You have to use leverage to make any real money. To do this, you spend your time making and taking care of levers. I'd bet that if you were creative enough, you could find a way to make money from almost anything. Let me give you some examples to show you what I mean.
If you don't have a worker, you aren't making the most of your time. Start putting your time to use in a small way by doing something like a dog walking service that doesn't require a lot of skills. But have someone else walk the dogs. You never walk the dogs. Instead, you focus on marketing and getting more dogs and dog walkers to work for you. Then you hire someone to take care of marketing and sales, and your business will be able to run without you. You'll be able to run the business without being there, giving you time to start another business. You have to learn that you can't run an empire by doing everything yourself. "The more I do, the less I get done," says an old saying that fits this situation.
You can't use your money to make more money if you don't save money every month. Start small. Take 3% of any money you get and move it from your checking account to a savings account. How will you work your way up to bigger deals if you don't have money to buy into smaller ones? Even though the playing field is getting bigger, you need to save money to get started in business.
You are not making use of your skills if you haven't turned them into products. Start small with something that doesn't cost anything. You could write an article or a song, carve a wooden animal, or record a speech. Any place to start that gets you thinking about making things with your skills will be helpful. Services, like books, tapes, software, newsletters, subscription services, etc., can also be turned into products. If all you have are service skills, you can use them in the same way as in step one. But you can also start selling to new markets by making your own unique products, like the ones I just mentioned.
If you don't have business contacts, you can't use a social network to your advantage. Start telling people what you want to do. I can't remember where I heard this, but "He who has the biggest rolodex wins." The more business people you know who are also entrepreneurs, the more business opportunities you will hear about. This could help you make more money.
Non-physical assets that can be used as leverage can be used. I spend a lot of time in this area. For example, I've let a partner use my credit to buy an income property, but we split the money earned 50/50. To co-sign on a loan, you can use your credit and get paid. If you have good credit, you can get loans to help you buy investments.
When you've done enough of these exercises to wear yourself out, you can start figuring out how to use everything you've done so far to help you do what you want to do next. This is a very important time. Do you think, "I don't know what to do, so I guess I can't do that" if you have an idea? Or do you begin to think this, "Get my rolodex and find three people in the industry who might be able to point me in the right direction. Then call my bank and tell them I'll need some money for a new project in a couple of weeks."
Who do you think will make quick progress that will lead to success, and who won't be able to get past their own fears and give up on the idea?
