Why You Shouldn’t Put all the Eggs into One Basket

Passive Income Challenge

Whether you have your own business, perform contract-based services, or work for someone else full time, the fact is having multiple streams of income is the best way to build some financial security into your life. Think about it, when one income source dries up, you have the others. Not only that, if your work depends on you performing a task, what if you get sick? What if there is another lockdown? Then what? That is why I am hosting this Passive Income Challenge.

Thankfully, when you are working online, there are ample opportunities to build multiple streams of income to build your net worth, provide income security, and create a safety net you can fall back on during difficult times. In fact, one could argue that as of 2020 there really is no job security – no matter what you do. So, my advice, regardless of what you do, you should seek to find ways to create more than one stream of income.

Everyone has a lot at stake. There is rent to pay, school fees for your kids, insurance, simple living costs, and I am sure I don’t need to mention that others are relying on you for their basic needs. Make no mistake: it’s not having a business that is risky, it’s having only one source of income.

Most jobs don’t last for 30 plus years anymore, and if they do, the pay doesn’t rise to match the cost of living. That is why creating multiple sources of income will alleviate a lot of stress you don’t’ even realize you can alleviate. The stress and fear of another pandemic lockdown, of being laid off, the fear of losing that one big client, without these hanging over your head, you are able to relax a little with your working life.

If you look at the “rich and famous”, they do not rely on one source of income either. Even if they inherit money from a parent, they usually take that money and invest in several business opportunities so that they can earn a little money from each venture and not worry.

For example, Kylie Jenner – she was born into money, a LOT of money. Yet, she started her own company, she models, she has tv shows and I am sure there are a lot more streams of income than what the public is aware of.

By diversifying her investments, and income generation, and by spreading the risk out so that she won’t suffer if something goes wrong. Now, I am no Kylie Jenner and I am sure you are not either – so if something goes wrong for us, we will be put in a more difficult situation.

That is why I am doing the Passive Income Challenge!

As you are going through this challenge with me, remember the Dragons on Dragon’s Den, who are already rich and are investing money in small business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors. It’s not because they don’t already have enough money. It’s because they’re hedging against something happening to their original source of income with the other streams so that they’ll never be without. Because when you have many streams of income, you have options.

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You have the option not to take just any client on to feed your family. You have the option not to work at that 8 to 6 job (face it, there are no 9 to 5 jobs), and if you’ve kept your expenses low, you may even have the option to just ride out another global lockdown, depending on the other sources of income without too much sacrifice. Creating passive income can change your life completely.

In this challenge, that’s what we’ll explore because there is no security in one income stream. You need many different streams to create an environment where you will not be ruined if just one of those streams should end for whatever reason.

P.S. Sharing is caring! So be sure to share this with your network and help fellow female entrepreneurs kick 2021 in the arse!

30-Day Passive Income Challenge

Hello, December! This is the month to…

30 Day Passive Income Challenge

Have you ever considered a Passive Income Challenge? I ask because it might just be the number one complaint I hear from my clients is that they are always just trading time for money.

I know a lot of readers of my blog sell physical products, so I have to ask you, do you have any passive income or digital products to go along with them?

One of the keys to building a sustainable business, that doesn’t burn you out, lies in the ability to leverage your time by creating passive, recurring income.

Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work. In fact, building up that stream of passive income will take a lot of work indeed. But once you create the systems, you can leverage them over and over and over again to create a steady cash flow that no longer depends on you and your time.

Just imagine the freedom that would bring! And it’s not that difficult to do, with just a little planning…

For the month of December, this is what I am going to be focusing on. Helping you plan and create a Passive Income.

Of course, you love your clients, you enjoy helping them solve their biggest problems and watching them succeed. You genuinely like the work you do, whether it’s helping out with a technical glitch, or talking a client through a tough mindset issue.

But no matter how much you love your chosen field and those you work with, two things are holding you back:

You—just like everyone—have limited hours available
If you aren’t working, you aren’t earning money

By definition, these two limitations put a cap on your earning potential. And while you may not want for anything—you may, in fact, be leading a wonderful, blessings-filled life—you still cannot make the impact you want to make, simply because you’re lacking in either time or money.

If you’re working all the time, then you have precious little time to…

Volunteer
Travel
Enjoy your kids and their growing up years
Pursue a hobby
Learn a new skill
Or anything else you’d like to spend your time on

And if you aren’t working, well, then you have less money for…

Family vacations
Charities
Church
Education (for you or the kids)
Exciting new hobbies
Or whatever else makes your heart sing!

It’s a true catch-22, isn’t it? You need to work more to earn the cash to build the life you desire, but the life you really want can’t be had if you’re working all the time.

The answer? Passive income.

Ask any successful entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you that having multiple streams of income is a game-changer.

As I mentioned above, this isn’t a way to never work again. In fact, building up that stream of passive income will take a lot of work indeed. But once you create the systems, you can leverage them over and over and over again to create a steady cash flow that no longer depends on you and your time.

Just imagine the freedom that would bring! And it’s not that difficult to do, with just a little planning…

This is why for the final month of 2020, I will be focusing only on helping YOU create a passive income stream that is right for your business.

There are 3 ways you can make sure not to miss a single day!

1. Join the Leave the 9-5 Facebook group.

Each day I will be going live inside the Facebook group to talk about how and why you should be adding passive income to your workflow.

2. Sign up for the daily emails.

Sign up on the Passive Income Challenge page and Each day, you’ll get an email from me with a tip or a strategy designed to help you learn about the importance of adding passive income streams to your business model.

3. Keep an eye on the blog.

Every day for the full 30 days, I will be posting here, on the TVS Blog what you need to know about creating your passive income.

Finally – If you realized that in order to reach your goal you’ll want to set aside time to really create your passive income streams! Then you’ll want to consider the 30 Day Passive Income Challenge Fast Track option. More on that will be available on launch day!

So – set your calendar, join the group or sign up on the page and get ready to start creating multiple income streams!

See you on December 1!

Passive Income Challenge

Explore Your Talents and Create a Side Hustle

Have you ever wanted to create a side hustle?

A side hustle is a way of earning an income doing something you love on the side of what you normally do…as the name states. Generally, it supplements your main source of income and is done when you are off-duty from your main job.

A Side Hustle can be something you have a special skill set in or a creative outlet that brings you joy. Some ideas might be:

Skill Set Based Side Hustles:

Copywriting
Creating killer websites
Coaching
Virtual assistant
Car Repair
Carpentry

Creative Outlet Based Side Hustles:

Customized sewing projects
Interior design
Personal Styling
Handmade Signs or Tee shirts
Typography
Metal Work
Craft Beer or Wine Making

Creating a side hustle can have a wonderful effect on your bank account and your self-esteem. Bringing in extra money is always a good thing, and a side business may be a way to help you with your taxes.

AND having one can rejuvenate your enthusiasm for work when you may feel burned out with your 9-5. A side hustles can demonstrate proof that there is a need for what service or product you have to offer, and they can wake up your motivation and help you find that sense of purpose, you may have felt was missing.

When you create a side hustle you will also learn new skills you hadn’t anticipated. Taking your hobby or skill to another level requires an understanding of owning a business that you may not have considered. This is always one of the fun and exciting aspects of working a side hustle.

Things like:

Marketing
Finding Clients
Networking outside your circle
Creating Products
Sales

If a side hustle sounds like just the thing you need to bring in extra income or get excited about sharing your gifts and talents, then explore what those talents are and see if a side hustle can be created from those gifts.

Ask yourself these questions:

Q: Do you have a skill set that others perceive as valuable?
Q: Do you have an aptitude for an aspect of life that others could learn from?
Q: Do you have a gift that is marketable through today’s social media platforms?
Q: Do you have a family tradition, recipe, or artisan skill that can be profitable?

Begin thinking about your skills and hobbies in a whole new way and you may hit on something that is the perfect side hustle – which will bring you more income, more fun, and more ways to express your creativity.

Jump into the TVS Leave the 9-5 Workshop Group and tell us about the side hustle you would like to start! Or better yet – do you have any other tips you can share? We’d love to hear them!

Explore Your Talents and Create a Side Hustle

How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work

How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work
Creating a vision board is a fun activity and some people hold vision board parties filled with friends, fun, laughter, music, and food. Who doesn’t love a party and what’s not to like about cutting out photos of your ideal life?

However, some people are quick to dismiss vision boards as being “woo woo” or magical or as a creative puzzle that just doesn’t work. Whether your vision board will work for you or not boils down to a few simple tips; follow the tips, and you’ll likely see success. Ignore the tips and you’ll likely get distracted, frustrated, and angry that you wasted time making the board.

Less is More

Typically, people like to fill a gigantic piece of cardboard with dozens of photos of their hopes and dreams, everything from the dream mansion by the ocean to the diamonds and private yachts. But how can you focus on achieving all those big-ticket items all at once? Most people can’t focus on multiple goals at once – especially huge ones – so they get distracted and miss important opportunities. Edit the number of photos you use on your vision board and decide which of those goals you want to reach first.

Prioritize Your Goals

What is most important to you: working a 4-hour workweek or living by the ocean? The fancy sports car or the ability to travel around the world? These are just examples, of course, but you need to prioritize each photo you find and really ask yourself WHY you want this on your board. Is it truly important to you or is it a flashback from your childhood? If a photo isn’t important to you, your subconscious will know that and you will only get distracted or confused about what you should be working toward.

Take Action

Vision boards are not mystical or magical; just because you put the photos together and post it in your office doesn’t mean things will start magically appearing. Even if you want to win the lottery, you still need to take the action to buy the ticket, right? The same is true of vision boards. If you want to buy your first home, take some action: do some research or hire a realtor, talk to a mortgage broker to get pre-approved, and then increase your marketing efforts to find more clients.

Believe that You are Good Enough

Mindset is everything when it comes to making goals a reality. If you fall victim to the negative self-talk that says you’re an imposter or undeserving of reaching greatness, then you will be less likely to take action toward those goals. How many times have you talked yourself out of creating a class or program because you think, “Who wants to learn from me?” Changing your mindset and releasing the blocks that hold you back doesn’t happen overnight but when you hear those negative thoughts invading, say out loud, “Why NOT me? Why shouldn’t I be the one to reach success? If not me, then who and why do they deserve it more?”

If you’re willing to take action, you will reach your goals. If you want things to be handed to you, then you’ll remain stagnant in your business and in life. Vision boards are tools used to visualize your goals and dreams and WILL work if you use the tool correctly.

Did you know TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind?

A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!

Inside the Inspired Action Mastermind, we are an intimate group of entrepreneurs, all of which are committed to the success of one another’s businesses. It is a mastermind that provides the support and guidance you need to help you move your business forward. Because, when you’re in the right mastermind group, you can start to see your business and yourself through someone else’s eyes as you support one another and leverage each other’s experiences.

If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.

Learn about the Inspired Action Mastermind

How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work

5 Ways to Make Vision Boards Work for You

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I love vision boards. Vision boards are meant to be a tool to focus on what’s important in your life – focus on your family, business goals, or living a carefree lifestyle. Make Vision Boards Work for You

What you need to know about vision boards is that how you create your vision board or what it looks like aesthetically doesn’t have any bearing on how well it will work.

If you have the Martha Stewart crafty gene in you, make your vision board as pretty as can be. Add pieces of fabric, paint an abstract background with your favourite colours, or dig out your long lost scrapbook supplies and utilize those beautiful printed papers and fun stickers.

However, if you are ANYTHING like me, you don’t have a crafty gene nor have the desire to develop a crafty side – have no fear: you can still make a no-frills vision board that suits your style and that will work!

Cork vision board.

Buy an inexpensive corkboard and use thumbtacks to attach your photos. Using tacks makes it especially easy to move your photos around or to take some off after you’ve reached your goals.

Vision books.

If you have multiple goals for different parts of your life, then creating a vision book keeps all those goals on separate pages but still compact in the same book. A simple journal or a larger scrapbook serves the purpose. However, make a concerted effort to look at your book every day or find a unique way to keep your vision book where you can see it often instead of closed up on your bookshelf.

Digital vision boards.

For those who can whiz around the internet at the speed of light, digital vision boards are time savers. Search for a free template or use Canva’s grid template. Simply upload your photos and quotes to your chosen template and save. Save it as your wallpaper on your computer and phone. Go one step further and get it professionally printed on photo paper at your local photoshop.

Hang a single photo.

In a 60 Minutes interview, Adelle said that she hung a photo of an Academy Award near her treadmill where she saw it every day, just to keep that goal at the back of her mind. She reached that goal in 2013 when she received the Oscar for her song from the James Bond movie, Skyfall.

Write a vision statement.

For those who are born wordsmiths, forget about the pretty pictures and write out your goals instead. However, write it as a letter to yourself, 10 years into the future. Describe what you’re doing and where you’re living, among other things, as if you’ve been living that life for 10 years and are giving an update to your long lost friend. That’s exactly what Luvvie Ajayi did as a training exercise for her job. She went from being laid off from the job she loved to be a NY Times Bestselling Author! You can read Luvvie’s story here.

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So much time is spent describing traditional vision boards but as you can see, creating a non-traditional vision board or writing a vision statement is just as powerful. The most important point is voicing your goals and taking action to achieve those goals. How you package up your vision is completely arbitrary.

TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind!

A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!

If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.

Learn about the Inspired Action Mastermind

Make Vision Boards Work for You

make vision boards work for you

Hello, November! This is the month to…

November is the last month of autumn, but the beginning of a new adventure; time to take risks and do the unexpected!

November

Become a Studio Insider and…
Go from “Wannabe” Entrepreneur to
Rock Star Business Babe…

Become a Studio Insider, woman with blue shirt sitting at her desk

Insider emails are sent 1 x week. You can unsubscribe any time – obviously.

Mind Mapping to be as Creative as Possible.

When it comes to your business, you need to be as innovative, productive, and forward-thinking. There are many tools that you can utilize in order to be as creative as possible and, personally, I think mind mapping is one of those tools.

First, let’s examine what mind mapping is, mind mapping is a way of brainstorming on paper. It is extremely beneficial as it is a visual tool that stimulates creative thinking preparing you to organize, evaluate, and analyze data you create for your business ideas. It is sort of like brainstorming with yourself on paper.

To start, you place a keyword in the center of the paper that is a sort of the main character in the mind mapping system. Next, you branch out ideas from that internal word and continue to branch out new words in a circle around that original word or theme.

It is similar to choosing a theme and several subthemes or topics and subtopics. The more you extend the circles and branch them out, the more creative you will find yourself being. Mind mapping is similar to choosing a niche and then a sub-niche and then another sub-niche within a sub-niche.

Mind mapping offers several benefits. For one thing, mind mapping is a visual tool. It helps you to organize information, create new concepts and themes while stretching your imagination, and offers the possibility of analyzing and visualizing ideas on paper in a new and creative fashion.

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If you are a regular reader of my blog, you would have seen the article: How to Perform a SWOT Analysis for Your Online Business Idea, mind mapping is a great way to help you do this!

It is an excellent tool to evaluate the strengths of your company or business. By placing several key themes on paper, you can visually pinpoint where your company’s strengths are. From there, you can gain momentum by brainstorming creative and innovative ideas to enhance and maximize those strengths.

Mind mapping is also useful in examining weaknesses. Weak areas are highlighted when using mind mapping. This is useful because sometimes a discussion about weaknesses does not produce any tangible results for improvement. However, using mind mapping creates a visual board for where weaknesses lie.

If you want to explore opportunities that you can take advantage of, mind mapping is an excellent tool for this. If you have one or two tried and true ideas for success, you can create sub-categories and sub-topics for those opportunities. This, in turn, will create even bigger and more advantageous opportunities.

If your company or business has the potential for external threats, using a mind map will clearly hone in on those threats and spotlight them. This has a benefit because you can now see where you need to put your attention to ward off potential outside threats in the future.

As you can see, mind mapping is a very useful tool for assessing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is good for your creativity, your business and your personal growth! So, let’s start mapping!

How to Identify Your Target Audience and Ideal Customer

One of the most important issues to address in your business life is how to identify your target audience and ideal customer. Without honing in on a specific target audience, you run the risk of missing the mark. There are several easy steps to identify your target audience and ideal customer.

Set Your Goals and Keep Your Goals

One of the best ways to identify your target audience is by setting goals for your business. Once you have set identifiable goals, your ideal customer will present him or herself.

Keeping true to those goals will ensure that your target audience and the ideal customer will return time and again.

Measure Your Goals

Once you have established what your goals are, it is important to revisit those goals and measure them on a regular basis.

A great way to measure your goals to see if they are up-to-date is to utilize social media. Have your customers or clients take a survey or enter a contest to see whether or not your company is meeting and exceeding their needs.

Make sure to communicate with customers on social media. Respond to their comments, and communicate via Twitter. See what the competition is doing and what trends are trending. Follow those trends.

Choose a Niche

Once you have set your goals and have established ways to measure those goals, make certain that you stick within your niche. Often times, business owners tend to waiver outside their niche. Sometimes creative ideas just seem to flow and flow; however, you must be true to your niche at all times. This is how you will be able to identify your target audience and your ideal customer. How to identify your target audience.

Create a Sub-Niche

Once you have created a niche, see if you can break it down further and create a sub-niche. A niche would be something like divorced women and a sub-niche would be divorced women with small children. Perhaps your business is a life coaching business that empowers divorced women with smaller children to educate themselves so that they can provide for themselves and their families.

Once you start your new business, you will begin to notice who is responding and who is not responding. In this way, you can measure your target audience a little better and hone in on your ideal customer.

For example, you may notice that divorced women with older children may be in a better position to use your products and services as compared to divorced women with younger children. Your target audience may present itself a little bit differently than you had planned.

Stay flexible, keep an open mind, but once you have established your ideal customer, make certain to keep it there and dedicate all your time and effort to that target audience and its ideal customer.

How to identify your target audience.

How to identify your ideal audience.

5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals

Do you set goals for yourself, either in your personal life or for your business? If not, how do you know you’re growing or making progress? When was the last time you allowed yourself to daydream about the type of life you want? What is your WHY, the reason behind all the long hours you spend on your business?

Creating a vision board has become a popular activity in recent years, especially as the New Year approaches and people think about the past year and the New Year’s resolutions they want to keep. A vision board is simply one tool that helps you visualize your dreams and your goals. How so, you ask? Let’s explore 5 ways vision boards help you reach your goals…

Vision boards make you focus on what’s important to you.

Whether you combine a personal vision board with a professional one or keep them both separate, thinking about what you want in life or in business forces you to prioritize what’s important. Do you want to buy your first house or move to a warmer climate? Putting a photo of your dream location by the beach will inspire you to work harder and not undercut your prices. If you want to move, you alone can make that happen and you’ll make better business decisions based on that desire to move.

Visualization stimulates the creative side of your brain.

Placing your vision board within sight of your desk or computer serves as a daily reminder of what you want to achieve. Some believe keeping it open by your nightstand helps stimulate your subconscious before you go to bed, which makes you motivated upon waking. With your creativity soaring, keep a notebook handy to jot down any ideas you have for a new course or coaching program you want to create.

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Focusing on goals makes you recognize new resources or opportunities.

Visualizing yourself living in a warmer climate (or whatever your primary goal is) will motivate you to work towards that goal but you’ll also notice new opportunities or resources which can lead you to reach your goal. These resources may have always been present but now that you’re focused on your goal, you will see them in a new light: as a way to help you reach that intended goal.

Break out of your comfort zone by stating a big, scary goal.

Are you stuck in a rut because you’re afraid to break out of your comfort zone? Acknowledging big goals – as scary and outrageous as they may be – will help you step out and take on new challenges, all in the name of reaching that scary goal. If your goal is to speak in front of an audience of 5,000 at your favourite conference, then you’ll start to see more opportunities for smaller speaking engagements. These smaller gigs will give you lots of practice and build your name recognition so when the organizers of your favourite conference advertise they’re looking for speakers, you’ll be well prepared to submit your name.

Seeing a big goal forces you out of the daydream and into action.

Nothing happens without some action on your part. Vision boards are not magic tricks; they are instead a tool that spurs us into action because we finally have clarity and know what we want out of life. Visualize your ideal life then approach each day with action steps that will lead you toward that ideal life.

Aside from these reasons, creating vision boards can be a very relaxing and fun family activity. So grab some glue and some old magazines and start daydreaming!

Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals

vision boards help you reach your goals.