[Revealed] The Important Thing No One Tells You About Making Money

reality checkIt’s time for a reaity check.

Making money is a charged topic for most people. It can be frustrating, and heartbreaking when it’s not going well, but an emotional high when it is. The truth is, if it were just a case of working hard, most folks would be millionaires. But this isn’t the truth, and there is a lot of misinformation and hype which really sets unrealistic expectations and if you don’t know the truth about what it takes to make money you could find yourself bitterly disappointed.

It is for this reason that I’m setting the record straight and talking about some of things you need to understand if you want to make money.

Sure, there are lots of courses and programmes out there to help you make money using a certain strategy, and there are lots of testimonials on their sites that back that up… But the reality is, it’s just not that cut and dry.

Think about it: if anyone could mindlessly follow step 1, step 2, step 3, then you wouldn’t be bothering to read this, because you’d already have everything you wanted. In fact, if that were the case, this would be the holy-grail that we would carve into stone and teach in every classroom throughout the realm…

But it’s not.

There Is No One-Size Fits All

And there is no contact-free, easy way to make money.
Heck, even if you go and get a job you have to put yourself out there in the first place and sell yourself to your employer, and find your way with other people and pick up new skills and work hard.

And I know you’ve been working hard at this. Maybe you’re just getting going at making cash on your own account, or maybe you’ve been trying for a while. However long you’ve been at this, there is something you need to know… And it just isn’t talked about.

To be honest, I’ve kind of been taking for granted that this was obvious. But in recently conversations with people just joining the Wire community it’s become apparent that it’s something worth discussing, and outlining explicitly.

Understanding what I am about to tell you will massively aid your ability to make cash on your own account, and by-pass a HUGE amount of frustration when you think you’ve failed.

 

It’s Not About The Work

The marketplace doesn’t care how hard you work.

It doesn’t care what you’ve done in the past.

It doesn’t care that you think you’re too odd, too young, too fat, too thin, too clever, too stupid.

All it cares about is the value you bring to the table, and how effectively you can get that value out into the market place. But it’s tough when you’re not really sure what you’re doing. Most of us have never been taught effectively how to create a product or service and then how to market it.

But I’ll bet you *have* been taught how to work hard though!

I’ll bet you’ve also been taught to doubt ourselves and second guess everything, just in case you mess up down the line.

You’ve also been trained to expect instant feedback, and then move on if we didn’t do well first time. At school we submit a piece of work, the teacher marks it, gives it back and we move on to the next thing. We don’t ever get the chance to go back and redo a problem set and see if we’ve really understood what we did wrong. We don’t re-write essays on an ongoing basis…. We’re simply not trained to go back through things until we get them right – unless perhaps if you’ve learn a musical instrument or a martial art… but even then there is an expectation that when it comes to making money we should be able to do something once (like put out a blog post) and all of a sudden have a list of hungry prospects ready to buy our services.

It doesn’t work like that.

Making money is about delivering a constant stream of value, and doing it in such a way that people are only too happy to pay money for it. When I create courses, it’s done by finding out what people want, testing the water, selling the concept, honing what they need as it goes on, and delivering value, value, value every single step of the way. (If you’ve been on any of my programmes you’ll know this because I ask for feedback and respond to questions all the way through – avidly!)

Why then do people expect to write an ebook, and sell it on their website with no traffic and think that this is giving value? (If you’re doing this, it’s ok, I’m not singling you out, but you need to know there is a better way!)

Making money by delivering value takes effort, and attention, and giving of yourself. And like most people in the Wire community you are here because you get that. You’re ok with giving value and dedicating yourself to your clients’ success. In fact, I know you’re likely to do this to the extreme! So you’re almost there!

The thing you need to do if you’re not able to turn this into cash though is understand the monetisation process… because when you get this, it will all become clear, and making money for your efforts becomes a lot less problematic.

 

“The Root Cause Of Income-Frustration Is Not Having An Effective Monetisation Plan” ReTweet This

Understand This And You’re Almost There

  1. The number one frustration people experience when trying to make money is that they don’t really get that monetisation is the last phase of a project. All the planning and preparation and hard work goes in up front. Getting paid happens at the end.

The problem with not understanding this is that whilst you’re building your product, or your audience, or your reputation, you’re likely not being paid –  at least not the big bucks that you’ve been dreaming of.

puzzle

As time goes on, unless you really understand this you start asking questions like:

“Why am I doing this?” “Is this really working?” “I’m working so hard, I deserve to be making money, so what’s wrong with me?”

Sound familiar?

Ultimately this leads to: “Maybe I should try something else…”

Aggghhhh! No!  (That’s me screaming emphatically…. ;P)

If you’re not making cash yet, all that has happened is one of two things:

  1. that you haven’t done the things that lead to putting cash in the bank, or
  2. that you haven’t done enough of it.

But stopping and starting something new each time is putting you right back at square one, and scrapping everything that you’ve built up along the way. (As an aside, one of the reasons that people like to buy businesses rather than start them, even if they’re not making money is because of the amount of goodwill that has been built up just by nature of already existing. This is what you’re throwing away each time you start something new.)

You, just like the media savvy super-preneurs we herald, cannot start a project today with nothing, and expect to be making millions by 5pm this evening.

You need a runway, a period of time where you’re working on the action plan and laying the groundwork for everything that needs to happen. This could be building your audience, or getting your sales process sorted, or talking to people or working out your most effective route to market, or getting your first few paying clients and discovering everything you can do for them to add value. This all takes time, and sometimes a modest amount of funding.

To this end you need to be able to support yourself, and your efforts, financially before your new venture starts to cash flow. If you can’t afford an email system, or stamps to post letters to clients, or your weekly groceries, then you need another income source to cover this whilst you build up what needs building up. This may mean getting a job, or sticking with your current business part time until you can transition over.

Be sensible. Be realistic. Your business needs a runway before it can really take off.

The Other Lie You’ve Been Told

The other thing that is important to know is that not everything you try will work first time.

Check this short video out if you have a few minutes.

It’s about a kid who really does understand what success and failure is. You can learn a lot from him in just a few minutes. My friend and mentor shared this with me ages ago and it’s stuck with me.

What is more, some things won’t work – ever.

This isn’t because you’re stupid, or haven’t worked hard enough though. Remember, tiny little things can make a huge difference. I switched from using one sign up page to another for my webinars and went from an opt in rate of 24% to 55%! Just that one thing. With everything else being equal this doubles the income from that one source. Doubling or halving an income with one tiny little nuance like that can mean the success or failure of a whole business…. So when you’re thinking your first shot hasn’t worked… think again before you scrap everything and start again. It may just be that you haven’t found the right combination of nuances yet and you should stay alert to what you can do to make things better.

Bottom line – you need a quick and effective plan that is going to work to get you from where you are, right through to the monetisation phase. Most people don’t think about this. They just take each day as it comes without a clear picture of where they are heading or how they are going to get there.

This doesn’t need to be you. As part of the Wire Yourself for Wealth community you are savvier than that now.

The Final Piece of the Puzzle: The Monetisation Plan

If you don’t have a plan for how you’re going to make cash from your efforts then please, please, please, sit down with a pen and paper and start putting something together.

This is so important. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people get disheartened because they didn’t have a plan. They just bumbled along hoping to make some money if they just “worked hard enough”, or just “kept keeping on”. This isn’t a strategy. It’s a recipe for heartbreak, and burn out.

If you need help, then leave a comment or mail me.

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8 Comments

  1. This article gave me the aha moment i needed Laura. We spoke about this today, but i got it really now. It inspired me to call one of my prospects and guesss what, we’ll have a meeting next week about the web application that i will help him build..great article..thanks:))

    1. Ah that’s awesome Kawa!
      And there was I thinking that all my good advice is heeded on a call anyway 😉 lol.

      Absolutely thrilled you got the nudge to do the follow through.
      You’ve got a phenomenal talent, and it’s exciting to see you get out there and share it with those who can benefit from it!

      Keep rocking, and thanks for stopping by and commenting :))

    1. Ah thanks Anna, glad you liked it. Hope there were some useful nuggets that you can use!
      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, too 🙂

  2. Many people start an online business with a false expectation. They think they get rich over night. The thing is you have to learn a set of new skills to succeed and most people are not committed to master the skills and quit this industry disappointed.

    1. Yes, I agree Bruno. I think it’s because there are such low barriers to entry, but the skills and understanding required are actually quite sophisticated.
      That’s not to say that people should be put off – just they need to approach it sensibly, have a long enough lead in time for replacing an income stream and be open to learning the skills and subtle understandings required.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts Bruno. I’m glad my little rant has landed on understanding ears 🙂

    1. Ah, so glad the programme is helping. Yes you’re right – I think of it as having the track to run on, and then you just need to work the plan.
      Saves a lot of wasted effort. Glad your plan is coming together! 🙂

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