Wow it's been a while since I've been on here! Been busy putting knowledge from here in action I guess. I'm kind of at a point where my BADD (Business Attention Deficit Disorder) is kicking in again (I have a habit of creating new ideas and launching them, but then I get another one and put the previous one on hold without finishing it, so I say it's like A.D.D. only with money making ideas..haha). Anyway, over the last year or so I've built up some residual passive income from a few sources and I'm looking for some help on what to do next with the resources I have, and maybe where my focus should be since I have a lot of ideas, but don't know which I should do first.
What I have financially:
-I am self employed in the financial industry with a passive residual income of roughly $25,000/year (it was at roughly $500/year a year ago!). I have other income over and above that, but becuase of the structure of the business (work from home office, lots of travel expenses, etc) I'm able to write down my income to around that amount, so we'll base this on $25,000
-I have $500 a month coming in from rental revenue from my basement (my mortgage, interest and property taxes are roughly $450/month)
-Sitting on roughly $90,000 of equity in my house that is completely unused (no secured debts or line of credit ever set up on it. (owe $50,000...worth about $140K) Mortgage term is due for renewal this upcoming November. There are roughly $5,000 of important renovations that need to be done this year (not emergency, but important)
-I have other financial assets, but they are not worth getting into detail on (couple thousand in cashable investments, couple thousand of available credit on a credit card I never use)
My projects/idea (in no order of priority, etc):
1) Technical sports book. I have a 1/2 written book that I'd like to finish (started it 2 years ago and seem to pick it up about once every 9 months or so and work on it) and create a DVD series along with it, and launch a website that will offer tips, drills and information (some free, some "gold member" paid membership stuff) and have an online store selling my own products (books/DVD's, etc) and other related products (other books. DVDs, training equipment, etc) as well that would be drop shipped (is that the term where you don't carry inventory...it just gets shipped from the manufacturers warehouse directly?) to create some non-time based revenue. The website/book/DVD are related to a very specific positition in this sport that is completely different from the rest of the team and needs specialized training apart from the rest of the team, but is often neglected due to coaches lack of knowledge in the area.
2) Along the same lines of the book, I have become a local expert on this specific skill set for this sport (I've had a few kids I've worked with move on to play at a national level and getting tryouts/training camps with the national team) and up to this point I've been doing as a volunteer coach 1 hour a week max right now with a 1 on 1 training situation, but typically it's been a training camp once every 3 months or so, but have been approached in the past about private paid training, so I'd like to possibly persue this. I've researched and this can bring in roughly $50/hour. This is fairly low in my priorities right now unless I can find a way to launch it easily and make substantial positive cashflow from it (Would likely be more effective after building some creditbility with the book/DVD/website, etc)
3) my business. I just bought roughly 260 clients from another advisor. This is a fairly neglected, used and abused block of clients so they need some coddling/servicing before I push new product on them. They are a loyal block of clients...even without the serivice from previous advisors they've stuck with them. The previous advisors stuck with only one product line so there is a huge opportunity for cross sales of other products. to be honest, up to this point I've been VERY lazy with my business. I'm lucky if I put in 15 hours a week of actual focused work over the last couple years, but with this new block of clients things will be busier for me now. Been talking with another advisor about have a shared time assistant to take care of the administrative duties like booking appointments, follow ups, and filing paperwork. Over the next 5 years there will be a substantial amount of advisors in my area that are retiring so I'm trying to position my self in a way where I can buy up as many blocks of clients as I can. I also need to develop and launch my own independent website where I can create some non-time based revenue as well.
4) Revenue properties. I'd like to work on developing more passive income through revenue properties. The house I purchased was bought with the intentions of turning it into a rental unit eventually (it's small, low quality, needed some TLC, but was VERY cheap relative to the area). There are lots of revenue houses in the my city in the $50,000-$120,000 range that could collect $700-$1500 a month in rent. Currently the housing market in my city is on the tail end of a massive boom and is still growing and vacancy rates are EXTREMELY low right now. I know of a couple people that do this where I could easily partner with them as a mentor for me to get some experience if need be as well.
Other info:
My credit is shady...made some poor business decisions a few years ago and my credit took a hit becuase of it.
I've been able to simplify my life so much that I can get by and live somewhat comfortably on $1,500-$2,000 a month of cashflow depending on the month in need be (includes going out, the limited business expenses I have and mortgage/bills). I my fixed bare bones expenses are in the $1200/month range (mortgage, power, water, evnergy, phone/internet, reasonable quality groceries). I'm half scottish so I'm notoriaously frugal with my spending.
At some point this year I will need to replace my vehicle as well. I'm sure it will last the year, but it's in VERY rough shape (16 years old, more than 200,000 miles on it and lots of stuff has been going wrong with it lately). Not quite at the point where I can get my lambo yet, but I'd like a new car.
Given all this information, can anyone offer me some guidance on what I should focus on and which ones I should do in which order relative to the "work/effort vs. payoff"? How can I leverage the equity in my house and/or my passive income to launch things forward (should I use it to aquire a revenue property? Should I use that as emergency funds to bail me out in covering the monthly expenses of an assistant if need be to leverage my time a little more? Use it to further develop my clientelle in various markets [right now my client are scatters everywhere within a 4-6 hour radius of me in small clusters and some in other provinces as well]. Use some of it to develop and launch the book/DVD/website, etc)? Should I balance all my ideas at the same time or should I focus on one at a time until it's established and then refine it as I launch another.
thanks in advance for the help and thanks for reading the lengthy post!
What I have financially:
-I am self employed in the financial industry with a passive residual income of roughly $25,000/year (it was at roughly $500/year a year ago!). I have other income over and above that, but becuase of the structure of the business (work from home office, lots of travel expenses, etc) I'm able to write down my income to around that amount, so we'll base this on $25,000
-I have $500 a month coming in from rental revenue from my basement (my mortgage, interest and property taxes are roughly $450/month)
-Sitting on roughly $90,000 of equity in my house that is completely unused (no secured debts or line of credit ever set up on it. (owe $50,000...worth about $140K) Mortgage term is due for renewal this upcoming November. There are roughly $5,000 of important renovations that need to be done this year (not emergency, but important)
-I have other financial assets, but they are not worth getting into detail on (couple thousand in cashable investments, couple thousand of available credit on a credit card I never use)
My projects/idea (in no order of priority, etc):
1) Technical sports book. I have a 1/2 written book that I'd like to finish (started it 2 years ago and seem to pick it up about once every 9 months or so and work on it) and create a DVD series along with it, and launch a website that will offer tips, drills and information (some free, some "gold member" paid membership stuff) and have an online store selling my own products (books/DVD's, etc) and other related products (other books. DVDs, training equipment, etc) as well that would be drop shipped (is that the term where you don't carry inventory...it just gets shipped from the manufacturers warehouse directly?) to create some non-time based revenue. The website/book/DVD are related to a very specific positition in this sport that is completely different from the rest of the team and needs specialized training apart from the rest of the team, but is often neglected due to coaches lack of knowledge in the area.
2) Along the same lines of the book, I have become a local expert on this specific skill set for this sport (I've had a few kids I've worked with move on to play at a national level and getting tryouts/training camps with the national team) and up to this point I've been doing as a volunteer coach 1 hour a week max right now with a 1 on 1 training situation, but typically it's been a training camp once every 3 months or so, but have been approached in the past about private paid training, so I'd like to possibly persue this. I've researched and this can bring in roughly $50/hour. This is fairly low in my priorities right now unless I can find a way to launch it easily and make substantial positive cashflow from it (Would likely be more effective after building some creditbility with the book/DVD/website, etc)
3) my business. I just bought roughly 260 clients from another advisor. This is a fairly neglected, used and abused block of clients so they need some coddling/servicing before I push new product on them. They are a loyal block of clients...even without the serivice from previous advisors they've stuck with them. The previous advisors stuck with only one product line so there is a huge opportunity for cross sales of other products. to be honest, up to this point I've been VERY lazy with my business. I'm lucky if I put in 15 hours a week of actual focused work over the last couple years, but with this new block of clients things will be busier for me now. Been talking with another advisor about have a shared time assistant to take care of the administrative duties like booking appointments, follow ups, and filing paperwork. Over the next 5 years there will be a substantial amount of advisors in my area that are retiring so I'm trying to position my self in a way where I can buy up as many blocks of clients as I can. I also need to develop and launch my own independent website where I can create some non-time based revenue as well.
4) Revenue properties. I'd like to work on developing more passive income through revenue properties. The house I purchased was bought with the intentions of turning it into a rental unit eventually (it's small, low quality, needed some TLC, but was VERY cheap relative to the area). There are lots of revenue houses in the my city in the $50,000-$120,000 range that could collect $700-$1500 a month in rent. Currently the housing market in my city is on the tail end of a massive boom and is still growing and vacancy rates are EXTREMELY low right now. I know of a couple people that do this where I could easily partner with them as a mentor for me to get some experience if need be as well.
Other info:
My credit is shady...made some poor business decisions a few years ago and my credit took a hit becuase of it.
I've been able to simplify my life so much that I can get by and live somewhat comfortably on $1,500-$2,000 a month of cashflow depending on the month in need be (includes going out, the limited business expenses I have and mortgage/bills). I my fixed bare bones expenses are in the $1200/month range (mortgage, power, water, evnergy, phone/internet, reasonable quality groceries). I'm half scottish so I'm notoriaously frugal with my spending.
At some point this year I will need to replace my vehicle as well. I'm sure it will last the year, but it's in VERY rough shape (16 years old, more than 200,000 miles on it and lots of stuff has been going wrong with it lately). Not quite at the point where I can get my lambo yet, but I'd like a new car.
Given all this information, can anyone offer me some guidance on what I should focus on and which ones I should do in which order relative to the "work/effort vs. payoff"? How can I leverage the equity in my house and/or my passive income to launch things forward (should I use it to aquire a revenue property? Should I use that as emergency funds to bail me out in covering the monthly expenses of an assistant if need be to leverage my time a little more? Use it to further develop my clientelle in various markets [right now my client are scatters everywhere within a 4-6 hour radius of me in small clusters and some in other provinces as well]. Use some of it to develop and launch the book/DVD/website, etc)? Should I balance all my ideas at the same time or should I focus on one at a time until it's established and then refine it as I launch another.
thanks in advance for the help and thanks for reading the lengthy post!
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