The Journal

I’ve been touting the benefits of passive income as an additional stream of income but some of my readers have questioned if you can really ‘set it and forget it’ when it comes to creating passive income. Let’s explore this a bit further.

Every business should have a sales funnel, which is a visual representation of how to attract people into the business and convert them into paying customers. The term ‘sales funnel’ is a big buzzword lately yet so many business owners procrastinate or are scared to create a funnel for various reasons. Most commonly, they get overwhelmed at the idea of having to have multiple offers for their prospects, and like anything else, once you start to overthink an idea, it gains a life of its own and seems impossible to create.

You’ve got a wealth of information in that beautiful brain of yours but are you using it to serve your business better? There’s a fine line between sharing all your hard-earned knowledge for free and sharing it only with your paying clients. If you increase the ways to share your knowledge, you can attract more clients while earning more income at the same time.

When you first hung out your virtual shingle, you likely thought: “I can’t wait to get away from this awful job.” “I just want to be home with my kids.” “This dead-end job is going nowhere.” “I’m tired of working crazy hours and holidays.” “I know I’m worth more than they’re paying me.” These and many, many other thoughts go through the heads of every would-be business owner, and are often the driving force behind that final, “I quit.”

You’re proud of the fact that you’ve bootstrapped your business from the ground up, tackling every task that comes your way. You built your first website, dove in and learned how to edit and upload videos to YouTube, figured out how to format your email newsletter, and even wrestled your shopping cart into submission. But that feeling of pride that comes from doing the work yourself comes with a price. Too many small business owners are working too many hours, suffering from burnout and frustration—not because they’re not good at what they do, but simply because they’re unwilling to make the necessary investment in their business.

If you’ve ever heard these statements come out of your mouth—or even in your head—then you’re engaging in a damaging habit known as negative self-talk. By telling yourself these lies (and yes, they are lies) you’re reinforcing the beliefs that go along with them.

We all do it. No matter how successful you are, you’ll fall into the self-sabotage trap at one time or another, and the price of admission is high.

Poor money management has been the cause of more business failures than any other single issue. And it’s no wonder. We aren’t born knowing how to manage money. Most of us aren’t taught how to handle it either. We figure it out along the way, through much trial and error.

You’re only limited by your own creativity but some of the easiest products to create are ebooks, workbooks, ecourses, and recurring revenue sites. They should be easy to create because you’re using your own expertise and experience to create these. No need for expensive ghostwriters or a team of researchers.

I have no doubt that before you opened your coaching doors you thought long and hard about your company’s branding, from the logo design to the colors of your website. The same kind of branding strategy should occur when you’re creating products for your audience.

One question I am asked all the time from my readers is what is a sales funnel and why is it important to have one? I guess that’s really two questions, but they go hand in hand, so I’ll tackle answering them together. A sales funnel is a pathway through which you guide prospects into the depths of your business.

I’m a big believer in creating passive income for your coaching business but many coaches don’t know what to offer or think that their one-on-one coaching services are enough to sustain their lifestyle.