How to Create Extra Streams of Income
Do you build extra streams of income all at once or one stream at a time?
I think this is a key question because no matter how often I share my experience and things my mentors have taught me, people ignore it and assume having multiple businesses from the jump is what leads to extra streams of income.
When it comes to extra streams of income, less is more
If you're just starting out on this extra streams of income journey you want to focus on one stream/one side hustle first.
Strengthen that first and focus on building that and upleveling that and then you can add the next streams.
There are 3 key reasons for that:
1. Time
You only have 24 hours in a day so time is a factor.
If you're starting something you want to be able to focus on that and not feel overwhelmed because you can only get so much work done.
Of course, if you have money to hire other people to help you run other businesses and manage them, then this argument is not valid.
It's better to run one business well and maximise profit on that one business than to run 3 businesses in an average manner.
Every business has a learning curve. You need to be willing to experiment, to spend time thinking and asking yourself key questions and putting together a strategy to be able to expand quickly.
If you cant do the inner work to grow in that manner then you set yourself up for failure.
Don't bring on unnecessary overwhelm.
2. Utilizing resources
When you're starting out, you will be required to spend some money or time on launching and growing the business.
As you grow, you will have to keep reinvesting into the business.
Be it on advertising or websites or networking events.
It's normal to have limited resources when starting out. The secret is in how you use those resources to get to profitability.
Using a small budget effectively is what's going to get you to grow radically.
If I get more results from Facebook advertising than Instagram advertising than it makes more sense to focus my efforts on honing Facebook advertising.
If one business concept is more profitable than another and I love them both, it makes more sense to put all my resources in the more profitable concept first and to focus on growing that.
3. Focus
Where you put your attention is where your mind goes.
Research has shown that the mind only has limited focus and it gets tired from focusing on many things.
Google: Decision making fatigue.
In behavioral economics we are taught about decision making fatigue - the more decisions your mind has to make, the worse the decisions it makes because the mind gets tired from making decisions.
Running side hustles/ running a business, requires constant decision making about things.
You want to automate as much as possible or delegate as much as you can so you have less decisions to make on a daily basis.
This is why Arianna Huffington and Mark Zuckerberg jave streamlined their closets...so they have less decisions to make about what they wear cos those decisions make them less productive.
Its also why most CEOs have private chefs, personal fitness instructors, PAs etc so they have less decisions to make about calendars, exercise routines etc.
This frees up their minds to focus on other ish.
So if your mind has 3 side hustles or income opportunities to focus on all at once, it will feel fatigued and shut down.
It wont be able to focus on any to start off with.
It's easier to get your mind to focus on making R100,000/US$10,000 a month on one business idea and work on one key strategy and experiment on that, than if it has to focus on 3 different business ideas with 3 different strategies and do all 3 at once.
Trust me on this.
Yesterday I worked with a client and we figured out how to make 4,000 Euros a month on his business with him working 6 days a month with jus 2 clients. On one business.
To do that we had to discard every other business he is working on and figure out how to grow his high end offering to 2,000 Euros per client.
He already has a client base for this but wasn't focused on it as much because he was trying to offer everything.
It helps that these fees are normal in his industry and in the countries he works with.
Once he's established and has a steady stream of clients he will focus on launching the next income stream which ironically will allow him to serve and reach thousands of people from all walks of life because he will have the time to focus and give back and can charge less without worrying about basics.
My recommendation for creating extra streams of income
Focus on developing one stream of income really well and being able to do the work on that with ease (automate and delegate as much as possible) in a way that doesn't require a lot of your attention and then add the next stream.
Become profitable with that and you can use that profit to fund the next thing and the next thing.
Look at any successful business - they started off offering one product and one service and then grew from there.
That one product or service is what they used to launch into the next industry or the next product or service offering.
Think of all the major music stars and personalities and how they started. Read their bios.
I stopped one on one coaching for 2 years, when I first launched the Money Magic course.
I focused on building the course and growing the student base.
When I started to grow and found my rhythm in the course and it wasn't as time consuming to run, I offered coaching and got clear on how to grow that.
I didn't know much about online courses and how to run them and design them so I focused on that and on growing income.
I had to get a team in place and get systems in place so that I could do both well.
Once I set up the course and it stopped taking up tons of hours in my day, it allowed me to expand quickly to other things.
Doing more doesn't always lead to more money
You want make it easy for people to know what you're about especially when they don't know you.
If I had told people I sell hair products (I don't) and personal finance to start off with, it would have confused them and left them wondering what I actually do.
So people are left wondering what I actually do and they worry about what to spend money on with me and what I really specialize in...
The fear of just starting with one thing and growing our brand on that and then getting profitable on that comes from the belief that we need to do more to make more money.
So we have a million side hustles to make our income goal and we focus on being busy.
That busyness leads to chronic exhaustion and overwhelm and once that happens we start procrastinating and nothing gets done and our income goals fizzle out.
If you're ready to create extra streams if income, then I want to invite you to check out the free 7 Day Tapping Into Ancestral Money Wisdom Training below:
