CG #023: Read This Before You Build An Online Income Stream

Hello 👋🏾,

Welcome to edition #023 of the Chase Growth Newsletter!

One letter goes out each Saturday encompassing but not confined to:

• Thought Provoking Perspective From Growth Obsessed Individuals

• Useful Gems To Build Your Brand/Business Online

• Expert Tips For Health Optimization

Today's edition be a 3-minute read.

Let's dive into it.

Read This Before You Build An Online Income Stream

I recently joined a new gym

It’s not very big and not many people know about it

It has all the equipment I need and a nice family vibe from everyone who goes

Oh yeah, I also love the owner, great guy

I was speaking to him the other day and he looked a bit dazed

I asked him, “Are you okay Neil?”

He said, “Yeah, just mentally transitioning to personal training after my day job”

I then asked, “How long have you been working two jobs?”

He replied, “About 20 years now, but I'm looking to scale back and automate the PT”

I was impressed but not surprised

He seems to be doing quite well for himself and this explains why

Clearly, realized early in his career the importance of diversifying his income streams

As an athlete, this was something I realized at an early age as well

Any income I made from my sport would come to an end in my mid 30’s if I was lucky

I knew I did not want to wait until then to start diversifying

This led me to start learning about online business and starting side hustles

Today I will share 5 businesses I started and my most valuable lessons from starting them

Before diving in I think it is important to explain one concept

Arbitrage

The internet has created many opportunities to build income streams by utilizing this system

It is easy, first, figure out what products or services people want

Figure out how to find them in abundance on the internet

Act as the middle man and deliver the service/product

It is not cheating, the Expedia Group used this same model to build a $15B empire

This is also the foundation of my approach in most of these business

Remember, you are trying to create an income stream, not a job

As I later realized this is a tricky approach to life as a young professional

It can backfire and actually set you back as I might explain in a future letter

But for now, let’s dive into the businesses

Dropshipping

Process:

• Find products listed in online retail stores

• Create an online store of your own and list products for cost of item + profit

• Market your store and make sales

• Take $$ from sales, buy the product and ship it to the customer

Difficulty: 3-5/5

Competition: 5/5

Earning/Scale Potential: $$$$$

Feedback:

This model seems amazing in theory but you quickly run into many problems

There is lots of competition as the barrier to entry is so low

Hard to scale without access to capital/credit

Hard to scale by yourself (many business aspects necessary)

Must have a long-term approach and build a brand to be successful

Graphic design

Process:

• Either be a good graphic designer or know how to find them

• Market your graphic design services

• Create or outsource design work

• Manage clients

Difficulty: 2/5

Competition: 4/5

Earning/Scale Potential: $$

Feedback:

This is a decent business to start as a noobie if you like design

Like most things, finding an industry is key to success

Having friends in that industry to get referred work makes life much easier

This same approach can be taken to web and/or app design

Instagram Growth Coaching

Process:

• Build social proof and knowledge by building an Instagram page

• Market your services (works well if you do it on the page that you grow)

• Help clients see growth and multiply earnings through social proof

Difficulty: 4/5

Competition: 2/5

Earning/Scale Potential: $$$

Feedback:

The problem with this model is that social media moves so quickly that you constantly need to be up to date on what is happening and how to get results.

Added to this, it takes time for you to learn the actual process (for instance it took me 1.5 years to learn how to effectively grow on Instagram)

It is hard to help clients get results and make $$. Not because your methods don’t work, but because most people’s business ideas do not work and they do not pay attention to the tiny details and persistence that is required to grow.

Instagram Growth Services

Process:

• Gain access to black and grey hat Instagram service providers

• Negotiate deals to deliver services under a white-label agreement

• Stealthily market your services (usually by cold outreach)

• Gain clients, pay service providers, and keep profits

Difficulty: 1/5

Competition: 1/5

Earning/Scale Potential: $$$$

Feedback:

Most people just think you are using bots so the services can be hard to sell.

These services were most effective when they launch. As more people use them and social media companies become aware of them they lose their effectiveness so it was a constant battle to find the new hot service.

Building a business where you depend 100% on someone else to deliver a service can be tricky, it takes time to build good relationships and sometimes they try to steal your clients.

Online Courses

Process:

• Create an online course around the knowledge you have

• Build out content marketing channels

• Sell courses

• Get clients results

• Build with flywheel marketing leveraging people results

Difficulty: 4/5

Competition: 1/5

Earning/Scale Potential: $$$

Feedback:

There is technically no competition in this model because no one can teach your method of doing something exactly like you can.

However, with people being so skeptical of online gurus, it can be hard to build trust with people and get them to buy your product.

Added to this, the growth of your business is contingent on how quickly and how much results your course can get for people. Only 5-15% of people ever finish online courses.

So straight away the numbers are stacked against you regarding people getting results without you quickly becoming a very hands-on teacher and motivator.

Summary

Regardless of the outcome, I enjoyed the process of actioning these models

Along the way, I learned so many skills:

• Sales

• Negotiations

• Email marketing

• Content creation

• Project management

• Website development

The list goes on….

I still use each and every one of these in the work I do today

So…did I actually “fail” any of the projects?

Some interesting finds from last week:

📺 Watch this: The World’s Biggest Traffic Jam?

📺 Watch this: We Might Never Eat Bananas Again

That’s it for this edition of the Chase Growth newsletter.

If you found value, all I ask is that you share this with one person who might find it valuable.

If you found no value, please consider unsubscribing.

Until next time, take care.

Carl Hinkson

When in doubt, Chase Growth