Written by: Alek Angelov & Robert Murray, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What is financial freedom?
Before we jump into how you start taking the necessary actions to build your financial freedom, let's dive into what it is and how it impacts your life.
Financial independence means having enough money to pay for your living expenses for the rest of your life and having enough money to live the lifestyle you want. All this without worrying about your income running out, finding your next customer, or waiting for your next paycheck.
A means to living life on your terms.
Financial freedom allows you to quit following the rat race of working hard and relying on bank loans to make purchases you desire.
You no longer have to wait a year for adequate savings, your next salary or client, to buy what you want right now.
One income stream is not enough.
People today require more financial flexibility than ever because a single profession or source of income is no longer reliable and can be gone in milliseconds.
Your business could close today for many reasons, and the same could be said for you if you work a 9-5 job.
In today's environment, relying on a single source of money is not fashionable. Having various sources of income helps you cope with inflation and allows you to live a life that isn't restricted to a paycheck. It also means you can afford a genuinely enjoyable lifestyle and avoid the dread of being laid off tomorrow.
3 Myths About Passive Income
1. You may believe that passive money is passive from the start, but here's the truth: genuine passive income requires prior work.
Passive income involves:
Action.
A lot of thought.
Strenuous effort to generate passive income streams can help you reach the top.
One of our conversations with Pat Flynn, the host of the "Smart Passive Income" podcast and the owner of multiple businesses, said something vital. He stated that a lot of the passive income you'll receive eventually requires you to put in the work right now. Therefore don't believe false claims of passive overnight. It takes time.
2. You may believe you need a lot of money to develop passive income streams, but this is not always the case.
In many circumstances, you only need a lot of brainstorming, a brilliant concept, and hard work to get started, and you may even start with no money.
3. Your business is not a source of passive income.
That is correct (in some cases). However, it is straightforward to transition your business or business from active to passive revenue by following the methods outlined in the second part of this article.
Suppose you can build your firm to generate passive income or switch things around later. In that case, it can be your most significant source of passive income.
Alek & Robert's Journey To Passive Income
Alek started on Instagram a little over a year ago and had no idea where he wanted to take his brand. He was lost and sought assistance from Robert, who already had a strong brand with over 20,000+ followers and excellent positioning.
Alek saw throughout the discovery call that Robert was an exceptional expert but not a Sales master. As a result, Alek proposed a service swap. They both agreed that having the assistance of the other would be beneficial.
After a month of collaboration, it was evident that they shared the same beliefs and had the same mission: to improve the globe through high-quality, affordable education.
After one DM discussion, they founded CEO Sphere, a globally recognized educational institution that teaches Sales, Marketing, and Branding, just a month later. Today, they have over 250,000+ followers on social media and have helped over 1000 students prosper in business.
Steps To Get There:
1. Importance of Taking risks
The first step before doing ANYTHING is to recognize that everything worthwhile does not come easily.
It takes a lot of effort, hard work, and investment to get to the point where you can live quite well on your passive income alone.
However, putting in this much work is usually a risk for most people, and they are hesitant to begin and take chances.
We interviewed Carlos Reyes, a real-estate billionaire. He owns 25 enterprises and made a massive transformation from a Mexican Immigrant to one of America's most successful real estate moguls. He said: "the one skill that built my skin so tough and transformed my life was adversity and tolerance for risk."
Taking risks is thus extraordinarily crucial and required. You won't be able to continue on your entrepreneurial journey if you don't take risks.
So, keep in mind that if your business requires you to invest more, work more, or recruit a team, you must do so and accept the calculated risk.
If you win, your investments will be multiplied. If you fail, you'll have learned a valuable lesson worth far more than your investment.
2. Set clear goals
Once you've got the correct mindset and are ready to start taking risks, creating clear goals is critical so you don't get lost on your way to making passive income streams.
How do you establish definite objectives? Take the following steps:
Make a list of the "one" thing you want to accomplish. If you aim for more than one, you will lose focus.
Break down the goals you'll need to achieve to reach that one ultimate goal.
Create a distinct path to each destination.
Finally, put down the steps you'll need to take every day, every week, every month, and year to attain your goal.
3. Finding a demand
A quick question: would you ever sell a comb to a bald man? Obviously not!
Unfortunately, this is one of the most common mistakes people make when establishing a business.
They begin without first conducting research and finding a demand.
To find demand:
Investigate your competitors' products
Check their sales/product pages.
Investigate social media, look at who's commenting, what people love about your competitors, and what they don't love?
Pretend as if you are a customer and walk through each stage of their buying process to understand how they operate.
Look for weaknesses and areas that you can improve.
Before you begin, ensure sufficient demand for your product/service; otherwise, you will not achieve the desired results.
4. Build your network
Building your network is the most crucial phase in starting any business. The connections and relationships you'll make will be more valuable than anything else.
As you begin to network, you will discover chances you never imagined.
Building a clientele and customer base becomes easier when you begin to network and interact with individuals, whether they are your competition or your target audience.
Get affiliates onboard
Once you've established a strong network, getting affiliates will be a piece of cake. Still, most businesses overlook it since it sounds complicated, and many believe it's only something only million-dollar companies do.
You can easily promote your affiliate program on multiple platforms if you have genuine connections with people. You will have a massive waitlist of people wanting to become your affiliates because they already trust you and believe you have the proof and credibility.
Seek Referrals
One happy customer can become two, but only if you ask. Prepare messages and systems to ask existing customers to share your product/service with a friend that would benefit.
5. Build an email list
No matter how archaic they may appear, emails continue to outperform most organic and paid marketing platforms.
Keep in mind that social media is rented. If you lose your social media tomorrow, your email list and reputation will be the "only" thing that will remain with you.
To start building your list, create something of value for free and give it to your audience in exchange for an email. Freebies make it easier to sell anything down the line. People often are compelled to share if you have already given them something. It's the reason why supermarkets sometimes offer free tasters.
Present a professional and appealing design (you can use mockups to make it attractive), and you're good to go!
Some popular freebies include:
Interactive Quizzes
Video Training
Digital Guides
Assure that it answers a problem they confront frequently and that the content is essential, or you will lose rapport and reputation instead of building it.
6. Create your first product
After you've been in business for a few months, researched your ideal audience and competitors, and grown your network, capitalize on your efforts with your first product.
The first stage in creating a product that "sells" is to conduct proper research. The research will allow you to determine what your target audience "actually" wants and, more critically, to identify a USP on which to base your product.
You may utilize polls and questions to ask your audience what they struggle with and where they need help. Repeat this process until you've discovered what your target market wants to buy.
Research is the first and most crucial stage in developing a product that sells and your audience rushes to buy. Once you've done the research to back up your idea, it's time to "create" the stuff!
To quickly create a product, follow the steps below:
Create a road map for your audience to follow to solve obstacles and attain their desired goal.
Create an outline for your product based on the roadmap.
Start placing your thoughts on each topic based on the outline ‒ whether it's an ebook, course, or any other format.
Then begin refining what you wrote and recording it.
Finally, make the necessary changes and design the product.
7. Build a Sales Funnel:
To build a high-converting sales funnel, follow the steps below:
Determine all of your traffic sources.
Determine how your target customer prefers to buy is it by email, sales pages, a website, or a message?
Create a road plan for your buyer to follow before making a purchase.
Finally, begin working on your funnel, building each phase step by step.
Importantly, continue to test your first product and funnel until you reach a point where it begins to sell well.
8. Create multiple products
Once you've established a proven product and a sales funnel to sell your first product, it's time to multiply your income.
You do this by providing additional items that offer even more value to your target audience, such as:
Complementary products at a higher price (up-sells) for customers hungry for more.
Products at a lower price (down-sells) for hesitant customers who aren't committed to paying a high price.
And anything in-between that makes sense to offer your customer.
After someone buys your main offer, offer them additional products so they can gain more value.
Up to 30% of your target audience will gladly purchase your upsells and down-sells.
Remember that you will not create products and sales funnels that sell by accident. There will be a significant amount of testing, research, and marketing.
Even yet, some items and funnels may fail. However, this is how you will learn what works and what does not.
9. Automate
It's time to automate your sales funnel and your business by establishing a proper system that you know is selling for you without having to pitch every day.
Automating systems is accomplished by:
Email marketing. Use the power of email to drive people to your sales funnels regularly. A copywriter can assist you in writing high-converting emails.
Ads. Utilize the power of advertisements to attract as many visitors as possible to your sales funnel. Again, ads will necessitate extensive testing, and you'll need to engage an ad strategist/manager to assist you with this.
Finally, and most crucially, if you want to produce passive revenue, you must gradually remove yourself from the business.
To help with the process, begin hiring people who can be trusted with your business tasks and forming a team.
Nobody got very far by themselves. As a result, instead of doing everything or anything solo, you'll need to put together a team you can trust.
By following all these steps, you will be making a massive leap into building your financial freedom and living life on your terms.
Thanks for reading.
Alek Angelov & Robert Murray, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Alek Angelov and Robbie Murray are partners and business coaches of CEO Sphere, an Online Community and Coaching Service that has a mission of helping 1 million entrepreneurs live a financially stress-free life. Through their combined 18 years experience, they have merged their collective knowledge in sales, marketing, and branding to deliver up-to-date and practical business knowledge. Having already helped thousands of entrepreneurs build their businesses, grow their presence online, and increase profit margins, if you are looking to increase your businesses potential, they are certain they can help.
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