Unique Ways to Make Money

By Walt F.J. Goodridge

Special to the Saipan Tribune
Originally published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008


The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest—in other words, your passion!


Ever since being introduced to network marketing several years ago, I’ve always been fascinated to discover unique ways to make money. Many of us receive a very limited education in how to generate income. We typically do what 97 percent of the population does: sell our time for money. In other words, we work for a paycheck. This is a form of income-generation that creates what’s called linear income. It’s a one-time spurt of income that doesn’t continue. You trade one hour of your time for an hour’s pay, and you never see that hour, or that money again, unless you trade another hour of your time.

The entrepreneurial model, however, allows the flexibility to generate income in many creative ways. When you look at someone’s business model and ask yourself, ’how on earth can they be making money?’ they might be using an ingenious business model where the money doesn’t come from whom, or in the way you think it does--they might be selling products that don’t exist, selling the invisible, selling what they don’t sell, selling through sleight of hand, selling short, selling opportunity, selling sponsorship, or through some other unique selling strategy.

In this new age of business, making something and selling it--"selling the thing"--while more preferable to simply trading your time for money, is just one way to make money. In life you can be rewarded financially by leveraging the thing, the talent, the time, the timing, the team, or any combination thereof. The challenge in developing your passion-centered business model is to learn how to leverage each and all of these to free yourself from the grind of the rat race. So let’s take a look at a few unique ways to do just that.

'Selling opportunity' through network marketing

Here’s how network marketing (also known as MultiLevel Marketing or MLM) works:

Say a company has a unique consumable product like noni juice from Saipan and the company decides to use network marketing as the way to sell it. You can join that company and become an "independent distributor" or “rep”-presentative of the product. As a rep, you qualify to purchase the product at wholesale prices. Then, every time you sell a bottle of noni to a customer (i.e. your friends family or strangers), you earn a commission.

Now the cool part about network marketing is that if you know someone else who also wants to become a distributor, you can "sponsor" them into the noni company as part of your "organization." You might receive a bonus for sponsoring that person (who is on your first "level"), but the really unique way you make money is that when your new recruit sells a bottle of noni, not only does he/she earn a commission, but you do too! But it gets even better. When your new recruit sponsors a recruit of their own, not only does the new recruit (on your second level) earn a commission for each bottle sold, but your recruit, and you do too! This direct and indirect sponsoring of reps allows you to build an organization of many levels from which income is generated. Each rep also has the same opportunity to build and grow their own organization.

Do you see the power in this? If you don’t sell a bottle of noni today, but someone on your team does, you earn money. That’s called generating passive income. If you decide never to sell another bottle of noni, but your team members continue selling and sponsoring recruits, your income not only continues, but increases. That’s called passive, residual income.

It doesn’t have to be a consumable product, of course, but products which people have to use repeatedly work best for generate recurring, passive, residual income streams. You’re not only selling the thing, you’re selling the position in that your decision to sign up early as a distributor in a given region can reward you for sharing the opportunity with others who then can actively contribute to your wealth. It’s not just the thing, it’s the timing and the team!

MLM is a unique way to make money that’s been around for many decades, challenges old ways of thinking, and has created many business success stories. There’s a whole lot more to Network Marketing that you can find online.

Selling what you don’t sell, do tell

What if you don’t have a product to sell, but you know of a product being sold, and you know where there might be buyers? One unique way to make money is simply through referral selling, where you connect buyers with sellers. You can sell referrals to vendors who are looking for customers and get paid for the referral, and/or you can get paid even more--a percentage--if the referral results in a sale. Many online vendors are using variations of this model through affiliate marketing and other referral programs. "It’s not the thing, or the timing, or the team, it’s the telling!"

Selling sleight of hand


Another unique way to make money falls into what I call the "selling sleight of hand" category where you’re not actually selling what people think you’re selling. This information comes from my friend David Khorram who shared with me a story of a business owner he once knew who was connecting buyers with sellers in a unique way.

This fellow sold computer parts from China to computer companies in Europe. He had the best prices around-much lower than his competitors-and no one could figure out how he was able to stay in business. Here’s his secret as you would structure it:

Let's imagine you buy computer parts from a manufacturer, Mr. Wong in China, and sell them to Mr. Heinz in Europe at a great price, almost at cost. In order to get such a great price, however, you tell Mr. Heinz he has to agree to pay for the parts in 15 days-much sooner than the typical 30 or 60 days that Mr. Heinz might normally be allowed.

At the same time, you have an agreement with Mr. Wong to pay for the parts in 45 days. So, on day 15 after the items are shipped, Mr. Heinz pays you, and you now have that money in your hands for another 30 days until you have to pay Mr. Wong who manufactured the parts.

During that 30-day lag called a "float", you put the money in a high interest bearing account. You generate income on your deposit for 30 or more days until you have to pay Mr. Wong in China.

Using such a model, this fellow made money-$200,000 a year and more-just on that 30-day float and the interest he earned while the money was in his hands. It’s not the thing, at all, it’s the time!

Find the right product, the right market, the best interest-generating vehicle. With a model like that, how much you want to make depends on the interest rate, the amount of the payment, the float time and the volume of your sales.

Do you see the power in this? It allows you to enter a market that might have lower than practical profit margins and still make money. You can use other people’s money to generate the interest. You never need to take possession of the thing as the manufacturer could ship it directly to the buyer.

SUMMARY

These are just a few unique ways to make money. What I like about approaching business in these unique ways is that it allows you to expand your definition of business, shows you value in hidden places, and raises your belief level about what's possible.

Today, technology makes such business models and creative ideas even more powerful. Much of the paperwork, monitoring and tracking can be done online, payments can be automatically and directly deposited, and global markets can be more accessible

In the following weeks, we'll meet some unique entrepreneurs right here on Saipan and offer some ideas on how they can increase their selling success! Stay tuned.

Note: For more tips on acting on your ideas, changing the game, and creating a passion-centered lifestyle, visit www.passionprofit.com!

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Until next time, remember, success is a journey, not a destination!-Walt



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