Let me begin with a few time honored sayings:

“Time is money. ”

“There are only so many hours in a day. ”

“No one ever got rich working for someone else.”

Now let’s put them all together. If time is indeed money, then the more time you have the more money you can earn. Simple enough. However, if there are only so many hours in a day, then you are certainly limited to the amount of money you can earn. That is the dilemma of the hourly wage earner who undoubtedly works for someone else. Even if you include overtime, the employee is not going to get rich.

Your time is an asset – something of value – and it’s in short supply. Your money is also an asset – and if you’re like most people today – that is in short supply as well. So it seems to make sense that you want to increase the amount of money you can make without having to increase the amount of time you spend making it.

Oh, and you’ll want to stay away from any get-rich-quick schemes because more often than not, they can cause you to lose money in virtually no time at all.

We’ve already established in previous emails the need for you to gain some control over your time and your income. If you don’t seize that control, then others will control you. If you are now an employee, it may already be painfully obvious to you that your boss controls how much money you make and how much time you must invest to make that money.

Today, working longer (and harder) for less is the norm. A lot of people are happy just to have a job. Any job. Job security is no longer a reality and another old saying, “it’s a dog-eat-dog world”…is making a comeback.

With so much uncertainty in the job market, the financial markets, the housing market…just about everywhere you look…you may think my next suggestion is a product of absolute lunacy.

Be Your Own Boss

Just think about it for now. I’ll never ask you to do anything without due consideration, but I also want you to keep your options open. That’s because I’m absolutely convinced things are going to get much worse as the months pass. Worse than you could ever imagine.

If you research what I research and if you connect with the people I connect with then you already know we’re in a Darwinian economy. Only the strong will survive. The weak are the pawns of the powerful.

So let’s look at four ways to leverage your assets (time and money) and become your own boss. We’ll do it by looking at four different types of business models. Decide which one makes the most sense for you and tuck that thought away for future use.

The Traditional Business

They come in all sizes and flavors. Most come to life as corporations.

A corporation is typically made up of owners/managers (we’ll call them the principals) and employees. The upside to a corporation is employees supply the labor that makes the principals wealthy. The downside is the principals are responsible for every little nitpicking decision.

That means they have to find work for the employee to do. They have to make product buying decisions, or decide what raw materials are needed to make the product along with any necessary machinery the employee would use to put it all together.

Even if it’s a service industry, the principals are responsible for making good marketing decisions, advertising
decisions, employment decisions and on and on. The principals must wear multiple “hats” at all times. What they don’t know they must learn or hire someone who does know. There’s no room for error so don’t make any mistakes.

The traditional business demands your full attention and all your time. If you work 40 hours a week as an employee, you can expect to work 80 hours a week as a business owner.

Seed money is almost always necessary to start a corporation and if the principles don’t have it in their pockets they’ve got to look to banks for that money. And many banks today stand on pretty shaky financial ground – a product of some foolish lending decisions made over the past 10 years or so. The days of “easy money” are behind us. Unless you can offer the bank a surefire business proposition, banks will be reluctant to lend any money to your start-up corporation.

The cost to start your own business can vary widely depending on many factors, but it’s a safe bet to say five figures is a minimum and six figures the norm. And don’t expect to take a paycheck for yourself for at least six months.

The Franchise

This form of business enterprise has helped many people gain at least some control over their financial future. It certainly makes business start ups a little easier than the traditional corporation.

Fast food restaurants like McDonalds and Subway, automotive service companies like Aamco Transmissions and NAPA Auto Parts, and such diverse businesses as Ace Hardware, Allstate Insurance and H&R Block are all franchise business opportunities.

The upside? Name recognition, proven business model, co-op advertising and an “owner’s manual” the size of a big city phone book get you started and keep you on track. Help is often just a phone call away, at least at the beginning stages.

The downside? You’ll need to cough up anywhere from $30,000 to over $250,000 in franchise fees, plus pay the franchisor a percentage of your income. Like the corporation, depending on the business, startup costs can run an ADDITIONAL $100,000 to $200,000!

And while you’ll get a lot of help, you give up a lot of control. The franchisor wants to profit and protect its good name so you’ll have to play by company rules which can be quite restrictive.

Network Marketing

Perhaps you know it by another name: “multi-level marketing.” Both fall under the umbrella of “direct sales.” Whatever you call it, it’s gotten a bad rap over the years. And that’s really too bad because this business model works like gangbusters if you follow the directions of good trainers and producers. You can become fantastically wealthy in a very short time.

The key, which most people miss, is you’ve got to treat it like a business. In other words, you’ve got to bust your butt for at least the first 12 to 36 months. After that, your network marketing business sort of takes on a life of its own. At that point you just have to manage it, and yes, you can do that from the golf course.

The downside? Seeds of misunderstanding often sewn by network marketers who don’t grasp how the model is intended to work. Yes you can be a multi-millionaire. Yes you can work just a few hours a day. But not on the first day or even the first month. And that’s the rub which has earned network marketing such a bad reputation. If you remove all the hype and actually look at the business model, it’s a no-brainer. A true winner by any standard.

What makes it work when it’s allowed to work? People. You try the product or service. You like it. You recommend it to a friend. You probably do that on occasion already. It’s called word-of-mouth advertising. Only in network marketing, you get paid a commission when your friend buys. If your friend’s friend buys (because she recommended the same product or service), you get paid again. Since there is virtually no limit to how large your “network” can grow, there’s virtually no limit to how much you can earn. Shocking, eh?

Think about this. Can you imagine the cost and headaches involved in running a company with 100 employees? How about 1,000? And they’re not all producing profits for you. You’d be paying a lot of people just to tell other people what to do. And of course you’re bound to have a certain percentage of slackers who you’ll pay for no real work at all.

In network marketing, everyone works to put money in their pocket or you don’t get paid. And networks grow in geometric proportion. Here’s a simple example. You go out and recommend a product or service to just two people. Now you have two people buying product and putting money in your pocket. Now you encourage both of them to tell two more people. Now you’ve got six people in your network (the original two plus the four they brought in). If you repeat the process again, you’ll have 10 people in your network. Now watch how quickly the numbers add up with each new level…18, 34, 66, 130, 258, 514, 1026. You can have a thousand employees (and more), all generating profits for you and you escape all the hassles of running the company.

No wonder network marketing is a $10 billion (and growing every year) industry in the U.S and a $100 billion worldwide. I’ll be straight with you. Along with my gold and silver investments and my real estate investments, I’m invested in a network marketing opportunity as well. I won’t tell you any more than that because I’m not here to sell you anything. I just want you to understand that the people who know the power of money also know the power of network marketing.

The upside? Ridiculously minimal investment. We’re talking a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on how high up the ladder you want to start. All the research and development, the marketing, even the billing and fulfillment is done for you. That’s amazing support, all included in your initial costs. The only thing left for you to do is sell. And gosh, it’s not even selling. It’s sharing a good thing with people you know and people you meet.

And that’s still not the best part. Because you have an established relationship with all these people and they know, like and trust you, they will be waiting for other opportunities to work with you and profit with you. I mentioned before I partner with others to invest in apartment buildings. Do you think I put an ad in the paper to find these partners? No way! I want people I know, like and trust. So I tap into my own personal network. When others want a partner to take advantage of a great business opportunity, I’m always on their short list. Savvy investors stick together. It’s an “insider’s club” most of the world doesn’t know about. Now you do.

Internet Marketing

The Internet has become a game changer for everyone savvy enough to take advantage of its power to level the playing field. With a computer and a little knowledge of how the game is played, you have the potential to earn a six and even seven figure income without ever leaving the comforts of your home. And with a laptop you can take your business anywhere you travel. Consider this…

Create a website that targets a niche market and you build a loyal following. Add compelling content and optimize your site for the search engines and people will flock to your site from the four corners of the globe. In a world filled with hype and B.S., you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Selling then becomes almost effortless.

Social media is exploding and in many cases replacing conventional advertising as a means to get you and your product known. Giant multi-national corporations spend millions of dollars a year on brand advertising. With a Facebook account, daily tweets on Twitter and a handful of YouTube videos, you’re now capitalizing on something called personal branding. If you need to develop a list of professional and business connections, social media is one great way to do it.

A host of specialized tools make your advertising fully customizable; expenses quantifiable and controllable. You can change your advertising message and delivery systems on the fly and see the results of those changes almost immediately.

Drop shipping and automated inventory controls allow you to sell products from hundreds of manufacturers without stocking one item and without ever having to pay up front for the product. You’ll never be stuck with merchandise you can’t sell and you’ll never have a cash flow problem.

On top of all this, payments to you move instantly from other people’s bank accounts into yours. No more deposit slips. No more trips to the bank.

If you have no product or service to sell, there are people who will pay you just to market their products and services as an affiliate. Commissions can run as high as 50%. And where do you think you’ll find your audience. I tap into my existing network. You should do the same.

Also, if you are in network marketing, leveraging the Internet to develop leads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is a very smart way to go.

Best of all, after initial setup, all these systems become fully automated. While you’re playing a round of golf, enjoying a European vacation or just sleeping soundly through the night, money just keeps showing up in your bank account. Sometimes the “hard work” for my Internet marketing clients is nothing more than checking their account balances twice a day.

Think I’m kidding? I know there’s plenty of hype out there and some personal success stories can easily be blown way out of proportion, so do this …

Put me to the test. It’s that simple. Contact me.

 
To YOUR Success,

Business & Marketing Mentor
Phone: 805-874-2410