Think of how your life would look if you had the money to go anywhere, do anything and spend your time as you wish.

What would you do?

Where would you go?

The options are endless.

It would definitely beat the typical 9-5, Monday-Friday work week where you come home and barely have enough energy to cook.

The world would be your playground.

…

Well stop dreaming. It’s time to execute. Everything you dream of can be yours.

As Henry Ford once said ” “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

The path to riches doesn’t require a brilliant mind or a genius invention. Every person is born with the tools needed to become rich. The key is persistence.

I will show you the way in 4 simple steps. Lets begin:

1. Start a profitable business
2. Reinvest the profits back into the business
3. Diversify by investing into other income producing assets
4. Reinvest profits into more income producing assets

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich.

 

1. Start a Profitable Business

Now my biggest tip is this: Do not aim for the stars. You won’t miss and hit the moon, you will simply get pulled back into earth and hit the ground harder than ever. Don’t spend weeks trying to make a better Facebook or the next Uber. All that will happen is you will get extremely discouraged and start nothing. I have gone through this myself.

In 2014 I entered the family insurance business. I was on straight commission which meant no sales = no money. Luckily I lived with my mom at the time which is how I eventually got my first condo.

Every single day I was walking with flyers, working on my very first site, calling prospects, sending emails and every lead generating activity that exists. It was demotivating. I will be honest with you, my first year in commission I made a net income of $8,000 after all expenses paid. So what did I do next?

I continued in insurance but after hearing from some distant connections of the successes some people had in e-commerce, I decided to give it a shot.

I spent the first few months finding a target market, developing a product, manufacturing the product and creating my online store. I decided on creating high-end tie bars, and my vision was to be the best tie bar brand in the world. I really had it all pictured in my head, celebrities wearing my bars, high-end stores selling them. It was a wonderful fantasy.

In the start it was going well. I bought a few blog posts, I even purchased an ad in British GQ! I got sales and everything was going okay. But then it wasn’t. I started only making a handful of sales per month and it stayed that way. I tried to fix the situation by emailing stores who may be interested in carrying them. I got a few who were and I even sent my products to a well-known store in Montreal. I was rejected by everyone. All of this was between 2015-2017.

In the meantime, I never stopped the insurance business. The first year was finally over, and in the second year, my site became top 5 in my local area and started to really drive traffic. I began meeting people and eventually started to make a decent income with less and less expenses. Year three finally came and I was able to purchase my condo.

Moral of the story:

The insurance business wasn’t as pretty, it wasn’t a rock star life and it didn’t offer that much recognition. With my tie bar business, I was going to be number 1 in something. I was the next hit. Maybe I would become famous!

 

One of my tie bars 🙂

 

One business I aimed for the stars and landed on my butt. With insurance, I aimed to become a great producer and make good money. One succeeded, the other was a lesson.

Start a normal, honest business that is proven to have a demand and profits. Examples include:

-Construction

-Contracting

-Landscaping

-Accounting

-Dentistry

-Plumbing

and many many many more.

How do you start?

 

Never start a business without a plan. That is the equivalent of driving with no destination or map. 

Ask

Start by talking to someone currently in that business. Ask how they started. You may think that they will not want to tell you as you will become competition, but those very successful ones are more than happy to share their tips. They understand the “help each other grow, and everyone grows” rule.

Research:

Next, do some of your own research online. Read the top 10 articles on your future business. Research “common mistakes”. The more research you do, the more time and money you save on starting it.

Now you should have some very basic of knowledge on your future industry. Your next step is to set up your base.

Website:

Create a good-looking website on WordPress with some nice pictures, your phone number and your address. All of this needs to be legitimate. In business, reputation is everything, it can also easily be harmed. Do not put any fake names, fake addresses etc.. People will find out sooner or later.

Register:

Register your company. You can choose to be a sole-proprietor or corporation. If you are starting a company with a partner, you can create a limited partnership.

Pricing:

Next you will need to create your pricing. This is an extremely important part of your business which can make or break it. Almost every business owner I know changes the pricing as they evolve.

I was speaking to a self-employed Lawyer friend of mine who recently quadrupled his pricing. Interestingly, all that happened is his worst clients left, and his best clients stayed. He was able to increase his prices because he had enough skill and knowledge to better serve future clients which allows him to demand a larger premium.

When creating my tie bar business, I first started with low prices to test the market and to attract my initial audience. After realizing that my profits were slim and I had to work a lot more to deliver the bars, I decided to slowly increase my pricing. After a few months, I discovered the perfect balance of price and the “luxury effect”.

I bet you are wondering what this Luxury Effect is. Put simply; as people pay more, they assume what they are getting is better or more rare. If you go to fancy store and see a watch that has a price tag of $320,000, you will automatically assume it is highly exclusive and must be better. That watch could literally be a $500 Hamilton, but the high price tag will make you believe it is much better. Take that same $500 Hamilton and put a $15 price tag, and many people will skip it thinking its a cheap watch not worthy of their hand.

 

Don’t be afraid to adjust pricing as you progress in your business.

 

With that knowledge, you need to price your product/service so clients won’t take you as a cheap and low quality business. You also do not want to be too expensive because you won’t get any clients in the first place.

Pricing is an art you need to master over time. If you are new and there is a high chance of you making mistakes on the job, price lower. As you get better and more efficient, increase your prices.

As for products, start with a lower price. Create a customer base and slowly increase the prices. Good clients will understand and continue purchasing your products. They will also respect you.

Marketing:

Learn how to market. This is extremely valuable. Your business will need clients and its your job to get them. They won’t come to you.

When I first started in the insurance business, my marketing looked like this:

1. I Bought flyers and walked door to door putting them in mailboxes. I did not ring door bells.
2. I would purchase space at a local grocery store and church on weekends and I would distribute my business cards along with candy (I do not recommend the candy part but you can substitute it with some cheap Chinese goodies).
3. I Asked local stores if I can display my business cards at their registers.
4. I did some cold calling for a little bit with no success. I do not recommend cold calling clients unless you’re in a B2B business.
5. I purchased an ad in a few local newspapers (not very effective).
6. Along with one of the ads, I purchased some radio time on a local radio station (got my name out but didn’t translate into calls).
7. I posted a larger ad in one of the local grocery stores.
8. I posted regularly on social media.
9. I made a website
10. Every client that I eventually did get, I would ask them to send me a referral.
11. Create your circle of influence by finding partners (Most effective).

In my business, I am a little more limited in my marketing. Here are a few extra ideas you can use:

1. Start a referral program (Ex: for every new  client you send me, I will give you a $20 gift card).
2. Sponsor an event.
3. Donate to a charity that will list you business as a donor (Not ideal for an early stage business)
4. Give out free grocery bags with you business name on it locally.
5. Place your own ad on your car.
6. Purchase bill boards and bus stop ads (very expensive and better later on in your business)

 

Most of your time and effort should be spent on researching how to market.

 

Taxes:

Learn about taxes. Keep all your expense receipts and hire an accountant. Do not do your own taxes.

Focus:

Once you have your first few clients and a few projects lined up, you have officially started your business. Do this for a few years and you will be in a great position. Focus only on this business. Do not try to create a second income stream, do not try to learn how to invest into stocks etc.. You need to have laser focus to succeed. Do this for 3-5 years.

Understand that it is perfectly normal to get discouraged, demotivated and even bored. I did…all three of those. I remember in my first year after about 6 months of constant marketing with only a few successes I broke down. My mom was in the office and so was another colleague. I told them this is extremely frustrating, I’m doing everything I am supposed to be doing and it’s not working. I was making very little money and working more than ever.

They both told me to go to a park nearby, walk around and breath. I did exactly that and came back with a clear mind. That was it for that day. The next six months looked just like the first six months.

The first year was my turning point when I started to get more and more clients, my website was ranking high and I began making some money. By the end of year two, I bought my first condo downtown.

Keep doing your marketing, keep perfecting it and most importantly, do not stop. It will pay off.

2. Reinvest the Profits Back into the Business

Your first profitable business will be your primary income maker for now. This means you need to take care of it. I want to also remind you that you do not need to be making $250,000 in this first business. If you get to $50,000 after 2-3 years, you are in a better position than most salaried employees already.

As your business grows, you need to constantly analyse and reassess. Is there a tool you can purchase to make your work quicker? Is there software that will save you a ton of time on organization? Is it time to hire your first employee?

 

 

It may seem counter productive to spend more, but when it comes to making your business more efficient, it is worth it. Your goal here is to free up some time wasted on tasks that anyone can do, so that you can do the tasks on you can do.

An example: Peter owns a Landscaping company. He just passed his 3rd year in the business and he has a lot of clients. When Peter began his business, he was going door to door asking if people would like to have their weeds removed from their driveway. Many said no, most said no. But a few said yes. He simply kept doing what he was doing for the first year an eventually he got to a sizable client base. On his third year, he didn’t have time to walk around and get new clients, he was going from project to project. This is a point in a business where you are “capped off”. You can no longer grow, you can only manage you current clients.

So what did Peter do? He hired John. Paid John $25 per hour and sent him a map every day of which houses John had to go to. John has a good paying job and Peter has time to look for more clients. Everyone wins. Repeat this a few more times and you got yourself a mid-sized business. Well done Peter.

3. Diversify by Investing into Other Income Producing Assets

Here is when things get interesting. A lesson I learned in the middle of 2018. Everything was going great in the insurance business, I was growing steadily until the “Insurance Armageddon” hit. Major insurance carriers put a halt on new business in a matter of days. They went from accepting new clients to completely cancelling contracts with brokerages. People were having too many claims and the insurance companies were paying out more than they were receiving.

I went from growing 20%-30% per month from prior years, to a little over 5% in some cases.

What did I learn?

Don’t ever get comfortable.

Lucky for me, everything is back to going smoothly. I won’t sell as much since we have new strict guidelines, but I will manage. The lesson however was priceless.

Things don’t always last, and when things are good, secure yourself.

The magic word here is diversification.

Lets go back to Peters story. Peter is 5 years in and making a solid $200,000. If he was financially smart, he would have taken at least $35,000 of that an reinvested into other income producing assets.

Examples include:

– Dividend Stocks

-ETFs

-Mutual Funds

-Real Estate to Rent Out

-Bonds

-Private Equities

 

If you are uncomfortable investing into stocks yourself, start off with a mutual fund.

 

If he does that for another 5 years, he will have $175,000 earning him $10,500 a year at 6%. It’s like hiring a worker that brings in $10,500 profit a year. I would be happy with that. Do that for another 10 years and you are living life my friend.

I personally like real estate. Not only can you make a decent amount off renting it out, but if you bought well, you can earn a lot in appreciation. That’s just a nice bonus.

Do your research before moving money into any type of fund, stock etc.. Every investment has a certain degree of risk to it, but don’t let that scare you off. If you do your due diligence, you can minimize the risk by a lot.

4. Reinvest Profits into More Income Producing Assets

If you got to step 4 in your life, you have just entered the highway to wealth. No speed limits.

The magic words here are: Compounding Interest.  Now your money is making you more money, and that money is making you even more money.

 

A good idea is to create a goal of how much you would like to be earning passively. Ex: I would like at least $5,000 a month. This means I need to have exactly $1,000,000 in a passive investment which will make me $60,000 (at 6%) per year. With $5,000 a month, I can officially retire and do nothing! (Not that I want to). 

 

Peter’s $10,500 yearly profits aren’t being taken out by him. Peter is a smart guy. That $10,500 is going back into his income producing asset which then comes back as even more. Lets pretend after 5 years he said $175,000 is enough, I’m not adding another dime. After leaving that money in his asset of choice at 6% interest, his $175,000 will become $234,189.48 after just 5 years. Now you leave that $234,189.48 in the same place for another 5 years, and you got $313,398.35. I’m done.

You can also create a real estate portfolio in addition to other assets. If you have 3 houses at the end of 10 years each producing you a profit of $14,000 per year plus they appreciate a little, you will be smiling.

Final Thoughts

There are tons of success stories claiming people go rich over night. Those are just stories. People love them so they sell. But do not try to replicate them. The truth is that getting rich takes time, focus and energy. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun.

Step 4 is the highway. You still need to get through the dirt roads, the traffic, the annoying red lights and stop signs. Do not be discouraged. Enjoy the journey because when you finally get to your destination, you will miss the journey.