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Multiple Streams of Income

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Mulitple streams of income…. a concept that many people talk about and desire having in their lives, but very few people fully understand it and even fewer achieve it.

So what exactly is “multiple streams of income“?

For most people, when they think about multiple streams of income, the image that they see in their mind looks a little bit like this.

Multiple Streams of Income Diagram

Basically most people imagine that having multiple-streams of income involves trying to build many different types of income streams all at the same time.

Here’s how most people approach building multiple streams of income.  All at the same time they are:

  • Trying to increase their JOB income
  • Trying to start and build a team in an MLM company
  • Trying to get into REAL ESTATE investing, flipping houses or renting out properties
  • Trying to build up an INVESTMENT INCOME portfolio
  • Trying to MAKE MONEY ONLINE
  • Trying to start a SIDE BUSINESS with a friend or based on some idea they dream up
  • Trying to look for a SECOND JOB to make some extra part-time income
  • Trying to start and build a second team in a second MLM company

When they do this, their energy gets scattered in all these different directions all at the same time.

This DOES NOT work very well!

Your energy gets scattered, you get frustrated, and usually besides your JOB income, the other income streams never really amount to anything.

What I recommend that people do instead is to follow a strategy that I call Multiple Streams of Synergized Income.

What is Multiple Streams of Synergized Income Diagram

Multiple streams of synergized income is a strategy that you can apply in your life, which can give you all of the benefits of having multiple streams of income without all the frustration and overwhelm of trying to do 50 things at the same time in different directions.

Here’s what it looks like:

With the Multiple Streams of Synergized Income strategy, instead of trying to build 5 or 10 or 50 different incomes streams which are all going in different directions and all separately competing for your time, energy and resources, we instead employ a different strategy where we LINE UP all the income streams in ONE direction.

For example, let’s say that the MAIN income stream that you want to focus on developing right now is being a Professional Network Marketer.

Meaning, let’s say that you’ve joined an MLM company that you really like and you want to build up an income stream as a network marketer.

That’s perfect!

Now you have your main income stream that you are going to be focusing your energy on.

What else do you have?

Well, you might also have your current full time JOB that you work Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, and that job pays you just enough to cover your bills.

Okay, that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that.  You WANT to make sure that you’re not under intense financial pressure while trying to build a new business or income stream, so if you currently have a job that pays your bills, then keep it!

Build your second, main income stream as a Professional Network Marketer in your spare time, on weekends and evenings!

So now, you have your JOB and your have your income stream as a network marketer.

What about all those other income streams we mentioned before?

Well, what you wan to do is you want to take a look at your income streams and see if they:

  • (a) create SYNERGY and benefit the current income stream you’re focusing on building, or;
  • (b) create a DISTRACTION and take up resources and time and energy away from the current income stream you’re focusing on building

For example, let’s say that you hear about one of your friends getting into real-estate and renting out houses and making an income stream as a landlord.

Ask yourself “Would trying to buy a rental property right now, and learning how to be a landlord create SYNERGY with my current focus on becoming a Professional Network Marketer, or would it be a DISTRACTION?”

The answer to that question would most likely be that trying to do that right now would be a DISTRACTION.

Because of this, I wouldn’t recommend it!  Let your friend be the landlord and let him focus on that, and YOU focus on the income stream YOU’RE trying to develop.

Next, let’s say that another friend of yours tells you that he just started a part-time lawn-mowing business and he wants to know if you want to be his partner.

Again, you’ve got to ask yourself if that income stream is going to create SYNERGY or DISTRACTION.

Again, the answer will most likely be that it’ll be a DISTRACTION for you from your goal of becoming a Professional Network Marketer.

You can go through all the different income streams that you might be thinking about getting into in your life and honestly ask yourself this question… SYNERGY or DISTRACTION?

Now let’s look at some income streams that could be SYNERGISTIC with your main focus of trying to become a Professional Network Marketer.

Let’s use the Kalatu Brand Builder platform and the Empower Network training system and affiliate program as an example of another income stream.

Would utilizing this system have a SYNERGISTIC effect on becoming a Professional Network Marketer, or would it be a DISTRACTION?

Well, let’s take a look at what this system does and what it teaches you:

  • It sets you up with and teaches you how to create a personal brand on the Internet
  • It teaches you the most up-to-date strategies for generating leads for any MLM using the Internet
  • It teaches you how to become a Top Producer in any MLM
  • It teaches you how to build a successful Team within any MLM
  • It teaches you how to engage Duplication and Synergy within your Team
  • It teaches you how to convert cold market leads into raving fans WITHOUT having to cold-call anyone or hold meetings in your house
  • and much more!

When we look at this list, it becomes VERY obvious that engaging in a system like this can create a LOT of synergy towards achieving your goal of building an income stream as a Professional Network Marketer.

Therefore, if that is your goal, to become a network marketing pro in any MLM, I would recommend checking out this system.

Not only will it help you to become a much more successful network marketer, but you can also develop a synergistic income stream with the Empower Network affiliate program!

But this is not just about the Kalatu system or Empower Network.

Let’s use another simple example to illustrate the idea behind Multiple Streams of Synergized Income.

Let’s use the emailing platform called AWeber.

AWeber allows you to build email lists, auto-responders and communicate with your audience.

AWeber also has an affiliate program which can help you develop another residual income stream.

But before we decide whether we want to participate in the AWeber affiliate program, we have to ask ourselves again…. Will joining the AWeber affiliate program and promoting it help to build SYNERGY for us as Professional Network Marketers – OR – will it just be a DISTRACTION?

Well, since most experts today will agree that if you want to be a successful network marketer, you MUST learn how to use the Internet and how to build email lists and how to communicate with your prospects and clients via email, learning how to use a tool like AWeber would DEFINITELY have a positive SYNERGISTIC effect on your plans to become a Professional Network Marketer.

Also, as a network marketing professional, you’ll have a TEAM that you’ll be leading as well, and guess what?  That team is going to have to learn how to use auto-responders and how to build an email list and all of those things as well, and they’re going to ask you which is the best tool to use for that purpose.

Well, in that situation you can promote the AWeber platform to them as an affiliate, helping them out with their business, while simultaneously building another small SYNERGISTIC income stream in your business.

Is this starting to make sense?

I often find that a lot of people misunderstand the concept of multiple streams of income and their thinking is usually polarized in one of two directions.

(1) I Love Multiple Income Streams and I’m Trying to Build 100 Of them Now!

This is the type of person that starts 100 different businesses, income streams, jumping around all over the place trying to make money in 50 different directions all at the same time and never actually making ANY real money with any of them.

I’m not going to judge these people because I’ve been there myself!

It’s called the “Shiny Object Syndrome” where you jump all over the place trying to make money in 50 different ways at the same time and never succeed with ANY of them.

On the other side of the spectrum we have the other person…their thinking is more like…

(2) Multiple Streams of Income Are Evil – You Must Focus Only on One Thing Forever and Never Give Up

This is the type of person who joins an MLM and falls into the energy and excitement of the meetings and seminars and get-togethers that the company or their sponsor has, and is brainwashed to think that EVERYTHING else except for that one MLM they are in is a SCAM.

This is the type of person where if you ask them what they’re up to, they’ll spend 30 minutes talking about their MLM, but if you try to mention some resource or training or tool or something that could help them, or you mention another MLM that another friend of yours is in, they’ll be like “OMG!  That thing is a total scam!  My company is not a SCAM but all those other companies, are all SCAMS!”

LOL.  These types of people make me laugh because then they wonder why everyone THEY talk to thinks that THEIR MLM is a scam!

These types of people will usually completely ignore ALL other income streams, regardless whether they’re SYNERGISTIC to their business or not, because they’re afraid of losing FOCUS.

They won’t even look at any tools or resources that anyone recommends to them which could be a HUGE benefit to their business, because they they’re afraid that their sponsor will spank them or something for trying to expand their field of knowledge – LOL.

There Is a Better Way

Look, I totally understand that if you’re in an MLM company, staying FOCUSED and not jumping around from one company to the next every 2 weeks is one of the KEYS to success.

Trying to go in 50 different directions at the same time is counterproductive.  I totally agree with that.

Shiny object syndrome is NOT going to help you become successful.

However, embracing Multiple Streams of SYNERGIZED Income can be the difference between struggling and THRIVING in your business.

I’m not just talking about people who are trying to become Professional Network Marketers.  That’s just an example I used.

Maybe your main income stream that you’re trying to focus on building right now is to be a coach or a mentor.

Or maybe it’s to be a healer or a teacher.

Or maybe you ARE trying to start a lawn mowing business.

Whatever it is that you’re looking to build right now, LOOK for other income streams that can be SYNERGISTIC with the income stream you’re currently building.

Most cell phone kiosks and stores make more money from their SECONDARY income stream – selling cell phone accessories – than they do from their primary income stream!

Most electronics stores make a higher profit from their SECONDARY income stream – selling warranties and service – than they do from their primary income stream (selling electronics!)

If you ARE in fact currently involved in an MLM company, and you want an awesome example of a SYNERGISTIC income stream that fits in with your MLM income, I highly recommend checking out this system by clicking here.

If you’re building another type of income stream, just start looking and I’m sure you can find some synergistic income streams that could significantly multiply your income as an entrepreneur.

Why Multiple Streams of Income Are Better Than One

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For years now I’ve been a big believer in having multiple streams of synergized income.

Some people, such as some leaders in the network marketing industry, however, frown upon multiple streams of income and usually try to discourage their downline members from having them.

You’ll often hear leaders talking about the need to just focus on ONE thing and one thing only.

You’ll often hear them say things like “You have to focus on ONE thing 100% so that you get 100% out of it, instead of trying to split your focus in multiple directions.”

What they try to tell you is that focusing on something 100% is better than putting 50% focus into two things, or 25% focus into 4 things.

In this post I’m going to show you why that may not be the best advice for your business.

The Input / Output Formula

Most people look at a business like a box which you invest a certain amount of time, resources and energy into and they say that you’ll get out of it (OUTPUT) however much you put into it (INPUT).

They’ll say that if you put everything you’ve got into it, you’ll get a lot out of it.

We could simplify this into a formula that looks something like this:

TOTAL ENERGY YOU INPUT INTO BUSINESS (INPUT) = RESULTS YOU GET OUT OF BUSINESS (OUTPUT)

This may seem like a simple formula that makes logical sense, but it’s not entirely accurate.

It’s typically based on a simplified model that is similar to having an hourly job, where the hourly rate is set at a certain price, such as $20/hour, and then the only variable is how many hours you work.

For example if you work 10 hours (Input = 10 hours), then you’ll make $200 (Output = $200).

If you work twice as much, putting in 20 hours (Input = 20 hours), then you’ll make $400 (Output = $400).

Using this simplified model of the world, if you were to go out there and try working TWO equally paying jobs, putting in 5 hours into each job (Input = 10 hours), you’d make $200 (Output = $200).

Based on this model, it makes no sense to work 2 different jobs putting in 5 hours into each one, when you could just instead focus on ONE job and put 10 hours into it.

If BUSINESS worked like this, then yes it would make sense to just focus on doing ONE thing, and ONE thing only.

But in reality, business does NOT work this way, which is why multiple streams of synergized income is a much better strategy.

Let me explain.

The More Realistic Business Formula

When you’re building a business of any kind, you have to realize that YOU are always just one part of a more complex system.

Unlike a job system where your hourly rate is set and guaranteed to be a certain rate, in a business environment, the amount of OUTPUT (money made) you get from each hour of energy you put in (INPUT) can vary greatly over time.

There are MANY variables that affect the amount of OUTPUT you get per hour of INPUT from a business system.

Factor #1 – Seasonality

For example, if a kid was to setup a lemonade stand on the road, in the middle of winter, trying to sell lemonade to people… that kid could sit there all day long and not make a single sale.  Why?  Because it’s cold outside and nobody is thirsty.

Take that same kid with the same lemonade stand, and put them out there for the day on a hot sunny day in the middle of summer, and that kid might completely sell out of lemonade.

In this way, most businesses are at least somewhat seasonal as well.

For example, weight loss systems, personal trainers and gyms are busiest during January when everyone sets their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.  But that same business might be completely dead during the summer time, when people don’t have weight loss on their minds or they just go outside to exercise.

So the season of the year could have an impact on the amount of OUTPUT you get from the amount of INPUT you put into a business.

Factor #2 – Product / Service Launches

Another thing that can affect results in your business is product or service launches.

For example, right now, Empower Network is right in the middle of a new product launch with it’s Kalatu blogging platform and new sales funnels.

This makes it a prime time to join Empower Network and to promote it.

When a company launches a new product or line of products and when there are a lot of cool and exciting things happening, you can build that business much faster and easier with the same amount of work.

But as an example, if I was part of a company that isn’t launching a new product for another 6 months, right now might not be the best time to put energy into promoting that company.

Sometimes the season of the year affects how easy it is to make money with a business.

Sometimes whether or not the company is rolling out a new product can affect how easy it is to make money with a business.

Factor #3 – Industry Changes

Sometimes temporary changes in government regulations, or some good or bad media publicity can affect how easy it is to make money with a business.

For example, back in Oct/Nov 2009, Google changed the entire affiliate marketing industry by all of a sudden banning over 100,000 Google AdWord’s accounts.

The entire affiliate marketing industry changed virtually overnight.

Eventually, within about 6-12 months the industry started to recover as people found other streams of traffic to utilize for their campaigns, but anyone without another income stream for their business had to scramble to not go bankrupt.

Factor #4 – Other People Inside Your Business

Another big thing that can affect the amount of OUTPUT (income etc.) you get from a business is the OTHER people who are involved in your business.

For example, anyone building a network marketing company will have a downline of team mates working with them.

Often times, your income is directly proportional to the results that THEY are producing in the business, and their results will depend on the amount of time and energy that THEY are willing to put in.

So, for example let’s say you were building a downline in a network marketing company part time and you had 5 people working with you and each of them was putting in 5 hours per week.

That means that your business was getting the benefit of 25 hours of INPUT (other people’s energy/time) every week.

And let’s say that you were putting in 5 hours / week yourself as well…so that’s 30 hours TOTAL.

Now, let’s say that you were to quit your job and focus 100% on just that ONE business, and now you are putting in 50 hours per week yourself, as well as the 25 hours that your team is putting in.

That’s a total of 75 hours of time invested in your business – 50 hours coming from you and 25 hours coming from your team.

But let me ask you this….

If you were previously putting in 5 hours / week into your business, and that was enough to get 5 other people to put in 5 hours each, that means YOUR input was 5 hours and the business was getting a total of 30 hours of energy put towards it by your team.

Now, if you focus 100% on your business and put in 50 hours into it, do you think that the other people in your business will also go from 5 hours/week to 50 hours per week?

In most cases they won’t.

Just because YOU commit 100% of your available time to a business, doesn’t mean everyone in your team will.

This means that just because you multiply YOUR efforts by 10 fold, it doesn’t mean your business income will go up by 10 fold.

In this example, YOUR INPUT went up by a factor of 10 TIMES, but the business as a whole is only getting about 3 TIMES the total input.

Does that make sense?

So, sometimes the limiting factor in a businesses growth is not just YOU and what YOU do, but also the other people involved.

Factor #5 – Your Customers

Another factor that can play a key role in how much money you can make from a business (OUTPUT) based on how much time/energy you put into it (INPUT) is your customers.

For example, if I invest 1 hour of my time per day to write valuable content for my Blog, and I email that out to my subscriber list, there’s a certain amount of value that is received by them each day.

But let’s say that I decided to focus 100% on my blog and tried writing 8 blog posts in 8 hours, every day and I sent THAT out to my subscribers every day.

Would I be offering 8 times the value for my subscribers?

Probably not, because my subscribers most likely will not have the time to consume 8 blog posts per day, every day.

So a LOT of that time would be wasted effort.

Other Factors

These are just a few of the factors that are always at play when working on an income stream or a business.

Because of this, the formula isn’t as simple as YOUR INPUT = BUSINESS OUTPUT.

You can’t just say, “You’re going to get out of the business, as much as you put into it.”

It would be easy if it worked that way, but the truth is that in most cases you are NOT the only factor in a business or an income stream.

Yes it is true that in a lot of cases you can be a BIG factor in the amount of income a business or an income stream can produce, but that’s not always the case.

Some businesses or income streams actually work better if you just invest 1-2 hours per day to them, and then work on something else.

Other businesses work better if you invest 4-6hours/day into them, and yes there are other businesses / income streams that only work when you focus on them full time.

Personally, what I like to do is to have a maximum of one income stream that requires a 4-8hours/day commitment and then to also have a few other income streams that only require a 5-10hour/week commitment to them.

Also, depending on some of the other factors above, such as for example seasonality and product/service releases I may also rotate how much time/energy I put into each income stream throughout the year.

What I love about income streams such as Blogging with Empower Network, is that you can decide on a certain number of hours per week that you want to invest into the business, and it doesn’t have to be a lot to start building a pretty respectable income stream.

With each Blog post you write, you’re launching another online “real estate property” as each blog post gets indexed by Google and starts to draw in more and more traffic into your business.

SO the cool thing with income streams like that is that even though I’m not working on them 24 hours a day, my BLOG is serving people and providing value with my blog posts 24 hours/day.   This provides an awesome amount of leverage, so that I don’t have to always be working on this income stream for it to generate income for me.