On the topic of looking for ways to increase your income, I want to encourage you to focus on identifying a narrow and deep niche on a topic you can get passionate about and list your personal attributes.
If you are going to start working towards generating extra income you need to get clear about your strengths and weaknesses, about what you will do in your business and what you will NOT do.
Hopefully creating that list has made you realise you are awesome and it has boosted your confidence. There is one key ingredient to success and that is Tenacity! If you are the type of person who won’t give in and you are persistent, you are well on your way!
There are way too many people who start something and then give up at the first roadblock! Never ever, ever, give up! Maybe change direction if you find it’s not going how you want it to, but never give up!
So, I have been using a ‘test case’ business I started at the beginning of this year to guide us through this topic.
My passion for Classic Triumph motorbikes identified a narrow but deep niche that I wanted to look into for a business opportunity but there was a BIG question around that.
How could I make it profitable? This is where lots of people struggle. They start out doing something they love but they haven’t really worked out how they can be profitable and more specifically, how they can avoid generating their income by trading hours for dollars. They end up being self-employed and often for a very low hourly rate!
Read Robert Kiyosaki’s book “The CashFlow Quadrant” if you don’t understand the difference between being self-employed and having a business!
In a business you are the Captain of the ship, not the one shoveling the coal into the boilers. If you are self-employed you could well be shoveling the coal as well as supplying and maintaining the shovels (and invoicing the shipping company hoping to get paid in a timely manner).
With a business you generate income while you are NOT working.
If you are happy to trade hours for dollars that is fine. You could take in ironing, do cleaning, mow lawns, wash cars, fix things, make things, remove rubbish… the list is endless. Just look for people who want their problems solved and help solve them.
People want less pain and more pleasure!
However, I did not want to give you an example of how to trade hours for dollars. They are everywhere.
I wanted to give you an example of a business. So let’s look at how I went about exploring the possible ways to make a business in the niche I had identified.
I love restoring and riding classic Triumphs, but how am I going to create a business out of that?
No-one is going to pay me to ride my bike (or theirs). People might pay me to restore their bikes but I’d be trading hours for dollars (self-employed), not in business! Not really what I want. Yep, it would be fun but not a business.
I looked at other businesses that involved motorbikes.
I could hire out my bikes! NO WAY!!!!!
I could offer to take people on rides…. Sounds a bit more attractive but then I’m back to trading hours for dollars, even though it would be doing something I enjoy. However, then there is insurance and licensing and weather to consider, and it’s not much fun having a pillion riding on the back with you anyway so NO!!!! Not doing that.
I needed to come up with something a bit more creative.
Think about all the Baby Boomer guys who love these old bikes. What would give them pleasure? What would they like me to deliver? Many of them would already have a Triumph? What would they want?
It’s highly likely they would also be doing repairs or restoration work in their garage just like me, so how could I reach out to them in their garage and generate income? What problems could I solve for them or how could I give them less pain and/or more pleasure?
Remember I don’t want to trade hours for dollars so how can I achieve that as well?
So…. I’m going to stop there for today and let you consider the options.
What ideas can you come up with?
Next I’ll reveal how I started a true business out of my hobby.
If you think taking control of your money is all too hard, get a Spending Planner to help you… go to www.findaspendingplanner.
There you will find trained Spending Planners who are extremely passionate about helping people like you. The benefit will be far more than the outlay and what you learn during the process will benefit you for the rest of your life!
On the other hand, if you already have a Spending Plan, your finances are not under stress and you know what I’m talking about, you may be interested in joining the team. If you would like to feel the satisfaction of helping someone else turn their life around and create your own business in the process you might want to consider becoming a Spending Planner too.
And if you decide you would like to find out more, go to https://spendingplannersinstitute.com/become-a-spending-planner/