Trade Time for Money
If you’ve listened to much information in the marketing field, you’ve constantly heard the phrase “Don’t trade time for money.”
Yet that’s not good advice when you’re first starting out. Of course that may be an end goal you should be thinking about and reaching for, but it isn’t where almost anyone starts out.
Almost everyone trades time for money in some way in the beginning.
For example, copywriters trade time for money. You pay them and they produce copy for you in exchange for an agreed amount. Some are cheap and some are expensive. You usually get what you pay for in this area (although it could be worth your time to pay a low cost copywriter and then improve it yourself).
Most copywriters I know work on other people’s projects, and they’re creating projects of their own. Yet even once their own projects pay off big time, they still take on a few clients. It’s what they enjoy doing.
You’ve seen in the past that I’ve recommended someone who needs to make quick money to become a local Internet consultant. That’s trading time for money as well. There are people in your local area area who don’t know anywhere near what you know about online marketing, and they’re willing to pay for your help.
All sorts of virtual assistants can help you run your internet business. Yet they’re trading their skills and time for money. In several cases I know, these virtual assistants are simply working part-time for others to “pay the bills.” At the same time they’re learning and working on longer term businesses as well with the knowledge they’re gaining.
Even coaches are trading time for dollars. As you know I have one-on-one coaching clients, both email only and phone. If you were to visit my coaching page right now, you’ll see I’m fully booked up and can’t take anymore clients right now. I am building a small list there of people who have read the page and are interested in that coaching program, but it would be at least January if not later before any spots are open.
Why don’t I just take more clients? Simply put. I make more from other projects I work on of my own. I do the coaching (which is trading time for money) because I ENJOY it. Wow, what a reason! In addition, the questions those coaching clients ask me become idea generation for my own products and my writing. It’s part of my customer feedback loop of knowing exactly where customers are at in this market.
I find it funny how professional speakers often stand up and talk about not doing manual labor. They just got on a plane and flew 2,000 miles, stayed in a hotel for the whole weekend, took hours to put together a presentation, and then got up and spoke. They do this for a fee or to make sales in the back of the room. What do you think they just did?
They did manual labor in trading their time for money. Yet they’re on stage telling us NOT to do that. What’s wrong with this picture?
Speaking can be very lucrative, but it is most definitely trading time for money. Of course if they do some good followup on any customers they generate there, they can turn that time into long-term money. But they’re going to find it difficult to “outsource” their onstage speaking business.
The real issue here is that you also want to build other forms of income that DON’T rely on your time.
For example use those copywriting skills you’re practicing to create sales for some of your own products. A virtual assistant can use the same skills they drive traffic to other people’s sites with for themselves a portion of the time. The coach can use the feedback they’re getting as ideas for their own products (removing any private information of course).
Everyone’s goal should be to have a few sources of completely passive income that support your lifestyle. In other words, if you quit today doing EVERYTHING in your business, you still have enough money coming in.
How can you create income streams like that? One way I’ve found to do it is to promote affiliate programs with a continuity membership attached. Get a few thousand each for several of those, and now your basic needs are all taken care of. For example, I get paid every single month from members on http://www.netofficetoolbox.com along with a few other programs.
Are you in a position where you have enough coming in even if you stop selling products, stop writing your blog, etc.? You may or may not be, but that is a worthy goal I’d assign to everyone as part of their plans.
What about the rest of your time? That’s yours to do with as you please. Maybe you want to continue doing virtual assistant work or copywriting or coaching. That’s your decision and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
My suggestion…do both. Be willing to trade time for money as long as you ENJOY it. At the same time, build long-term passive income streams.
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Terry, I would also add that producing a product can be trading time for money. Fore example, if you are producing your own product and it takes three months to put together, that is a considerable time investment. Although the longer that product sells, the less the time to create it is a factor because you are getting a better return on your time.
Great article, Terry. In the beginning, it always takes time to make money. No matter what. That’s really the only “raw material” we all have to start with.
Rather than avoiding trading time for dollars, I think it’s important to think about maximizing your hourly rate… getting more done in less time… and transitioning to passive income streams as you suggest.
A very astute and honest assessment of the current state of “do as I say, not as I do…”.
Platitudes like “don’t trade time for money” always work with an audience because the fundamental truth at their core is resonant with everyone.
However, you’ve pointed to the real dichotomy of the conversation: “getting there”.
As you’ve pointed out so eloquently, it’s all about doing it in a way that you ENJOY, derive personal satisfaction from, and receive valuable feedback from the marketplace while doing so.
I could not agree more with your advice to apply yourself toward building passive residual income so that you are free to pick and choose how you trade your time for dollars.
That’s when the old saw “Money = Freedom” really starts to ring true…
Best,
Brian McLeod
Miami, Florida
Yes, the most important thing is you must enjoy what you do or like, then trading the time for it would give you the satisfactions & results that makes it meaningful.
It take time to shift ourselves for changes to improve our life, our finances, time for the family & love ones. Enjoy your life & enjoy what you do, be it in business or at work.
Cheers Terry & everyone..
Best Regards,
Frankie Teo
http://www.frankieteo.com
It is unwise to ground a business on a time selling model. Time is a limited resource, once you have sold it, nothing remains.
Hi Terry
I have no problem trading time for money. It really is just a question of ‘how much time’ and ‘how much money’.
When people say don’t trade time for money they’re just trying to say make sure you “trade the least amount of time for the most amount of money”.
Everything that produces an output needs an input. The key is to find the tasks that produce the biggest output for the smallest input.
As always thanks for another great post Terry!
Cheers
Lee McIntyre
Hello Terry
Trading time for money is okay as long as we can measure the amount of time put in vs the money that we receive.
We just have to calculate if it’s worth your time or not.
Another important factor to consider, like what you’ve said, is do you enjoy doing the tasks and activities that trade your time for money?
Cheers.
Welly Mulia
Hi Terry,
When I first see the title, I thought that you are going to preach again on not to trade time for money. I agree that in one way or another, we have to do that to make our business grow. It is so much easier for those “gurus” to preach about not to trade time for money since they are already successful and can afford to pay people to work for them.
Anyway, I am also working towards making others work for me one day.:)
Ethan
Hey Terry,
I don’t think you can ever truely escape the “trading time for money” thing.
After all, even those sitting atop the financial food chain invest considerable time with trusted advisors who manage their portfolios, taxes, entities and assets.
It’s all a matter of context and how much fun you can create in the process!
Rock ON,
Mark Henderson
I think you need both especially in the beginning. If your goal is to quit your job then first things first. You may need to provide a service so that you can replace your job and then build other forms of income. Definitely food for thought!
Your line about the seminar was right on…
I’ve only been to one seminar (as an attendee) and it was a LOT of work. The main speaker also confessed he only got to sleep a few hours, he was so busy preparing.
In the end, everything is a trading of hours for dollar. Even if your product sells $5 Trillion before you day, and it took you five your to create… well, you still made $1 trillion/hour.
I’m okay, with that, though.
Hi John:
Definitely true. Now I need to find that trillion/hour work. I’d even do something I don’t enjoy for a couple of hours.
Thanks for a very honest article in an area where there is so much hype slung about. We all start this way and it’s a natural process to experience the limitations of only trading time for money. Which is your best product creation post? I’d like to read it.
Terry, excellent article. I agree that we all trade time for money, but that having multiple streams of income including passive ones reduce the pressure to increase income only by spending more time on the job. If you are lucky, as I am, you love your work, but there are only so many hours in the day. Thanks for ongoing wisdom.
Dr J. Burke
http://www.mainelaserskincare.com
I think we should also speak about elevating on the ‘trade time for money topic’
Let me explain this in more details.
A simple level of ‘trade time for money’ – you do some job and get paid. Nothing bad about it, but I do not know anyone who got filthy rich like this. Even if this is highly paid job.
Advanced level of ‘trade time for money’ – you *invest* your time to participate in a project, you do not get paid for it, but you get share from the future profits on this project/business/technology/etc. This way you can get rich, I mean RICH.
I know that it looks like just messing up with the words, but if you stop thinking in terms of selling time and start thinking in terms of investing time – the whole picture gets much better.