No Money Yet? Now What?
America’s Golden Age of the 1950s, when few had credit card debt, and most had some kind of bank account is gone for a lot of us. Today, many of us self-publishing indie authors, along with a lot of society, have credit card debt. Some of us are even living off of our credit cards. We bounce around balances around from one card to another just to survive another month.
Not only is this bad credit. This is hurting our authorpreneurship business, too. And personally, it’s a bad idea also because it’s limiting the options available to us. It’s financially enslaving us and decreasing the quality of our lives.
But… when the money just isn’t coming in yet… then what are we supposed to do, right? Sometimes it seems like we’re being forced to live off of our credit cards, right?
Well, yes and no. When the money isn’t there. And we need something right now, like our car repaired so we can get to work tomorrow, then maybe we are being forced to use a credit card. But, when we want to obtain some kind of marketing services today, instead of tomorrow, well, I’m not so sure we’re being forced there to go into credit card debt…
Remember, this business is a marathon, not a sprint. We authorpreneurs have to pace ourselves. Most likely, we don’t need that marketing service today. Maybe we can wait until a later time to get this marketing service. Perhaps we can substitute something else that we already know how to do, and that would be good enough for now. Maybe we could barter with someone to get this service, and we’ll help them in return with something they don’t know very well. Or could we use sweat equity? Could we go on YouTube and learn it ourselves? Could we sign up for a very inexpensive online course to learn this skill? Could we get free educational stuff or really cheap educational stuff from influencers in our niche?
The point I’m trying to make is that we authorpreneurs cannot rely solely on our credit cards to run our business when the money isn’t there yet. We are authorpreneurs, we are creative and resourceful people. We need to find another way. After all, I think many successful people out there would share with us that it’s not really about the resources we have available to us. It’s always more about how resourceful we are. Hey, that’s good news for us. Being resourceful is right up our alley as authorpreneurs, right?
How about falling back on our free content marketing to carry us for a while? This would probably be better than paying for some fancy marketing service on our credit cards, right? Hey, the free content marketing might be a slower route. But, it’s probably a better route. After all, with content marketing, we’re better able to refine our message, and we’re creating material for future books and educational products as well. It’s a win-win, even if it is a little slower than some other ways that the big boys and big girls of our industry partake in.
Don’t get jealous of the hotshots in our industry, though. I’m sure if we asked these people with deep pockets how often they wasted money on some new shiny marketing tool, it would be a lot. You see, having deep pockets doesn’t force one to grow and become more resourceful. But being a true authorpreneur does cause tremendous growth. We don’t just throw money at it. Instead, we up our game in improving the quality of person we are, and what we know, and are capable of instead.
Another thing to remember is that we shouldn’t quit or day jobs if we don’t have to. Our day job will ensure that we still have an income and benefits while building our authorpreneurship business on the side. Our day job income will help when the money just isn’t there yet with all the work we’re doing for our authorpreneurship business. Our day job income gives us options. And helps us create our side-business the way we want to create it. Not the way our desperation for money dictates to us as if we were working for it, rather than it working for us.
In closing, stop thinking of this as a hobby. We have to think of this as a business where a return on our investment is very important. We need to be of the mindset of paying for things from our profits rather than going into debt. No business can survive like that, so we shouldn’t even be tempted to go down that road. Remember, it’s all about resourcefulness and growth, and eventually, lifestyle. So, now get out there and grow some more.
*Check out the free video lesson on this chapter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOWxRACHscA&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=56