Today, we are talking all about money!
Money most certainly isn’t everything, but it gives you options and through my progression as an entrepreneur, I’ve learned that it is a necessity to achieving your goals and is a tool to help you do so. Below I’ll detail how I made my first six figures as an entrepreneur and the journey to get there.
My initial start was in the nonprofit world prior to taking on My Fab Finance or (MFF), full-time. Believe it or not, the most I ever made in the nonprofit world was 65K and I decided to resign after discovering a new hire with a bachelor’s would be making the same rate as me, even though I had two years of experience and a master’s degree. This was just the final push I needed to take on My Fab Finance (MFF) full-time. I knew others who were in the financial educator business and saw them making six figures as well and I know the time was right. I had been saving money, paying down debt, and already generating income, so I decided to take the plunge!
The Road to Six Figures
In my first year doing MFF, I made 48K and my initial feeling was of utter disappointment. For some reason, I thought that making six figures would be a cakewalk and I’d be able to just generate that amount of money in no time. The thing that truly helped me change my perspective was words from a friend. Fully realizing that I created money out of thin air and made all of this happen FROM NOTHING was a cause for celebration, not disappointment. I was making the mistake of comparing myself to others and that will always get you into trouble.
Additionally, my first job out of college paid me 23K, so keeping that in perspective as well really helped me press forward with a renewed spirit. In my second year, I increased my income by over 40% from 48K to 82K and was excited and disappointed, feeling I should have knocked it out of the park. However, my third year, I was able to hit that six figure amount at 112K. As they say, the third time’s the charm and things really culminated for me wonderfully in 2018 when I hit six figures for the first time. Below I detail how everything came together.
Revenue Streams
The things that supercharged my ability to generate more income was creating more streams of revenue. Some of these are passive, however they all took front end work to get set up and established before they became passive streams, so that is an important note to remember.
The first is creating books/digital products. The first of these was my Super Fab financial planner, which I created in 2015. It brought in about $600 per month and actually paid my rent in New York City at the time by bringing in roughly that amount. In 2018, I released The Money Manual as well, which directly contributed to the year that I was able to get over the hump to top six figures.
Influencer Events
Another source of revenue was the creation of influencer events for finance companies. I was able to collaborate with Fidelity, AutoGravity, FinCon and more to create events for bloggers, financial educators, and influencers. Because of the relationships I had built, it allowed me to pitch ideas and bring like-minded people together to discuss and fellowship ideas around money.
Public Speaking
The next revenue stream that allowed me to reach six figures in business was public speaking. This was the stream that really did the most for me making it to and beyond six figures. In 2017, I made about 20K doing speaking engagements and I realized I wanted to take it to the next level. In order to do that, I realized I needed a coach. After receiving some unbelievable coaching in 2017, I increased my public speaking revenue to 60K in just one year, or about 50% of my total revenue in 2018!
Brand Partnerships
Another key revenue stream was my ability to secure brand partnerships. It has consistently been a solid option for revenue for me and is actually my most lucrative revenue stream to date. I have progressed from getting 60K over a twelve-month period to securing 60K in one day, so if people know you and they know the consistency of your work, it can make brand partnerships a viable source of revenue for you and your business! Last, but most certainly not least is writing articles.
Initially, writing articles usually would get me $50 per article. Over time, as I was able to establish myself as an expert in the financial educator space, my most recent article that was sponsored allowed me to be paid 7K. Typically, I can make about 2.5K for an article and this is for information that I already have and don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
I hope that these ideas can be helpful for you as you hurdle toward generating six figures in your business. To see where I break down all of my revenue streams, check out my YouTube video:
Be passionate, be profitable!