The (My) Guide To Creating More Cash In A Challenging Economy

3d puppet, carrying in hands the big bag of mo...

Who Moved My Money

I will go ahead and let you know this post is a monster size post (3100 words) and you may want to take it in bite sized chunks.

If you like the post but would like it in a shorter or easier to read format let me know in the comments. I’ll probably put it into a PDF format if I get enough requests.

Ok, now on with it…

“Money doesn’t disappear in a depression, it only shifts. It usually shifts to people who educate themselves about the opportunities available, acquire the skills required, position themselves accordingly and take action on it. If someone want’s to complain about not taking responsibility for any of those steps, then shame on them, not the people they are pointing their finger at.”

Money.  It’s a subject I’ve strayed from here on the blog for a while. Ok, almost a year is more than a while but it’s making it’s official comeback.

I wrote this post because I’ve heard a more than a few people say that there just isn’t any jobs or opportunities out there to get ahead.

Ok, I may buy the job part. But lack of opportunities?

I call bullshit on that one.

The glass is always half full. ALWAYS. There is always a gift in whatever problem someone may perceive they’re having. Including an absence of money in their life.

Here’s 4 Steps to find it:

  • Educate yourself about the opportunities
  • Acquire the Skills required
  • Position yourself accordingly
  • Take Action

But first…

Stop Digging The Ditch

I bring up digging the ditch first because you have to stop digging your financial ditch. Otherwise starting a business on the side will just consume more time, money and energy. All of your resources will be consumed because no matter how much good you do, it’s canceled out by more debt and overhead. It will leave you frustrated as hell.

Let me give you an example:

I haven’t valued money…

There I said it, I haven’t valued money.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t had or created lots of money in the past but that’s where I find my real truth. I don’t have it in abundance because I didn’t value it. I kept digging the ditch.

I know why I haven’t got more money in my life. It’s not been in the top 3 of my value list since my divorce 5 years ago.

“The difference between someone who is consciously responsible is that they grow through their experience, instead of just going through it.“

The less I value money the less I keep.

I drew the line in the sand on that one.

The good news is I know there isn’t a shortage of money in the world.

For many people though, they may not know how to get to it. If that’s you this post will hopefully point you in the right direction.

For others, they may be doing all the right things to create money, but the money isn’t something that is congruent with how they see themselves.

That has everything to do with the self image. It’s why, even if someone wins the lottery, they are dead or dead broke in 5 years. The money wasn’t congruent with how they saw themselves so they got rid of it as fast as they could. Unconsciously of course.

We’re in the midst of one of the largest money transfers in history. The difference is that never before in the history of the world have you and I had an opportunity to capitalize on that transfer as individuals.

So let’s get congruent with being quite fine with lots of money.

It’s not that we lack resources to aid us in building wealth, it’s that we aren’t using our resourcefulness to it’s fullest extent. Again it’s seeing ourselves as that person who can be and is wealthy.

  • “The biggest reason people struggle financially is the lack of financial literacy. It’s why consumers are more in debt than ever before.“– Robert Kiyosaki
  • Lack of financial leverage is the biggest reason why many people don’t get ahead. It’s the whole trading time for money process that keeps them stagnant.
  • Raise your financial literacy, get out of debt and get ahead.

Lots of consumers don’t buy assets with their money. They buy liabilities instead.

If you buy a new big screen TV or a brand new car, you just purchased two brand new shiny liabilities. Why? Because they immediately depreciate in value and don’t spin off income. Those are facts that Toshiba and Honda don’t want you to know.

However if you go out and buy a 2nd home to rent out or purchase a website that’s already spinning off $1000 a month in income, you just purchased two new assets. (Considering you bought them right)

Which one do you think would assist you in getting out of debt and/or getting you into positive cash flow?

If you really want to become educated on assets vs. liabilities Robert Kiyosaki is your best bet. The book Rich Dad Poor Dad will bring you up to speed on this mindset easily. You can also visit these blogs on personal finance:

Man Vs. Debt

MoneyNing

Rich Dad Education Blog

My point is, stop digging the ditch.

Alright so with that out of the way let’s look at some opportunities to create cash.

1. Educate Yourself About the Opportunities Available

The opportunities are everywhere and I’m only going to point out a few. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all of the opportunities that are available to you and I online or offline. It’s a start and it may spark a few ideas of your own.

Opportunities

1. Social Media Consulting- Yes I know this is a buzz topic. However this could mean your consulting business owners and individuals on a local level. You could share with them the means of how to use social media to further their reach online. Coach them on how they can expand their personal/business networks via Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook just as an example. I get lots of people asking me by default how they can take advantage of social networking.

I’m no pro but I do know a little more than the average person about social media’s applications and tactics. Just the other day my barber asked me if I could help him with his Facebook group to get more business!

  • How could you scale it? –Record trainings (video) and have them turned into information products for online consumption. Or have them available for purchase at your next live event or consulting session so people have a resource to reference afterwords. Don’t just trade time for money as a consultant, re-purpose your content.

Pick up this book by Chris Brogan First: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (Affiliate Link)

2. Blogging- There are lots of places to go with blogging but keep in mind, blogging like social media, is a media channel. You don’t actually make money from blogging. Blogging is the store front. All the money is made via the goods and services you manufacture that meets your customers needs. That’s your real business.

Sure you can make some via ads and ad-sense but you better have a lot of traffic coming to your site. Digital products like ebooks, premium membership access, paid audio programs, study courses and webinars are where many pro-bloggers are making their revenue.

  • How could you scale it?- What do you want out of your blogging business? Blogging is extremely scalable depending on how you position your blog in the beginning stages. If you’re like me and self branded or my friend David Risley it may be a bit more tricky. However it’s not impossible.
  1. Brand your blog around something you’re good at or passionate about
  2. Find a hungry market-Make sure of your target markets needs and desires
  3. Do keyword research (Affiliate link) to target your niches keywords to optimize traffic (and to make sure they are looking for what you offer)
  4. Start building your email list via aWeber (Affiliate link) immediately
  5. Get feedback from your readers via surveys, email and comments on your posts
  6. Create a product that fits your markets needs and desires
  7. Offer it to them, rinse and repeat.

Online resources:

3. Affiliate Marketing- Affiliate marketing can be incorporated into your blogging but can be a stand alone business as well. You can email affiliate offers to your blog readers list via aWeber (Ironically that’s an affiliate link fyi) as long as you’ve used the products and know it’s a value to them. But you can also set up a blog branded around the product your wanting to sell.

  • How can you scale it?- You can do affiliate marketing via eCommerce sites. Also as long as you let people know you’re an affiliate for the product, you can also do product review sites where you do a video review or a write up of the product and give a clear and objective review of it. There is no limit to the the number of both eCommerce sites and review sites that you can set up.
  • Some of the most popular affiliate sites you can sell stuff from are:
  1. Clickbank (All Digital products)
  2. Commission Junction
  3. Amazon Affiliate Program
  4. Ebay (For eCommerce sites)

4. Day Trading/Commodities Trading- Risky? Maybe. Able to be done? You bet. There is money to be made whether the market goes up or down, if you know when to buy and sell. I know this because a good friend of mine has made as much as 10k in a month and she’s still relatively new in the industry. She studies hard, loves numbers and stays committed to the process of learning and trading. It’s not for the weak at heart and isn’t terribly cheap to start but can be very rewarding and less expensive than a traditional franchise or store front.

  • How can you scale it? Say you start out with an account size of $5000. As you win trades you grow your account to a larger size. You can trade for the same amount of time and effort you did at $5000, but now you’re trading at 4x’s the amount of leverage.
  1. Start out with a minimum account size of $5000
  2. Grow your account by making winning trades
  3. Trade one “contract” and make anywhere from 0 to $1000 per trade. (You can also of course go in the negative too)
  4. Grow your account, for example to $20,000 by winning your trades
  5. Now you can trade 4x’s as many contracts and make up to $4000 a trade
  6. Two good trades a month=100k a year

Resources:

  • Emini-Academy-Chris Dunn (Not an affiliate link but I know Chris personally and have referred him business. Stand up guy and 1st class service)
  • Chris Dunn Blog-Emini Trading for Beginners- How to Day Trade Futures

5. Website Purchasing & Flipping– Just like purchasing a home you can purchase websites and flip them either for a profit, or you can be on the other end and purchase sites that spin off cash flow. When I first came online I actually did a little website flipping and even created an info product for it with a partner of mine. I know enough to be dangerous however I have a friend who turned a simple website purchase into a $15-$20,0000 a month business. And that’s just one of his sites.

  • How can you scale it? There’s no limit to the amount of sites you can purchase for cash flow, not to mention you can flip sites to your hearts content. Even developing websites just specifically for flipping. There is also a certain formula to purchasing sites that’s required in order know it’s profitable to begin with.

6. Network Marketing-One of the more conventional ways for anyone to start creating cash flow. You normally pay very little in cash up front, (Unless you buy into a position which is called front end loading) however generally you put in a lot of sweat equity upfront to off set the lack of capital invested. It’s better than not doing anything at all (or working a 2nd job) in my humble opinion and is still a viable option for many people.

  • How can you scale it? You can, recruit train and support a network of people to help you distribute the goods & services that you’re selling. The company that you’re contracted with generally distributes the goods & services, pays your team and handles compliance with state and federal agencies. Also many network marketing companies are taking advantage of the web and it’s many viral opportunities to spread their message.
  • *Keep in mind, because you don’t have the responsibility of doing any of this, you also don’t really own the business or the network. It belongs to the company you’re contracted with.

7. Mobile Market- I apologize that I’m going to be a bit general about this one. I’m not clear enough on all the details to give you but I do have enough of an idea to know it’s big. The mobile market is still in it’s infancy but make no mistake, it is going to create a ton of millionaires.

I know you may think you have to be a huge tech head to create an iphone apps for example, but you don’t. I have a good friend of mine who isn’t techie at all but knows how to hire and partner with people who are.

Sounds like Henry Ford doesn’t it? He didn’t know how to build a car but he surrounded himself with people who did. Admittedly I’m green in the mobile market but I know a big thing coming when I see it.

2. Acquiring the Skills

Becoming wealthy or well off financially isn’t really a secret. Each area above will require a specific set of skills in order to be successful. We call this specialized knowledge.

However below, I’ve brought together some generalized knowledge that I believe was helpful to me and can be very helpful to you in your journey.

1. Mindset would have to be one of the biggest keys to your success in any area you attach yourself too. Some of the best book recommendations I would start with for mindset are (And in this order):

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • Think & Grow Rich
  • Psycho Cybernetics (The Revised Dan Kennedy version is amazing)
  • Learned Optimism (Advanced)

2. As far as business skills: I wish I would have grasped a better understanding of marketing a lot sooner. Looking back here are some awesome books and audio programs that I wish I would have found earlier to start the journey.

  • The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing-Al Ries & Jack Trout
  • No B.S Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneur-Dan Kennedy (Or anything by him)
  • Influence-Robert Cialdini
  • Predictably Irrational-Dan Ariely
  • Piranha Marketing System (Affiliate Link) Video Testimonial by Tim Ferris of the 4 Hour Work Week

3. Position Yourself Accordingly

Position yourself where you’re strengths and passions are, not where you see the most money.

Focusing on a topic or medium that you’re passionate about will take you farther, make you much more profitable and overall happier than just chasing the cash. I’ve chased the cash over the years and ended up not happy…Ok more like miserable. Even though I had a lot of money I was left unfulfilled and feeling trapped.

Which one of the models fits your personality best?

  • Are you an expert at something already? Branding yourself under a blog may be a way to go.
  • Not an expert yet? Sell other experts products. Affiliate marketing is a great way to start
  • Want to stay under the radar and become an online real estate mogul, buying and flipping websites can be super profitable.
  • Love numbers and already have some cash to start with? Day trading could be a worth while niche.
  • Love moving into uncharted territory, mobile marketing
  • Prefer a more person to person contact business, then look into network marketing.
  • Love social networking and already have a firm grasp on it? Teach others! Social Media consulting/training

How do you know which one fit you best? It’s the one that feels the most congruent with who you see yourself as.

I could teach you everything I know about selling and how to do it but if you don’t see yourself as someone who sells, you’ll find every way possible to trip yourself up. How you see yourself isn’t congruent with the course of action you’re taking.

Do your research and if it feels right that’s the one to shoot for.

Don’t make it any tougher than that.

4. Take Action

If you have never tackled any of this, just know you will never be 100% ready even once you’ve done your research on the subject.

You just have to pick one, research it and run with it.

Fuck fear, run towards the light.

This is what I did 10 years ago when I joined my home based business. You’ll hear of a lot of people jumping from company to company but I’m not one of them.

Over the past 10 years I’ve worked from home in the network marketing industry with one company. It’s opened a lot of inner doors as well as introduced me to a lot of awesome relationships.

I leveraged my immediate income with my personal efforts at first and then with the efforts of a team. I also will be reaping the rewards of renewal income in the near future. Everything I’ve personally sold as well as what the team has sold over the past decade will provide passive income to me. (Providing what number of memberships stay on the books)

In this case I know I’ll be rewarded handsomely for the efforts I’ve put in, even though I won’t have to put more work into it. That’s leverage. That creates lifestyle.

It also allows me to put my focus into other business models now that I find much more attractive where I feel I can make much more of an impact.

In Closing

None of this should constitute as financial advice nor should you listen to a blooming thing I have to say. That’s what sites like Man Vs. Debt is for.  It’s meant to maybe stir some shit up inside you and inspire you to realize there are lots of ways for us to not only get out of debt but make a contribution to the world while we get ahead.

There are many many other traditional offline opportunities out there to take advantage of that I haven’t even tapped into like buying and selling of gold and silver, buying and leasing real estate. Even buying, selling and renting of manufactured homes. (Yes, seriously)

I’ve stuck with mainly online stuff here because it gives us a global reach for the most part. Hopefully it will give you some insight as to what you may like to do to get out of the rut of there being no money.

Remember, the money doesn’t disappear, it just shifts!

So here is what I’m going to ask of you:

  1. What else can you add to the list that maybe you’re already taking action on and what words of wisdom can you share?
  2. Was this post helpful? If so share it with others so they realize there is a TON of opportunity out there!
  3. Leave your comments and other resources below in the comments section.

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