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Entrepreneur Insights
Part-time business
Yes, it’s possible to earn sizable income in your spare time
Brian Carruthers
Brian Carruthers
Author, Untrapped: Freedom Manifesto
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Let me share one of the biggest life lessons I learned from my favorite author and business coach, Jim Rohn. He said, “You work hard all day on your job to earn a living, but you should be working spare time, nights or weekends, building your fortune.”
Like everybody else, you probably work hard doing what you do at your job. You do it hard, you do it well, you put in the hours, and you bring home that paycheck. But at the end of the day, Jim Rohn says that’s not building your brand, it’s not building your business, it’s not building your fortune or your retirement. You’re trading your time for money. But his lesson is that after you spend full-time hours on your job, you should be building your own part-time fortune on the side a few hours a week.

Assess your situation

If your full-time job has not made you financially free yet, will it ever? How much money are you saving and investing every month right now? Do you have an actual plan to build your wealth?
Most people spend more time planning a one-week vacation than they do planning their life. So let’s talk about creating your plan. What’s required? I believe it’s a moment of disgust. One day you’re going to wake up and you’re going to say, “You know what? I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I want more from my life. I’m tired of not having time with my family. I’m tired of not being able to take the vacation I want to take. I’m tired of giving all of my most valuable hours to a job that doesn’t really care about me.” So, that moment of disgust hits you. And you know what? Where there’s a will there’s a way. And when the “why” for starting your own part-time business appears, you’ll figure out the “how.”

The numbers game

So let’s not talk pie-in-the-sky. Let’s talk real, and let’s talk conservative. Let me show you some numbers I think are going to blow your mind. If you can start a part-time business that generated only an extra $600 a month, and then you decide that you’re not going to spend that money, but you’re going to invest that money at just a 10 percent annual return, compounded over time, what will that mean to you? Well, $600 a month compounded over the next 10 years will generate $124,000. In 20 years, $459,000. In 30 years, $1.3 million, and in 40 years $3.8 million.
So as you look at your life and you’re trying to decide what you want it to look like 10, 20, 30 years from now, maybe you want to retire. How much money are you going to need to retire? Do you need to have half a million, a million, 2 million?
But what if you actually created a business that generated just an extra $1,500 a month? And again, these are realistic numbers. I’m not talking about pie-in-the sky getting rich overnight. If you made an extra $1,500 a month compounded at 10 percent each year, that’s $309,000 in a decade. In 20 years, it’s $1.1 million. In 30 years, it’s $3.4 million, and in 40 years, it’s over $9 million.
The S&P stock index over the past 30 years has averaged over a 10 percent annual return. It is realistic to build wealth by building a business in a few hours a week. We call it slivers of time; 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, an hour here. Look at what a part-time business generating an extra $600 a month could mean to you. Look what an extra $1,500 a month means to you.

There are four steps to take to make this happen for you.

Step 1:Start a part-time business.

Step 2:Invest the earnings.

Step 3:Retire from your job and ramp up your efforts on your business

Step 4:You’re wealthy and free.

Changing bank accounts, changing lives

One of the most fulfilling things in my life was not me deciding to start a part-time business and developing into a multi-million dollar empire. It’s the chance I’ve had to work with countless other people who needed a way to change their lives. They saw an opportunity to start their own part-time businesses. It has meant everything to me to watch them flourish and become successful and see their lives change.

Say goodbye to excuses

Never let your reasons to start a part-time business for yourself ever become your excuse not to, because you might be thinking, “You know what? I’ve been thinking over the years about starting a business, but I just don’t have time to add something else into my life.”
That was my story. I almost completely missed it. My life almost didn’t change. I was working in my real estate career 50 to 60 hours a week. I had no time for family, and no time for friends. I was always grinding and always working, and when I was introduced to a business project that was incredible, I said, “I don’t have time for it,” and thankfully, that gentleman did not just say, “Okay,” and move on.
He said, “Brian, you seem like you’re incredibly busy.” I said, “You have no idea.” He said, “Do you like living like that?” I said, “Well, not really.” He said, “What makes you think if you keep doing what you’re doing that five years from now you’ll be any less busy than you are today?” I said, “Well, I don’t know. I never thought about it.” He said, “You’ve got to find a way to get a passive, residual cash flow coming in from a side business so that you can cut back on your real estate hours and start enjoying your life.” I said, “But here’s the dilemma, even if I would love to do that, I don’t have time to add a side business into my agenda.” And he said, “Brian, it’s just a split second. You can find little slivers of time, and then let that compound over the next couple years, and build yourself a great business income.”
And that’s exactly what happened for me. I’ve been a stay-at-home dad for my three kids’ entire lives. I’ve traveled to 23 different countries. I work from home. I have the best lifestyle I could have ever dreamed of. But that almost didn’t happen because I almost let my reason to start a part-time business be my excuse not to.

Let money be your reason — not your excuse

You might say, “Well, I’ve got plenty of time, but I just don’t have the money.” That’s not a good feeling after working at your job for several years and not saving up money. If you keep working several more years, is it going get any better? If money is an issue, don’t let that be your excuse not to start a business. That’s got to be a reason why you’ve got to start a business.
You might even be in the camp, “I just don’t think I would be cut out for a business. I’ve never been an entrepreneur. I’ve always had a job. I’m not sure if I would be good at it.” I have heard that from countless people. But when we show them step-by-step how to start a part-time business with little slivers of time a few hours a week, and they can plug into a proven system and just follow the playbook, countless people have been amazed at what happened. I’ve watched them blossom and develop into incredible part-time business owners where their incomes were taking off, and they were getting more time with their families. That would never have happened if they said, “I just want to play it safe. I want to stick to my job,” and never even try to put themselves on a better path.

 

Envision your future and take action

What’s the key to succeeding in the age we’re living in? It’s finding a hot trend or a company that’s disrupting an entire market, and then building a business within that trend. It starts with a small first step. Decide on the business and start part-time. You’ll be surprised how quickly it can grow. You can either sell yourself on why you can’t, or you’ll sell yourself on why you must. I hope that you make the decision today to go find the right business for you and get it rolling. Change your life starting right now.