Generate Continuing Income Streams

Robert Kiyasaki likes the B-Quadrant best of the four in his Cash Flow Quadrant. B stands for business (owner) but don’t confuse this with a one man shop or other small business models where the owner needs to be present for money to be made. A B business operates with a duplicatable system that can continue to run, grow and generate income without the owner’s presence. If your business would suffer without your presence, then you don’t have a B business.

What is a good B business?

So what is a good example of a B business? A great example is a McDonald’s Every McDonald’s operates with a system. No thinking is required. Everything is always in the same location. Every activity is always performed in the same way. No thinking is required. You can run on with teenagers and you hardly ever see an owner on the premises. It is an ideal B business with only one problem. You need $1.5 million to start one.

Don’t have $1.5 million? There are other options.

Don’t have $1.5 million? There are still B business with duplicatable systems that don’t require that much cash. What are they? How do they work? Leave a comment or send me an email if you would like to learn more.

If you are still on the fence trying to decide to go for it and become your own boss or continue to cope with the limitations of your current job, I have a suggestion. Read The Dip by Seth Godin. When you do, expect one of two things to happen:

1. You will send me an email.

2. Nothing.

I can tell you what will make the difference. You are either a decisive person who can make a decision and move forward when you understand your situation and your options or you are an indecisive person who is uncomfortable making big decisions and always finds a reason to stay where they are. Either way, it’s good. If it is number 1, it means that you will stop dithering and actively start pursuing a new life. If it is number 2, it means that you will stop dithering and relax with your current situation.

The benefit is that you make a decision and stop playing what if with yourself. If, in spite of Seth’s advice, you don’t make a decision but keep coming back and fantasizing about becoming job optional anyway, just stop it. Decide to be happy with the life you have and make the best of it. Don’t torture yourself any further about a decision you can’t make. Otherwise, I’ll be waiting for your email.

The idea that you can live a different kind of life – one where your don’t depend on somebody else to tell you when and where you work and how much you are worth – is not crazy. Just because you were brought up with an employee mindset doesn’t mean that you cannot change.

If the idea of becoming your own boss and making a living from your own business keeps popping up in your head, don’t dismiss it. Don’t tell yourself that it is impossible or that you don’t have what it takes. You are not qualified to make that judgment because you just don’t have enough information. You can’t afford to let your future depend on what you don’t know because you can learn new things. Don’t limit your future to the vision you have now. Lean on others who have different knowledge to guide you to a new future and help you determine what you need to learn.

Tell yourself. “What if…?” What if you can change your life. What would you need to learn? What skills would you need to develop to become that kind of person. Then take some action. A small action is fine. Find people who have accomplished what you would like and follow the trail they have left. Read books that help you grow your thinking and work on the skills that you will need . (Don’t let yourself think that you are incapable of being the kind of person that you need to be.)

Reading is where I suggest you start but maybe you need something more personal. Leave a comment. Ask a question. Begin the journey now.

If you are looking at this blog, it has to be because you think about changing your life. You are tired of being an employee and want the freedom of the life of an entrepreneur. You are tired of the limitation of being told what you are worth and when to be at work. You yearn for the freedom and independence of being your own boss, deciding how much your time is worth and setting your own schedule. You can imagine what it will be like. You can see yourself enjoying a comfortable lifestyle, spending time with your family, traveling. You begin to believe that it can happen.

Then you stop and tell yourself that it is an impossible dream. You remember all your limitations. You know all the reasons why it can never happen for you. You are painfully award of your limitations and usually undervalue your strengths. You don’t want to set yourself up for a disappointment. So you tell yourself that this is just another fantasy. You turn your back on the possibility of becoming free and independent and go back to your life of servitude.

If that is where you find yourself today, I challenge you to change that thinking. This kind of lifestyle change is possible for you. It can happen. There are many people just like you who have succeeded in managing that change and even more that are on the journey. Don’t block yourself from the possibility of a new life by selling yourself short or listening to the voices of people who would never even try to change their life. You may not have all the answers now but you don’t need to have all the answers to begin the journey. You only need the desire and the willingness to make the necessary changes in yourself and the courage to begin the process.

If you have the vision and wisdom to even consider the possibility of becoming independent, you can succeed. Those reasons you thought made freedom for you impossible are not barriers. They are challenges. You can become the independent person you want to be because you can learn from others. You can change and grow into the person you want to be.

Look around JOB. A good place to begin is the reading list because the books on that list will help you start believing in yourself and giving you a structure to begin your journey. If you doubt yourself, I recommend that you start with The Magic of Thinking Big. You are capable of so much more than your know. When you start, leave a comment or send me an email. I’d like to know about your process and help in any way I can.

If you are here because your want to find encouragement that you have what it takes to become job optional, you are in the right place. You do have what it takes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24030845@N07/ / CC BY 2.0

If you want to hear that it will be easy, then look elsewhere. If you want to discover that you can do it over night, you are in the wrong place. It will take time, effort and commitment. What is important for you to recognize is that you are capable and more important, you have the power to change.

It is a simple and powerful truth that is dismissed in today’s entitlement society. We are taught that we are needy and dependent and must rely on others for success. You are a human being- the highest form of life in our world- and you are unique from all other animals in your ability to decide who you are. You can choose your associations, your friends, where you live and many other things. You can also choose not to choose and accept whatever circumstances you are in.

I think you are here because you want to take control and you are tired of being told that you can’t. It is your destiny as a human being. If you choose to be a sheep, no one can help you.

The S stands for self-employed.  This is the sector where a lot of us aspire to work because it seems to represent independence and freedom. Professionals like doctors and lawyers who have their own practice are in this sector.  This sector seems desirable because in this sector you become your own boss.  You make the decisions and choose when you work and what you work on.

Or at least that is what it looks like when you are in the E sector.  In fact, when you occupy the S sector you sometimes feel like your business owns you because don’t really have the control.  You have to respond to clients when they need you.  Your freedom is an illusion and you find that you are still exchanging time for money.  Even though you are the key person of the business it is very clear that without you there is no business.  You are still exchanging time for money just like in the E sector and now you have additional responsibilities, sometimes with employees to manage.

S sector work can be very lucrative and sometimes you can organize it to better manage stress and pressure but S sector work still keeps you busy and makes it difficult to take time off.  In short, the S quadrant has advantages and disadvantages.  It offers more income than the E sector but at the price of taking responsibility for managing tasks and people.  Also like the E sector, you still exchange time for money and your income is limited to the number of hours that you work.

The Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki is required reading for anyone who wants to become jog optional.  It contains eye-opening insight about the four ways people make money.  They can be employees, self-employed, business owners or investors.  You may think that you already understand these categories but unless you have read CFQ, you don’t.  Add this to your reading list and learn about life in the E, S, B and I sectors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/ / CC BY 2.0

Virtually everybody has spent time in the E (Employee) sector of the income quadrant. This is what our education system is designed to promote. It is where most of our parents and friends work. It has been a secure and comfortable segment for several generations. When I was growing up, I was advised to:

Get a good education

Get a good job with benefits.

Everyone said that this would give me a secure and comfortable retirement.

It was great advice 50 years ago. It was good advice 20 years ago. Today, it doesn’t work. The E-Sector is tarnished. Job security is gone. Benefits are going. And what about retirement? I am not counting on Social Security and we all know that company retirement plans can collapse.

There are still good jobs but today’s employee needs to look at employment differently than a generation ago. Today, you have to think of a job as one piece of your life plan not a total life plan. Perhaps your job provides income to fund an investment portfolio that will make you independent but the days of getting a job and securing your future are over. You probably need to diversify your income with earnings from other sectors of the quadrant. If you work in the E sector, it will be important to consider developing income in the other sectors either to supplement your E income or to replace it.

It is important that you have a definite target date to become JOB Optional  because nothing happens without a plan and you can’t plan for ’sometime’.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartpilbrow/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

You wouldn’t be here at JOB if the idea of being job optional didn’t interest you. If it’s a casual interest then enjoy yourself and poke around. Explore the information provided and think about it. If you have more than a casual interest – maybe you have a job that you hate or maybe you can’t count on job security in this crazy economy- then you need to make a decision if you want to move forward now.

When do you want to be free of your job? Once you decide, then you can plan your actions and get to work. This is the most important decision you have to make because it creates a target for you to reach and a deadline to do everything to make it happen. There are different paths and types of activity to accommodate your schedule but how do you learn what they are and how to get started?

This is where a free personal consultation can help to select actions and timing that are reasonable and will move you to your goal on your schedule. Give me a call or send an email so we can find a time to get you started.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffbelmonte/ / CC BY 2.0

If your plan is to become job optional than you have a good place to start. Your first goal is to replace your current salary. Maybe that’s the answer, short and sweet. Replace that salary and life will be wonderful. No job to mess up your days and still the same income.

But think a minute. Does your current salary support all the things you want to do? Does it provide the lifestyle you want? If so then you are all set. You have your goal. If not, are there thinks you would like to have or to do that are impossible on your current income. Then it is time to think bigger. Maybe you want to eliminate all your debt while getting out of your job. If that’s true, your strategy and timing may change.

Take some time. Think about what is important. Think about how quickly you want to get to your goal. Don’t wait to start with the basics. Read and improve your life skills while you decide. Meanwhile ask questions. Leave comments. The only stupid question is the one never asked,