Want to know how to take your business to the next level in 2025? As…
Want to know how to stop trading your time for money? In many ways, the quickest way to start an online business is to offer a one-to-one service. But as your diary has filled up you might have got to the point where you don’t want to only be able to trade your time for money. Keep on reading to find out how to stop trading your time for money.
This page may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
It’s very common for one-to-one service providers to get to a point where they become fed up with trading time for money. It is usually because:
- They are fully booked and want to be able to make more money without having to work more
- They want to work less but still be able to make the amount of money they are making now
- They want to work less and make more money
If any of the above are true for you then learning how to break the connection between the number of hours you work and the amount of money you can earn is key. In this blog post, I’m going to share how you can stop trading time for money and how you can leverage your time to make more money.
HOW TO STOP TRADING YOUR TIME FOR MONEY
TRUE WAYS TO STOP TRADING TIME FOR MONEY
Digital Products
If you really want to stop trading your time for money you’ll need to move your service-based business into a product-based business.
A very common way to stop trading time for money (also referred to as creating a passive income stream) is through digital products. This could be a workbook, template, spreadsheet or app. With all of these digital products, you will have to invest time initially into the creation (although you can outsource this) and you’ll then need to ensure you have a marketing strategy that will generate sales.
The joy of a digital product is by using software for payment and delivery, such as Kartra, you don’t have to be involved with the sales or delivery aspect. However, you will have to consider how you provide customer service.
Physical Products
Another way to stop trading your time for money is by selling physical products and outsourcing the creation and distribution elements. It isn’t uncommon for an online, service-based, business to decide to offer merchandise or create a range of products that are closely related to their business. For example, in my business, it wouldn’t seem odd if I decided to create a content planner or an annual business planner as both of these directly relate to my marketing and business services.
To be clear some physical products businesses are very time-intensive. In order for you to not be trading time for money it is about having someone else create and distribute the product. If you can outsource customer services as well then you are totally winning.
Self-Study Online Course
Another option is to create a self-study online course. Technically, this is a digital product, but I’ve separated it out because online courses are a very popular way to stop trading time for money and whereas workbooks, templates, spreadsheets etc are usually low-ticket items you could create a course that you can charge thousands for.
As with any digital product you will need to initially invest time in order to create the course. Ideally, you’ll also do market research to ensure it is a course that people are willing to pay for. Once created you’ll need to market the course to generate sales, and, of course, provide adequate customer service for members.
| INTRODUCING ‘FULLY BOOKED AND SCALING’
If you are currently providing a 1-to-1 service and want to also have a scalable offer (course, membership, group programme etc) then Fully Booked and Scaling is perfect for you! In this 6-month one-to-one programme, I’ll help you to choose, market and sell a scalable offer, without impacting the demand for your 1-to-1 service. It is absolutely possible for you to make a bigger impact and make more money WITHOUT working harder. |
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where you receive a commission or kickback for sales that you have helped another business to generate. You are usually given specific affiliate (or referral) links or a promo code that people can enter at the checkout. This enables the sale to be associated with you and then the business will give you a payout in line with their terms. Some businesses will give you a one-off payment, and others will give you a recurring payment.
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to stop trading time for money especially if you already have an online community or audience that trusts you and will follow your recommendations. The key to doing this successfully is finding products and services that make sense for your brand and are genuinely helpful to your community.
WAYS TO LEVERAGE YOUR TIME TO MAKE MORE MONEY
If you are a one-to-one service-based business that wants to stop trading your time for money then the main option you have is moving into digital products, physical products or affiliate marketing.
However, if the reason why you want to stop trading your time for money is because you want to work less, make more money or both – then you might be able to achieve those goals without having to stop trading your time for money. You don’t need to focus purely on passive income streams. Instead, you could be looking for ways to leverage your time to make more money.
Deliver trainings, workshops, masterclass, group programmes etc
If currently, you have been delivering everything on a one-to-one basis then you can think about if there is any way you could make changes so you can help your clients on a one-to-many basis. Delivering training, workshops and masterclass, which can vary anything from one hour to a few days. Yes, you are still having to trade time for money since you have to turn up and deliver the session. But depending on the number of people you are willing to have attend these trainings, workshops and retreats you can drastically increase your income potential in that hour.
For example, you might have a day training that you delivered one-to-one and charged £500 for. You decide to now offer it in a group format. Since they don’t get one-to-one support you reduce the training to £250 per attendee. But you have the capacity to take 20 attendees. Now you have the ability to make 5,000 on that day rather than £500.
Run a membership
Another great way to leverage your time, and create a source of recurring revenue, is by having a membership. Memberships continue to grow in popularity for online businesses because they offer a recurring revenue stream (To learn about other ways to create a monthly recurring revenue click here) and provide an engaged community of people who can become your biggest advocates, as well as there being the opportunity to upsell to members for higher-ticket items.
The amount of time you devote to your membership is up-to-you. It might be that you set aside some time per week to engage in the communication space you provide for members (Facebook Group, Telegram, Slack etc) and you might decide to do some live office hours, Q&A or training). However, given that memberships can have hundreds, thousands even tens of thousands you can massively leverage your time.
Have your own mastermind
Another way for your to leverage your time is by having your own mastermind. Whereas a membership normally has no cap on the number of members a mastermind is capped. Traditionally masterminds have been small (think 10-15 people). However, lots of business owners are now using the term even when the group is 50+ people. In terms of leveraging your time, it works fairly similar to retreats in the sense that you don’t charge the same as you would for working with you one-to-one, but since it is fairly intimate you can still charge more than you would for a membership.
Live events and retreats
If you love getting to meet with people in real life then you could consider running a live event or a retreat. Even though I run an online business and love the freedom of being able to work from anywhere the reality is I love meeting people in real life. There are lots of people who love meeting people in real life too, which is why live events and retreats are so popular.
If you love to travel then retreats can be a great way to combine work and pleasure. The key is to be able to create an experience that people can buy into.
Outsourcing
All of the other ways to leverage your time have focused on working with more than one person at the same time. However, if you are doing everything in your business right now one thing you can look at is outsourcing. Are there elements of your business that can be run by someone else? For example, you might decide to get a virtual assistant, online business manager or social media manager. All of these people can take over non-client-facing aspects of your business. This will give you more hours back so that then you can use these hours to work with clients and make more money. The key is ensuring you hire someone at a rate that this cheaper than the amount of money you are able to bring into the business by having that time back.
That’s it. You now know how to stop trading your time for money.
As you can see you have a few options to truly stop trading time for money in your business and then you also have a few other options that will enable you to scale your business by leveraging your time.
So what sounds exciting to you? Are you going to add any of the above in to your business? Let me know in the comments.
| CREATE A PLAN TO CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS IN JUST ONE DAY!
If you’ve read this blog post then clearly you want your business to change. You want to make more money, work less, or both! Change doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right plan in place, you’ll get there faster. So if you are serious about cutting the tie between trading time for money and want to plan how to successfully make that transition in your business book a Strategy Day. I have a tried-and-tested process that I’ve used for years that ensures that in just one day I can help business owners to create a plan for the whole year ahead. All you have to do is fill in a questionnaire beforehand and then turn up on the day. I’ll then lead you through the whole process and write everything down – making it super easy for you! For more information, and to apply, click here. Prefer ongoing support? You can check out my other services here. |
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