When I left my corporate job, I was the most miserable I have ever been in my life. I had a salary and was micro managed. I took a brave step into self-employment and started my own consultancy company.
I thought this would give me the financial freedom, time and fun I craved. However, I found I was still delivering a time-valued outcome for clients (basically I sold them my time) and although this gave me more money, it did not give me any more time or fun.
I remember the stress, when I was on holiday dealing with a client’s issues on my hotel room balcony. I soon felt chained to my business and burnt out by my clients, who I was now beholden to regardless of what my agenda was. It was unsustainable and something a lot of us struggle with.
So many people who start businesses find themselves at this point. Maybe you can relate?
Stress is cumulative and it can be one small thing that tips you over the edge.
Entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible to burnout because we take so much on, push ourselves so hard, and are always promising ourselves we will slow down after the next big project is finished. However, we are only human and each have our limits.
I knew something had to change. I enjoyed sharing my expertise with clients, but there had to be a better way than just invoicing for my time.
This recurring income took the pressure off my business and meant I didn’t have to work all the hours that God sent, and, as a bonus, I could pick and choose my clients so that I only took on the most interesting work.
I also got to do cool things like take my children on lots of holidays (where I could actually switch off without worrying about clients calling and interrupting my family time).
Whilst I was working for myself, my husband was in the police force where he worked shifts. I was also working long hours and this combined was killing our family life.
We already had a couple of rental properties at this point, and we decided to take property seriously so my husband could quit his job. Using very little of our own capital, our income grew and, over time, we replaced my husband’s salary and my consultancy income with the recurring income streams from our property investments.
Having our bills paid by recurring rental income gave us our freedom and fun back as a family.
We were no longer stressed about money and could make sure we were always home when the kids came back from school.
People naturally asked us how we achieved this, so we decided to write an online course about it in a very specific way and created another income stream out of our knowledge. This was our first online course and a total game-changer.
Having a digital asset meant people could learn whenever they wanted and it also gave us serious scalability.
Even if we had given up one weekend a month, we’d only have reached a classroom’s worth of people at a time; with an online course, it’s limitless.
The course structure, the marketing and the delivery were unique, and because of the way it was designed, the course went on to earn us many thousand pounds per month. This radically changed our family’s life.
Over time, I realised there was a simple formula to creating and running a successful online course and it became apparent that not everyone knew the secret, so I decided to teach other entrepreneurs stuck in the time for money trap how to get out!
Over the last four years I’ve helped people build courses in a range of sectors and honed my methodology.
This book has been written based on the learning's and marketing skills I picked up in the field. These skills have been tried and tested both on my own products and other people’s products. There is a reason why my easy, 3-step methodology is set out in the way it is, and with the key steps in order.
The title of my book More Money, More Fun is deliberately focused on the outcome I want for you.
Fun is a factor of freedom, time and money.
You might have jobs and clients that you hate and would love to get rid of. I am giving you a way to avoid those jobs and clients and to make choices about what you want to do with your time and freedom.
Relying on revenues from work you hate and don’t enjoy is not a good long-term plan and can lead to financial self-sabotage and a poor state of self-satisfaction, along with burnout, depression and a host of other things you don’t want to invite in.
I love what I do, I love learning and I love the gift of time that is life. It has taken me years to realise this. When I train mentees to work towards financial freedom, I always ask them why they want it. Everyone gives the same answer: freedom.
We all want freedom to choose what to do and how to spend our time, yet few of us are really in control of this.
We each have two valuable finite resources: our time and our self. The reality is, the only true resource we have is time.
You have probably picked this book up at the perfect point in your life, never will you have developed your ideas, passion and knowledge to the point you have now.
Yet there will be no point in delaying, the market will help you decide if your knowledge is worth something.
However, I believe that we are all conditioned to forget about how short our lives are. We put it out of our minds and only think about today and tomorrow.
Looking for short-term gratification and results drives us to find quick wins and avoid some of the tougher decisions and hard work. This is just human psychology; we are all guilty of it. But I want you to take a second to appreciate that you don’t have forever, and the perfect time to make a positive change to reclaim your freedom is now.
Ready to break free?
Your knowledge is worth an absolute fortune to you but it’s unlikely you’ve ever realised this. Why? Because you think you’ve been selling your time, but the truth is you’ve actually been selling an outcome of what you can deliver all along.
Your know-how, your experience, upbringing and qualifications have made your knowledge unique and this makes it irreplaceable.
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I share regular tips, new ideas and how you can increase your income online and escape the time for money trap.