SDN102: How To Not Go Broke In 2020?

How To Not Go Broke In 2020?

"Being poor is painful, and it does not feel good. It feels humiliating."— Patrick Allmond (02:36- 02:50)

Businesses are closing, restaurants, cinemas, and shopping malls paused or stopped operations because of the current health crisis. While business owners suffer great losses, those that are greatly affected are workers that get laid off. 

If you've been laid off or you think someone's going to be laid off or, you know, someone who's been laid off in your family, watch the full 102nd episode of Stop Doing Nothing—How To Not Go Broke In 2020. I’ll talk about getting a head start on your financial independence and ways to avoid getting broke.

Part One of 'How To Not Go Broke In 2020.'

Right now, a lot of you might be digging in your savings or digging into your investments. You're digging into money that you've saved for vacations and cruises, and you are just scraping by while you're looking for work. 

 

The United States is laying off around one hundred hundred fifty thousand workers. They're laying off a sick number of people, and it's painful. I hate seeing anybody struggle financially. Probably one of the reasons I'm not too fond of it the most is because I have been there. 

If you want to talk about being poor, I can talk about that all day long. But my whole point is that it's painful and it does not feel good. It doesn't feel very comfortable. It feels humiliating to choose not to be gainfully employed, not contributing to society, that feels embarrassing sometimes. 

But I want to give you ideas of things you can do to get ahead of the curve before things get really bad. I talked to a lot of people who were in the business of selling their knowledge. I help people set up businesses to sell their knowledge. 

"Don't be cheap. You're not working for minimum wage anymore. You're teaching someone. You're selling your brain, which has taken you decades to fill with information." -Patrick Allmond(16:39-16:48)

If you're someone who has a lot of experience like you've worked for a company and had enough wisdom to train somebody else. People that train and communicate well are in demand all of the time. If you've got any of those types of training or knowledge sharing skills, you are an asset to the market, and you should sell those skills.

The business of taking your knowledge, formalizing it, laying out in a step by step, doing videos, and doing live streams is a profitable business model. The good part about it is you can do it 24/7. You can do it on a one-off basis or recurring basis. The business can be as big as you want to be or as small as you want to be. You can work from anywhere. It doesn't matter where you are when you are someone who sells your knowledge, your wisdom, for a profit.

Part Two of 'How To Not Go Broke In 2020.'

Theaters are closing, amusement parks are closing, bars are closing, restaurants are closing, and they're not opening up anytime soon.

So how to not go broke in 2020? 

I tell people that if you want to get in this business of being a thought leader, of sharing your knowledge, first of all, take what you know and try to sketch it out on the back of an envelope. Please give it some structure. Just do it there, get a very basic layout. Don't worry too much about the steps. Don't worry too much about creating the content. So get whatever knowledge you have in your head laid out in some very basic form, and then stop, stop for a second while that's laid out. 

 

And then I'm going to pivot your neck a little bit and talk to you alone about the marketing. What are some good things to do to get marketing up and running fast in 2020? When are we here? 

Start by taking your social media accounts and updating them, saying you are on the market. For instance, you post, "My name is Patrick. I sell woodworking services if you need custom woodworking done. Here's my cell number, here's my email address". Just get that out there. Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to use your social media accounts to promote yourself. People will understand it, I promise. 

The other thing you have to do is create a Facebook fan page. Get the profile and cover photos updated, start putting out maybe daily or weekly updates with examples of your work.

And again, go back to your personal Facebook accounts and start inviting people. Invite your mom and your dad and your brother and your sister to ask them for invites also. There's no shame, there's no embarrassment in that at all. Please don't focus too hard on how it looks done is better than perfect. And please, don't be cheap.

"You need to get paid; you need to run a business; you need to keep the lights on and put food on the table. There are no rules, and you shouldn't listen to people saying now is not the right time to start a business." Patrick Allmond(24:46-25:10)

So, after you've announced your business, social media, the next thing you would do is figure out a way to take someone's money. Find a way to take payment. 

What's going to happen is, after you're doing what I'm talking about for a few days, someone's going to come out and say, "Hey, I've got a job for you. How do I give you money?" and you want to be prepared for that.

Personally, if I had a choice, I would lean toward Stripe. I have a bad habit of holding onto your money. Stripe is pretty good about making sure transactions are good about getting money in your bank account. Fast like within 48 hours sometimes.

You've got a Facebook fan page now you're announcing it to your friends and family from your personal Facebook accounts. You got laid out what you want to sell right there, and you got a way to accept payment. Now, what comes next? 

You are teaching now, and your hourly time is worth more. So here are some tips. 

Number one, don't bill by the single hour, bill by blocks of hours with your particular skill set. You never want someone to buy just a 60-minute block because, more than likely, what you teach is pretty advanced. You've been doing it for a while, and people don't know it yet, but they want two hours, and they want four hours, and they want eight hours. 

 

Come up with a two-hour block of time and charge for that, don't be cheap. You're not working for minimum wage anymore. You're teaching someone you are selling your brain, which has taken you decades to fill with information. You buy a two-hour block of a thousand dollars if you want to talk to me and get someone on one consulting. It's recorded, and it's professional, and it's organized. So when you're thinking about pricing., don't be afraid to price high.

The fifth thing that you would start doing is more of a recurring thing, and that is to demonstrate your knowledge to people to make it very easy to buy from you. 

What does that mean? 

Start talking on your social media accounts about what you know in little small bite-sized chunks. Remember that there are multiple ways to get work when you are selling your knowledge. One is by actually doing the work for people, and one is by training people how to do it better.

With that, start working on your idea and squash those negative voices. I am here to keep you fed. I am here to help you feed your family. And if you don't do that, the repercussions are pretty tragic. 

I do not want you to get kicked out of your house. I do not want you to live in your car. I do not want to pull up on the side of the road and see you panhandling. I'm not putting down any of the people where those things happen to them. But I want to keep you in a situation to avoid you from getting there as much as possible.

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Patrick Allmond is a multi-decade entrepreneur, veteran, pilot, and ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX Contributor. He is also the founder of Focus Digital Marketing Agency and the StopDoingNothing movement. Action is the great thing that separates the average from the great. Decide today which one you want to be. Business mastery, generating wealth, personal development, and many more. You get to pick your transformation! https://stopdoingnothing.com/