This is possibly the most valuable information I have given you via this blog!

That’s quite a statement, but I’m about to show you a business model, which you can use in order to secure your financial future.  It’s based on how I earn the vast majority of my income and how every wealthy person I know has secured their future.

My life changed when I heard my mentor, Jim Rohn say;
“Profits are better than wages!”

You see, I thought I owned a business, but I didn’t.  The reality was (and this might sound familiar), that I simply employed myself.  I worked really hard and was making a lot of money – but when I stopped working, the money stopped too.  That’s because I was essentially earning a wage.  It was more like a job than a business!

When I explain this idea to young entrepreneurs, I put it like this:

If Bob relies on wages for his income, his income will stop when he’s not working.  Bob’s income will drop or stop when he’s ill.  When Bob retires, his income drops too – even though he needs more money when he’s retired, because of all that time he has to fill and those additional bills (such as medical bills etc.)

However, if Bob relies on profits rather than wages, he will generate money when he’s asleep or at the gym or taking his dog for a walk.  If Bob becomes ill, he makes just as much money.  When Bob retires, his income continues just like before.

This approach is sometimes called passive income.

Passive income

No matter what line of business you are in, I STRONGLY recommend you develop some passive income streams.  Today, I have over 20 passive income streams, which means I earn money on a daily basis, without having to exchange my time.

For example, I sell a massively popular audio program which I recorded for businesspeople and entrepreneurs like yourself.  It sells all over the world, 24 hours a day.  I get up each morning, check my paypal account and see how much money I’ve made while I was asleep.  That’s passive income in action.

No matter what line of business you are in, there are many opportunities to develop sources of income that will work for you, while you are doing other things.

Financial freedom

My passive income streams are what allow me to spend so much time doing what I love (like writing this blog post for you.)  I also get to pick and choose how many hours I work, who I work with and where I want to live; (here in the relaxing Yorkshire countryside rather than a crowded city.)

It also allows me to pursue my passion, as a marketing coach helping small businesses, that would never have been able to afford my services if I relied on that income for my livelihood.  I’m able to work with people and help them do the same as me, and I can do it for peanuts – because I subsidise my time, to pursue what I love!

In stark contrast, exchanging your time for money has a number of non-financial pitfalls.  For example, just look at the experts we see online, who seem to spend half their life away from their families; travelling to their next speaking gig.  Many of these hard working men and women have young children and I’m sure would rather be with them, than getting on the next plane or giving their ‘talk’ to the next group, miles away from home.

My income streams

For the best financial security and quality of life, I believe it’s important to move away from that form of time-based income and exchange it for passive income.

Here are a few examples of passive income that I use:

• Licenses: Companies pay me annual license fees, to use marketing and sales material, which I produced for them.  This is my single largest passive income stream.
• Audio product: People buy my Motivation Master Class mp3, then download it in seconds onto their computer. I have no stock or dispatch issues to deal with, so there are no limits on how many I can sell.  By the way, it’s brilliant!!
• Affiliates: I have a number of affiliate products that are linked to me, via various websites and blogs, like the Headway theme I use to build / develop this blog.
• Investments: I have certain investments, which pay me an income.
• Land: I receive income from renting land that I own, which pays me a recurring income.

There are stacks of other ways to attract passive income, such as; referral fees, software licenses, advertising, ebook sales, MLM residuals and book royalties etc.  The key is to find one to begin with, which suits you and then to develop it and add to it.

Is it easy?

No, I don’t think it is easy – otherwise everyone would be doing it, right?  I spent years mastering the skills required to develop and then market my products.  There are people that sell books on the subject, that make it sound like all you have to do is spend 20 minutes developing a product or filling a website with ads and links and BOOM – magic money.

That’s BULLSHIT!

But it sells get rich quick books, often written and read by people who work 16 hours a day, so they can “make money while they sleep!”

Most passive income requires 3 key elements:

1. Courage
2. Research
3. Marketing

I believe people (especially those that read this blog) have the courage required.  However, very few people take time to fully research what passive income streams to use and even fewer bother to learn how to market them effectively.

The message behind this post can save you from years of frustration and help you dramatically improve your future sales results!

I received an email yesterday, from someone who has occasionally emailed me for marketing advice over the past couple of years.  This person (who will remain nameless for obvious reasons), is one of my newsletter subscribers and has been in business for years as a trainer and author.  She emailed me, asking for some free marketing advice – Before explaining that she was still unable to afford professional marketing help.

By the way, her work is very good and people seem to love her courses, as the feedback she gets is excellent.  She also works extremely hard.

So, we are talking about a hard working person, with a great product – Yet after years of trying, they are still making so little progress that they are unable to even afford a basic, inexpensive business service.

Here’s why:

Hard work is NOT the secret of business success

If it was, our grandparents would have been millionaires!

By working hard marketing her business incorrectly, this lady is like the rower; rowing their boat as hard as they can in the wrong direction. The harder they work, the further they go from where they want to be.

I have to admit, even after 15 years of running a successful marketing business, I’m still amazed whenever I hear an intelligent person say that they have been conducting their own marketing for years with no success; yet they persist in carrying on with no professional help.

Now, I can understand a relatively new business forgetting to put a budget in place for their marketing.  However, when a business has been trading for years, never making any real money because it’s determined not to invest in professional marketing help, that’s just something that makes zero sense to me.

Ironically, these businesses often spend MORE on marketing, than those that have their marketing looked after professionally.

How come?

Because they waste so much money on ineffective marketing:

• They send out mail shots that cost money, but no one reads.
• They buy costly brochures, which achieve nothing for them and in many cases will LOSE them sales because of how they are used and how they are worded.
• The send email marketing to people, which contains ‘pedestrian’ copy and thus fails to inspire people to call them or buy from them.
• They attend dead-end networking events.
• They market haphazardly, with no idea of how to leverage what they are doing so it’s massively more effective.
• They get websites built that fail to convert readers into customers.
• They waste massive amounts of their valuable time building online networks via; Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc – with little if anything financially to show for it.
• They buy advertising, which contains the wrong message, so no one takes any notice of it.
• They make short-term marketing decisions – rather than work from a simple but powerful marketing strategy.

…. and they keep on repeating these mistakes for years; until they either go broke or become too demotivated to continue.

Conclusion

Here’s what I have found: Many businesspeople confuse having the tools to do the job, with having the experience and expertise.  They think that because they have a; computer, Internet access, a car and a phone, that they can market their services.  They just need that ‘lucky break.’

This is like suggesting that owning a surgeon’s operating theatre, means you can perform heart or brain surgery; so long as your luck’s in!

Thankfully, sales and marketing results are extremely easy to measure. If you are getting the sales and profits you want, change nothing. If not, I strongly suggest you speak with a marketing professional.