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The fuel that drives the Ultimate Lifestyle |
by:
Bob Scheinfeld |
In a recent article (What is The Ultimate Lifestyle), I
talked about the 8 core components that define "The
Ultimate Lifestyle."
The first component was income streams, and the reason it
was listed as #1 is because if you want to live the ultimate
lifestyle (as you define it), you must:
- Have total control over your time (i.e. you're your own
boss, not an employee)
- Have numerous income streams flowing, with as many of them
as possible being "passive" or requiring minimal time and
effort from you. To truly live the ultimate lifestyle, you
must have income that flows whether you "show up for work"
or not. These income streams are the "fuel" that drives The
Ultimate Lifestyle.
In this article, I'm going to discuss the "Top 10" income
streams you can setup. There are actually many more than 10,
but we don't have we room to discuss them all here.
You may be in a position to take advantage right now of many
or all of the streams I discuss, or it may take some time
and effort to get one or more of them flowing. There's no
hurry. Creating the ultimate lifestyle takes vision, time,
planning and effort.
All the streams I discuss may not interest you or match your
preferred lifestyle, and it isn't necessary to have all of
them flowing at once (or at all) to live your own ultimate
lifestyle. I'm just giving you food for thought.
Here are the "Top 10" best ways I've found to generate the
streams of income required to truly live your ultimate
lifestyle:
1. Start/Run Your Own Business
We're living at a fantastic time in history if your goal is
to start your own business and create passive or "low
effort" income streams from it selling products or services.
With the many benefits of the Internet, the power of direct
marketing (online and offline), and the large number of top-
notch contractors and third party companies you can offload
the day-to-day "grunt work" to, today's entrepreneurial
environment a dream come true if you know how to set things
up to take maximum advantage of the many tools and resources
available.
In addition, it has never been easier to set up a strong
flow of income doing something you love or you're really
passionate about - no matter what it is or how "obscure" it
may be. Again, the Internet and direct marketing create
unprecedented levels of opportunity.
Finally, there are numerous tax advantages to having your
own business which enable you to put much more money in your
own pocket -- if you know how to set things up and take
maximum advantage of the many tools and systems available.
If you want to live your ultimate lifestyle, your own
business will be at the core of it. It's my #1 choice for
creating the ultimate lifestyle.
2. Royalties
If you have a specific area of expertise and you know how to
turn it into a book, audio, video or multi-media course, you
can get other people to manufacture it, sell it, manage all
the details, and send you a royalty check for a percentage
of the sales. This is a great stream of passive income and
one I'm currently pursuing aggressively.
You can also generate passive royalty income from inventions
or other marketable ideas of various kinds.
You make less money "per piece" when you go this route, but
the fact that you don't have daily responsibility for
managing the production, sales, accounting and other details
has a lot of value, and if you set it up right, the products
that generate royalties for you also cause people to come
back into your orbit to buy and do other things that end up
benefiting you in many other ways in the long run.
Do you feel this is a good idea but you don't think you have
the expertise that could translate into a royalty stream?
That *might* be true, but I can almost guarantee that you
have expertise you don't know you have, you could easily
create it by following a passion and/or create a potential
royalty stream from knowledge you have or could get if you
got some the right kind help.
3. Licensing Fees
This income stream is similar to the royalty stream, but has
many notable differences. Licensing involves charging a fee
to allow others to sell products you create (books, tapes,
videos, etc.), or to use your likeness, logo or other very
visible aspect of your work, business or "brand."
Licensing can also take the form of allowing others to
present a seminar, workshop or talk you've designed that
provides many benefits to the audiences receiving them. I
have two friends, Charles and Will, who've licensed the
rights to one, two and three day seminars with their
material, and they receive HUGE checks every month.
Will actually has 5000 people licensed to present his one
day seminar, and tens of thousands of people are getting the
benefit of his work, and he's getting big checks without
lifting a finger.
There are other forms of licensing, however, that don't
require expertise on your part, just visibility and a
"brand."
One example includes Disney who licenses their logo, the
likenesses of Disney characters, etc. Another example
includes Harry Potter merchandise. Another example includes
the use of the Coke or Pepsi logo.
While it's true that these examples center around huge
companies, there are a variety of licensing opportunities
for "little guys" like you and me if you get creative and
set it up right.
4. Real Estate
I've only dabbled in real estate over the years, but I'm
gearing up with my wife to get very involved with Real
Estate in 2004 and beyond.
Passive income streams can flow out of Real Estate in many
ways, including:
Buying and then re-selling foreclosures and other
"distressed" properties
Buying apartment buildings or office buildings
Buying a building for your own business use (I plan to do
this in a few years)
Buying houses, renovating them, and reselling them (my
stepmother does this with a good friend of mine in Los
Angeles and they're *very* successful at it) Real Estate
does require that someone "shows up" to do various things,
but you can set it up so you aren't that "someone." That's
my goal and plan with my wife.
There are many people out there who teach powerful systems
for setting up passive income streams with Real Estate.
5. Investments
You can setup passive or "low effort" income streams from
having cash you invest in "vehicles" that generate
dividends, interest, or other forms income.
You can also generate an income stream, although it's not
completely passive (but might suit your lifestyle
preferences) by trading stocks, options, or commodities.
There's an art to generating income from investments.
You do not want to choose this option without exercising
great caution and/or finding an advisor or partner that can
do it for you.
6. Life Insurance
This is a longer term strategy and one designed more for
your retirement years, but there are forms of life insurance
that allow you to fund the policy in earlier years and then
receive guaranteed income in later years. I'm putting a
program like this in place as we speak.
7. Sale/Payout Of A Business
If you have your own business, you can sell it one day
(maybe even soon) and use the cash you receive to fund your
ultimate lifestyle -- and/or to pursue the other passive
income streams discussed here.
My father did this. He bought a small chain of travel
agencies, built it up, then sold it. He got cash at the time
of sale, but also had an "earn out" that sent a strong
income stream to him for 15 years. My friend randy did the
same thing when he sold his business.
8. Network Marketing
Network Marketing (or "MLM") gets a bad rap from many people
and in many circles, yet it's one of the best ways to create
passive, or reasonably passive income streams, if you pick
the right company and work the system correctly.
9. Other Partnerships
In addition to the options listed above, there are a variety
of other partnerships and relationships you can create where
you help other people to achieve their goals, get something
they really want, or give them something to sell, and they
compensate you for it.
10. Information Products
This is a subset of having your own business, but I'm
breaking it out separately because it's an ultimate
lifestyle creation tool you should consider even if you
already have your own business right now.
When I say "information products," I mean books, tapes,
courses, seminars, coaching programs, etc.
There are many people who already have a business doing
something (like being a doctor, dentist, real estate
broker), and through having that business, they've developed
a strong expertise that can help other people in the same
business enhance their success.
For example, I know one dentist who's so skilled at a
particular kind of reconstructive dentistry, that other
dentists flock to him and he's created additional income
streams from sharing his expertise through a newsletter,
seminars and "look over my shoulder" events. He generates $1
million a year from his information products business and
could stop practicing dentistry at any time if he wanted to.
I know of another man who's in the lumber business who
developed a revolutionary process for drying lumber faster.
He started teaching that process to other people in the
lumber business through just 2-3 weekend seminars a year and
created a $250,000 a year income stream from it.
I know of a very successful real estate broker who created a
variety of information products (courses, seminars, and
coaching) to teach other real estate brokers how to use his
system to make a lot more money with a lot less effort.
While he's still working as a real estate broker every day,
his information products business generates a huge income
stream for him and he could also stop working as a broker at
any time if he wanted to.
I know of a very successful carpet cleaner who is now living
his ultimate lifestyle teaching other carpet cleaners how to
increase their sales and profits using his unique approach.
I also know a very successful orthopedic surgeon and
mortgage broker who want to stop working so hard in their
chosen field and are currently seeking ways to create
information products businesses to replace their current
incomes while making dramatic shifts in their lifestyles.
Do you have your own business and have developed a unique
expertise or approach that could be converted into an
information products business?
The Next Steps ...
Depending on where you are right now in your career, you may
be thinking to yourself, "This all sounds great, but I have
absolutely no idea what income streams I might be able to
setup or how to do it."
If that thought (or one like it) crossed your mind, stay
tuned. I'll be discussing some "what to do" and "how to do
it" ideas in future articles.
About the author:
If you liked what you just read, you'll definitely want all
the details about Bob's "7 Power Centers of Life" work.
Do you know what "The 7 Power Centers of Life" are? Are you
absolutely certain that all 7 of *yours* are fully energized
and aligned for maximum success? Click here to take a Guided
Tour and discover all the exciting details:
http://www.7powercentersoflife.com/article3
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