Whats up my friends, this is Doctor Jones with my own real life testimony of one of the many side money making gigs in my past.

These experiences are important because I always seem to go against the grain, even before I knew why. This is one of those stories which I will explain exactly how I did it as well as some key takeaways for you in your journey.

Background:

Let’s start off with a little background about what was going on in our lives at the time. We were a young family living in Las Vegas with a newborn baby (would be the first of 4, but we didn’t know that). We had been married for about 4 years before having our first born, and I was working at a local Casino game maintenance warehouse. Time-line wise this was about 14 years ago today.

I believe in having your own biz, and this was the first venture which would set that belief in motion. We needed a little more money to maintain our family needs, so I did the most logical thing at the time:

I bought a super expensive E-Book, before they were cool!

I spent about $125 on this ebook (which was a lot of money for us to spend). Basically the e-book gave simple instructions on how to do home and commercial inspections as an independent contractor WITHOUT the need for a license or certification. It also provided a very basic list of contacts at certain companies to get this thing started.

This was crazy for most people. It was a risk, a great risk for us especially at the time…but you know what happened? 

I used the e-books resources to make connections with people whom I would not have known otherwise. These connections led to me making a decent amount of money on the side, so much so that I eventually decided to quit my job about 4 months later.

That Money Though:

Here is where the main part of this story gets interesting. Once I quit the job and made myself open to as many jobs as I could find, that is when our best money month happened. 

It actually happened 30 days after I quit my full-time job.

Like I said…it was a risk. It is very risky to quit a job with a young family to support. Exploring the unknown without knowing if it will work. I would not, however, have made the big money had I not quit my full-time job and focused on the side-money-maker as our income source. When your mind is focused and there are no other options in that moment, life has a way of providing something great if you let it.

30 days after I quit the job I was staring at a paycheck for about 12,500 dollars. Next to it was another paycheck for $500 for a total of $13,000 big ones.

Wait….$13,000 dollars….for a Jones?!?!? Unbelievable? Believe it!

I had never thought I could earn this much money in one month. Remember this is before a lot of people were making bank from the internet(s) and was from me starting a service business completing inspections for banks and other companies.

Mind you, I was not raised with a “self employed” or “business” mindset. Yet here I was staring at the results of owning your own service based business. This is important because this money changed the trajectory of our very lives. We moved from Las Vegas to a central location in Arizona and maintained a very nice inspection business for a good amount of time.

Why did our lives change you might say? Some people think money in and of itself is evil, but that type of thinking will leave you with….no money! It’s the LOVE of money that is evil. Money itself is a tool used by Mankind since the beginning. We used that tool to enhance our lives for the better, and that is what I want for each and every one of you.

Here is How it Happened:

First of all, a couple of points I need to make. This type of service business was much better than it is now, and would be much harder to make now doing this type of work. I had a few things working in my favor which we will discuss, but the application of this can be used anywhere you can find opportunity today.

1. I allowed myself to dream. I believed I could so much that I quit a good paying job to follow those beliefs. My mindset was in a really good place and played a giant role in my confidence, my work, and my overall drive to succeed. Check yourself and remove any barriers which might be holding you back. (will have a dedicated section to this in the future)
2. I paid for information via an e-book because I did not have the right knowledge otherwise. Without the purchase of the e-book it would not have been possible. I would never have known those contacts existed, or how to go about contacting them in the first place. (Small Caveat: Knowledge is nothing unless you properly APPLY that knowledge)
3. After talking with many people and through some negotiations I found where the NEED is. Where they were lacking an inspector, I was going to. I didn’t restrict myself to areas nearby, but focused on being their contact for an out of area inspector. This let me charge much higher rates to go where most people refused to go. I found a need, and FILLED that need. Big clue for ya.
4. After many successful assignment completions I had gained many peoples trust. I made my character known to people. As the trust was built I received more and more assignments.
5. This led to our big money month because I now knew where the biggest need was (a few hours away in a certain location). I had built enough relationships to now take advantage of my situation. I negotiated a contract to complete all the assignments in a large area which had before gone without completion.
6. Since I knew the need was great, I negotiated a much larger amount of money to get these assignments completed in 1 months time. They trusted me to do them do to my character I built as an inspector.
7. I said they could all be done in a month, then I worked 18 hours a day for 3 weeks getting them all done by myself without any other contractors. 
8. I over delivered by getting them all done in only 3 weeks, making them extra happy, and securing that large paycheck headed my way. I worked really hard for those 3 weeks, but earned $13,000 and was able to take a week off…and let me tell you, It. Felt. AMAZING!

Key TakeAways:

Things today are much different than they were over a decade ago. Good thing that principles endure more than experience. What principles did you learn from this story? Here are some thoughts

The Right Mindset (make Your Mind go BOOM!)

Having the right mindset made the whole thing possible in the first place. Keeping my mind open to new ideas which I had not yet learned, and being receptive to those ideas once the opportunity presented itself to me. Only in the right mindset would I have ever taken action.

Making Money is the Same Today as it was 100 years ago

It always finds a way to boil down to the basic simple idea that is this…Find a need, and fill that need. Sure Mindset, Action, and even a little bit of luck have their part. In the end it’s always the same principle that made the money. Same as it was a hundred years ago, and same as it will be a hundred years from now.

Prove Yourself with Action, not just Words

I didn’t get the big contract until I worked for a while and proved my character. Once it was established and relationships developed, it was easy to get the contract when the opportunity came up. How can you apply this to your own personal journey? Are you living with your own personal character in mind, or are you doing half your workload with a sour attitude and blaming others behind their backs?

It takes years to build character, but only a day to ruin it.

Once you get the opportunity, Jump on it!

You never know when an opportunity will strike. You can, however, be open and ready to receive it with your attitude of mind and heart ready to take on the challenge. I have let too many opportunities slip by only to discover someone else had the same idea and jumped on it. 

Give Your Best Quality Work

Not only did I seize the moment and take on the jobs, but I worked extremely hard to get all the jobs done before the deadline was complete. 

This might have been a service contract job, but this statement can be applied anywhere. Do you run a business (or want to) where you sell printable art on Etsy? Give people your best work. Do you sell your services on Fiverr? Whether the job is $5 or a PRO $500, give them your best self service. Give people value and quality, and you will always stand out from the rest.

Awesome Conclusion:

I believe every one of you reading this has something awesome to offer the world. It’s my hope that you learned something from this and can apply it to your own life as you create your own side money projects.

My goal is to help as many people earn extra money as I can. Not because money is king, but that a little bit of extra money used in the right way can greatly enhance a person’s life.

Remember that it’s a tool for us humans to use without abusing its power

but treating it with great respect.

This was just one example of many to come. Along with stories like these from myself and others, we will have some in depth training for the The Mind Bombers who are looking for more in life.

Out of all the ways to make money, what methods are you most interested in? Are you looking to start a marketplace business by selling on Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, or..? Maybe you are interested in making money from blogging or creating youtube videos? What about streaming video games on Twitch? 

There are so many options out there. Tell us in the comments below which side money making methods you are most interested in and why OR better yet which side money methods you are currently doing right now.

Until next time, keep makin and shakin!

-Dr. Jones