I woke in agony and within hours I was floored and in bed. That life-limiting agony lasted 18 months. I was so ill the doctors said “Mrs Holgate, you are unlikely to ever work or drive again.”
On morphine the pain was so bad, I couldn’t even hold my phone, I was so ill. Light caused migraines. I was crippled by the magnitude of my situation and could do nothing to help myself, I walked like a elderly woman and my quality of life was dire.
It took over 18 months to work with many hospitals and specialists and realise the NHS did not have all the answers, and so I also explored alternative treatments. (Perhaps next time I shall I write about how I look after myself with Lupus, Raynaud’s, Sjogren’s and Fibromyalgia with no medication – as this seemed to be the only option according to the medically trained professionals!)
What saved my business when I got so ill?
I’ve always had a 30/30/30 rule in business. 30% to spend on me and my family. 30% to invest in the company, and 30% to forget. And thank goodness I had that approach because my business savings lasted until September 2013 when I returned to work. I had just enough left to pay my phone bill and the day I was back to work I started making money again!
(You may be wondering about the 10% that’s not accounted for? Trust me in business it’s always good to have an extra 10% hanging around!)
In this article I teach you how to make money wherever you are, and you won’t even need a budget.
Knowledge.
It’s no good to just go for it. As I told an Insider* recently, to start with social media and have no structure is like putting a roof on footings, with no walls! It’s a lousy house and will fail at the first breeze!
Get the right knowledge first. I could train you for days to make you excel at marketing however let’s start with the basics;
- Who are you talking to?
- What are you talking to them about?
- Why are you talking to them?
- What do you want them to do?
- What will motivate them into action – the negative or the positive? ie; “This will be awful unless…” or “This will be amazing if…”
When you know these questions (I can help you understand these in detail, if you are an Insider* tag me in a post for the solutions handed to you.) then you are ready to consider your routes to market which is a fancy way of saying what tools you will use.
Look at this visual;
To create a no cost marketing strategy, you need at least 8 to 10 tools.
What would you use?
Not what are your friends using or your competitors. That’s a big mistake many make. If you hate tech or are lousy at taking pictures, why would you choose Instagram?
On the other hand, if you are incredibly shy and hate public speaking, you are going to need to do a lot of personal and professional development to have the skills necessary to excel at networking, so start with something that suits who you are and what you excel at. This leads me on to…
Confidence.
If you found yourself saying “I don’t excel at anything Mandie!” then the first thing you need to improve is your confidence levels. As I tell INsiders*, I can build you the best business model with the best marketing strategy however if you think you are rubbish that will impact on the results you get. I’ve seen clients go from £9.50 average sales to £995 average sales, just by altering their confidence levels – we’d not even touched their marketing strategy!
Learn more about building confidence here.
Consistency.
Once you’ve’ considered what you are selling to whom, you then need to consider what you can maintain consistently. Go back and revisit your marketing plan according to my Marketing Production Line and be honest with yourself.
Will you honestly work on these routes to market every week of every month?
What stops your consistency? Commitments, lack of faith, prioritising other things, poor boundaries? Procrastination? Be honest. When I know what really stops consistency, I can fix that fast so you don’t get in your own way.
What’s next? The automated money machine!
Once you have considered the fundamentals of what you are selling to whom, how, why and with what desired outcome you then need to investigate what could be sold automatically without your direct constant input. Residual income is not just for business owners. It’s also for those looking to set up a side business or micro business to help top up their salary.
And it’s amazing what can sell!
What knowledge do you have?
Did you know you can study Cryptozoology, no really you can! It will set you back £50 to £200 to research and understand the Griffin on the Loch Ness Monster!
Not for you? What about The art of clowning at just £16 or why not learn how to be a mermaid, courses in this skill sell start from £50 to £200!
Just to reiterate that people will buy courses in anything, if you’ve fancied your hand at being a real ghostbuster why not take an introduction into exorcism? However, that is going to set you back £222 to £418!
You really can get a course in anything!
With that in mind write me a nice long list of everything you are good at. (Remember if your confidence has taken a nosedive you need to fix that first, you are great at something!)
Now consider how we’ve become a sponge for knowledge and are always on the hunt for an expert. In the 20 years I’ve been coaching to make a lot of money, I’ve seen literally thousands come (and go!). What knowledge could you sell?
These products lend themselves well to sharing knowledge creating a residual income…
- eBook
- Courses
What skills do you have?
It’s amazing how many would rather pay someone else to do a job they can do themselves! However, it’s a rule I teach many clients – if your hourly rate is £60 to £500 per hour then why waste your time sorting out insurances or flights?
VA Services – You can farm out those jobs that need doing but not by you for between £16 and £45 an hour. (Consider that there are collaboration sites where they charge as low as £5 an hour, so be mindful of who you market too so you aren’t a busy fool!)
Affiliate marketing – my own business allows for affiliates and while I’m not going to be retiring to the Cayman Isles any time soon the income is automated and helps cover our costs. You can look at our affiliate model here.
Sell your own designs online – If you love digital art have you considered creating your own Canva artwork and selling it? One of my first clients is now a multi-millionaire and one of their many income streams is Canva.
Create an app – with Chat GPT that’s now not beyond the realms of possibility! Think of a problem you face in life and how easily it could be resolved? Can’t think of anything? Well ask Chat GPT that!
Good at social media? – Offer sponsored posts to your audiences. If you’ve brought your audience then this is a bad idea, but if you have a genuine passion for anything from stencilling to kittens, you could be a valuable addition to a companies marketing strategy. The days of the uber huge influencers is over, we are more likely to be convinced into buying something by someone we’ve got to know. That could be you!
YouTube or a blog – knowledge is power, and we all are sponges in our requirement to learn more and more and more! My own blog led to the UK’s leading nonfiction publishers asking me to write a book. Okay I had positioned myself to be found for my expertise in mindset, confidence and achieving but it’s good to know that those goals with the right actions will deliver. What knowledge can you share?
Renting what you own – My new INsiders* Trend Report is coming out this October and one of the areas that will see mass growth in 2025 into 2026 is the realisation that many of our products sit idol costing us money when they could be making us money. You pay £400 for a washing machine and rent out it’s use to your neighbours and voila you’ve a micro business!
Back to our established business owners….
Rarely do I see a company with the full range of products and services that would encourage new customers, resell to existing ones or increase value per customer. They make the mistake of looking for new customers when the existing ones have not been fully maximised upon!
One of my INsiders* is an amazing artist but was only making sales once per item. By positioning themselves in the right way (with a great blog – yes they did my Blogging for Business course) they picked up funding to explore how to leverage on what they’d already made. And that led to prints of each piece of art. And that in turn has opened many doors to new products and services.
A word of caution….
Your mates on social media or your Mum saying “That’s a great idea” does not make it something that will sell. The quickest way to find yourself talking to yourself on social media is to have something to sell. Ask the demographic that you want to sell to, buy the products or services and carry out relevant market research.
It’s not enough to ask “What would you buy? And at what price point?”!
* https://www.thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk/insiders-benefits-join/ to join us.
