When you have been on-line for a while you get used to the common phrases being bandied about and tend to forget that newcomers to the space might struggle with some of them.

“Multiple streams of income” is heralded as the goal for on-line marketers.

Most people know what having a regular job in the real world is like. You collect a paycheque every pay period, it is a pre-arranged amount usually and there is no guess work to it. That would be a single stream of income… your income comes from only one source.

This on-line space is somewhat different. If you are trading time for money, there is a finite amount of money you can make. Whether contracting or coaching, there are only so many hours in a day in which to offer your services.

So most on-line entrepreneurs market something. It could be a business opportunity, it might be a product. It could be something they created or something someone else created. The latter is called affiliate sales and many people start with that until they have some products of their own to sell.

On-line you have little to zero control over anything you sell unless it is your own. This means that a product or an opportunity could be quite lucrative one day and be gone the next. Some companies and their owners can be fickle, deciding to fold up shop on a whim or deciding to cut you from their herd because of some obscure clause in their Terms and Conditions that you overlooked.

Last year for example, I was involved in an opportunity. I reached the stage where I was earning 4-figures per week and several of my friends were actually earning 5 large figures per month. Pretty nice pocket change. A number of people in our organization actually quit their jobs as they felt they had a cash cow and the sky was the limit. They only had that one source of income but when you are earning 5-6 large figures every month, did they need anything else?

Well, for whatever reason, a government body moved in and closed the doors of this business overnight. And when you go from that large of income to nothing literally overnight, does it matter what the reasons are? Government bodies work in mysterious ways and have no obligation to explain their actions.

Can you imagine the outfall? A large number of people were devastated. They had put all their eggs into that one golden basket and when the bottom fell out, they had no safety net. Right, Wrong, Why all are moot points when your single source of income dries up in an hour.

No matter which company you are currently with or thinking of joining please don’t make the mistake of thinking “that could never happen to us”.

This is where I can segue into explaining multiple streams of income.

When this company folded, I was inconvenienced, and I was very frustrated but, financially, it did not devastate me. The reason being I still had my part-time job. I still market several other products; I still had residual income from professional coaches that I recommend. I have multiple streams of income. And I am constantly keeping my eye open for compatible products/services to market.

I would like you to really notice the word “compatible” in the previous sentence. If you market vitamins, children’s books and racing car tires, your potential clients are going to be totally confused about what you have to offer and what your area of expertise is and probably just leave. If you are marketing children’s books and expand into other children’s things including vitamins that is less of a leap but you have to expand carefully.

If you do, on the other hand, market arthritis treatments because you have arthritis and there is not much you haven’t learned about arthritis, then branch into orthotics for arthritis sufferers, then into hand braces and kitchen utensils for people with severe arthritis, and have an Amazon bookshelf that is filled with arthritis information, your clients are going to be excited about your expertise and the one-stop shopping available to them at your site. All your offerings are “compatible”.

If, one day, the company that creates the orthotics closes its doors, you have a number of other sources of income and they will carry you until you find another quality supplier of arthritis orthotics.

Do you get the picture?

Multiple streams of income are mandatory before you give up any predictable income source like a job.

I think it’s a respect-thing and you absolutely have to have that much respect for yourself and your dependents!

It might take time, but it’s worth it!