I’m a Self-Made Millionaire: Here’s How You Can Get Rich Working for Yourself
Written by
Martin Dasko
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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According to research from Zippia, 88% of millionaires are entrepreneurs, meaning they made their money through businesses, investments and their own salaries. While these figures are a few years old, it goes without saying that you can become a self-made millionaire if your business takes off. While entrepreneurship isn’t the right path for everyone, some people can get rich by working for themselves rather than in traditional employment.
According to self-made millionaires, how can you get rich by working for yourself?
Bootstrap Your Business
If you want to grow your business and get rich working for yourself, you may want to limit how much money you borrow. When you grow your business organically or use your own money, you don’t have to be accountable to anyone, allowing you to build the business your way.
Tiffany Rose Dean, the founder and CEO of Hollywood Hair Bar, a line of beauty products formulated with all-natural ingredients, shared that she launched her company from the ground up without a bank loan or any kind of assistance. She started with $500, and her hair and skin care line has now generated over $45 million. Even though bootstrapping may take you longer, you won’t have to stress about paying back lenders.
Identify a Market Need
“To get rich working for yourself, start by identifying a market need,” said Gene Caballero, co-founder of GreenPal and a self-made millionaire.
If you want to make money by working for yourself, you need to find a specific problem that you can solve. You make money in business by solving problems and providing solutions.
“Your job is to solve problems to make people’s lives simpler,” said Russell Brunson, co-founder of ClickFunnels. “The better you get at simplifying people’s lives, the more money you’ll make. Figure out what they actually want and solve their problems.”
The experts agreed that you don’t have much of a business model without a market need. You want to spend as much time as possible researching your market and customers so that you don’t waste time on the wrong product offering.
“Having a deep understanding of product resourcing, how to market the product, who your customer is, and where to meet them is crucial to success,” Dean added.
Create the Best Product or Service Possible
“It is so important to make sure that you have the best product in your category in order to explode in the market,” Dean said.
As you try to get rich working for yourself, you want to do whatever it takes to offer the best possible product or service. If your product isn’t excellent, then all of the marketing efforts in the world won’t help you.
Dean elaborated, “Ensuring that your product is providing a solution to a problem is the big moneymaker. Putting in the work to create such an amazing product, mixed with having a real understanding of my customer and a great marketing strategy, was the key to my success.”
Find a Business That Can Scale
Caballero stressed that you want to find a business model that can scale so you don’t have to work 24/7 to grow your business. Most successful entrepreneurs will note the importance of finding a business that you scale since you have a limited amount of time.
Caballero added, “For us, this meant having a large potential customer base and then automating processes to handle customer and provider interactions more efficiently than the traditional route.”
You want a business that can eventually scale so that you don’t always have to be involved in every aspect of it. You don’t want to stretch yourself thin, and it’s essential that you avoid burnout.
“If you desire to create wealth, what you’ve got to do is sever time from your income generation. As long as time is connected to how you generate income, you’ll generate a limited amount of income because you have a limited amount of time,” Brunson said.
Model Successful People
If you’re ever stuck in your journey or aren’t sure how to proceed to the next level, you want to find successful entrepreneurs to model so that you have a guideline or some sort of rough idea about what to do.
“If you want to be successful in life, all you need to do is to model those who are already successful,” Brunson said. “Find someone in your industry who is already doing what you want to do and learn from them.”
The good news is that you can always join a mastermind or pay for some sort of coaching to get assistance when looking for solutions.
Take Advantage of Online Tools
With revolutionary AI-powered tools and social media, many online tools can help you grow your business so that you don’t have to do everything alone.
“Invest in a robust online platform, SEO, and digital marketing to capture and grow your customer base,” Caballero said.
Digital marketing efforts and the correct online platforms can help you scale your business so that you can eventually become a self-made millionaire if your product delivers.
Reinvest Into Your Business
“Most importantly, continuously reinvest in the business rather than increasing personal spending,” Caballero said.
One key lesson from speaking with self-made millionaires is the importance of investing in your business when possible. While it may be tempting to use some of the funds for personal enjoyment or to treat yourself, you’ll want to dedicate most of your profits to growth.
Brunson concluded: “If you want to make a million dollars in a year, reverse engineer that goal. Break it down to the daily level: figure out what you’ve got to do every single day to hit that goal.”
If you want to become a self-made millionaire, it’s likely easier than ever if you’re willing to put in the time and effort. By following the tips in this article, you’ll have the direction for how to get started.
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