Your Fastest Path to Cash Is…
By Loral Langemeier
Your best entrepreneurial ideas, when you’re just getting started are to root out the lowest cost option for proceeding. If it’s going to take a lot of money or planning or both, it’s not going to get you on your fastest path to cash. That’s what we’re seeking here. Getting out there immediately with skills you already have and start asking for the cash.
Too many people think they are turned off by their same old skills. What they really dislike is their job. Whether you like that job now, or not, your skills, as well as your natural abilities, were most likely the reasons you went into that job. And you’re making money using those skills. The way you used those skills in the past is the number one indicator for how you can make more money fast, right now.
Over the course of years, unfortunately, most people connect all or part of their identities to the job. What I mean to say is, when you meet someone for the first time and you introduce yourself, what do you say? Is it something like, “Hi, I’m John Smith, financial advisor with (such and such company)…”
In order to adjust your income potential, you need to adjust your identity. You are not your job.
When you consider your business, it’s also important to consider your personality. If you like details and not the big picture, consider an idea that will thrive on your ability to dig into the details. If you are super friendly and outgoing, look into an idea that has you out there connecting with other people.
While we all know ourselves to a degree, there are usually gaps in our self-awareness. If you’re unsure where to direct your path to cash, talk to people that know you well and are willing to be honest and direct with you. Discuss your ideas and ask them if they think they’re good ones for you. Then, of course, YOU make your own decisions.
Keep in mind that, at this point, you’re not looking for work that fulfills your life’s dreams. You just want to get on your fastest path to cash with something you can do well and with little expense and planning.
If you think back over the jobs you’ve done in the past, see if you can come up with a time when you did the kind of work you’re considering. Your past always contains excellent clues to your future. If you realize an idea doesn’t fit your personality, don’t test it any further. Dump it, pick another, and start the testing process over.
I’ve seen a lot of people at my Cash Machine Workshops come overflowing with excitement about one of their ideas. They start spilling forth all the elements that the hopeful entrepreneur finds the most exciting. I see the crowd around us nodding in agreement and hope. Then they look at me. And I say, “Good luck with that!” Yep, I rain on their parade. Not because it isn’t a great idea. Great ideas are not what this conversation is about. This conversation is about your fastest path to cash.
Our goal, at my events and in my starter programs, is all about making more money immediately. If your idea would take months or years to even get started, save it in a file and move on to another one to work on immediately.
Don’t spend too much time tinkering with the concept or convincing yourself that you’ll make it work. You might want to turn your love of building one-of-a-kind wooden kayaks into a business, but if you don’t live near water, there’s a big delivery issue, isn’t there!?!
Once you settle on your idea and it makes sense, keep going. If it doesn’t make sense, adjust it. Find the problem and fix it. If there’s not a fix that makes sense, again, move on.
Your next step, once you settle on something, is research. See what’s out there doing the same thing? Check the phone book, Internet, wherever you might find business models. In doing this you’ll see whether your idea is viable. There is always someone else already doing what you want to do. And if there isn’t save it for another time, when you have more money and time to develop and market it properly.
If there is a clear market for it, are there examples you can find to model your business after? Get pricing from “competitors,” so you can base the fees you charge on reality. Gather facts and information on the business of your choice, but don’t let it hang you up.
The goal is to get out there and do it and I know you can!
- Loral Langemeier – CEO/Founder of Live Out Loud, international speaker, money expert and best-selling author of the Millionaire Maker 3-book series and Put More Cash In Your Pocket.
To learn more about Loral’s products, CDs, DVDs, Books and Millionaire Maker Game and more, click here.
