If there is one thing that 2020 has taught us, it is the fact that you need to have multiple income streams to stay safe and secure.
Jobs alone are not enough to give you safety.
When a pandemic or a recession hits, every company starts laying off people.
Even if you have a degree from a very good college and lots of work experience, you will not be safe in this day and age. The future is uncertain.
What you need is multiple streams of income.
In my experience, I have identified 5 different streams of income that can sustain you for life.
These 5 are in order of evolution of you as a professional.
1. A Job:
A job is not the best thing but it is good to start your career with a job.
Working in a job will give you experience in the corporate world and you will learn how companies operate.
You will also learn how to deal with people and play the game of office politics.
The world is full of power games and politics.
Instead of complaining about it, learn to dominate it, and make sure it doesn't affect you.
A good job can also give you authority and credibility in your field.
For example, I have a lot of credibility in the market today because I worked as a Digital Marketer at Razorpay, Instamojo, and Practo to name a few.
A job will also give friends and connections in the industry.
Always be open to the prospect of a good job. You can also save some of that income and use it to invest in your startup.
In my Internship program, I have an entire week dedicated to tips and tricks to get your dream job.
But a Job is not enough. Right?
You need one more dependable source of income.
2. Blogging and Affiliate Marketing:
You should start a blog and start writing as soon as your career starts.
I have been able to grow my brand to what it is today because I started blogging in 2013.
I just wrote 2-3 articles a month, but I wrote consistently for more than 4 years before the real results started coming in.
A blog gives you an identity as an expert and can help you get good jobs, get freelancing clients, and also position yourself as a trainer and mentor in your field.
Once your blog gets good traffic, you can write reviews of products and services and earn commissions from the sales.
Writing consistently will give you more presence in the market and grow your personal brand. You will also be able to organize your learnings and thoughts in a better way through writing.
I did not write because I was an expert.
I became an expert through writing.
In my Internship program, I have an entire week dedicated to Blogging and Affiliate Marketing where I teach you the technical aspects of blogging as well as writing techniques.
3. Digital Freelancing and Consulting:
I call it Digital Freelancing instead of just freelancing because you can do it without meeting anyone in person.
You can do it online. You can do it remotely. You can do it while traveling.
This is like a job, but the advantage is that you can have multiple clients instead of just one employer.
When you have multiple clients, you will be able to keep your income running even if one client stops paying because you will have other clients.
Instead of working as a digital marketer full time in one company with a salary of 1 lakh per month, you can aim to have 4 clients as a freelancer who will pay you 25,000 per month.
Even if one stops paying, you won't go dry. And you can always get more clients. You can even add one more team member to help you manage clients.
Freelancing will help you gain experience in client management and sales - which can be used when you want to scale up to an agency or startup in the future.
You will become a one-man company and that gives you a lot of confidence in your own value to the market.
You can also do consulting where instead of doing the work for the client you just give them advice based on your experience.
The client will do the execution using their own team - but they need the strategy guidance from you. Consulting can be done on an hourly basis.
In my Internship program, I have an entire week dedicated to Digital Freelancing and Consulting where I teach you about the opportunities, pricing, execution, sales, and more.
4. Digital Mentoring:
As you grow in your career from an employee - to a blogger - to a freelancer and consultant - you gain expertise in your niche.
When you are an expert, you can be a Digital Mentor to others and help them follow the same career path.
For example, if you are a good iOS app developer, you can work as a developer, freelancer, blog about it - and you can also train others on how to develop apps.
If you are a good designer, you can train others on the same skill.
Data science, artificial intelligence, writing, website creation, SEO, paid ads... the topics and niches are endless.
It is also very satisfying to mentor people because you are helping others grow by sharing your life experience with them.
You should choose the niche that is close to your heart.
As a Digital Mentor, you just need 1,000 students who are dedicated to learning from you. You don't need millions of fans and followers.
If you have a 1,000 students ready to pay you 1000 rupees per year, you can make 10,00,000 a year. And this is something you can do on the side, while you are doing a job, or freelancing.
If you have 1,000 students ready to pay 10,000 per year for your training and mentoring, you can make 1 crore per year. You will reach this stage after 3-5 years if you are focused and dedicated. This can become a full-time career.
I am your Digital Mentor for the topic of Digital Marketing and I have more than 1,000 dedicated students. You can do the math.
In my Internship program, I have an entire week dedicated to Digital Mentoring where I teach you how to choose a niche, how to position yourself as a trainer, how to get students, and how to deliver your mentoring.
5. Build a Startup:
The most scalable way to build a strong income stream is to build a startup.
Your startup can be a product, services, or training company.
There are somethings that you can only do as a team. You cannot be a single person doing all the tasks yourself.
My freelancing work has now evolved into a digital marketing agency.
My mentoring has now evolved into a training company.
I have 10 people working in my company and nowadays things are moving much faster - in a more efficient way.
I have scaled my income to 30 lakhs in revenue per month with decent profit margins.
I do not recommend jumping into building a startup right away.
It takes time to become an expert in a field, understanding how to work with people, understanding the market, understanding how to sell, and so on.
It is an evolution. Once you reach the final stage of building a startup, you might not need to do a job.
With a startup, you will have multiple B2B and B2C clients(just like me) and your income will be secured for life.
Nothing is safer than running your own company with a loyal set of customers and fans.
Wouldn't that be a dream come true?
You do not need any investors if you follow my path of building yourself as a professional.
It takes time and hard work but it is worth it.
Conclusion:
I hope this post gave you a clear idea about the different streams of income that you can build for yourself in the long term.
When you have multiple streams of income, you will feel safe and secure.
In this zone of safety, you can be creative.
If you feel unsafe with your career, then your best work will not come out of you. You will be constantly fighting day-to-day and stuck in the rat race.
Don't become that person who is stuck in the same job for 20 years and then gets laid off suddenly. I have seen so many people like that who failed to build a personal brand and multiple streams of income.
At 40 years of age, if you are out-dated, then your life will come crashing down. Start building your personal brand while you are still young.
All the above-mentioned streams of income require a strong personal brand - which starts with choosing a niche that you are passionate about any writing.
It is a good strategy to always be open to the prospect of a good job. You can also save some of that income and use it to invest in your startup which is indeed a very good strategy as an entrepreneur