+5k extra monthly income to fill deficit, 20 day challenge, starts now!!

[Nice_home]

Disclaimer: All ideas welcome!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have to smack some sense into me, I’m fine with that - I’m open to facing the brutal truth as needed to make progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my wife and I were talking about finances because our budget is minus, roughly 5k per month. Typically I would approach it from the angle of cutting the budget but we are pretty locked in/on the hook for these expenses already. I just don’t want to eat into savings and want to quickly get into the “black” so that I can have peace of mind and therefore hopefully free up more creative space in my brain (to replace the current financial stress there) for doing better and higher level work.

I’ve been looking into advice on this forum and at some point I also asked about business coaches (full thread here: Has a one on one business coach ever been "worth it" for you?). A bunch of people replied with the suggestion to just learn through this forum, and seek help here, since my budget is so low for a business coach. (Anothing suggestion was to read a lot of books - currently working on that, too.) I figured I’d try to take people up on this chance.

So I’ve got a lot of thoughts swirling, but it’s been hard to get into a flow of process and especially get into decisive action.

I currently have a website, let’s call it a niche blog, that’s earning about 100 / mo with virtually no expenses. I have considered some investing strategies that could possibly generate another 500 / mo in dividends at the level I would come in at. I’m an avid writer, just really not sure how to monetize on that front, since my writing has typically been more personal in nature. I’m also a bit of an artist and so I’ve also got this idea to “transform” things around the house, adding value to them by turning them into more artistic versions of existence, and then “flipping” those, if you will. But so far no action on that front. Especially, I don’t have a clear mind for a sales channel.

In terms of marketing, I have a lot of experience in Facebook advertising, cold emailing, SEO, conferences and networking and more general knowledge in other types of marketing. I prefer Facebook advertising out of all the marketing channels I’ve experienced thus far for reach and quality of audience.

I don’t have a ton of time to focus on my income projects, so this is totally classified as a “side-hustle” type of need for me. Hence I’ve posted around the forum on Time Management too, and received a lot of useful feedback already.

My question is, where would you go from here?? In 20 days, my wife and I will meet again to see if we’ve mutually made any progress towards the 5k deficit. Well, they don’t call it the FASTlane for nothing!

 

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[Champion]

Hey Nice_home, thanks for sharing!

Im only 26 and im not talking from experience here, only what I hear MJ talking about in his books and how I interpret the fastlane philosophy:

No matter how much you are earning, there is no way you can outrun consumption if you are not controlling and disciplining yourself on the expense side of things. This is what MJ talks about and stresses a lot in "Unscripted ".

How do you think professional athletes, movie stars, famous artists and musicians can go broke, even though they earn millions per year? --> Consumption and unadulterated spending.

My question to you is, how did this 5k deficit in your budget start? To me it sounds like a lot of money... However, I have no idea about your life's circumstances.

What I think would be really useful for us in order to help you:

- How much are you and your wife currently earning per month? What is the source of that income?
- What are the individual costs that add up to the 5k deficit per month? Can you get rid of any of them?
- What city/country do you live in and how old are you?

I think if we have some more information, some people might be able to point you in the right direction.

On a first feeling, however, I think that your problem is not earning more money for now, its cutting the fat from those 5k expenses! Everything which is not completely necessary should be removed.

Best

 

[GSF]

First thing I'd be looking for a second job/ additional income and ways to cut the expense down. Freelance/ Work evenings/ 7 days if I had to.

Some ideas with your stated skills;
Monthly Facebook ads service for other companies.
Monthly Blog writing/ set up service.
Cold email outreach service monthly for other companies.
Any kind of writing service (resumes).
Use your experience in facebook and email outreach to get clients. Reach out to past customers, friends family etc.

Don't spend time building anything. Validate it., get a paying customer then build it. Avoid anything product based with heavy marketing costs. Focus on recurring monthly services. Just get a basic landing page with an offer and a email sign up button and test it cheaply and quickly. Link it on forums, Craigslist. , Facebook groups.

 

[broswoodwork]

5k per month

Are you in Manhattan or San Francisco? I'm having trouble envisioning how trimming some fat is harder than whipping up $60,000/year in side hustle cash.

Maybe this will help?

GOLD! - How I earned money (hustle arbitrage) to start a real business.

TL;DR Buy stuff. Sell stuff. I've seen some posts on here and other places saying something like "I don't have the money to put into my idea right now," or "If only I had $XX,XXX I could get going." I understand. I've been there myself. So I thought I'd share how I turned $500 into $40,000...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Nice_home]

For shortage of time, I will give a super brief explanation: 5k is not an absolute deficit, but it’s kind of like a max deficit. We actually have some (consulting) income to “potentially” cover it, but it’s hit or miss since the client is slightly unstable, so I’d like to make a stable backup option for income. We also have savings to cover for it for a while; we went out on a limb on expenses, and I’m hoping that we can stir up some new income sources to cover. That said, THANK YOU for all the input and feedback.

This morning I started thinking in terms of pain points and solutions, and right now, all signs are pointing towards a paid newsletter. Basically, I’m looking for a business that can be more “process-driven” than results-oriented, if that makes sense. Like do xyz thing every day, and over time, abc thing will pile up as a result. Rather than a business that’s more results-oriented or geared towards 1 time results (though I suppose all businesses can be broken into their basic processes, to a degree). Writing comes super naturally for me so I think paid newsletter makes sense in terms of the “process.”

Long story short, here’s what I thought of in terms of pain points to tackle:

Pain points

• Lack of surveys, stats and deeper research into my niche; Research and stats focuses on the past vs the future; Organizations don’t know what the leading edge looks like, so it’s hard to get there
• Super hard to get “traction” in life and work
• People want to be entertained mindlessly, but they also need education
• Lack of knowing what the biggest issues are for my niche today; people in my niche don’t read and challenge themselves enough to keep growing; People get stuck and limited with one thought, but should have 100s of ideas, and then hone those down to the ones that can be setup as next steps
• People want to be let in on a journey
• People in my niche don’t attack life from a “process” perspective; People get stuck on one problem and can’t breakthrough
• People are closed emotionally and creatively, especially when goal driven
• People are mindless drones stuck in Passive Virtual Escape
• Too many books on various topics
• Super small businesses cannot afford many really basic subscriptions for marketing and things like that

And here’s what I thought of in terms of product aspects/solutions:

• something like Harvard Business Review for my niche; newsletter focused on the future and what is to come; Substack to focus on leading edge type consulting
• Substack focus on getting “traction” and breaking through on that front
• Use Substack as an entertaining and yet super helpful newsletter
• survey; group email newsletter where “users decide” the next topic; creative brainstorming service, as part of “users decide what’s next” type of approach?
• newsletter stating goals and inviting people to join as progress is made, ex: “my goal is to teach 1000 people xyz attribute, be a part of this!” 1000 people doing 1000 days
• email program or course to tackle life with processes and habits; teach problem-solving by process
• help people open up emotionally and creatively
• focus Substack on Active Real Experience
• summarize what good books and classics are out there with affiliate links
• give super inexpensive help, cheapest on the market, mass accessible

My next brainstorming session will be geared towards marketing methods. I plan to put together several bullets on that front. I’m open to all suggestions, criticisms, and feedback on what I've got up here thus far. Does this seem like I’m on the right track at all?

 

[Nice_home]

Going with the pain points and product concepts above, these are some of my latest ideas related to marketing a subscription newsletter geared towards people who are stuck or emotionally or creatively blocked in their challenges and would value an inexpensive, tailored solution:

• Consider target audience - ideal customer profile (young? Old? Within my current niche? Without?); Market by targeting specific pain points
• Users decide the next topic - so spreading “virally”
• Market the “financial value” of the newsletter; Determine the margin based on the target profit - 20% - 25,000 - market the product at $25 / mo for 1,000 people; Free if they fill out a survey each week.
• Market the “time value” of the newsletter
• Make it 10x better than any competing newsletter

One thought now is to mentally (or in written form) prepare an ideal target audience. I’m thinking it’s like a creative type that’s stuck. Perhaps even a student trying to learn and grow. The target customer persona.

What are the key factors the target customer persona’s will have in common. And can I use that commonality to introduce my product to these types of people?

From there I plan to get the substack launched and start a feedback loop where I work on the product (content) and market it on a regular basis, while regularly reviewing the pain points to see how to make the product more relevant and engaging.

 

[Jon L]

Its hard to know how to advise you.

On the one hand, most people that have a $5000 deficit should just go get a job. Especially ones who list a $100/month blog as their only Fastlane income source.

On the other hand, this consulting thing makes it sound like you have pretty deep knowledge in your niche, which should make that $5000 deficit pretty easy to overcome.

It would help if we knew the specifics of what you do.

Can you take on more consulting clients?

Here's an example of how you could do that:

I run a small company that does custom business software. To find new clients, I'm partnering with managed IT service firms. These firms get to know their clients' businesses really well, and run across custom software projects on occasion. Most IT service firms don't write custom software themselves, so its mostly an easy sell: "Hi, do you want extra money from referral fees, and the ability to provide better service to your clients?" who could say no to that? well most do, but I've found 3 that are sending clients my way, and I'm just getting started.

Not sure what your niche is, or who you could set up a referral arrangement with, but its something to consider.

The first thing to do is to close your deficit. I'd bet that more consulting gigs is the way you could do that the fastest.

 

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[Nice_home]

The consulting idea is interesting, and you're right, that probably would be the fastest way,.... That said, with how challenging the work is on that front, I'm not so sure I'd even want to work with another client like this. Or let me rephrase that, I'm sure I wouldn't want to.

Meanwhile, my wife and I had another meeting, we broke the goal down, she's in charge of 2k, I'm in charge of 2k (and we shaved off 1k of immediate needs by putting more budget reliance onto said consulting gig).

We're giving ourselves another 20-30 days to tackle it.

So far, I launched the product mentioned above, and started marketing it. I am hopeful that a process is being formed to build it up over time.

I also doubled down with renewed focus on my ($100/mo) blog. Meanwhile, still trying to get the investment project set up.

All told, these should generate a few hundred bucks, while I figure out how to squeeze more out of them or find more lucrative gigs.

 

[TheCj]

I second the get more consulting work. First issue is you need to rely on more than one client, especially if it's that sporadic. Secondly now you know what type of client to avoid you can choose your client as much as they choose you. Seems like the fastest path, start getting more work than you can handle then can start bringing on people to help, or choose which clients to work with or increase rates etc...

 

[Andy Black]

First thing I'd be looking for a second job/ additional income and ways to cut the expense down. Freelance/ Work evenings/ 7 days if I had to.

Some ideas with your stated skills;
Monthly Facebook ads service for other companies.
Monthly Blog writing/ set up service.
Cold email outreach service monthly for other companies.
Any kind of writing service (resumes).
Use your experience in facebook and email outreach to get clients. Reach out to past customers, friends family etc.

Don't spend time building anything. Validate it., get a paying customer then build it. Avoid anything product based with heavy marketing costs. Focus on recurring monthly services. Just get a basic landing page with an offer and a email sign up button and test it cheaply and quickly. Link it on forums, Craigslist. , Facebook groups.

This.

Get two $500/mth clients or one $1k/mth client. Now you’ve just extended your runway.

Do the same next month and you’ve got your $2k/mth.

Do it the next 12 months and you could be at $12k/mth. (There will likely be churn, and the churn will be more at the start. However, you’ll also continue to get better at acquiring and serving clients.)

The paid email newsletter can be a side-hustle to the side-hustle.

 

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[NMdad]

Agree with others that ramping up your consulting is likely the fastest path to cash--for the moment. It doesn't have to be fastlane--it just has to fill the gap in income.

Also, we all have ideas, but something that I've found helpful is to focus not on WHAT you could do, but WHO you can help. Like get super specific about the who--that'll narrow your sights so you can get very targeted in your efforts, and will also direct WHAT you'll do to provide value for them.

 

[Nice_home]

A lot of information to ponder here, a lot of good suggestions.

Just a quick check-in to say, thanks for the great suggestions, per the above advice, I am now courting consulting client #2, and just this client alone pretty much has the ability to cover the income gap. So let's see.

Thanks to this thread I actually remembered this person has been reaching out to me for months (if not years) asking for help. I never seriously considered it because I thought there may potentially be a conflict with some other work I am doing, but surprisingly to me, my current client (#1) actually caught wind of it (small world) and actually endorsed it. So that's a huge and unexpected plus.

Meanwhile, newsletter project (side-hustle to the side-hustle) still going forward, and I got lots of marketing insights from the initial experiments. Will try my best to keep you all posted.

 

[Nice_home]

Update: Not sure what to say other than, I’m still actively pursuing this goal.

At this point, it’s one step forward, two steps back - like, literally, due to all the extra reading and thinking I’ve been doing, I’ve decided “less is more” and cut back on even the the clients and projects I already had - yes, “had” in past tense - to just focus fully on one client that I really trust and that pays very well and on time with no questions.

Regarding the changes in my thought process towards my work, in the past, my thought was always something like this “if I want to get $5,000 more per month, I need to get x people to pay me y dollar amount - what could I do that could cause those people to pay me that much (and how will I reach them in the first place)?”

What I’m thinking of these days is completely different, and more along the lines of the following two points:

1) “What could I give my client that would give them so much value (i.e. $10,000+ in new value/profits for them) that it is completely justifiable/easy for me to ask for $5,000 back?

In this case it pretty much amounts to lead gen - if I could use some of my FB/marketing skills to generate new customers for this client - like 10 clients that can do $5k each for example - then it’s not a big ask to get paid $5,000+ by this client per month on retainer - cuz they would be raking it in based on my services.

I recently read an article that lit a fire under me about only doing the work that can justify extremely high hourly rates - such as $500, $1,000 an hour - and getting rid of everything else. I think the above type of approach fits the bill - if I could zero in on a powerful pipeline that successfully generates new high paying leads for this client.

2) Going a step further, what can my client do to then generate that value for her customers so that it’s easy for her to ask for those clients that I bring through the marketing funnel to then pay $5,000 a pop - since she is driving that much more value and profitability for every client that comes in the door?

---

I am pretty much just obsessing over these 2 questions. So it’s pretty much a total revolution in my thinking; from “how can I get money from people?” to “how can I help give people money by helping them better approach the market (and then ask for a fair cut)?”

Does this sound like I’m on the right track at all? In some ways it’s such a different way of thinking that I’m worried I’m just spinning my wheels.

 

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[Andy Black]

Update: Not sure what to say other than, I’m still actively pursuing this goal.

At this point, it’s one step forward, two steps back - like, literally, due to all the extra reading and thinking I’ve been doing, I’ve decided “less is more” and cut back on even the the clients and projects I already had - yes, “had” in past tense - to just focus fully on one client that I really trust and that pays very well and on time with no questions.

Regarding the changes in my thought process towards my work, in the past, my thought was always something like this “if I want to get $5,000 more per month, I need to get x people to pay me y dollar amount - what could I do that could cause those people to pay me that much (and how will I reach them in the first place)?”

What I’m thinking of these days is completely different, and more along the lines of the following two points:

1) “What could I give my client that would give them so much value (i.e. $10,000+ in new value/profits for them) that it is completely justifiable/easy for me to ask for $5,000 back?

In this case it pretty much amounts to lead gen - if I could use some of my FB/marketing skills to generate new customers for this client - like 10 clients that can do $5k each for example - then it’s not a big ask to get paid $5,000+ by this client per month on retainer - cuz they would be raking it in based on my services.

I recently read an article that lit a fire under me about only doing the work that can justify extremely high hourly rates - such as $500, $1,000 an hour - and getting rid of everything else. I think the above type of approach fits the bill - if I could zero in on a powerful pipeline that successfully generates new high paying leads for this client.

2) Going a step further, what can my client do to then generate that value for her customers so that it’s easy for her to ask for those clients that I bring through the marketing funnel to then pay $5,000 a pop - since she is driving that much more value and profitability for every client that comes in the door?

---

I am pretty much just obsessing over these 2 questions. So it’s pretty much a total revolution in my thinking; from “how can I get money from people?” to “how can I help give people money by helping them better approach the market (and then ask for a fair cut)?”

Does this sound like I’m on the right track at all? In some ways it’s such a different way of thinking that I’m worried I’m just spinning my wheels.

I try to think that way too.

The client doesn’t pay me, *their* clients pay me.