Last Friday, our Epic Shiz of the week was about a “punch in the face” article by Sam, The Financial Samurai at Untemplater titled Quit Your Job And Die Alone. In this very well written article, Sam outlines the entire BS about the people who tell you to quit your job to pursue your dreams. He outlines 4 examples:

Adam Baker

Erica

Myself!

Himself!

I like Sam’s writing skill and there are a lot of things that he wrote that were true and was fair about quitting your job to become self-employed or to create a business. However, I think he purposely picked an angle from which to see this problem and hit it hard with his hammer. I have a feeling that he *forgot* a few details in his article. I’ve already posted a lengthy replied in his thread and feel that I have a lot more to say about it. This is why I wanted to write about my perception of the BS and the truth around quitting your job to create your own business.

Truth: Money doesn’t come easy

Well… the funny thing about this statement is that it has nothing to do with being your own boss or not. Money doesn’t come easy: PERIOD! I rarely see employees make 6 figures while chilling like a villain on the beach… oh wait, I’ve seen entrepreneurs do this… But when you start your business, regardless of your field, money won’t come easy. It requires a lot of work and patience. I keep saying on my blog that I’ve made 125K with my online company but I also explain in the very same post that I went from 18K to end at 125K!

BS: Money doesn’t come easy

I just told you that I’ve seen entrepreneurs chillin’ on the beach right? I guess this is one of the biggest differences between an employee and an entrepreneur: if you work hard and succeed, the employee will always have to come to work on Monday morning. The entrepreneur doesn’t always have to come in. Some say that the entrepreneur has to work like a donkey to get there…. Well not necessarily! After all, I can manage my 6 figure online business in less than 10 hours a week! This is called productivity. So while money doesn’t come easy at first, I can tell you that if you have the right setup, money will come easy. I actually work less than I ever have and my business is still growing. Why? Because I run my business as an entrepreneur and not as an employee. On the other side, I’m very successful with my day job too. But my bonus meter hits the big fat ZERO each year. I still have to come in each Monday morning if I want to see the money rolling.

The truth about being self-employed vs being an entrepreneur

This is exactly where I want to go: some people will quit their job and work as self-employed folk. They will do freelance work and will have to work hard every single day of the year. This situation is pretty similar to being an employee. In fact, it’s the same thing besides the fact that you don’t have a boss and have some more flexibility. However, you work the same number of hours and if you don’t work, you don’t see any money. Being an entrepreneur is being able to setup a money making machine. I don’t care if I have to spend 35K in VAs as long as I don’t have to work hard . The funniest part is that I never ended-up paying the 35K in VA’s since my main VA went on maternity leave 7 months after we hired her. Therefore, we didn’t grow as fast as expected, but we “saved” a few thousand .

The BS about people who can’t make it and bash others for their incompetency

I was surprised to see this point in Sam’s post: basically, he says that people bash employees is because they couldn’t make a great career in a big corporation. I was surprised because so many times I’ve heard the opposite (that people who bash entrepreneurship are the ones who couldn’t make it). In the end, I don’t think it’s the case for either. And for the record, I don’t really bash employees; I’m one myself anyways so would be pretty stupid to do so! There are some great employees who could become great entrepreneurs but never will and some great entrepreneurs who could have become great employees too! It’s not a matter of competencies or failure/success, it’s a matter of choice in your life.

The truth about my own company

Since I publish my monthly income report, you can tell that I’m focusing on gross income way more than anything else. I rarely breakdown my expenses because they don’t really matter to me. Why?

-          Because I’m making more than I spend

-          Because I’m growing my business month after month

-          Because I don’t need this money right now

-          Because I value my lifestyle more than working and therefore need to pay people to work for me

-          Because I’m not spending, I’m investing

There is a huge difference between spending and investing and while I have the feeling I’ve written this before on this blog, I need to do it again. If I really need 60K or 70K to run my business as is, then, I’m in big trouble. But I spend this money to grow and not to maintain. This means that if I stop my aggressive growth plan, I can stop my extravagant spending too! This year, I want to go from 10K to 15K/month the very same way I went from 6K to 10K/month in 2011. But this, my friend, can’t be achieved without some serious investment. Growth doesn’t happen over time just as your next raise in salary won’t happen over time either.

What’s the most amazing thing about having a business?

Yes, you can pursue your dreams.

Yes, you can do what you do.

Yes, you can be your own boss.

Yes, you can work offshore.

But that’s all “marketing BS” compared to the real reason why a business is so awesome. The truth about running your own business is that you can scale it. I’m being very successful at my day job (here’s the chronology of my income) but there is one thing that frustrates me: I can’t scale my job. Whatever I do this year, no matter how amazing I am, my bonus will always reset to a big fat 0 at the start of the year. A big fat 0.  How much can you scale at work: NONE! On the other hand, I’ve scaled so much with my online company that I barely work and still manage to make the equivalent of $45/hour NET OF TAXES. There is one thing I know: this number is going to grow year after year while my base salary won’t be able to follow the same hype. You can’t expect 20% growth in your salary for the next 10 years but you can definitely expect it from your business!

So what’s hip and what’s not?

Honestly, I don’t care about trends. I’m actually the kind of guy who goes against the trend just to not be a follower (I know… I still have a few teenager anger inside of me I guess!).

I don’t have anything to sell you (well I do but it has never been the pillar of my income in my plan anyways!).

And I still tell you: if you can quit your job and create your own business: DO IT!

I guess Sam’s article would have been different if he would added 4 more examples:

JD Roth who sold GetRichSlowly for probably over 1M$

Pat from Smart Passive Income who definitely live a healthy and wealthy life

Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff who makes a killing since she quit her job (she beat me income wise within a few months!)

Trent from The Simple Dollar who sold his blog not so long ago for a healthy profit too

As I written at the beginning of my article; it’s only a matter of taking a different angle!

If you live in another world and make $250K+ per year, this is not your article, not your blog and not your world. I totally understand you won’t quit your day job, but hey! You are part of the minority! While I make a smaller income, I haven’t quit yet for the very same reason: the money is too easy and too good to quit.

But if I lose my job, ask me if I’ll look for another one… 

image credit

Back in 2008, we started this company because we had a lot of fun running our blogs and we wanted to take a bigger shot at making money online. The creation of our company was more to set the base of a strong partnership and not with the goal of make a killing online.

In 2009, we saw some of our sites picking up and we thought that buying blogs would accelerate our growth. This is when I remortgaged my house to invest more money into this venture. We bought our first blog and started to significantly grow our empire without having a serious plan.

In 2010, we realized a record year with $124K in gross income. While our core sites were making money on a steady basis, about half of our earnings were coming from brokered deals and the sale of a few or our sites. It was during this year that we started to have an annual meeting to setup our objectives. At the end of the year, we hired a second VA and we were ready to crush 2011.

In 2011, we were pretty serious about our projects during our annual meeting. While we went through some real successes (such as our Dividend investing eBook with more than 16,024 downloads to date and the fact that we averaged over 10K/month for the last 4 months of the year), we also experienced some failures (do I even have to talk about my Rat Race eBook??). The fact that we have 2 VA’s working for us and a team of writers relieved us from spending too much time working on the company. We were able to achieve a huge year with less than 10 hours of work per week each. This was awesome!

In 2012, this will be a pass or fail year

Why is it going to be such a critical year for us? This is when we will know if we have the potential of running a real company or keep it as just an awesome sideline.

Why so serious?

Because we have been investing some serious money in the past 12 months and continue to do so in 2012.

Because we are growing this company without taking real income and we wish to eventually reap benefits from it.

Because we are making a lot of money from our regular day jobs so we need this company to produce over 300K/year to think of quitting our jobs.

Because we think, we act and we have the structure of a business for 2012. So it will be crucial to see if it will work as we think it will!

1^st Goal: Launch my Dividend Growth eBook by April and sell 300+ copies

It’s funny how I set a goal to sell 100 copies of my first eBook and I failed yet now I’m aiming for more than 300 copies, right? But this is because I’ve learned from my experience. I still believe the book I’ve wrote last year is great but there are some obvious flaws in its marketing:

- The book is not big enough (shy of 100 pages)

- The book was offered as an electronic version only

- The book range is too wide (general personal finance), there is too much competition

- I didn’t test my market before launching (I was convinced that people wanted to know how I got from 30K to 100K/year in 6 years… but I guess it’s not catchy enough).

- The book launch was messy (poor sales pages, wrong links in the newsletter, wrong pricing)

Since I’ve learned from these mistakes and I’m going in the right direction:

- With a very specific product (it won’t be about dividend investing, it will be about Canadian Dividend Investing and US Dividend Investing (2 books!))

- I’ve tested the market (I have over 16,024 downloads in 6 months with my first free eBook on the same topic!)

- The book will be bigger and sell for less

- I want to offer both electronic and hard cover copies

- My investing newsletter is 3 times bigger than my TFB mailing list (we have over 4,000 subscribers throughout our investing mailing list).

2^nd Goal: Reach over $15,000/month in online income by the end of the year

As our past 4 months were showing a steady income over 10K/month, I want to increase our average month by 50% and reach 15K/month for at least 3 consecutive months in 2012. This is a very tough objective that can be done through:

- Increasing our traffic and reaching an average of 3,5K/month with Adsense (currently at 2,3K)

- Growing our niche websites and make 2K/month (currently, we make about $500/month with them)

- Keeping our private advertising income at 6K/month (this is about an average month for us with peaks at 8K)

- Growing our advertising management service to income of 2K/month (we are currently making about $600-$1000 per month with it)

- Growing our affiliate sales to a steady 2K/month (this varies greatly from month to month right now)

- Selling our Dividend Growth eBook (hopefully make over 3K in sales for 2012)

- Buying 1 or 2 websites and generate 1K/month from them (we are currently hunting, so let us know if you want to sell yours!)

If we achieve this long list of tasks, we should be making over 15K/month on a steady basis. Let’s hope it’s feasible!

3^rd Goal: Successfully launch a new site of major importance

We currently have 5 pillar sites in our business:

The Financial Blogger

The Dividend Guy Blog

Intelligent Speculator

Experiments in Finance

Green Panda Treehouse

While we have several other good sites that contributes to our income such as

Do Not Wait

What is Dividend

Canadian Dividend Stock

Home Security System Canada (believe it or not!)

We are looking to build another pillar site in 2012. We currently have 3 projects in the creation process and my goal in 2012 is to see 1 of those sites to become a pillar site. What do I mean by pillar site? I mean a site that:

Gets over 5,000 visits per month (ideally 10K+)

Makes over $500/month by itself (ideally 1K+)

Is a reference in its niche

In order to achieve this goal, we have stayed in our main niche (finance!) but we worked on projects that are way different than blogs or static niche sites. We have a launch date at the end of Q1, Q2 and Q3 for the 3 projects. As both my partner and I are expecting children in 2012, this will be a very busy year! This is why we want to launch 1 project per quarter instead of going crazy and launch all of them with a messy strategy!

Keep our expenses at the same level

Another point, while not being a real goal, will be to achieve our goals without exceeding a 6K/month spending structure. For the past 4 months, our monthly expenses have dropped down to roughly 4K/month since one of our VAs is on maternity leave. While spending has never been an issue for us (we believe in investing in our business), we have reached a point where it would be nice to control our cost while providing additional growth.

So this is why I say that 2012 is a pass or fail year as we will see if we are able create more value than ever, now that we have a respectable size. From what I see, most bloggers get to an income plateau where it’s pretty hard to reach another level. By the creation of new sites, 2 eBooks and more, we will see if we can manage a product launch or if we are just good at managing blogs and making money out of it. In the worst case scenario, we will have an awesome sideline and in the best case scenario, we will unleash a beast creating hundreds of thousands of dollar a year!

David Bakke runs an online reselling business out of his home in Atlanta and contributes his thoughts and analysis on small business, entrepreneurship, and money management on Money Crashers.

I’m currently in the process of transitioning out of my day job and into full-time self-employment. I have always wanted to own a small business, and through hard work, my venture now generates enough income to replace my full-time job.

There are many advantages to self-employment, but this endeavor also presents a whole new set of challenges. To make the transition as smooth as possible, carefully weigh the pros and cons of self-employment before you quit your full-time job.

Pros & Cons of Self-Employment

Advantages

1. You Can Set Your Own Schedule
Once you take the leap, you can say goodbye to the nine-to-five grind. You can work the hours you want and follow your own schedule. Having such a flexible schedule particularly benefits Internet-based small businesses, as you can get much accomplished during non-traditional working hours.

2. You Have More Time to Spend With Family
This was the top reason why I wanted to become self-employed. While working a full-time job, I feel as though my son is growing up without me. As a divorced father, the time I get to spend with my son is precious, and working 40-plus hours a week, Monday through Friday, severely limits my quality time with my son. As I transition into full-time self-employment, I plan to spend as much time as possible with my son.

3. You’re the Boss
As a small business owner, you decide how to run your company. You report to no one, and have complete control of your company’s direction, success, and growth. With a little confidence, an organized business plan, and a willingness to take risks, your business can thrive under your leadership.

4. Income Potential Is Unlimited
Spending a lifetime climbing the corporate ladder chasing the almighty dollar works for many people, but this limits the amount of income you can earn.

By running your own small business, you have unlimited opportunities to generate income. Sure, you will have to work extremely hard in the beginning and your business may grow slowly, but if you stick to it and remain passionate about your endeavor, good things will happen. Once you have gained experience and established your business, the growth of your venture can be exponential.

5. You Have More Freedom and Flexibility
Without a boss to answer to, you have increased freedom and flexibility with your work schedule. If you are self-employed, you do not have to request time off for a doctor’s appointment or for your children’s events. Instead, you simply rearrange your schedule. If you create a work schedule for yourself and stay on top of all engagements, you can easily balance your professional and personal responsibilities.

Disadvantages

1. Personal Health Can Be Difficult to Maintain
You don’t want to ignore your personal health when you start your small business. I currently get plenty of exercise at my job just doing my day-to-day activities. However, once I make the transition into self-employment, I know that I will need to create and maintain a scheduled exercise regimen to stay physically fit. This will involve a time commitment, which I have to factor into my new work schedule.

2. Time Management Is Challenging
If you thought managing your time while juggling a full-time day job and running a side business was tough, wait until you become self-employed.

First, you must figure out how to schedule vacations for yourself without letting your business suffer. This is especially challenging if you don’t have a business partner.

Next, you will quickly learn that you cannot work seven days a week for a long period of time. This is counter-intuitive to the benefits of self-employment, so you’ll need to manage your time in a way that allows for days off. In the beginning, you may have to work long hours and you may have to work on the weekends. But remember, this is only temporary. Once your business gets off the ground you can begin taking time off.

3. No Steady Paycheck
Along with saying goodbye to the daily nine-to-five grind, you can also forget about that steady paycheck. You may experience inconsistent revenue streams, especially when you first become self-employed.

Have a backup plan in place for the instances when you don’t generate enough income. Save money wherever you can, and if you have to temporarily suspend retirement savings or other investment contributions, commit to getting back on track within a scheduled time frame.

4. Responsibilities Greatly Increase
Being your own boss is a benefit of becoming self-employed, but it also comes with certain risks. You will be personally and financially responsible for all decisions made, and one wrong move could cost you your business.

However, most small business owners have an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to take risks. With hard work and a surplus of self-confidence, you can overcome the challenges of being the boss.

5. There Are No Health or Investment Benefits
I had a number of concerns about health insurance for my son and myself, as well as concerns about maintaining retirement and college savings investments when I began to consider leaving my job.

I found plenty of health insurance options for the self-employed, but it took careful research to find the best coverage plan. Many options also exist for retirement savings plans, but this requires additional financial oversight to ensure that you adequately prepare for an enjoyable post-work life.

6. You Must Cut Personal Expenses
Once you make the transition to full-time self-employment, saving money will help you achieve your business goals. This involves cutting back on personal spending and finding new ways to save money every day.

Once you have established your business and you achieve more consistent revenue streams, you can begin increasing your personal expenditures. But plan to have some frugal times when you first become self-employed.

Final Thoughts

If you have a passion for it, I highly recommend starting your own small business in the hopes of someday walking away from your day job. There is an entrepreneur inside all of us – it is only a matter of uncovering one of your talents and deducing how you can turn it into a money-making opportunity. The benefits of full-time small business ownership far outweigh the drawbacks, and it can lead to a much more rewarding life for you and your family.

What are your thoughts on walking away from your day job? Do you have any tips for starting your own business and adapting to the new lifestyle?

Today I want to discuss a very touchy topic: having a side business (or a blog) on top of your job. Either on this blog or at work, I always get this question:

“How do you manage to have a business on the side and perform at work at the same time?”

And an even an even touchier question follows:

“Does your boss know?”

The first question is easy to answer, in my opinion, as it all comes down to time management (here are some of my best time management tips and also here). Managing a side business and keeping your day job doesn’t require you to work more hours but it requires you to work smarter and more efficiently. But being efficient is one thing, managing both your side projects and a day job while letting your boss know about it is another. Here are a few tips I’ve used in the past couple of years:

Be Honest

In my personal case, this wasn’t an option: I have to declare any side income / project or participation in any company.  If I don’t, I may lose my job. This is why my boss and HR know about my side business. However, even if I had the choice to declare it or not, I would tell them without hesitation. Why? Because it gives me leverage when negotiating. My boss is very aware that I have another immediate source of income. Therefore, I can easily decide to work elsewhere as I can count on my side business income to support my lifestyle in the meantime.

I’ve also noticed that I have gained more respect from colleagues and other managers. They see great potential in me and are impressed by the fact that I can manage 2 “careers” at the same time. So if you are serious about your side project and have started to make a few bucks already, don’t be shy to tell your boss. And if you are afraid of getting fired, just think that it costs a lot for a firm to replace an employee (the cost of not having someone working while they search, the cost of looking and interviewing candidates and the cost of training a new employee).

Productivity

There is one thing that you must be very careful with if you disclose that you have another source of income; make sure you do your day job well.  As cool as it is to impress people by my sense of entrepreneurship, it could also play against me if I can’t deliver at my day job. My sideline would easily become the target of any suspicions such as, when do I find the time to work on it. If I work on my online company while at work and don’t do my day job correctly, I will be asked to stop immediately. This would definitely make sense but still, it is important to be aware of what is waiting for you if you tell the world that you make money on the side.

Mind you, you may have the very same problem if your performance drops after a newborn or getting married. Remember, the corporate world is full of dream crashers .

The fine line

There are a lot of shades of gray between what you should/could/would do when you think of running your own venture on the side while keeping your day job. For example, at no time would  I use/mention/represent my job or my employer on any of my blogs. I made it clear that this is my personal life and that I am not writing as a financial planner or an employee of X Corporation. My employer definitely appreciates this and I certainly want to keep him happy .

The other point to be careful about is to make sure that the compliance department is okay with your activities. You may want to hide it from them but if they find that you did, chances are that you will be packing up your boxes a few minutes later. I would rather sit down with them and ask them what I can and can’t do instead of trying to play hide-and-seek with them.

Finally, you may mention that you are making money on the side to your entourage but don’t start bragging about it. For example, nobody at work knows how much I make and how I make my money online (unless they read this blog, lol!). While I want to be honest, I don’t want to draw too much attention on me either. Finding the balance between independence and showing off is very important. Plus, a little bit of mystery is always more exciting ;-D

I’ve been on a roll with the reality checks. I gave you guys part 1 and part 2 of the full-time blogging reality check. Then I followed up with how you can bounce back from failure.

You don’t have to always fail or succeed with everything that you try. There’s a third option. You can quit. You don’t always have to fail at something and wait it out for a long time before you move. Sometimes you just need to quit. For some reason there’s a negative stigma surrounding quitting. I don’t get it. There are many occasions where it makes much more sense to quit, instead of holding on to a false hope. There’s absolutely no need to be ashamed of quitting.

The big question revolves around…

When do you call it quits? How do you know when the time is right to give up on something and to move on?

[For the sake of this post I'm going to discuss calling it quits with a side business or some sort of freelancing work.]

When everyone is making money but you.

If your new business venture isn’t making you money while everyone around you makes a killing, maybe it’s a sign that chasing the dollars isn’t going to work out for you. The problem is that we are all programmed differently. No two human beings are the same. This is why some of us are strictly motivated by money, while others chase their passions. If you’re not making money in a traditionally lucrative field, you should move on, and as much as I hate the phrase, you should look into “following your passions.”

“If you enter a niche because you’re following the dollars, you wont keep it up. It’s too much work, and you will get tired and frustrated and you will eventually fold.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

When you’re working your ass for a long time for no results.

If you’re going to fail, you better fail fast is what they say. There’s no point in holding on to something that’s not going to happen. It’s like those guys that wait for a year when their girlfriend tells them that it’s time for a break. Success doesn’t have to be a slow process. You don’t have to get anyone’s permission to succeed. You don’t have waiting around for your turn. You can quit and try something different.

 When only your parents support you.

It’s cool to have the support of your parents, family, and loved ones. The problem is when these are the only people that support you. Family support is helpful when you’re in trouble. Family support is useless when you actually need REAL feedback. Your girlfriend or parents don’t have the heart to tell you that your new business idea where you invested thousands of dollars, is completely lame.

If you notice that only your parents are supporting your business idea, maybe it’s time to move on. Someone with a valid criticism is not a “hater” (don’t you get annoyed when someone uses that word?).

When you have no tangible proof of any interest.

Just because you think your idea is good it doesn’t mean that anyone else does. You need some sort of tangible proof. There needs to be some sort of a market or some glimpse of hope. Blindly chasing your passions can leave you broke and lonely.

If you haven’t found a paying client in a year, then you must move on because free is not a business model. Free content and free work is noble and all, but how do you plan on paying your bills? Without any tangible proof of interest for your business idea, you need to look at other options.

When you lose your passion.

I know that passion is one of those buzzwords that dream sellers love to throw around. The truth is that if something feels like a chore, it’s time to find something new that interests you. Life is too short to spend it on stuff that you hate.

That’s all I have to say about quitting. It’s tough to let go. The good news is that when one door closes, another opens (yes it’s cliche, but it’s true).

Have you had to quit something recently? How did you know it was time to call it quits?

(photo credit: fuzzcat)

As an example, I told you how to build a niche website last week and what kind of return you can expect from it (about 25% per year, on a conservative basis). The less money you have to build the site, the more time you will have to put in. This is why the 5th day is important . You can basically build a niche site with only $10 in your bank account (thas a minimum to buy a domain). Then, you just have to hustle hard and you can make it happen.
 

But wait…. Building a niche site is not that easy…

Yeah… I would be lying to you if I told you that you will make a 25% return on your first site. I didn’t. And to be totally honest, so far, my niche website adventure has been a great hole where I drop money into. If you look at my blog income report, you’ll see that I made a few thousand so far with all my niche sites. But if I factor in how many hours I’ve put into them, I’m not making money at all. As a matter of fact, it is true for niche website creation, but it is also true about any type of business you want to start. Yeah… sorry to whack you in the face with a baseball bat again… but chances are that you won’t make money with your first idea!

This post is about finding the right idea for your sideline business. It can be a product, a service, a blog or a niche site. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is having the right idea to make some cash!

I still think that niche sites will become a lucrative part of my business as they help my diversification and my latest sites (What is Dividend & Canadian Dividend Stock) are showing way more potential (and they are built differently!).

There are a few differences between these 2 sites and my previous ideas. The one I want to put emphasis on today is the idea behind the site. Dividend investing is a great topic to talk about. And, more importantly, it is a lucrative topic! Selecting the right idea upfront for your site, product or service is definitely the most important step if you don’t want to fail.

All the criteria your idea must meet

Don’t worry; this won’t be an exhaustive list.  But the point is that your idea must fit ALL the criteria. If it doesn’t, then it’s not a good idea. Plain and simple. You can always convince yourself that you are still right but then, I’ll have to ask you “where is the money?”.  So here’s the list:

Find a sizable market

The first thing you need is people that could possibly be interested in your idea. If you narrow your offer too much, chances are that your market will be too small and you won’t be able to scale your expertise and transform it into money. The personal finance is a highly competitive niche but it is because it is quite large too.
 

Find people ready to spend

Have you tried to sell something to frugal people or people with huge debts? You need to find out if people are willing to pay for your product / service. In order to find these people, your idea must generally solve a problem, protect people from fear or add value to someone’s life. But the problem needs to be pretty big, the fear important and the added value tremendous to convince people to pull the wallet out of their pockets. This is one of the main reasons why I have chosen the dividend niche.  People don’t see buying a book or a service as an expense, they see it as an investment.
 

Find the benefit(s) of your idea

If your idea can’t compete with a 50 inch TV plasma, chances are that people will prefer to waste their money elsewhere. For example, the main benefit of Canadian Dividend Stock is that it provides CANADIAN information on dividend stocks. People who want to read about Canadian banks, telecoms, REITs, energy stocks will go to this site. Another benefit is that CDS will offer information based on the Canadian reality (like discussing the type of account). Since there are not many bloggers who cover the Canadian dividend market, the benefits are bigger too.

Find how you will make money from your idea

This sounds pretty stupid and obvious but most people skip this step. Don’t just stupidly think that you will put your product up for sale and you are going to rake in tons of money. It’s not gonna happen.

Yeah I know, your product is the best in the world.

And it is unique.

And it has been tested and this is an emerging market,  and blah blah blah…

This still doesn’t tell me how you will make a sale! This part of your idea must be incredibly detailed. If not, it will fail. I promise… ‘cause I tried the other way around many times! Lol!

Here’s how you should do it:

For example, I work in the financial industry. I am a financial planner by day. So basically, I do “my job” when I meet clients and transfer their money under my management. I’m a great guy, I’m smart, I know about the market, I have an MBA, I offer great investing solutions and blah blah blah. People don’t care about that. It will definitely help, but it’s not how I close my sales.

This is how I’ve built my business to make money:

How do I sell?

I need a client in my office that will sign the transfer.

How do I get the client?

I need to call a bunch of them and convince them that I have some great investment ideas to show them.

How do I call?

I need lists of clients (my employer provides me with existing clients that have no investments with us, for example.)

So, how do I sell again?

I need to make 20 calls, to get 10 appointments, to get 5 people interested for 3 to sign on the dotted line.

If my average sale is $100K, I need to call 60 clients a week to bring in $300K per week.

NOW I know how I can make money out of my job. Not because I’m a great planner, not because I work for a great firm but because I have a streamlined process.

Then, you can also go deeper for each step (for example, you need to figure out what will be the biggest objections or excuses to not buy your product/service). Once you have done all this, you will have a great idea with a great plan and will bring you a lot of money .

So stop day dreaming and start working (really working) on your idea!

Today, I’ll reach the summit of controversy.

I’m going to climb to the top of the highest mountain and yell to the world:

“I’M STAYING IN THE RAT RACE!!!”

Oh boy. By writing this line I almost feel ashamed. It’s like saying: “I’m stupid, I’m well aware of it and even darn proud to be a rat!”. That’s it! After so much effort to tell you that it sucks to be stuck in the Rat Race, I’m taking a big jump into the race…dumb!

Did I change my mind? Not really.

Did I lose my mind? Don’t think so.

I still want to quit my job eventually and become a dot com mogul. However, this won’t happen next year… as my previous plan was designed for… Let me tell you a story:

Back in April of this year, I saw an opening at work to get one of the highest jobs for a financial planner: working in wealth management. This department is like playing for the NHL: you only deal with multimillionaire clients. I got the interview and everything went pretty well. In fact, I know I’m made for this job and it looks that the guy interviewing me was thinking the same… until he asked me the fatal question: What would you do if a similar position opens up in a year closer to home? Mind you, I live 85km (that’s 52.8 miles) from work. That causes some serious lack of sleep.

I thought I was able to deal with it but it’s all BS… it’s been almost 2 years and I’m dead tired now (and maybe that’s because I’m running my online company at the same time ). I was able to do it for a while but waking up at 4:30 every morning has become too much for my brain to support. So this is why I had answered that I would jump on the job and quit this one. Ugh… yeah I knew that I had just shot myself in the foot but I believe in honesty (so naïve! But that’s me!).

So instead of getting the job, the guy arranged for a meeting with the manager in my area. It looked like they were planning on opening a similar position… 5 minutes away from where I live. Can this be? Really? It was like a dream coming true. But the budget hasn’t been approved yet. In fact, the business case was supposed to be presented back in August.

So a few weeks passed and fast forward to October. I just got back from the FINCON11 and I’m more motivated than ever to crush it and make a killing with my online company. At the same time, I speak with the guy who tells me that he didn’t get the okay yet to add the position.

I’m not the kind of dude who waits in line.

I don’t wait until someone calls my ticket number.

I just go directly to the counter and ask to be served.

This is exactly what I did: I told everybody that if nothing happens before my wife is due (we are expecting our 3^rd child in February 2012), I would take a 7 month paternity leave (I told you that sometimes paying taxes is a good thing). I will work on my online business during that time. It wasn’t a threat by all means. It was just the blunt truth. I decided to create 2 “A” plans instead of having a plan B!

Plan A: I score a dream job 5 minutes away from where I live while I continue to grow my company on the side.

Plan A (2^nd version): I get paid 75% of my base income for 7 months while I work my ass off on my blog to make a killing.

After a few weeks, I was starting to make some serious plans about my decision. I started to think about some projects I would start if I could work full time for my online company. I was tired of waiting and was looking at a golden opportunity to jump out of the rat race while being paid to do it. A risk free ticket to financial freedom. How cool is that???

And then, last week, I got a call from “the guy”. He now has his budget to make my 1^st plan A happen. I’ll be meeting with him in a few days for my official interview. I don’t know if I’ll get the job but I know one thing: if I get an offer, I’ll jump on it. I’ll be jumping in with both feet.  Directly into the rat race hole as if I didn’t know that there was a trap beside the piece of cheese!

So did I change my mind? Wasn’t the rat race the worst thing anyone could get stuck in? I still believe it. But let’s face it; I’m a small, little coward and I can’t live with the idea that I am putting my family on the line with my online business.

I would rather make more sacrifices and stay on the path inside the rat race for a few more years… so my kids can go to private school, so my wife can continue to stay at home and take care of them, so I can pay off my debts… so I can live my cowardly life quietly…

The real problem is that I currently make too much to stop (see all the details about my income here). Another problem is that I’m used to this lifestyle inflation. I just can’t quit in a heartbeat. I need to devise a more evil plan to make it happen. At least, I have a plan. But I won’t tell you yet… I’ll wait until I know that I have the job or not .

It hurts, but this sounds like the right choice at the moment. I don’t have blind faith in everything (far from it!) but I believe in destiny. I actually believe that you are the sole designer of your life and the only person responsible for what is happening to you (death is just an overrated myth in my opinion). However, I also believe that we are all given choices or opportunities at different points in time. And sometimes you can push on Destiny’s back to make some opportunities happen. And this is what I did by making up 2 A plans. If you push in all directions, set the rules and then you just have to wait for Destiny’s sign to make your final move. I believe you better listen to it when it happens! So this is why I’m taking a shot at this golden job. My resume has been sent, I’m just waiting…

What do you think? I’m just a coward or am I taking the right path?

Some people hate it with a passion.

Others can’t sleep when they face. They get nauseous, anxious, just freak out or freeze when faced by the “opponent”.

While others, crazy people like me, are delighted to jump into the game and get ready to rumblllle!

Do you like competition? I love it!

But it’s not a matter of being better than anyone else and beating the shit out of him.

It’s not a matter of crushing the competition or going to war.

In fact, competition is not about the others; it’s about YOU!

When you compete, the only person you should try to beat is yourself. You should use the competitors as a source of motivation, even inspiration. But at no time, should you get into a battle with a competitor. This only leads to the vicious cycle of envy and deceit (when it doesn’t lead to cheating and murder… lol!).

This is how I became one of the top 3 Financial Planners in Montreal

The financial world is a very competitive field. In fact, if you don’t like competition, don’t even think going there. You will hate it with a passion. For example, every week, we have our rankings published on our intranet. We can compare ourselves to people in our branch, the region or across the entire company. All results are published. Some people can’t stand it, especially if they don’t perform well: week after week. Others dislike it as well because they feel an additional pressure. Personally, I just love to be compared to others. Not because I want to be the first one on top all the time, but because I like to see the carrot I am chasing.

When people ask me at work who my main competitors are, I always answer: “anyone above me in this week’s ranking”. I don’t really care who’s in front of me when I look at the report. I only care about how they made it and what can I do differently this week to surpass them. It tells me who to listen to, who to follow and who to ask for help or advice if I want to improve my skills.

Then, if I do everything that is within my control and someone is still ahead of me (did I ever mention that I was nominated for the past 3 years but never won a single year????), I head home with a smile on my face. Because I know that I did what I could and that I beat myself once again. It becomes to be a perpetual race to become better everyday. After 3 years, this one is obviously mine. I have just achieved my best year ever and am, once again in the top 3 in Montreal (I have to wait ’til December to know if I’ve won!)

Here’s another example

I’m a fierce competitor.

I really like to win.

But what I value most is not the victory; it’s what I have done to win. This is why, even when I don’t win (‘cause it happens all the time!), I still feel good about myself.

I sometimes tell you about my son, William. He is the little boy any father would dream of: tall, strong, smart, handsome (yeah I know, I’m totally biased!) and soooo good at all sports. This summer, I was the coach for his soccer team. Do you know when I was the most proud of him and his team? When we lost 7-6 in a tournament match. Why? Because “my” kids were losing 3-0 and they never gave-up. They played until the very last minute and showed the other team that they were ready to play as a team and win (or lose) as a team too. I really felt that everybody on the team gave their best and it led to the best game of the tournament (according to all the parents and the referees on the field). So I don’t care if my boys lost or not, I know that we played the game till the end.

Why competition is the most amazing thing that could ever happen to you

Here’s my take on competition: this is the best thing that can happen to any human being. It can be at work, in sport or when you run your own business. I remember one very important lesson I learned in one of my marketing classes:

“if there is no competition, there is no market”.

All right, everybody will bring up the Microsoft example to screw my point. But besides Microsoft and a few other exceptions, there are only 2 reasons that explain why you are in a market with no competitors:

1-      Nobody is interested in that market because there is no money to be made (i.e. people ain’t buying)

2-      There will be a market and you are the very first to discover it. Therefore, you will have to work 10 times harder to develop the market and convince people they need your service/product.

On the opposite side, competition will not only bring competitors. It will also:

-          Educate your market (make people aware of your business).

-          Optimize the market (since you are in competition, everybody is looking to offer the best product in the world to their clients).

-          Optimize the cost (while it often equals lowering margin benefits for entrepreneurs, this is very good for the customer).

-          It makes you proud at the end of the day when you succeed.

look at what is happening with the niche site duel:

We all talk about our sites and link to others people sites. This increase the number of links to each site, enables us to swap readers and we have more visitors to our niche sites (don’t forget to go see Canadian Dividend Stock ).

You don’t like competition? Then go home!

Honestly, if you dislike competition, you probably dislike working and trying to give the best of what you have. So stop what you are doing and find yourself a great job for the government! However, I can assure you of one thing; there is no way you will be proud of yourself, be proud of going the extra mile at the end of the day. This is why I get up every morning with a smile in my face!

We all fail at something at some point. It sucks. I’m not even going to humor you by starting this post off with some lame motivational quote. As much as I love motivational quotes, we all need to be realistic sometimes. Failing sucks. Winning rules!

Two weeks ago I gave a harsh reality check for those that wanted to blog full-time. T

Today we’re going to talk about how you can deal with failure (since I failed with my product launch, remember?) and bounce back higher than ever!

Pamela Slim said it best in Escape From Cubicle Nation:

A lot of our view in of failure in popular American culture is romanticized. The fact is, while you are failing, it feels really awful and does not become the enlightened lesson that you receive until you have some distance between you and the excruciating experience.

Barry Moltz is a bit more emotional in Bounce! Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success:

Treat all the outcomes you label as “failure” with an open mind and appreciative attitude, and learn from them. When we are finally able to let go, we are ready for the next experience.

You might agree with quote #1 or or #2 more. Regardless of which point you agree with, I wanted to share how you can deal with failure from what I’ve learned from failing a few times.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Your projects or audacious goals don’t have to be all or nothing. Personally, it’s more fun for me to throw EVERYTHING on the line. This is what I did with my eBook launch. All of my time went towards work involving this project. This ranged from studying psychology to sell the book to reaching out to my friends in the blogging community for feedback. All of my free time and emotions went into this launch.

What I’m getting at is that your goals don’t have to always be all or nothing. For example, if you strive to lose 15lbs and you lose only 5 because you ended up getting more muscular (muscle weighs more than fat), then you didn’t fail. You just reached a different goal. I learned that my eBook launch failed but I know have content at my disposal and I know how to write an eBook and launch it. I just need to learn how to get others to buy some damn copies. You don’t always have to view everything as “all or nothing.” This isn’t some action movie.

There are always lessons learned.

Yes I know. Telling someone that they learned a lesson is lame and much easier when you’re not the one failing. The reality here is that we do learn from everything.

We learn from everything that we do. I’m a huge fan of testing out different techniques. This is how I got better at approaching women at bars to the point that it was no longer fun. You need to try different approaches and strategies to see what works. Looks like I don’t have the audience to support a product. No big deal. Time to move on.

Grow a set and move on.

It’s NEVER worth it to feel sorry for yourself. Screw that! You need to be on top of the world no matter what. I’m guilty of feeling sorry for myself for a few days. Yep it’s embarrassing.

I know too many people that go around feeling sorry for themselves about every little issue. Then there are others that are going through much worse but don’t have time to wallow in self-pity because they’re too damn busy working. You need to grow a set and move on. That’s it.

Don’t stop setting audacious goals.

I don’t set lame goals or take the safe way out. Just because you failed once it doesn’t mean that you have to be afraid of setting huge goals for the future. You need to keep on thinking big and setting ambitious goals. Life’s too short to spend it on shit that doesn’t matter.

You need to fail.

It’s true. We all need to fail. Failing fucking sucks! However, if you’re not failing then you’re not trying hard enough. I could’ve spent October writing about how Bank of America added fees and then took them down (just like every single personal finance blogger did). Instead I chose to write about shit that matters. I want my readers to conquer credit and get out of debt. Other bloggers can keep on writing about fee increases at banks and other boring topics.

At the end of the day, you can easily deal with failure and bounce back higher than ever.

Have you dealt with a failure recently? Please share the experience here.

I wanted to finish off with some theory from Seth Godin on the topic of how successful people fail:

Successful people learn from failure, but the lesson they learn is a different one. They don’t learn that they shouldn’t have tried in the first place, and they don’t learn that they are always right and the world is wrong and they don’t learn that they are losers. They learn that the tactics they used didn’t work or that the person they used them on didn’t respond.

(photo credit: rob boudon)

Man…. I remember this like it was just yesterday. Back in my apartment in Montreal, I was just starting my career. At that time, not long after I quit my first job without notice and found my way to another department at the same bank after a few weeks. A year later, I was sitting on my couch on a lazy evening, not doing much. My wife was out for a work meeting and I had nothing to do besides watch the boring premiere of a cheap version of Gilligan’s Island but with a plane instead of a boat… Oh yeah… I’m talking about Lost . At first, I was definitely not sure about this series… and then I got hooked!

Dude! What’s the point of talking about Lost on this blog? Keep reading… you’ll find out

6 awesome seasons later, one per year, Lost ended-up with the best series finale ever in my opinion. That was back in May 2010. During the same 6 years (from September 2004 to May 2010), I did a lot of things:

- I got 4 promotions and went from a 30K annually to a 135K salary in 2010.

- I got married with the most amazing woman in the world.

- I started a 6 figure online business with my best friend.

- I had 2 marvelous kids.

- I got my securities license, Certified Financial Planner degree and my MBA.

- I’ve been able to gather all my friends from different paths (high school, in-laws, university, neighborhood) together each Xmas and now rent vacation properties all together.

- I’ve managed my way to obtain a 4 day/week schedule at my day job and work on my blog one full day a week.

- I’ve made more friends during the MBA program and we still see each other from time to time.

- I’ve gone from a negative net worth to almost $200,000 net worth.

- I’ve learned how to play golf, started a steady workout schedule at the gym and played softball in a garage league.

- I’ve done all this and never missed 1 episode of Lost. In fact, I also got hooked on many other series such as Prison Break, House, Dexter,  etc.

So What’s the Point?

The point is that I did a lot of things that contributed to my financial situation during these past 6 years and still have a life. I am able to be there for my family and friends, all the time.

The point is that I am not better than you, not smarter than you. I just did a few things differently.

And I think you can do the same.

And I’m about to tell you how…. This week

How to Crush it and still have a life

When I was a kid, my financial goal was simple: make $100K per year. I have upped that, added a small modification to that goal:

Make 100K per year while working less than 30 hours a week

I’ve discovered that making 6 figures was not that complicated in the financial world. However, reducing your work hours below 35 hours is almost mission impossible. Why? Because of the Dream Crashers! In the upcoming weeks, I’ll share with you my tricks on how to:

- Reduce your work hours without affecting your salary

- Find time to build a sideline business without ditching your friends and family

- Create activities that will generate money

So tell me what you have a problem with

I already have a pretty good idea of how I will build this series and what will be included in it. But I need to know what your issues are to make sure that I hit the right nails and close the coffin on fears that prevent you from living a better life.

So tell me, what is holding you back? Is it time? Resources? Money? Ideas?