a way to get another title on your CV? Marcella Caruso Contributing Writer

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itting at my desk in a windowless room that can only be described as a cement box of despondency, I stared at the time in the bottom corner of the computer screen. Eight minutes until 5PM. What can I do in eight minutes? Waiting for the work day to end is not how I pictured my first real summer internship, yet this restless boredom is what defined my summer.

As with many internships there was a competitive application process: a few essays, a copy of your CV, and two interviews, which whittled

“

Many would consider me “lucky”.

To some people, it sounds impressive when I say I worked in a law firm when I was seventeen. But to me, it sounds misleading. In reality, I could have done 90% of what I did that summer at home.

”

the pool down to a cohort of seventeen bright-eyed public service interns who were ready to change the world.

On the morning of our first day we donned our suits, ties, dresses, and heels and entered our placement offices, completely prepared in every way, except for how underwhelming the whole experience would be.

That summer as an intern in the City of Boston Law Department, I

was assigned work maybe 10% of the time. The rest of my hours were spent trying to look busy by reading The Daily Beast, catching up on global affairs, closely following the birth of Prince George, writing college essays, and taking frequent coffee breaks. All the while making the equivalent of €4.79 an hour through my stipend.

Many would consider me “lucky” to have received the opportunity to work, and get paid to work, in a reputable organization. To some people, it sounds impressive when I say I worked in a law firm when I was seventeen. But to me, it sounds misleading. In reality, I could have done 90% of what I did that summer at home. All I gained from the experience was just another job title to add to my CV.

While internships may always seem like the correct and forwardthinking way to spend your summer, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons to determine if the benefits outweigh the costs. What are you hoping to get from the internship? Is the placement in a field you are seriously and professionally interested in? Can you afford to take on an unpaid internship?

Fortunately, all of my internships have paid me with a stipend – it’s lower than Massachusetts minimum wage, which is pretty dismal, but I was getting paid nonetheless. Having any financial compensation is rare and problematic. If a middle class student is counting on the summer to make money for the school year, which is

the case for many, especially nonEU students, then taking on an unpaid internship can be simply unaffordable. Then, if you consider that many internships are in major cities where the students may not live, you need to factor in housing, food, and transportation costs. In that common scenario, students would be effectively losing money for the prestigious opportunity to take coffee orders and tediously input data.

While my views are largely negative, I acknowledge that there were some redeeming qualities to my various summer internships. These experiences gave me an honest glimpse into careers I’ve considered pursuing. I’ve learned the office environments I like and the ones I don’t like. I know how to op-

erate in a professional workplace environment, and I’ve made networking connections and formed friendships.

If you are looking for a meaningful way to spend your summer, that path may not necessarily be to apply to the most renowned summer internship program in an impressive-sounding field that you are only vaguely interested in.

I sincerely feel that I learned and benefited more from my part-time summer job at an ice cream shop.

So the next time you think about working your usual summer job or putting on a suit and tie and heading to your fancy unpaid internship this summer, don’t be naive.

Make sure you’re getting more out of the experience than just another title to add to your CV.

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12 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

What Money Can Buy 4.

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Tom Myatt Supplements Editor

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e’ve all dreamed about it to ourselves. I spent most of my childhood dreaming about it.. Being rich.

Don’t deny it, you’ve spent a long time fantasising about what you would do if you were rich. Most people go for the obvious things: a nice house, a cool car, and more Brazilian prostitutes than you could possibly keep count of.

Sometimes you might have a less common idea, like investing it in secure stocks, or funding a small private army. Well, these crazy ideas are what makes the dream so fun, but if there’s something that you can think of that people will spend money on, it probably exists. For this article I got researching, and here are some of the craziest things you can buy (if your wallet is fat enough).

Now, where do I even start with this one? If you’ve ever dreamed about having both a tidy house AND being rich, I’d bet this thing never even occurred to you. This thing is called GoVaccum and is literally made of solid gold. Aside from probably being a nightmare to carry up the stairs, this is perhaps the silliest thing I have ever laid eyes on. Someone actually must have seen the price of gold and thought it’d be in society’s best interest for someone to start using it for domestic cleanliness! That said, you better rush to the shops – only 100 of these things are being made!

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‘Wow, that’s beautiful’, you must be thinking.

Well… yep. At US$32 million and with 18 carats, this is one of the absolute finest and most expensive dia-

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mond necklaces available on the planet. But hold on there, if you feel you’re insignificant already, understand this: you can’t have it.

Not because it has way more class than you deserve, but because it’s for dogs. That’s right, this is a frickin’ dog collar! Something that probably costs ten times as much as the house your mother raised you in is just sitting there making some average-looking pooch look like pretty fly. Life just isn’t fair.

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You get the picture.

What else need be said? If you want to flush away 1.4 million Australian dollars (about 960,000 euros) then this is the product for you. What I love is that it is delivered “personaly” (at that price tag I’d expect correct spelling) with a bottle of champagne – because that makes all the difference, right? Fortunately though, the company insists that it is the comfiest swipe you shall ever

make: it is 3-ply and each roll takes four years to make. One can only dream about how that must feel.

4.

Now, you may think that’s an apartment block. Nope. This is the world’s first billion-dollar house: one of the stupidest things anyone could ever buy. Looking like a side view of a poorly organised bookshelf, this building is 22 storeys high and sits in Mumbai in India, and was built by and for Mukesh Ambani - the fifth richest man in the world. This isn’t just the most expensive property in the world, it totally outstrips anything that could possibly come anywhere near it. Buckingham Palace itself wouldn’t even come close. So if you have a billion dollars to spend on a house, by all means have this, but don’t be surprised when, in a city full of people living on less than $2 a day, your house gets stormed in a violent insurrection.

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This may amaze you, but this is the most valuable video game in existence. Originally made for the 1980s video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, there doesn’t immediately appear to be anything special about it. Even when you play it, you would be forgiven for laughing at the idea of anyone paying more than 50 cents for it, let alone the price it sold at earlier this year of… $99,902. Yeah, you read that correctly. If you want to play 8-bit retro games, you have to pay through the nose apparently.

What is special about this game is that it is extremely rare, with only 26 copies in existence of Nintendo World Championship. But frankly, I couldn’t care about that less. I would only buy it if I knew I could fetch a high price, which is what I presume its purchaser bought it for.

Fresher’s Survivial Guide

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We can only dream.

If you have $16,000 to spend on one evening, you may want to consider the possible delights of this young lady. An exceptionally clever businesswoman, Natalie is one of the highest-paid escorts on the planet. Her formal charge is $2000 an hour. Rockstars, Hedge fund managers, NFL players, members of the British House of Lords – these are all people that Natalie claims have been clients and frankly, fair play to them: she is said to have skills that even your toothless grandma couldn’t match. Her downfall, however, came after spending time in prison for money laundering.

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If you really want to live the high-life, forget wine fines, fast cars and big houses. THIS is all you need. In 2008, Scarlett Johansen blew her nose on televi-

sion, and the tissue sold on eBay for $5,300. But it’s not all bad: it didn’t just have nose blow, there was also a bit of lipstick, and a signature. It’s pretty much all you need. Sometimes this world amazes me.

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So a restaurant in Chelsea, London, is selling these burgers for £1,100! Each! The burger is made from 220 grams of Kobe Wagyu beef minced with 60 grams of venison from New Zealand and seasoned with smoked Himalayan salt. It then comes with a dab of black truffle liquid brie and a Canadian lobster poached in Iranian saffron… combined with maple syrup coated streaky bacon, a hickory smoked duck egg intricately covered in edible gold leaf, and Beluga caviar. It’s probably fair to say this will be a non-stop orally-received orgasm. The bun has a coating of gold leaf. Anyone

at all who is in any way a fan of the humble burger should definitely add this incredile creation to their ‘must-eat’ list!

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If you’re worth $599 million, congratula tions! That means you have the same amount of money as this entire small island Republic. Who knows, maybe they’d let you buy it? At 811 square kilometres, and a population of 105,000, you’re sure to enjoy living in this little paradise that you could call yours! Small and isolated, the island is perfect for any form of social experimentation you may or may not wish to carry out. Want to foster a socialist revolution?

Great! But there are no rich people here to persecute. On the contrary, the upkeep will be pretty hefty: foreign donations and World Bank loans are the only things keeping this raft afloat.

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The Money Supplement

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

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14 / The Money Supplement Fresher’s Survivial Guide

Tuesday 18th November, 2014

Living the Dream What is money worth, unless you’re earning it for doing something you truly enjoy? Samuel Riggs muses on the idea of money as a placemarker for success in society, and what it really means to be doing your ‘dream job’.

Samuel Riggs Editor

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here’s an old saying that quips “if you’re doing what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”. I used to swear by this mantra. As a child, I thought that if I truly achieved what I wanted to be, if my reality lived up to my daydreams, then I would be content in everything. Getting the right job, in my head, was the precursor to everything else in my life falling in to place – the key to the lock which would lead the way to a life of opulence.

About three years ago, I got it into my head that I wanted to be a journalist, a reporter – I wanted to work in a high-flying newspaper, w uncovering stories about corporate espionage, international plots to destroy the planet, that sort of thing. To my eighteen year old self,

this was the height of cool, and it was everything I wanted to be.

Three years down the line, and I have a fairly good job in journalism – I’m the editor of this paper, and it has been a ridiculously wild ride so far. In some ways, it’s living the dream. We don’t exactly uncover international plots to destroy the world, so much as we uncover ‘dastardly’ schemes to occasionally hike up fees here and there, or discuss the strategic plan at great length. It’s at times exciting, at times droll, at times downright frustrating. The moral of the story is, living your dream isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be – more often than not, it’s going to be overwhelming. And it’s definitely still going to be work.

No matter how much I love working in journalism, when you’re up to your armpits, copy-editing an opinion piece at 4am on a production weekend, with no end in sight and only the whirring of an overheated Mac and the smell of half-

eaten Chinese food to keep you company, it’s going to test your devotion to what you thought was your dream job.

Dreams change as well. When I was fourteen, I thought being a surgeon was exactly what I wanted to be. One too many episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and a more-than passing obsession with gory horror movies made me dream about being a surgeon, arms covered in human offal. To my hormonesaturated teenage brain, this was the absolute best thing I could achieve.

Before that, it was a pilot. Before that, it was a builder. Before that, when I was three, I wanted to be a table when I grew up, according to my parents. As we grow, what we dream of changes – as I look towards the future, I find myself gravitating towards a job in food, cooking and business, potentially.

This is almost as far away from journalism as you can get, without throwing away your keyboard and making for the hills of Connemara

to farm goats. My interests have changed, they will continue to change, and the person I want to be in the future is going to change with them.

But how does this all tie in to money? In a way, I think it’s because we are often inclined to take the job that offers us the most cash – this is thanks to a number of reasons, but first and foremost I believe it’s because success these days is directly linked to how much disposable income is in your bank account. Unless you have the money to get the latest iPhone, model of BMW, range of shirts from Zara, you’re failing somehow. It’s a sad indicator of where we’re at in society, that our material wealth is the main factor by which we measure the character of ourselves. However, we can use it as a marker nonetheless, to light the way for where we need to go. In this supplement all about money, I urge you to disregard it, in a way. Save your pennies, strive to make something of yourself

and, of course, do what you need to do to live a comfortable and happy life. But instead of taking or aspiring towards the path paved with gold leaf and dollar bills, go towards what you really love. It sounds cheesy, but do actually try and follow your dreams, whatever they may be.

The old saying I mentioned earlier seems to imply that, somehow, the love of doing something can override the work that has to be put in to it. It implies that just because you really love journalism, you’re going to love staying up for twenty four hours straight in order to get a newspaper out, as if it will become the easiest, most natural thing in the world. I’d much rather propose the idea that you will work even harder for the love of something. Denying the hard graft that it takes to create something truly special is insanity. If you love something, you’ll work even harder: you’ll do it for no money at all, and love it all the same.

THE IRISH TIMES

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