You realise how important having control over your time is.
You wish there was a way to constantly increase your income without asking for a raise.
You resent your boss when he or she obligates you to work in the office rather than remote.
These are some of the tell-tale signs the box you’re in is becoming smaller as your desire for freedom expands.
You recognise this which is great and now what?
Expand and create more freedom.
Take responsibility for your time, energy and contribution.
Research, upskill, try new things.
Create a new source of income and grow it in tandem with your job until you’re ready to dedicate yourself to it 100%.
How do I create a new income? Where do I find one? I don’t have the time or skills to create ads or set up a website.
It can be daunting and we tend to over-complicate creating new income streams by labelling it as ‘starting a business’.
We ultimately take on all the baggage that comes with that like; writing a business plan, testing the idea, finding customers, scale, taxes, personnel, paying for a location, licenses and on and on it goes….
Sounds like it will take months or years to start.
Sounds like so many things can go wrong.
Feels like there it will never happen to you.
No wonder people stop before they start.
It’s then that we begin asking our partner for their thoughts and family and friends for suggestions and ideas.
That’s when it goes south really quickly.
We often hear what we don’t want to and many end up abandoning their ideas altogether.
You won’t like what I’m about to say but you need to hear it: you are just afraid of failing.
That’s ok and even positive when you harness it.
Let’s take a closer look at getting unstuck to get started and creating your next level of freedom through an additional income.
It feels like you’re starting at a disadvantage
If you’re already working in a full-time job, have a family or other commitments, you will already feel like the odds are stacked against you, with little time, energy and possibly money to actually start a new venture.
You haven’t even started and it feels impossible.
Ideas can be hard to think of and those you have conceived are easily shot-down by your spose or peers.
How do you know a good idea will work? How much do you need to invest and how long for?
There are so many unknowns it feels safer to be grateful for having a job and refocus on getting that promotion (or working hard enought to merit your current position).
This is all fear.
Imagine how’d you feel if you were living your dream life and when you look back, you could see it was thanks to doing something different and changing the decisions you were making?
You will feel relieved that you had summoned the courage to explore a different route.
What if failure didn’t exist and it was all trial and error? Would you give your dream life a chance?
Recognise your fear, thank it and know that you can use that energy to make sure you keep moving forward rather than backwards or sideways as you may be right now.
How to get started even if you’re working full-time
How I create new income streams. Here’s a step by step example:
Identify a problem
I spot a problem and how useful the solution would be to that person.
For example, I’m a new parent living in a foreign country and quickly realised how challenging it is to manage all the areas of your daily life without any family support.
Speaking to other new parents who don’t have their family to support them either, I found they all agreed with this dilemma.
I immediately recognised that the real problem is new parents aren’t comfortable leaving their baby with a stranger, no matter how qualified (as is our case), so what if there was someone who took care of all the household chores instead, leaving the baby care to the parents?
A simple service, agency-based business can be born.
It can be that simple. (In fact, simple is my favourite. If I can understand it, see it and don’t need to work-things-out, there’s a good chance I’m in. Heard of K.I.S.S? “Keep it simple, stupid” although my version is Keep It Stupidly Simple).
Test
Once you’ve conceived an idea you believe in, the next phase is to understand whether other people will actually pay for it.
What do I do? I check my contacts and go online to find someone who is ‘qualified’ to provide the service; cleaners, nannys etc and contact a few and see if they’re interested in some extra work and to understand the costs.
Next, I tell my parent friends I have a professional who cooks, cleans, irons etc for X hours / day at Y price (adding a margin for myself). Would that make their life easier? Yes? Would you like me to ask this person to come on day A at time B?
If 3-5 friends accept, I know I have a potentially winning idea.
Systematize
You’ve made your first few sales and can see you’re able to grow this. What now?
I next check the numbers and evaluate if the profit is worth the input.
If so, I set up a very simple website using Wix or Squarespace where people can book in the service according to our availability and begin sharing the site in local social media groups.
(Bonus: these sites have features that allow for automated messaging and marketing.)
I share a launch offer for the first 10 parents and offer a referral bonus too.
At this stage, I am getting paid for receiving information calls, managing a simple website and sharing the service on the internet, all aspects of which I can choose how much time to invest.
I now have a choice how to proceed. I usually set a financial milestone to hit by a certain time period which I use as a review point and decide whether to continue with the project or not.
Final thoughts
Keep it stupidly simple. You know you have done this when you tell someone your idea and they scoff at you.
What ideas do you have that you’ll still on the fence about? Share them with me and I’ll give you my personal feedback.
✍ Your thoughts on this method?
♻️ Share with someone who needs to read this.
Stefano
PS More articles on the #freedomfirst philosophy and how to create more income, impact and independence on my website.