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by Kelly K. O'Neil
Award-Winning Business & Marketing Coach
If you became an entrepreneur, you probably set up your business so you could "do it your way." You wanted creative freedom--no bosses, no time clocks, no limitations! However, like many business owners you may have had a rude awakening to find your customers are your boss, the time clock extends to well past midnight, and you are limited by your time and energy. So you may find it hard to believe it when I tell you that you can earn more by doing less! You might even think I've lost my sanity. The truth is you will lose your sanity if you keep working harder and harder and expecting to earn more and more. That may be a path to wealth or it may be a path to burnout! I'd like to share my secret strategies for earning more while working less. I do it, my clients do it, and now you can do it too! Re-commit to your initial goals for becoming an entrepreneur and get balance back into your life. Here are some success strategies to guide you:
1) Move away from trading money for time
You don't have to charge an hourly fee like an attorney. Charge by the project and develop package prices like coaches, massage therapists, and personal trainers. Offer a flat fee for consulting jobs, promote 3-month and 6-month packages, and set up group sessions. You can coach 10 people over the phone and bring in significantly more income for the same amount of time. You can also bundle services and products, like the colon therapist who packages colonic sessions with cleansing herbs. Or charge for your value by accepting a percentage of profits such as the ghostwriter accepting a portion of royalties instead of a straight fee.
2) Create continuous income sources, called "continuity income"
With continuity income sources, you work less and the money still flows in. An example is a membership site where members may join for $9.99/month or $99/month and you only need to post the information or give the teleclass one time to multiple recipients. Newsletter and other subscriptions are also continuous income sources. Additionally, offer a monthly recurring service such as website maintenance, ezine writing, article distribution, or coaching sessions. Yet another way to develop a continuous income stream is to clone yourself. Start an affiliate program for others to sell your products or train others to teach your seminars, classes, etc.
3) Develop passive income streams
I'm a big believer in developing passive income streams. You do something one time and it continues to generate income. An example is an eBook. You write it, put up a sales page, or put it on your website, and it sells 24/7. You can then turn the information in the eBook into a CD, DVD, workbook, teleclass, e-course, live workshop, and more. If you want to get started generating passive income from products and don't have the time, money, or expertise to develop your own initially, become an affiliate of an existing infopreneur. I have an affiliate program you can join and anyone can become an Amazon associate and sell books off their website. Another source of passive income is referral fees. Set up arrangements with your referral partners to give and receive finder fees for solid referrals. And the longtime favorite of many entrepreneurs for passive income is network marketing. If you decide to go that route, find a product that is compatible with your primary business and build a substantial downline that will continue to provide an income stream with less and less effort.
4) Set up systems for success
Read more about systems in the next issue of Arrive.
5) Establish a winning team
No, you don't have to do it all yourself! You may believe you "can't afford" to hire any staff, but you don't have to think only in terms of employees. Utilize contractors, experts, freelancers, and delegate lower cost functions to professionals to free up your time to do what you excel at, while only paying for services when you need them. Your team can include your attorney, banker, insurance agent, tax accountant, virtual assistant, web master, graphic designer, copywriter, technology guru, and business coach. All these experts take a task off your plate so you can work less as they contribute to your earning more. Another way to leverage your time is through partnerships with like minded business owners. You can create actual partnerships, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and power partner referral agreements.
© Kelly O'Neil 2006
 About the Author
Kelly K. O'Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies
Business & Marketing guru Kelly O'Neil is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed in business through her Business Mastery Success System™. She is the lead author of "Visionary Women Inspiring the World: 12 Paths to Personal Power" (Skyward, 2005) and is writing her second book Guerilla Business Strategy with mega-marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson. Kelly's company received several awards for her exceptional work including the PR Compass award for outstanding Public Relations, The ADDY Award for Branding and recently received the Purple Cow Award acknowledging her company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in America by best-selling author Seth Godin.
For more information, or to subscribe to O'Neil's Arrive! E-newsletter filled with countless tips and resources for creating more profit in your business, visit www.uplevelstrategies.com. Please contact UpLevel Strategies at (408) 615-8150 for a Complimentary 30 Minute Strategy Session.
If you want to UpLevel your marketing effort, consider hiring the experts. The UpLevel Agency offers small businesses and emerging company's award-winning, full service marketing and promotion campaigns to create big business results on a small business budget. To learn more, please contact Julie Scoppazi at Julie@uplevelagency.com or 866.615.8150.
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to info@uplevelstrategies.com.
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