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I used to be ashamed of saying this, but one of my main motivators is making money. I didn’t grow up poor, but I grew up in an upper middle class home where my parents talked about money a lot, and they always shared with me how much everything costs.
After my parents got divorced, I remember hearing them fight about money all the time, and who was going to pay for what; I also grew up with parents who worked in white collar corporate jobs, so I was a daycare kid.
I was almost always one of the last kids to be picked up at night; I was also often reminded that we were able to do things like travel to cool places because I was an only child, and kids are expensive.
All of these experiences have led me to be motivated by money — because to me, money means security. It means less stress. It means having greater ownership of your time, and it means being able to experience more things.
Money means that you have more freedom, and more options. So when I went back to get my MBA, one of my main motivators, if I’m being 100% honest, was because I had a goal of making $100,000 per year by the time I was 30.
I thought the best way to do that was to go to grad school and get a well respected job at a large corporation, and I think that a lot of us think and grow up with this same belief: that the way to have financial security and be financially successful is to become a high paid employee.
And how do you become a high paid employee? Well, by getting lots of education, I mean, that’s why parents tell their kids to be a doctor, be a lawyer be an engineer, right? Because these are “secure”, well paying jobs.
But here’s the thing: when you’re an employee, you do not control your compensation, and you do not control your time.
Even my OBGYN who I was so excited to find and work with because I am trying for a VBAC this time, recently left her practice. I’m sure she was making more than $100,000 per year, but she was working 60 to 80 hours a week, and she has four kids. So although she was in a well paying job, she had zero control over her time — and don’t even get me started on how much debt the majority of doctors, lawyers and other highly educated individuals have to go into in order to get the education that they need for these high paying jobs!
We need to start reprogramming ourselves to think that the best way to achieve financial success and have control over your time is not by being an employee, but by being your own boss.
The easiest way to make $100k
I actually believe that making $100,000 per year is relatively easy, and that you can hustle your way there. Heck, if you worked only 60 hours a week, for all 52 weeks of the year, you would only need to charge $32 per hour for whatever you’re offering. That’s it! 60 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, $32 per hour, and you’re making $100,000.
But who really wants to work 60 hours a week? I know I don’t! So what is the easiest way to have financial security and time freedom? The easiest way to make $100,000 or more per year and own your time?
You do it by working for yourself, becoming an expert in one area, and focusing on one to two offerings.
My husband, Sam actually recently sent me this hilarious video. Apparently, there’s this guy on Tik Tok, which I who goes up to people who have really expensive fancy cars and asks them what they do for a living. The video was hilarious, because the majority of people who are driving around these ridiculously expensive cars were in a highly specialized profession, but the majority of the people all worked for themselves and owned their own business.
So I think e need to start reprogramming ourselves to think that the best way to achieve financial success and have control over your time is not by being an employee, but by being your own boss.
So like I said, the easiest way to make $100,000 or more per year, and own your time, is working for yourself, becoming an expert in one area, and focusing on one to two offerings.
Let’s break down these three things:
Work for yourself
Working for yourself gives you control over your time. You will never ever control your time working for someone else. Your employer decides how many weeks of vacation you have, how many weeks of paternity or maternity leave you get, and how often and when you work.
Your employer owns your time when you are an employee — so if you want to have control over your time, if you want to travel for 12 weeks out of the year, or take a year off when you have a baby, or you want to not work on Tuesdays, the only way that you can make that happen is by working for yourself.
Become an expert in one area
This allows you to charge a higher price for your services. Why do you think an oral surgeon makes more than a general dentist? It’s because the specialize in a specific area. I can charge a lot more as a Facebook ads and funnel expert than I can as just marketing myself as a general marketer. Specializing allows you to charge higher prices, because you are an expert in that specific area.
Focus on one or two offerings
This is not just about making a lot of money, but making money and controlling your time. Focusing on one or two offerings helps you systematize things in your business so you can get things done more quickly, and it helps you focus on your area of expertise that you can charge a premium price.
Far too often I see solopreneur service providers trying to offer it all. You have done for you services, power hours, VIP days, coaching, templates and the list goes on. Or if you’re a marketer, you’re offering web development, social media management, copywriting and even a little photography in order to hit your income goals.
But doing this — trying to offer it all — means that you are constantly recreating the wheel. When you’re constantly recreating the wheel, it also means that everything that you’re doing takes up way more time than it should.
You can make the money you want. You can have the time freedom that you want. All you have to do is start taking the little steps to get there.
The bottom line
If you want to have financial security, financial freedom, and control your time, then you need to work for yourself, become an expert, and focus on one or two offerings.
If you’ve already started your solopreneur service business, and you want to learn my three part system to hitting $100k while only working 25 hours or less per week, head over to annakonchar.com/school to learn more about my Successful Solopreneur School coaching program.
If you haven’t started your own business yet, this is your sign to take that leap! You can access my free four part successful side hustle system training at annakonchar.com/sidehustletraining
Remember, you can make the money you want. You can have the time freedom that you want. All you have to do is start taking the little steps to get there.
I didn’t get where I am today, in a month or even a year. It took time. It took investments. It took learning a lot — but you can absolutely make it happen, and you don’t have to be a doctor or a lawyer or go into giant amounts of debt to get more education. You just have to start your own business and become an expert in one area.
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