One thing that I learned a few years ago, as my income was at its highest and then started to shrink..
Is that you can’t rely on active income forever.
(Active income being the income that you make by working for the sale in the moment. Way different from automated income which is the income that comes in without you having to constantly work for it - you set up the income stream once and then the money flows consistently.)
Although I had some automated income in my business at the time, it was a small amount.
The bulk of my time was trying to sign on new private clients, as well as new customers to buy my live programs, events, and masterminds.
This meant that I had to actually work for my money CONSTANTLY.
If I stopped selling, my income would dip drastically - to the point I wouldn’t be able to afford my monthly expenses.
So, because I didn’t want my income to dip that low, I would go out there and sell harder.
There’s nothing wrong with working hard for your money (in fact, I believe it’s necessary for the most part), but if you don’t ever want to get to the point in your business where you’re selling just because you have to pay the bills.
You want to sell because it’s fun. Because you love.
Not because you feel obligated to.
After working hours and hours and hours every single day back then, I ended up in the hospital.
The doctor said it was a “mini panic attack”, due to my constant need to work and sell and make money.
This was my wake-up call.
I knew that I needed to set up more automated & passive income streams in my business, so I could continue to help lots of people with my work, but in a way that didn’t require me to be chained to my computer 24/7.
These ended up my top 3 automated income streams that were the most fun, easiest to implement, and which made me the most money.
1️⃣ Payment Plans
Since I was already creating programs and things at the time, it was easy for me to add payment plans into the mix.
Instead of just selling a program for, say $497, I would also have a 3 month payment plan for 3 x $197.
This was a smart move for 2 reasons:
One: I was now pretty much guaranteed to receive $197 every month, for 3 months, if the person chose the payment plan. (Which costs more than the pay-in-full option, so I even make MORE money.)
Two: I was able to help more people with my program. Some people wouldn’t be able to cover the $497 up front, but they were able to access $197 per month - so the payment plan allowed them to say yes.
Payment plans are a HUGE part of my business model. I have a payment plan option for almost every offer that I sell, and receive payments from these payment plans EVERY DAY.
2️⃣ Membership
It took me a few tries before I got the whole membership thing right.
I now have a membership community that brings in automated income on the regular.
Each member pays $88 per month or $555 per year for access to the exclusive trainings, community, and coaching.
There are some high-end memberships out there (hundreds of dollars monthly or more), and some super low-end ones ($5 monthly is the lowest I’ve seen).
It doesn’t matter what you charge. What matters is that you have enough members to bring in a decent automated income from it each month. 🙂
3️⃣ Online Courses
By far, the best thing that I have ever done to bring automated income into my business is create & sell online courses.
This actually started way back in 2015, but I didn’t really monetize it well until just a few years ago.
Today, close to 75% of my monthly income comes from courses - and much of that is completely automated (meaning I don’t actually have to DO anything to make that money).
Once you create a course, it’s done, and you can continue to make money from that course EVERY DAY afterward, even if you don’t spend another second on it.
I still make sales for courses that I created 5 years ago! (And I haven’t touched them in ages.)
If you’re not selling courses, you are HUGELY under-estimating their ability to make you a TON of cash.
I love that my business is now set up to consistently bring in automated income each day.
I no longer have to chase clients.
I no longer have to stress out about paying my expenses.
I get to enjoy daily sales - many of them completely passively, help more people, and work way less.
Setting up automated income streams in your business is absolutely critical to the success of your business.
And unless you enjoy being tied to your laptop & phone all day long, it’s critical for your personal health as well.