Have we all been lied to?
We were told when growing up that if we worked 40 hours a week diligently we would get a good pay check.
And, hopefully, if we’d work “long” enough we’d have enough money to retire at age 65.
Since when was there a rule saying we have to trade our time for money?
When we’re continuously trading time for money throughout our lives, time is limited for pursuing the things we’re passionate about. This could be our hobbies, our community or more particularly watching our family grow up.
So, think about trading value for money, not time. Think about what value you can create for other people, and how you can deliver that value. What skills, knowledge, connections or ideas do you have that people value? Recognise your strengths and competency, then put it to work for you.
Pete, (not his real name) was a moderately successful real estate salesman. He always struggled to get listings and relied on selling other people’s listings. He realised that people didn’t always use their best resources to prepare their home for sale and made notes while he was looking for listings. These notes he eventually turned into an e-book that he gave away for free. Then he realised he could turn this into short online Modlettes that he could charge for. He now makes five times his previous income by selling Modlettes about preparing your home for sale.
Once we understand the strengths and value we can bring to others, we next need to build expertise around it. Developing expertise translates into larger value creation for ourselves and others, because we can now help others solve their problems.
Your reputation has many elements to it, but the most effective are testimonials, press and media, influencer associations and case studies. Give people the confidence to realise you know what you are talking about.
Focus on creating a product
To stop trading time for money, create an offer that you can sell and deliver without having to be there.
A powerful way to do this is to create an online product . . . an e-book or training programme. The reason why an online programme can be so powerful is that you can create once, then focus the rest of your time selling it. Yes, you’ll have to improve and optimise the product, but those tasks will happen in your own time.
This means you can take a holiday, spend time with family and friends and still have the ability to benefit as Customers purchase your offers.
Expand your offering
Often, it’s not enough to have one offering out there in the market. The smartest businesses expand into different products/services, or they find a way to upsell their current Customers.
Is there a product idea that your Customers have been nagging you about? A set of features that you can add to provide a premium pricing package? Understand what your current Customers are looking for and figure out a way to deliver it using the systems and resources you already have in place.
The Modlettes online platform is home to a number of entrepreneurs who have developed training programmes based on their expertise. You don’t have to be a programmer or an instructional designer to produce good design using Modlettes.