How much money do you make?

If this question is asked to someone working a job then the answer is much different then if this question is asked to a person building their own business.

You can be building a busisnes for quite a while and be taking a loss instead of a profit. But this does not mean the business is necessarily bad. It MAY mean the product is not profitable ( it could be a matter of supply and demand) OR that the business has not been built up yet. It also could be a matter of investment. Perhaps the business person has NOT invested enough time, persistence, passion and/or money for it to succeed yet.

There is a real big problem with the assumption behind the question “how much do you make” because it assumes that in order for your business to be successful enough for me to join it, you have to be making a lot of money. This assumption is in error and I will try to explain why:

The first problem with this is that creating a busisnes is not usually a paid position! Income is created by the product you sell and the team you create to sell that product.

Second of all it shows no understanding of what it really takes to succeed.

Let’s look at our first example: imagine you’re selling flowers on the street. It’s probably not going to make you a lot of money as it’s all based on your work only and you’re not selling a very high ticket item.

Also you’re not getting paid by the hour because you’re directly responsible for how much you make by how many flowers you sell. But to sell a high ticket item on the street is probably not really going to work either. But this example shows a very basic business.

To take this business to the next level, you need to create a team who sell a product (who you earn a little monthly residual commission from each product that your team sells). To make a good amount of money, you most likely will want a product that is needed and paid for monthly. If you have larger ticket products for people to buy once they “come in your store” this will also help. When talking about an online business – instead of “coming in your store” it would be those who “come through your website funnel”.

Here’s our second example: Imagine building a house. First you have to build the foundation and then the structure and then the walls and roof. You don’t expect to live in it until you’re done do you? It’s the same for a busisnes. You have to build it before it can create the income you’re really looking for.

People don’t realize the work and investment often involved is substantial to get a busisnes off the ground. It takes a lot of advertising and the acquisition of many leaders. And this takes real time.

That being said it is important that you have someone who has succeeded already in building the business you are building or one very similar, so that you have a solid example to follow.

Also you want to make sure the income commission structure is truly lucrative.

One last example to hopefully help this set in. Imagine your business like an amazing piece of “machinery”. To make it really work properly, it takes a certain amount of power. If you don’t have that power source it just simply won’t produce what it’s supposed to.

So to bring this home, imagine that in order to make your business produce “z” amount of income you need “x” amount of leaders who are selling “y” amount of product. And until you have those leaders, the equation will never equal what you want.

Not only is this so but often leaders in a startup business are not paid a salary but are working with the same hope you are: to create a certain amount of income monthly from this business. And if you are missing key ingredients of leadership to help motivate your team, you may not ever be able to get the leaders you want until you fall down and fail as many times as it takes to learn the lessons you need to learn.

This again takes time to learn all these lessons and how can you judge whether a business is good or.bad just by asking “how much money are you making?” You can’t!

And you may have better or worse leadership skills, so there is no way to judge how fast YOU will succeed based on someone else’s efforts.

Let me change gears a little and try to sum all this up with what my millionaire mentor advised us:

“Find the ones (or leaders) who have a burning desire to achieve.

People like to help others, so I ask:

Could you do me a huge favor…

Do you know anyone who’s looking to make extra income?

Ask the least amount of questions to as many people as you can. If you spend too much time with each person then you wear yourself out before you even get to the 2-3 with a burning desire.

They all ask the same questions:

How much does it cost?

How much work do I have to put in?

How long before I earn my money back?

However, the ones that have a burning desire want to know one real answer:

Can this change my life financially?

The others just want to find an answer that will disqualify them from the opportunity. When working with these people it feels like sales because you feel like you need to convince them. Not so with the other group.

The people with a burning desire will get past you not explaining everything as they just want to meet the person with the answers. But the people who are just curious NEED the answers so they can disqualify themselves.

Don’t make it about you. Get the people with a burning desire in front of the expert for the answers.”*

*Paraphrased from Robert Hollis

I hope this helps you understand what most leaders have a hard time explaining when asked: “how much money you are making?”

It is probably a better idea to first take a good look at the compensation plan to see if it is truly a valid opportunity. Then if you have questions about income that cannot be answered by the leader still in the “trenches” it would be best to talk to the person who had succeeded already.

~Albie

SailingWithAlbie@gmail.com

PS: Now here is a sample of our business calculator to see what your potential earnings can be after getting a certain amount of good leaders.