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Opportunity Knocks:
Creative Ways to Make a Living Without A Job
How to Turn Simple Ideas Into Financial Freedom
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Valerie
Young |
By Valerie Young
Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact on your life. Two
weeks ago I attended a workshop in Stamford, Connecticut that was taught by a
team of phenomenally successful entrepreneurs. Every one of them is easily
earning seven figures a year and a few earn that much in a month.
Yes, I learned a ton about marketing a business online. In fact, of all the
seminars I’ve attended on how to make money with an online business, this one
offered the most concrete, practical ideas that even someone who is not
particularly Internet or marketing savvy could take and run with.
This seminar, though, was especially inspiring because unlike seminars that
typically focus on different strategies to “monetize” your idea – meaning to
make money from it - this seminar was the first to specifically focus on how to
“continuitize” your idea so that it continuously makes you money.
Some of the biggest take aways for me came in the form of very small simple
ideas. It never ceases to amaze me how just one little shift in perspective can
open up a world of possibility and can have huge financial implications for you and
your current or future business. For example…
1) Match
Your Approach to Your Personality
If you’re hung up because you can’t seem to come up with a product or service to
create, this tip from the millionaire son of a former steelworker might be
just what you need to get yourself unstuck.
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Matt Bacak |
Mike Bacak shared three ways you can approach creating and selling information
products. (Actually I think you could use these categories for other business idea
as well.) You can either become the expert – or the guru if you prefer –
you can become the reporter, or you can become the publisher.
As the expert you write your own stuff, make your own audios or videos, and so
on. That’s what I do. But what if you don’t have your own stuff to write about
or as importantly, you don’t want to be that out-front personality? What if you
like gathering and synthesizing information from other people?
Then you become the reporter who interviews experts, or just regular people for
that matter, and then “report” on what they have to say. You can record the
interview and turn the interviews into CDs, or have them transcribed or both. Or
you can turn it into some kind of book or course.
Being the publisher is the most “hands off” way to go. Here you’re basically
partnering with people who are the real experts and who create the content. You
sell it and you and the expert(s) share the revenue. You can also purchase
pre-existing content, usually by buying a license to use someone else’s material.
I get emails all the time from people looking to license my work so they don’t
have to re-invent the wheel.
Mike didn’t talk about this part, but it seems obvious to me that the
direction you decide to go – expert, reporter, or publisher - has a lot to do with
your personality and whether you already have an existing area of expertise or
idea or would rather move faster by building off those of others.
Maybe you are uncomfortable being the expert because you’re an introvert. Or
perhaps you are interested in aging or the environment or natural health but
don’t want to take the time to become expert in it. Guess what – you have other
options! And knowing there are other options besides being the “expert” can open
up a whole new world of possibilities!
2) Understand the difference between a
“project” and a "business”
One of the first speakers to take the stage was David Frey. David had lots of
great information to share but one thing that really got my attention was
something I’ve seen trip up a lot of new entrepreneurs. Namely, that there is a
difference between creating a product and having a business – and a lot of
people confuse the two.
Creating a product or service is a project. You might for example, create
a tangible product like bird houses or organic dog treats. You could create an
information product in the form of a CD, eBook, or online course. Or you might
design some kind of service like coaching, consulting, or personal organizing.
Again, in all these cases the creation of the product or service is a project.
People make the mistake of thinking that creating the “thing” is the business.
It’s not. Selling the product to other people is a business.
The whole point of you starting a business is to get you out of job jail or make
a difference in the world or allow you to do work you really love or all of the
above – right? So now that you understand the distinction between a product and
a business, you need to think about how to maximize your business so it will
lead to financial freedom faster.
3) Figure out how to turn your product into a
continuous flow of income
When you create a
product – whether as the expert, reporter, or publisher – the next step is to
sell it. Here again you have some choices.
Option 1: Create
a product you can sell over and over again.
For example, say you
have a talent for finding great bargains. You might write a buyer’s guide on
where to find the best bargains on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. You make it
an eBook and sell it for $29.
This is a great
idea. The challenge is that one customer buys one guide which means you have to
find lots of individual customers to buy lots of individual guides.
Option 2: Sell
something once that generates income over and over.
Here
you’re taking that same buyer’s guide and instead of
selling the same product over and over to different people you “continuitize” it
so you are generating income on a continuous or recurring basis.
You might take the same guide and chunk it down into
smaller or differently configured pieces so the customer subscribes to a
service where they automatically get a series of monthly guides on where to find
bargains. It could be neighborhood-by-neighborhood (the Village, Spanish Harlem,
Upper West Side) or category by-category (furniture, clothes, jewelry, etc.).
Subscribers might also sign up to receive alerts about unadvertised sales.
Now that you have “continuitized” your guide you can
sell it for, say, $19 a month with 6 installment all of which gets automatically
billed to the subscriber’s credit card. Instead of earning $29 per customer you
could earn $114. Got it?
Before I get into other examples, I want you to
understand how powerful continuity income can be. Take a look at the
numbers conference organizer (and Mr. Nice Guy
himself), Ryan Lee put together as part of the seminar handouts...
Let’s say you bring in 3 new subscribers a day. There’s bound to be people who
cancel after a month or so. So let’s assume that 10% of your
subscribers cancel every month. Here’s what your numbers would look like at
different price points as you increase the number of your subscribers:
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Product price |
$9.95/month |
$19.95/month |
$29.95/month |
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Month 1 |
$895.50 |
$1,797.50 |
$2,695.50 |
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Month 2 |
$1,701.45 |
$3,411.45 |
$5,121.45 |
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Month 3 |
$2,507.40 |
$5,027.40 |
$7,547.40 |
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Month 12 |
$9,760.95 |
$9,570.95 |
$29,380.95 |
That’s just with 3 customers a day. Look at what happens if you really ramp up
your marketing efforts and bring in 6 new customers a day:
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Product price |
$9.95/month |
$19.95/month |
$29.95/month |
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Month 1 |
$1,791.00 |
$3,595.00 |
$5,391.00 |
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Month 2 |
$3,402.90 |
$6,822.90 |
$10,242.90 |
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Month 3 |
$5,014.80 |
$10,054.80 |
$15,094.80 |
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Month 12 |
$19,521.90 |
$19,141.90 |
$58,791.90 |
Do you see how powerful this is?
I know that it can be hard enough for some people to
come up ways to turn your interests into income. It can be even harder for
people who already have businesses to come up with ideas for continuity models.
That’s why I arranged with Ryan to have some of people who’ve taken my
Outside the Job Box Career Experts Course (OJBs) on hand at the seminar to do some
on-site “idea jogging” with some of the 600-plus participants.
A couple of the OJB consultants* talked to a
voiceover artist with a deep love for the Bible. Here are just a few of the many
creative ideas they suggested for how he could turn his passion into a helpful
service for others that would also generate continuity income for him:
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Biblical reading
of the week/month (sent either via e-mail as an MP3 or through the mail as a CD)
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His personal
interpretation/commentary on the reading
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Interviews with
other people and their interpretations, including spiritual leaders
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Focusing on a
"theme of the month" (e.g., faith, love, persistence) and using the readings to
support those themes
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A simple monthly
assignment for the subscribers based on the readings and a forum for subscribers
to write about their experiences doing the assignments
Some other Outside the Job Box Experts consulted with
a fitness expert who also coaches insurance agents on how to increase sales and
productivity. They suggested he add value to his services by offering a CD of
the month to his agents and prospective clients. They even gave him a few
suggested topics.
If you go online, you’ll find lots of examples of
continuity programs based on on-going sales of physical products. There are
dozens of sock of month clubs, wine of the month clubs, olive oil of the month
clubs… Why make cookies and sell them once when you can sign up people to get
cookies every month?
In all of these cases the customer signs up once and
then agrees to have their credit card charged and a new product automatically
sent to them every month.
The point is there are an unlimited number of ways
that even a small one-person business like you can create
passive income using the continuity business model and do it in a way that fits
your passion, niche and lifestyle. In most cases, it’s even easier to
create a continuity program than it is regular one-time product!
4) Learn from people who are doing it.
If you like the idea of continuous revenue then the
simplest and most affordable way to get started is to study people who are
already doing it successful. After all – why re-invent the wheel!
I study successful people all the time. But when I
can I like to attend live events like Ryan’s Continuity Summit. There is nothing
like being there in person to really absorb the material. Plus you get to chat
with the presenters!
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Mark
Joyner |
Mark Victor Hansen |
Stephen
Pierce |
I can genuinely say this was one of THE best Internet marketing
training workshops I’ve ever attended. The speakers shared so many concrete
techniques and strategies that I left with 15 pages of notes! And, I had the
privilege of being invited by Ryan to join the stage for one of his Success
Panel discussions.
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Ryan, ever the teacher |
The other reason this particular seminar was so
good is because there were a lot of online business “newbies” in the room.
Often this group gets lost in all the jargon. But Ryan (ever the school
teacher!) did a great job of jumping in to translate web-speak into every day
language that even non-techies could understand.
I
know not everyone had the money or time or both to be able to travel to
Connecticut to attend this event in person. The next best thing to being there
is watch and learn from each and every speaker, at home and at your
own pace. The good news for you is Ryan is making the entire event available on
DVD.
It’s Never Too Late to Turn a Simple Idea into
Financial Freedom
If you love the idea of a having a business that
generates a steady stream of revenue each and every month, I urge you to invest
in your education and get the DVDs.
 To be honest, I rarely watch videos after
I’ve attended a live event. There are at least five presentations on these DVDs
that I definitely plan to go back and watch again. They are that good.
In fact, I was so pumped up after the seminar that I
didn't even wait until I got home to create my own video testimonial for Ryan's
event. Click the picture to the left to view my "driving" testimonial. (And yes,
I was driving safely and no, both hands were never off the wheel.)
Or, just go to
ChangingCourse.com/recommends/continuitydvd to see what I (and others) had to
say about the seminar.
The DVDs and CDs aren’t even ready yet, and Ryan is
getting bombarded with requests from people who heard about what they missed. So
he is offering a Pre-Publication discount on orders he takes in now. You can
reserve your copy at the discounted price at
ChangingCourse.com/recommends/continuitydvd
Speaker Chris Guerierro was right when he said there
are three words that can kill a dream: Waiting for your perfect idea to
come along, watching other people prosper, and wishing you could
too. You can wait, watch, and wish all you want. But it is action is the only
thing that will make your dream of financial security happen.
P.S. In addition
to the
Outside the Job Box Career Experts who joined me at the live workshop there
were three or four Changing Course readers there as well. I didn’t get
everyone’s photo but did get this great shot of budding entrepreneur Rhonda
Chuyka from West Virginia!
*Since multiple consultants often teamed up to
help one participant I decided not to identify the consultants by name so as not
to leave anyone out who may have been part of the brainstorming session.
Add Your Two Cents
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About the
Author
"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young,
abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at
ChangingCourse.com
offering resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. Her
career change tips have been cited in Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today Weekend, Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN,
CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor Syndrome, Valerie
has spoken on the topic of
How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are
to
such diverse organizations as Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb,
Harvard, and American Women in Radio and Television.
To read more
articles about how to work at what you love without a job go to
ChangingCourse.com/articles.htm
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Valerie Online
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