Leaving the Rat Race
I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Not just the 9 to 5 world that we commonly refer to as the "rat race"...but also the rat race of building an online business.
I started thinking about it last month when I kept getting referrals to my site with people searching for information on what happened to Michael Wong ("Mike's Marketing Tools"). I thought it was strange that people wondered what happened to him because he's doing just fine and still makes his living online. He got married last year and is cutting out the crazy hours and such. We all need our priorities and once an Internet business is running smoothly and in place, we can all leave this crazy rat race.
I promise!
I also realized that, in the past couple weeks (right after my CD burning fiasco), that I have finally left the rat race. I'm not talking about income levels here -- because I will never object to earning a bit more money. I'm talking about the amount of work required to maintain those income levels.
It has been my goal since I quit my copywriting business last year to achieve enough streams of passive and residual income that I can sit on my duff, watch soap operas and eat bon bons all day. Okay, I don't watch soaps and don't eat too many bon bons, but you get the point. Everything is in place for me now, I just need to maintain and of course, constantly improve the systems I have going.
Here's a few tips for your exit out of the rat race:
- Find as many sources of residual income as you possibly can (But don't try to do it all at once! Get one going and then find another). Whether it's setting up your own membership site or being an affiliate for a hosting company that pays month after month.
- Whether you sell your own products or not, incorporate affiliate marketing into your business plan. You can't possibly have all the products your customers, visitors and prospects need. Recommend other people's products as appropriate.
- Get other people to do the dirty work for you. Outsource as much of your business as you can. Early in my relatively short online business career, I almost gave myself an ulcer because I was doing way too much. I learned very quickly that I couldn't do it all myself. In fact, when I gave people the stuff I hate to do (answer email, make pretty spreadsheets, do research and write content on topics I know nothing about)...I started to make more money. Yes, I spent money on hiring these people, but the result was my being more focused on my marketing and doing what I needed to put my passive income systems into place.
- If you have a service-based business that requires you to put in the hours for you to get paid, consider outsourcing as much of this work as possible. If you are "trading hours for dollars" as they say, there is always a ceiling to your income (there are only so many hours in the day) and the possibility of leaving the rat race are pretty minimal.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. If there is anyone else as passionate about passive income as me, it's my friend, Lynn Terry. She's currently working on The Passive Income Guide for Online Business and is sharing tidbits along the way. Be sure to drop by and sign up for her update list. She has some great things coming.
I started thinking about it last month when I kept getting referrals to my site with people searching for information on what happened to Michael Wong ("Mike's Marketing Tools"). I thought it was strange that people wondered what happened to him because he's doing just fine and still makes his living online. He got married last year and is cutting out the crazy hours and such. We all need our priorities and once an Internet business is running smoothly and in place, we can all leave this crazy rat race.
I promise!
I also realized that, in the past couple weeks (right after my CD burning fiasco), that I have finally left the rat race. I'm not talking about income levels here -- because I will never object to earning a bit more money. I'm talking about the amount of work required to maintain those income levels.
It has been my goal since I quit my copywriting business last year to achieve enough streams of passive and residual income that I can sit on my duff, watch soap operas and eat bon bons all day. Okay, I don't watch soaps and don't eat too many bon bons, but you get the point. Everything is in place for me now, I just need to maintain and of course, constantly improve the systems I have going.
Here's a few tips for your exit out of the rat race:
- Find as many sources of residual income as you possibly can (But don't try to do it all at once! Get one going and then find another). Whether it's setting up your own membership site or being an affiliate for a hosting company that pays month after month.
- Whether you sell your own products or not, incorporate affiliate marketing into your business plan. You can't possibly have all the products your customers, visitors and prospects need. Recommend other people's products as appropriate.
- Get other people to do the dirty work for you. Outsource as much of your business as you can. Early in my relatively short online business career, I almost gave myself an ulcer because I was doing way too much. I learned very quickly that I couldn't do it all myself. In fact, when I gave people the stuff I hate to do (answer email, make pretty spreadsheets, do research and write content on topics I know nothing about)...I started to make more money. Yes, I spent money on hiring these people, but the result was my being more focused on my marketing and doing what I needed to put my passive income systems into place.
- If you have a service-based business that requires you to put in the hours for you to get paid, consider outsourcing as much of this work as possible. If you are "trading hours for dollars" as they say, there is always a ceiling to your income (there are only so many hours in the day) and the possibility of leaving the rat race are pretty minimal.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. If there is anyone else as passionate about passive income as me, it's my friend, Lynn Terry. She's currently working on The Passive Income Guide for Online Business and is sharing tidbits along the way. Be sure to drop by and sign up for her update list. She has some great things coming.
