If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to make money.

Not a lot of money.

Not a ton of money.

Not Porsche 718S in Miami Blue with Cognac Leather money.

Just enough to keep building the business.

And the way I think about it is simple.

I try to have 5-7 faucets of business turned on at any given time.

Here are the faucets I currently have going in my business:

1. Publishing deals
2. Speaking engagements
3. Book sales
4. Retainer clients
5. Online courses
6. Affiliate sales (mostly Amazon)
7. Calendar sales
8. Freelance work

Why do you need so many faucets? Because at any given time, one or two or maybe even five of them will dry up. Your main retainer client will not renew your contract. Your calendar sells well in January and then not so well in July. In that moment, you will be deeply glad that you have other faucets already going.

It took me six years in Atlanta to turn on the freelance writing faucet, but ten years later, it’s still going. Faucets always take longer than you want to turn on.

The best time to build a new business is when you don’t need it to support your family.

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If you want some help building your business or just turning on a side hustle faucet, sign up for my new Entrepreneur’s List. It’s a once a week, free idea share that I’ve started to help people like us make more money and have more fun.

Here’s the sign up page.

Let’s turn on some faucets.

Make some money.

Have some fun.

And above all, avoid Atlanta traffic.