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For years I chased entrepreneurial success, but I was kind of broke. That’s why I had to keep going back into the corporate world. It sucked.

One of my business ideas made less than $500 in a year, despite giving it everything and hiring an expensive coach. What was missing? I was trying to make money the hard way.

The hard way is anything that goes against your true nature, takes forever to pay off or isn’t a natural fit for your strengths. The biggest clue is that you’re doing everything “right” and it’s still not working.

Here are my six tips to making money the easy way:

You have to like it… for a long time.

This sounds so fricking obvious but have you ever found yourself down a rabbit hole of a business because someone once told you that you were good at it?

“Your wedding was awesome – you should be a wedding planner!”

“I love your website, will you make me one?”

The best and most profitable business ideas are sustainable. Can you talk about that topic exclusively for the next few years? Will you get bored?

Sometimes the only way is to try it and see. Business ideas that I’ve tried and rejected in the last 5 years: movie review blog, raw food coaching, wedding weight loss, green detox living.

They are all things that I LIKE – but not enough to blog about every week for the rest of my life. Nothing worse than trying to force yourself to make money – it just doesn’t work. I see it all the time with entrepreneurs, “I’m just doing this business because it’s a good idea but I’m really passionate about something else.” Guess what? They aren’t making any money anyway. There’s a big difference between being GOOD at something and wanting to make it your business. If you’re an all round talented Jill of All Trades, you can get tempted on a daily basis to start all sorts of random things, but if that’s you, I say, “There are easier ways to make money.”

Easy is okay.

The best ideas are the ones that come naturally to you. The sweet spot is between something you love to do, something you’re good at, and crucially – that someone is willing to pay for (ESPECIALLY if you like it so much you’d do it for free). So if you’re looking at two competing business ideas – go for the one you know most about. For your first time out – go low capital and low expenses. You can start a business with a free website and Paypal account. It doesn’t need to be hard. There is often a reluctance to do the easy, because it’s SO OBVIOUS. There is even a sense of guilt that someone would pay you to do something that is effortless for you.

Oh, everyone knows how to do that!

No they don’t.

That’s why we outsource things like clothes shopping, ironing, food prep, dog walking, house cleaning, book keeping, home decorating, personal training etc etc. Of course they are things we could do ourselves, but a lot of people (myself included) would happily pay someone else to do it better. Oh people can find that information online for free. But they won’t. They will be happy to pay you to shortcut their learning time and make it easy for them. Time is money. Share your obvious ideas with the world.

Generic is out. Crazy and weird is okay.

Ben Huh started a software analytics firm in his 20s but didn’t achieve success until he went all in with a crazy passion project. Thus I Can Haz Cheezburger was born – a business founded solely on cat pictures!
Not every business needs to be sexy to be successful but don’t be afraid to bring your other passions into the mix. You can be the Yogi Book-keeper, the Hippie Lawyer or the Zombie lovin’ Life Coach.

Case in point – Amanda Aitken, a long time web designer recently came out of the closet as a psychic medium and now offers soul branded web design. She didn’t have to choose between her two talents. She combined them! Don’t be afraid to niche yourself. Paradoxically – it opens your brand up to more potential customers who wouldn’t have been interested before. You can try and be like everyone else but there are easier ways to make money.

Deal with your money stuff.

You can be super talented at what you do, but STILL not make money and this is the most frustrating problem of all.

Why? Your underlying money blocks sabotage you at every turn. You might be secretly scared of what would happen if you were wildly successful or think that you couldn’t handle more money.

You might think you want to have a six figure business but your underlying beliefs tell a different story. So you practically repel clients and more income. I’m yet to meet an entrepreneur without some form of money blocks – whether they are starting out or have large businesses. The secret is to keep working through them.

My Money Bootcamp is an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs – it’s a six week course to identify and eliminate your money blocks and it’s already helped otherwise incredibly talented business women make a lot more money more easily. You could try and break through with sheer will-power, but trust me – there are easier ways to make money.

Do one thing… really well.

OMG – this was so hard for me. This year I was going to release three more books (Get Hitched, Lucky Bitch, Get Fit, Lucky Bitch and Lucky Apocabitch, my zombie sur-thrival guide), as well as offer a six month mastermind (The Lucky Bitch MBA) and offer several retreats. I have several courses that are 99% finished… but here’s the thing. They aren’t along my core message. It would mean launching something new practically every month. Lots of late nights and possible adrenal fatigue. Less time with my hubby.

Get really good at one thing and keep perfecting it. You don’t have to be all things to all people. It’s exhausting and honestly, it’s not particularly profitable. It’s okay to profit from work you’ve done in the past. There are millions of people who are yet to see your work.

I really noticed this when I started going to more male dominated marketing conferences. Here were guys who were making great money offering ONE product or service. They weren’t trying to solve every problem in the world simultaneously. Big lesson. So – you could offer a million services, launch something new every month and split your focus in a million directions, but there are easier ways to make money.

Which brings me to my last point:

Quitting is cool.

It’s okay to ditch something that’s not working and try again, even if your friends and family roll their eyes at your entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

Remember – Vera Wang only started designing wedding dresses at age 40, Bill Gates’s first business was Traf-O-Data, Richard Branson ditched his Virgin Brides business, Ali Brown started out as a copywriter and there are a million failures behind each successful entrepreneur. So if something isn’t working – it’s not really your passion or main skill set, it’s starting to bore you or it’s frankly generic – you can let it go. I think you get the picture but just in case you need a reminder: When it gets hard – remind yourself.

There are easier ways to make money.
There are easier ways to make money.
THERE ARE EASIER WAYS TO MAKE MONEY.

So go out and make some.

September 2013 Issue