Posted by Offering you the secret to long-term serious income is a big promise, I know.
But here’s the thing: Almost anyone can be a flash-in-the-pan online and earn 6 figures in a year…
…before the business goes bust.
Maybe technology changes, or the niche is no longer relevant, or people want something else – whatever the reason, the business goes under and the business owner now has nothing.
Then there are the online marketers who make six figures each and every year, no matter if markets or technology or demand changes.
How do they do it?
By building several small businesses.
It’s preferable to have five $20,000 businesses than one $100,000 business. After all, if the $100,000 business vanishes for any reason, the business owner has nothing. But if one of the five $20,000 businesses vanish, the business owner only needs to increase the income on one of the existing four businesses to get her income back up to where it was.
How do you get 5 different businesses that each earn you $20,000 or more?
You might start with a core business, consisting of a simple sales funnel that gets people onto your mailing list. You then offer your own products, affiliate products and so forth.
You could operate just that business, of course, and build it to a nice size that supports you and your family.
But if you want to make more money, and especially if you want more security, then you want to add on more businesses to your core business.
Think of Richard Branson. He didn’t build just one business and then stop. He kept his eyes open for every opportunity, and each time he saw one, he took it.
Just look at his portfolio of businesses from Wikipedia:
Rich Branson:
1966 – After failed attempts to grow and sell both Christmas trees and budgerigars, Branson launches his first successful business, a magazine named Student, the first issue of which appeared in January 1968.[1] Branson’s net worth was estimated at £50,000 by 1969, at age 19.
1970 – Starts selling records by mail-order
1971 – Opens his first record shop on Oxford Street
1972 – Opens a Virgin Recording Studio
1973 – Launches Virgin Records record label
1979 – Buys the gay nightclub Heaven, located under Charing Cross railway station. It was eventually sold in 2003 to a private buyer. Branson’s net worth was estimated at £5 million by 1979.
1981 – Virgin buys the Kensington Roof Gardens
1983 – Virgin Vision, later to become Virgin Communications, is formed to distribute films and videos in the television and broadcasting sector.
1983 – Virgin Games is launched.
1984 – Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Cargo are launched.
1984 – Virgin Vision (launched the previous year) launches “Music Box”, a 24-hour satellite music station.
1985 – Virgin Group now includes record labels, retail outlets, exported music publishing, broadcasting, satellite television, and film and video distribution.
1985 – Branson starts Virgin Holidays
1987 – The Virgin Group, along with Granada, Anglia and Pearson, founds BSB (British Satellite Broadcasting) and receives a UK license to broadcast five new TV channels by satellite in the UK.
1987 – Virgin sets up 525, a post-production facility in Los Angeles, to work on high-end commercials and pop videos.
1987 – Virgin sets up “Music Box” as an independent producer of music programs.
1987 – Virgin buys a 45% stake in Mastertronic Group. Later Virgin Mastertronic becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Group, creating, marketing and distributing computer games software and Sega consoles in several European countries.
1987 – Virgin buys Rushes Postproduction in London.
1987 – Virgin launches Virgin Airship & Balloon Company.
1987 – Richard Branson launched Mates condoms in the UK to promote condoms to young adults
1988 – Virgin re-opens the recently acquired and re-modeled Olympic Studios in Barnes, London.
1988 – Virgin launches Virgin Classics, another Virgin international record label specializing in high-quality classical music.
1988 – Virgin sells some of its smaller UK retail stores and puts more money into Virgin Megastores, opening new stores both in the UK and abroad.
1988 – Virgin sets up Virgin Broadcasting.
1991 – Virgin Publishing (Virgin Books) is formed
1993 – Virgin Radio hits the airwaves with Virgin 1215AM
1994 – Launch of Virgin Vodka and Virgin Cola
1995 – Discretely invests in AirTicketsDirect
1995 – Virgin Direct Personal Financial Services opens for business
1995 – Virgin Express, a European low-cost Airline, is launched in Brussels
1996 – V2 Music is created
1996 – Virgin.Net launches
1996 – Virgin Brides launches
1996 – Virgin Group becomes majority shareholders in London Broncos rugby league team
1997 – Virgin Trains is launched
1997 – Virgin Cosmetics launches
1999 – Virgin Mobile launches Virgin’s first telecoms venture
1999 – Virgin Active Launches in South Africa, UK and Italy
2000 – Virgin launches Australian airline Virgin Blue
2000 – Virgin launches Virgin Energy
2000 – Virgin launches Virgin Cars
2004 – Virgin launches Virgin Galactic
2005 – Virgin Active UK acquires Holmes Place
2006 – Virgin announces Virgin Fuel, a new company to produce a clean fuel in the future
2007 – Virgin launches Virgin Health Bank
2007 – Virgin launches Virgin Media
2007 – Virgin launches Virgin America
2007 – Virgin Buys 20% stakes in AirAsia X
2007 – Virgin Media Television Launches Virgin 1
2007 – Virgin Money becomes preferred bidder for acquisition of Northern Rock
2008 – Virgin launches Virgin Healthcare
2009 – Virgin launches Virgin Money Giving
2010 – Virgin launches Virgin Racing, a Formula One team
2010 – Virgin launches Virgin Gaming, a service for people of all skill levels to play competitively on popular Video Games
2010 – Virgin launches Virgin Produced, a film and television development, packaging and production company based in Los Angeles, California.
2010 – Virgin launches Project, a digital magazine created exclusively for Apple Inc’s iPad]
2010 – Virgin Money buys Church House Trust
2012 – Virgin Money buys Northern Rock
2012 – Virgin Galactic announces the development of orbital space launch system LauncherOne.
2015 – Virgin launches Virgin Trains East Coast
2016 – Virgin launches Virgin Voyages;
Virgin Radio Jakarta launches in May 2016, replacing Ninety Niners FM.
2017 – Virgin invested in Hyperloop One
2018 – Virgin invests in Brightline trains in Florida, USA. The system is renamed to Virgin Trains USA.
That’s essentially ONE person starting all those businesses. Yes, of course he has help – plenty of help.
He most likely has a team that scouts out new business ideas and ventures.
And he has people to run every business he starts or acquires, so that he’s free to continue building more and more businesses.
But what if you only did 10% of what Richard Branson does?
For that matter, what if you only did 1%?
Richard Branson is worth $4.1 billion.
1% of that is $41 million.
Would you like $41 million?
Keep in mind, this is a guy who started out in business at the age of 16 selling birds and Christmas trees… hardly an auspicious beginning.
Branson could have stopped with his first successful business and settled for making a million or two. Not bad.
But he kept going. He kept starting new businesses. And now he’s known the world over. Plus, he gets to do really cool things like attempt to set new records with hot air balloons and hobnob with the rich and famous.
Because, you know, he’s rich and famous himself.
Okay, back to you.
You could start one business and put all your eggs in that basket. They tell you to focus, don’t they? Pick one thing and get really really really good at it.
That’s excellent advice. What if the one thing you got really good at was starting successful business ventures?
You’ve got the simple funnel that builds your list so you can sell your products and affiliate products. That’s a great start.
Now you look around at what else is working, and you start a second business. You choose something that doesn’t cost much to start, in case something goes wrong you won’t lose much money.
And you want something that you can automate or hand off to an outsourcer, because you want to remain free to start more ventures.
Maybe you start a few mini-businesses with software, plugins, coaching, consulting, working with offline businesses and more.
You form partnerships and alliances and get into more things. Once something is successful and running on its own (or with the help of an able-bodied outsourcer) you then turn to the next venture.
And when one of them stops working, for whatever reason, you’re just fine.
Remember when all those folks who were building AdSense sites were suddenly put out of business by Google? That’s just one example of many of things that work one day and are obsolete the next.
Nothing is constant. Nothing. Which is why if your strategy is to build several different businesses using different business models, you will almost assuredly always be safe.
And here’s the good news… building businesses is a heck of a lot of fun to do, too.
You know how everyone is always telling you to stop buying IM related stuff and just get to work on one business model?
Well, after you’ve got the one business model up, running and making money, you can go buy IM related stuff, find a second business model that you like, and do it again.
And again and again and again.
A secure six figure income comes from having several different income streams. And having several income streams also happens to be the way many people get rich, too.