If You Have 1 Source Of Income, Don’t Get Emotional About How You Make Money
Before I left for Asia (over 4 years ago) I made decent money as a freelance writer. Since my first week where I earned $600, I had 3-4 clients who liked my work, paid $50-$100 per article, and had consistent content calendars.
Then I flew to Asia, decided this was my time to be a business owner, and I cut off all the freelance writing. Betting that I’d have a profitable business in 2-3 months felt like the right thing to do. “Earn profits not wages. Burn the boats. Play to win.”
So began the most stressful 12 months of my life. I hardly had money to buy raw vegetables, much less to invest capital in a business. Every day was stressful; a $.15 bag of cherry tomatoes a frivolous luxury; a dried fish a delicacy. Bitten by a snake, I couldn’t pay for rabies shots.
The business had 1 small client, almost no work was getting done, and I couldn’t pay even a $3/hour VA to handle the most dull, repetitive tasks.
After a year of this, my old employer from Boston called offering me $2K/month to drum up sales. Though I was attached to the idea of ‘working for myself’, I accepted. Immediately realized it was the right decision.
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Immediately, stress dropped, I had more time, and most importantly I had disposable (location independent) income to invest in my business.
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I saw that this financially stressful year was entirely unnecessary. I could have, should have, continued freelancing 5-10 hours per month, earning $50-$100/hour. All financial stress would have been non-existent, and any extra work would have provided capital to actually start a small company.
Living at a friend’s home in Mexico, I dove back into freelancing. Writing articles and setting up Adwords campaigns, I soon had $5,000 to invest in TravelSource, my first e-commerce product line which has been profitable and very passive for the past 3 years. (Exactly what I wanted.)
I continued freelancing as TravelSource picked up speed. Instead of quitting outright, I slowly phased out of freelancing writing as it made logical sense, as I realized I would make more money in less time planning a new product line expansion.
Looking back, I will always remember that stressful year when I dropped a legitimate source of income for no reason other than that I wanted to ‘in business’, and I didn’t have the patience to allow for a natural transition.
I Have A Friend Who Doesn’t Like How He Makes His Money…
Affiliate marketing can be a shady game, and while his business earns him $5,000/month passively, he doesn’t like it. It doesn’t fit with his ‘energy aura’ and he wants to genuinely empower people instead of selling them genuine cr*p.
He’s trying very hard to distance himself from this ‘bad energy’, going so far as offering to sell his stake for the fire sale price of just 1-2 months owner’s discretionary earnings. (Selling a $60K/year profit business for $10K)
Even though it was clear that he needed this income to live (he wasn’t able to give up 25% to have someone manage it for him) he was beyond the point of reason.
It was only after I told him at least 3 times to “Please, keep accepting the f***g passive money each month!” that he agreed to keep collecting checks, leveraging the money to build a new business that better suited his ‘energy state’ and life mission.
Do Not Scorn Your Current Source Of Income
I didn’t want to do freelance work because I wanted to be a ‘business owner’.
My friend didn’t want to be an affiliate marketer because it didn’t fit his ‘energy’.
Emotions aside, these were our sole sources of income and while not exactly what we wanted, they gave us exactly what we needed at the time; peace of mind, time, stability, and a platform from which to launch into bigger/better things.
Even if the way you make money isn’t ideal, don’t quit outright. Instead, leverage this income as you make a smooth transition into your new business/career.