The Results of the $20,000 Passive Income Challenge
By Christine | February 23, 2009
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Last February, Dave Navarro and I put each other to a challenge… he put my ebook on how to start a freelance business to the test in a Freelance Smackdown to see if he could make an extra $1,000-$2000 per month in his spare time. Within a month, he had made that goal. Then I challenged his 30 Hours a Day Program to see if I could use it to make an extra $20,000 in passive income that year.
The very awesome Melinda Brennan of WAHM Biz Builder recently asked… so how’d it go? I’m happy to announce, that this challenge has had an incredible positive financial impact in my life. But not exactly in the way I’d imagined…
In order to devote time to my new goal, I would have to free up some time. I have never been so aware of and so in awe of the power and consequences of time spent until I began working for myself.
Two Paths Diverged In A Yellow Wood…
There was a critical choice that had to be made in order to free up that time… a choice so pivotal that it would change the course of my future. It’s a choice that every freelancer faces, whether or not they realize it to be a choice. One choice would be a fast path, the other a long haul.
Should I continue on as a solo freelancer? Or should I turn my freelancing gig into a company?
The Solo Freelancer Path
As a solo freelancer, my work was fairly stress-free. I was fluent at what I did. I worked with a handful of steady clients and project management was fairly straight-forward. Really, my solo freelancing career had turned into a stable work at home job.
My life was predictable and safe. I lived in my favorite place in the world – a place that I finally felt at home after years of moving around the country. It would have been so easy to just maintain that predictability and safety by cutting back a little on freelancing and devote that time to building my passive income stream.
The Living Company Path
Having taken this path, I can say that making the shift from solo freelancer to full-fledged business owner is not the simpler route. The path is riddled with fears, obstacles, tests, puzzles, and quicksand. Instead of being financially responsible for just yourself, you are now financially responsible for the people that work for you.
There may be times when there are just not enough funds in the coffer to pay yourself after you’ve paid everyone else and your overhead. There is training that must take place, organizational systems to set up, and more paperwork to manage. There are systems to develop to ensure that quality and deadlines are met. And all of these things demand a great deal of time.
That is why you may have noticed my blog posts becoming more infrequent during certain months. Although I consider myself a person that can juggle a LOT of tasks and, throughout my life have taken on more than what most people would consider sane, I was still hammered for time. Many times, my life felt like a game of Tetris with all of the blocks falling so fast and capacity running out. But I’m glad I chose this path.
There are upsides of course. One is the possibility of creating something larger than yourself – a legacy that can live on without you – fulfilling one of the most primal human desires. Another is the ability to serve more people with work that you are passionate about. A third is the possibility that one day, the company can grow to a point where it operates almost on it’s own, but generates revenue for years to come.
A lot of people have had amazing results keeping their business solo or almost solo while building massive income streams with info products. I mean, look at Naomi raking in the bucks with her products (and with damn good reason – the chick is a rock star). Look at Ray Edwards and other master copywriters who charge tens of thousands of dollars for copy and make money giving classes and seminars.
Sadistic or Smart?
So why go the business building route when so many others are making bank by staying solo? Perhaps I’m self-sadistic. Perhaps it’s some sort of sick sense of low self-esteem or a refusal to let go. Perhaps it’s the lust of wanting to have my cake and eat it too. Whatever it is, it’s the road I took and I’m glad I did.
I like to tell myself that it’s because I love what I do, I love serving customers who are passionate about growing their online businesses but may not have tens of thousands of dollars to spend. I like to tell myself that it’s because I want to be able to scale to serve more of my clients in the same capacity.
After busting a$$ for a very long time, free time to work on the ‘big picture’ is within view. Just this month, we hired a personal assistant and are hiring a full-time project manager. This gives me the opportunity to create even more systems to help the business scale and to pursue other ventures, produce some products that have been on my mind for quite a while, begin offering consulting – and all while serving more of the customers that I love.
So Did I Make the $20,000?
I can say that yes, I have made $20,000 in ‘passive’ income last year. But it wasn’t as passive as it would have been if I were to have created a product or automated service.
Instead, I created a system within my existing business that worked to produce income from projects with minimal hands on involvement from me. I worked my a$$ off creating systems that can continue that trend year after year.
Either way, I thank Dave for asking me the tough questions to get my butt into gear. Dave and I worked together on the phone during coaching sessions (which at this point he’s not offering so the next best thing are his audio programs and ebooks).
How To Grow Your Business From Solo Operation to Business Operation
The details of growing a business from solo to a fully operational team could certainly fill a book. Instead writing an obscenely long blog post, I’d love to open up the comments section to stories and questions about growing your home-based business without going into debt by using creative, strategic methods.
Growing and Marketing Your Business in A Tight Economy
If you’re really serious about growing your business, I highly recommend Melinda Brennan’s upcoming free business marketing teleseminar, Marketing Biz Brainstorm, taking place live on March 3rd at 2:00pm EST. I’ve been invited to be a panelist on this call with Melinda of WAHM Biz Builder and Kelly McCausey of WAHM Talk Radio.
One of the goals of this teleseminar is to answer of your personal questions on small business marketing. When I say your questions – I mean it! The call is very much directed by the questions YOU submit when you register for free. So think of some good questions and ask them here – because this is a great opportunity to get your questions answered for free!
If you’re in business for yourself, you’re in a state of constant flux… where are you now? What challenges or fears do you face in terms of growth? Do you have any tips to help others scale? I’d love to hear from you!
Topics: Business Development, Freelancer Tips |
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I wish I’d written my book, The Unlimited Freelancer, before you began your challenge. It’s geared specifically to taking a solo freelancer business and scaling it up to earn more and work less.
I agree with much of what you said - it’s a scary choice, and it can feel overwhelming to move towards that business edge. But these fears are often in our heads, and the results and benefits of freedom are so worth it.
Good on you for taking that step, Christine.
That’s awesome James - if anyone would know the intricacies of this challenge, it would be you! Though its a challenge, the best results in life usually come from the most challenging experiences!
Christine You are every where girl, keep up the good work. We’ll talk soon.
Lol - so are you Elizabeth! You are rockin it - even with 4 kids - you’re amazing. Hope to see you on the teleseminar!
Wow, I really started something when I asked you how the challenge was going! It’s great to hear the full story of what you’ve done and the outcomes! Great work!
Yes! I’m really glad you asked - I wanted to write about the outcome and this was the perfect opportunity!
Business feeds its energy off of environments that are always in flux. Uncertainty is predictable. It stimulates the mind and prompts creative thought. You set yourself up to develop skills and staying power only to learn you must adapt and uncover your own transferable talents. That evoleve with your degrees of awareness. As you discover you clarify elements of your own sense of freedom, you trigger additional breakthroughs. Business grows from there.
So true Liara - spoken by someone who has obviously been there! Change is inevitable… and when we learn to accept it and look at it as an opportunity, there is no limit to what may prevail!
Hi Christine,
Very inspiring post.
I’m not a full-time freelancer (yet), but I’ve been doing lots of research and planning that I hope will get me to that point. I think you’ve probably read The E-Myth Revisited. I’m partway through it currently, and I’m finding that it’s raising one very big question for me. Namely, how does a *freelancer* who’s a writer or an online marketing consultant (as opposed to a pie shop owner, for example) turn her work into a true business - when finding someone else with the expertise to take on the actual technical work seems unlikely?
Do you personally plan on keeping the technical work to yourself and hiring people to do the other stuff (admin work, project management, sales)? Or do you think you’ll eventually have to hire someone else who has expertise comparable to your own, to share in the technical work?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Hi Amanda! This is a fantastic question and one that I struggled with for a long time! E-Myth is an EXCELLENT book and one that really fueled my fire.
With a creative business, it’s not as easy to “manufacture” work like pies. But not impossible. In fact, in a creative business, there are benefits to having more people in the picture.
The way I did it was to dissect each piece of the process - and there are many - such as lead generation, following up with clients, delivering the work, making suggested revisions, research, planning, billing, etc. Once dissected, only a small piece is really the creative ’spark.’
Then I dissected the creative process itself - there must be something inherent that we are doing during the creative process right? It’s just so ingrained in us, that it seems inseparable from us. But its not.
The great thing about writing is that each person has different experiences that they bring to the table. One writer may know something about diabetes that I don’t because they live with someone with diabetes. Another may know something about law because they studied it. First hand knowledge of a variety of topics is an incredible asset.
The hardest part (and the most fun) is to figure out ways to scale up without losing the uniqueness that fueled you to the point where you had to scale up in the first place. It’s an exciting adventure!
Hmmm - that’s some great food for thought! Thanks! In my case, my writing business is pretty niche (I only do fashion/beauty copywriting),but maybe I can eventually find a way to let me be all creative, all the time by hiring people to take care of the other stuff.
Hi Christine - I was wondering how you were getting on and I’m glad you’re doing great. After running two businesses where I employed other people, I decided that I needed to take time out to work out what I really wanted.
And the outcome was that I decided I wanted to go it alone. I know this may sound like the wrong way round to do things.
But I wanted a break from worrying about things like chasing up debts, being taken to court, or whether I’d be able to pay the wages at the end of the month. Also, my personal life was being to suck - I just didn’t seem to have any time outside of my business.
Anyway, I’ll see how it goes. I know that I will probably never make anywhere near as much money, without having folk working for me. But I’ve come to realise that whether I earn a lot, or a little, my life isn’t a whole heap different.
Maybe I’ll wind up employing people again eventually but it’s nice to try it both ways.
I don’t think that sounds ‘wrong’ at all Cath!! That’s the beautiful thing about working for yourself - YOU can make the choices that work best for your life. I think your choice is smart. I will admit that my personal life has certainly been sacrificed and my life does revolve around my business. That’s ok for me right now - but my goodness… sometimes I question if I’m running my business or if it is running my life!!
I think living a great life is a result of knowing that you have choices (I don’t think we realize just how many choices we really have), weighing the options, and making a decision. Whatever that is, you know that YOU made the choice and that is truly freedom.
I have to say that you are a big inspiration. I’ve been dreaming of leaving the rat race and doing something I love for a while. I have tried to start a few things but failed at all of them. But the your voice keep ringing in my head “I’ve tried building sites based on money and not passion. They never got anywhere” and I realized that’s exactly what I was trying to do. So I sat down and tried to figure out how my passions could make money for me. After a good amount of time and a lot of energy I came up with a science fiction podcast. It combines my talents, technology, with my passion, science fiction. Now all I have to do is grow it.
Please keep blogging I find your incites very helpful.
-Nick
An inspiring story to make US$20k in a month, I think that is every one dream, even for guy like me.It would be very interesting if this could happen to a complete newbie’s, I was just wondering those path are taken by people who already have previous experience and by some hard work over the years and enlightenment the person can make those figure, but for complete newbie’s I doubt it.In my opinion this is the point where to educate the newbie’s not to go crazy with daydreaming making fast cash, I have been in IM only short time around almost 1 year, and I know getting the first bucks was really pain and doing trial and error by yourself is tough although I have took SEO class and blogging, still your own your own.Cheers
great post!
http://www.changingcourse.com/cmd.php?af=960285
The passive income thing can be done, lot’s of people have proved it. The difference in your post and the reason I was interested is that you have at least explained that it will take hard work and effort to achieve this. I am sick and tired of people saying how they achieve huge passive income with just ‘ 2 hours work a week’. Nice post.
That’s so inspiring, thank you for sharing.
So Did I Make the $20,000?
I can say that yes, I have made $20,000 in ‘passive’ income last year. But it wasn’t as passive as it would have been if I were to have created a product or automated service
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I’m wondering what you could do if i gave you a viable product that I created.? I know the grass is always greaner on the other side and it “seems” easy to sell a product you create but, as a creator of product, i don’t find it that easy.
Hi Bob!
I agree - it does seem more difficult to market your own product sometimes! A product creator can be often so close to it and so emotionally involved that it makes the process more difficult - add to that the fact that you are your own boss for the marketing and it’s easier to let deadlines slip on yourself than for someone who takes on your project as a ‘job.’
However, if you can harness the ‘emotional involvement’ that we have to our own products and mix in a good helping of objectivity, that passion can go a long way.
I’m facing the same thing with several things that we’ve developed… One of my main problems is time! I spend far more time marketing for others than myself. I need to treat myself with the same dignity as I do my clients and stop letting the marketing efforts of my own products take the back burner!
I appreciate your comment - I needed to give myself a good dose of my own reply!
[…] If you’re struggling with getting your solopreneur venture off the ground, read this article and sign-up for the free business marketing tele-seminar on the bottom of the post. – The Results of the $20,000 Passive Income Challenge […]
So are you willing to accept another challenge? As in, I’ll put the eBook to the test starting from scratch and see if it works for me? I mean, in a sense, Dave was coming from some degree of success online to begin with. Me, I’m just starting. And yes I am serious about this. At this point, I run my own service business locally but an additional $1-2000 per month from online activities would revolutionize my finances and allow me to explore even more ideas. It would literally open the floodgates for me.
Certainly Mike! Are you up for the challenge? After the experiences that I’ve had, I’m convinced of the fact that you can achieve anything (reasonable but far beyond your current idea of what is possible) if you really want it bad enough and are willing to put do whatever it takes to get it. Whether that’s through writing or something else, making an extra $1k to $2k per month is doable. I would suggest that you do something that you have a PASSION for. If and extra $1000-$2000 would revolutionize your life — then there is no reason to wait to get started, just need to jump in, make a commitment, never lose sight of your goals, never let anyone tell you you “can’t” do it, and make it happen!
Yes we all face fears while running a company. My fear is I need to develop the climbing line apparel faster than my manufacturer can deliver.
I haven’t seen four indents before, only at least two. It’s quite obvious that there’s something done differently just to make multiple indents.
Working alone gives you so many benefits. You can work based on your time and strategies. You don’t even need to consult anybody for your work. It’s between you and your client alone. However, working with as a team within a company is somehow more beneficial in comparison to working alone in terms of efficiency.
Great article. I think it’s always important to remember that there is no easy way out if you want more out of life or your job. Thanks for posting this.
Being a freelancer can give you the freedom to decide for yourself. You make your own strategies within your own pacing. It can also help you develop your sense of responsibility since you need to work without the help of other people.