There are lots of posts about making money, building online businesses, etc. They are literally a dime a dozen. Coincidentally, I would make a strong wager that most people teaching how to make oodles of money online, don’t. It’s so easy to be a “faceless” person in the online world, that you really don’t know who to believe or trust. An advantage definitely goes to bloggers in that regard, because, let’s face it…there aren’t many places they can hide.
Anyway, I digress. I’ve been doing lots of thinking over the past week or two about what it would take to build a million dollar per year NET income business. It kills me to see copies of checks being flashed, and people talking about how they had 1 or 5MM in sales. Who cares. I could show you a check tomorrow for $100,000 and make it look like I earned it somehow. It’s a bunch of bunk. Along those lines, $5MM in “profits” doesn’t mean squat either. What if their overhead and operating costs ran $4.9MM. Is it worth taking on a risk of $5MM in profits to net $100K? No way (At least not in my opinion.)
So, what would it take? And if any of you have one, please feel free to help us all out. Provide a comment.
- Envision It
I don’t want you to envision money here. I don’t want you to think about a pile of 1Million Dollars sitting on a table. I want you to think about the things you could do with it. You know, vision board stuff. Money doesn’t make anyone happy. It is the things we can do and buy with it. Build an orphanage, buy a yacht, pay for a parents stay at Children’s hospital, provide pizza every day for 1 week for your local fire department, a nice home owned free and clear, a Ferrari, whatever. Envision the things that having a 1 Million Dollar in 1 year business could do for you.
- Plan For It
If you don’t plan for it, your chances of obtaining it are….well, about as good as the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the World Series this year. What would you need to do? How many items would you need to sale?
- Make 28 ($100 sales per day) for 365 days. Or…make an ebook, or info product, make (56) $50 sales per day.
- Host 4 Internet Marketing Bootcamps over the next year. Charge 250 at each one $1,000. You have your 1MM.
- Produce a product that sells for $500. Get on people’s webinars and offer your product. If you can convert 20% of the online audience…that means you need to talk to 10,000 people on webinars. To talk with 10,000 people over the course of 1 year via webinars would not be hard. Man, you could do (2) 1 hour long webinars per day to 250 people each, and be done in less than 3 weeks !!!
- Build It
Now, once you’ve thought of the varied ways of achieving your goal…make a plan for it and take action. That’s exactly what I have been working on in the background. Figuring out how to strategically produce massive amounts of cash by using 1 thing: INFORMATION.
I’ll share with you my struggles and triumphs along the way. What is working and what isn’t working. It is entirely possible. You must be believe it first though, and then you can achieve it. If you don’t think it’s possible, you will never get there. Once you believe it’s possible, devise a plan.
What if you fail ???
Please define failing for me. What if you are only 20% successful in your quest? You completely missed your milestones, screwed everything up, and only hit 20% of your net profit goals?
That’s $200,000. Yeah, it’s not where you wanted to be, but I can guarantee you that if you develop a system that can produce $200,000 per year in net profits, you can systematize enough things to make $1MM per year, in quick fashion. It may not be easy. You may have to learn new things, but you have a system that produces profits that merely needs to be replicated.
Ahhh…..that’s my rant for today. Hope you enjoyed.
Brandon Yeager
photo credit: aaron.bihari
What do you think? What are you doing to achieve your financial goals? How would your business look? What IS working for you?
I love the way you have broken it down, Brandon.
I recently launched my own blogging membership course and I ONLY need 1733 clients to make $1m a year!
1733 clients doesn’t sound too many does it, when there are thousands of new bloggers every day…but try and get 1733 clients! That’s the hardest bit.
As well as the blogging course, I hope to have 12 more smaller blogging related products for sale by the end of the year.
My approach is to make and sell my own products…but I know it will take a lot of time and effort.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last [type] ..WordPress 3.0: Backup Before You Upgrade
Andrew…great! Thank yo so much for sharing and taking a peak into what you are up to. 1733 clients…not too many to get. Yeah, every single can be tough. I know if you can come up with a product that sales and converts…and you can get people paid money for promoting it…it all gets easier from there. PS. I also believe selling your own products is a great ticket to get there.
Thanks again for chiming in.
every day I think about what my new home will look like, what toys I will have in and around the estate, where I will winter and the vacations I will take, then I make sure my business is planned out to reach that goal in quick and precise succession.
Dave Woodson´s last [type] ..Think Provider
Awesome Dave. So,…if you don’t mind my asking…how is it all working out for you? What breakthroughs are you experiencing?
Definitely can relate to not knowing who you can believe and trust because there is just too much out there that people fall victim to and it’s just not fair.
But with that comes a lot of opportunity as well and if you plan out what you want to achieve and how you want to go about achieving it then the only thing left to do is to take action. We can spend our whole lives envisioning what we want it to be but until we take action and implement the strategies that will get us there than it will all be in vain.
I have come up with a top 100 list of what I want to accomplish and what I want out of life not only for myself but for others as well and I didn’t think it was going to take me long to write it but boy was I wrong. I suggest you try it, it’s harder than you think. Or maybe it’s just me, I just want to live comfortably, not have to worry about money, be with my family, help others, and travel and everything after that is icing on the cake.
It’s funny you mentioned failing because that is something we all need to embrace because without failure we cannot achieve success. Take Michael Jordan for example, he failed many times but it is only through failing that he succeeded.
Thanks for this post Brandon! Will have to add the picture of the yacht on my list:)
Anna
Anna Haller´s last [type] ..Planning – The key to your success
Hey Anna, how are you doing? Good seeing you.
I completely believe we all have incredible opportunities to build so much trust by our blogs. It is a lifeline to readers.
PS. I had actually started my bucket list a couple weeks ago. Really diving into what I want out of life. Thanks to seanogle.com …he got me pumped up trying to really look at what I want my life to be about.
I’m also not all about the money. yes, there are some cool things I’d love to do and see, and have, but I’m definitely more into impacting peoples lives and leaving legacies. I want people in 20 years to still be impacted.
Gotta make it happen.
thanks for your great reply!
Brandon, I have both production goals — what products I’ll get done by what date — and process goals — how I’ll go about achieving my production goals.
Process goals can be easier to achieve, and they facilitate reaching production goals.
John Soares´s last [type] ..E-Mail Marketing With Lists — Survey Results
Hey John, great inputs…
Process goals. Nice insight.
I think a lot of people end up getting caught up in the ‘Envisioning’ and ‘Planning’ so long because 1) it feels good and is much easier than actually DOING and failing over and over again and 2) because they are trying so hard to make everything perfect that nothing ever gets done.
In my opinion, it’s much better to do only a little envisioning and planning, jump in and get your hands dirty and adjust from there. As long as you don’t give up along the way, you’ll make it eventually.
Thanks for the great post. I’m a new subscriber so you’ll definitely see me around here more often. Take care and keep up the great work!
Jonathan Beebe´s last [type] ..Make Money Online in 5 Easy Steps
Hey Jonathan,
Welcome to TIP! We have a great community here and the folks are just downright awesome to meet.
You hit on 2 great points. It is easier to just plan, and not take action, and I learned the whole “perfect” thing the hard way. I’ll have more about that soon in the future to share some vivid, painful experiences, and how you guys can avoid my pain.
Make it happen!
Brandon
I love that when you think of it on a small scale.
So many people are worried and have no idea how to make their million dollars but when you tell them you can accomplish it with micro sales, it actually because doable.
Just build and build and build.
If one of your products accounts for 10% of your sales, make another and bump it up to 20%, on and on.
Murray Lunn´s last [type] ..Becoming The Linchpin (And A Badass Too)
right on Murray. 1MM is a big old elephant to eat. If we just break it down into bite sized chunks…it doesn’t seem quite as scary anymore. Yeah, it’s still scary, but even if you are only partially successful with it, you are still doing great!
Hi Brandon,
Awesome post. I love seeing your process. You’re so right. You have to be really clear about what you want otherwise how will you ever get it.
I really like seeing how you break it down. It’s always easier to achieve things when they’re broken down into bite-size chunks. It’s all about doing what you need to do to get the money you want.
Jazz Salinger´s last [type] ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint
Hey Jazz,
I’m glad you liked it. I admit…I’m definitely a process dude and like to have my plans, etc. But I also learned a long time ago to take massive action and not think for too long. But I always like breaking stuff down to make it more tangible and realistic.
Brandon
Hi Brandon,
I also want to add that we should be aware of the little steps we do everyday to reach our goal. A person may not do tons of work everyday, although there’s nothing wrong with that. But if he does his tasks frequently, he’d be off to a good start.
Julius´s last [type] ..Web Accessibility in Japan
Julius, I agree. It’s funny. Some days, I have a list of 12 things that I feel like I must do today. When I look back, I get disgusted that I only got 4 complete. But when I look at what I learned, and the obstacles I overcame that moved me a little closer to my goals…then I’m ok with it. I just need to refocus, replan my timeline and keep on cracking away.
Nobody ever told me it would be easy.
Brandon, breaking things down into small steps is what it takes to get big results.
Repeat the steps often enough and you’ll get results very quickly with the compound effect.
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to achieve big results with small steps
Ooooohhhhh Yeahhhhh. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
I am just going through this process now. The economy hit my printing business hard and though I was able to sell it, my $500k+ per year business didn’t amount to much after paying off all the debt.
After a bit of an “early life crisis” I spent some time revisiting my goals. Two were to reach $1 million by 30 as well as to raise $1 million for charity by the same age. I am not exactly close, but decided “what the heck”, why give up? I have some ideas but it’s a long haul and hearing someone break it down like this is great. I started a blog to track my progress, share the journey and maybe meet some supporters, but we shall see.
Thanks for the great posting, and I look forward to following your feed.
Ben
P.S. Part of my charity fundraising plan will require a good twitter following, so please add me if you don’t mind and might be willing to lend a hand.
Ben Block´s last [type] ..Ideas to Reach My Charity Goal: Input Needed
Hey Ben,
yeah, it always seems like…even if you have gross sales of 1MM, the NET profit is nowhere near that. Been there.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
charity is something i’d like to pursue in about a year also. you have great aspirations, and as long as you keep plugging away, it’ll all happen.
PS. added to your twitter following.
Brandon
You make it sound so easy when you break it down like this. Good points and I’ll take 20% of a million next year.
Mike Roosa´s last [type] ..My Yellow Rubber Ducky
It does sound easier. I’m not saying it is still “easy”, but makes it more “visible” and like it can be attained. Shoot for the stars…even if you may only get to the moon.
Brandon
I agree with Jonathan (up there somewhere) that people tend to overanalyze stuff and not actually get on with the execution. When I say people I obviously mean myself…
Jorgen @ Personal Branding´s last [type] ..Why You Should Rearrange Your LinkedIn Profile Sections
1000′s of peoples try to sell their ebook of making money online,, 99% won’t help,, and most of them are not even making their own ebooks, they are just PLR ebook and editing them and selling them,,
ashok´s last [type] ..How to make your website very simple & attractive
Ashok,
you are probably right. I’m a huge proponent of making your own, (or somebody making you an original).
B
Brandon,
I don’t know exactly how I came across your blog, but I’ve got a nice surprise for you by the end of this year, my man. Love the inspiration you’ve provided for people here, and I definitely appreciate your candid approach to debunking the notion of something or someone “failing”. It’s so not a factor when you think of all the people who only think of starting a online business instead of digging in. Good stuff, boss
“The peoples marketer”
Kevin,
Welcome! And I’m glad you stumbled upon us. You’re right….there are ways to utilize the internet to make money that haven’t even been discovered. My head literally swirls with the opportunities!
Looking forward to your surprise. Keep us posted.
Brandon