When I think about how to make more money, there is no way I will ever forget Rob Parsons or the subtitle of his book (above), which tells it all; “making it in business without losing in life!”
For anyone interesting in how to make more money, I wholeheartedly endorse this book — almost as much as I do my own website — for its message. Rob shows that you can make it in business without the sacrifice that so many make!
Let me share with you what Rob told me 17 or 18 years ago about what he witnessed inside his former law firm, where he was a very successful partner.
In case you do not know, to become a partner in such a firm, lawyers are usually required to complete a certain number of billable hours first. Before that, they are employees without the benefit of profit sharing, which is how significant money is made.
After they’ve paid the price by amassing these hours, they are up for consideration as a partner, which cuts them in on the real money. That is the backstory. Here is what Rob told me:
“I saw lawyers with young kids working to make partner faster. They would stay so late that they slept for a few hours at the office, then went back to work early in the morning without going home!”
I guess they had a shower there for overachievers so they did not smell bad when everyone arrived in the morning. But can you imagine staying away from your children just to be in a better position to provide for them?
This is stealing precious family time during a child’s formative years, which harms them no matter how much positive comes from the extra income!
How many successful mothers or fathers gave up too much and became absentee for the want of making more money?
The last word to me on this from Rob? “Don’t do it, Steve!”
Of course, unbeknownst to Rob, I had already made significant life changes before he gave me that advice.
I knew I would never be an absentee father. And my methods of making more money without sacrificing my personal life had already been rewarded by an article in a business publication that featured me.
What Rob talks about is common. Many entrepreneurs, salespeople and professionals are so focused on making more money that they sacrifice their personal life, just like in Rob’s book. They see working more as THE KEY to making more money and inadvertently become that absentee parent!
My dad, who was a sales trainer, frequently talked about leaving at 6 AM to drive into the city and beat rush hour. With this plan, he reasoned that a salesperson could be ready to call on businesses before the competition and often before the screening secretary showed up!
He also talked about working late because the boss was working more hours to make more money too, and was often the last person in the office when you knocked on doors.
My dad’s plan even included research on Saturdays to find businesses to call on, which meant more time away from family. A father or mother would leave before the kids were up and arrive home at 7 PM, after a 13-hour day, as well as being away several hours on Saturday!
I respected my dad, but there had to be a better way.
Too many entrepreneurs, salespeople and professionals see “time and money” like the old British saying, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too!” Applied to business, it would be something like:
You can’t make more money and have more free time too.
My name is Steven Peter Burke, and I must beg to differ. That is why I created the brand Smiling Steve™, to teach a much better way to achieve the extraordinary goal of earning more without this kind of sacrifice.
I’ve been online since 1996, beginning with running a business site for a company I founded and owned. That effort was so successful that it got me featured in a magazine (mag) in 2001 that was available at newsstands all over North America.
In 2004, that same business venture led to my “ugly mug” gracing the cover of another similar mag!
I am an entrepreneur who has had remarkable success without paying too great a price. But how?
For starters, everything begins with making more money. As soon as you make more money you can outsource all work that you do not want to do yourself and should not do.
Does this mean that you lose money to outsource work or hire a team? No. Does it mean you can achieve more work through your team than you could yourself? Yes. Can you do it with contract employees so that you do not have to pay employee benefits and Government taxes? Yes.
The key is making more money. Everything stems from that but you cannot think about doing this until you know about Service Arbitrage.
The most common example of Service Arbitrage is Fiverr. Through this site, anyone can offer a whole host of services to prospective clients and find someone to do that work, earning the difference between the billing amount and the cost of outsourcing as a profit.
Here are more simplistic examples of arbitrage:
Of course, Service Arbitrage is but one concept that a sharp entrepreneur uses. It is just the beginning concept of how to make more money without sacrificing your personal life.
Often, when an entrepreneur wants to make it to the next level they need an infusion of cash. Instead of working long hours to earn it or (heaven forbid) borrowing money, the next concept is solid.
In 1999 I made an offer to my customers that I subsequently wrote about in a training and in my book. The title of that training was “How I made $47,214 in 5 minutes!“
Now, before you get the chance to think “I call bullshit” or that you could never do the same, allow me to pull the curtain back from the wizard.
Yes, it took 5 minutes to send the email and the fax. After all, my customer lists were always ready. But that is just a part of the story.
It took 15 hours to write the ad copy. Another two weeks to handle inbound sales calls and take the orders for $500, plus ship out the packages. And it cost a few hundred to pay for shipping and the staff to make up the 96 packages.
The real truth is it took 3 years to build the client list. As the old saying goes: it took three years to become an overnight success!
The picture above was pieced together from an image on The WayBack Machine (archive.org). Literally, everything that was ever done online is recorded at archive.org.
Using a few simple techniques, anyone with a customer list can send an offer and even have that fulfilled by a 3rd party company, and make enough money to scale up their business enough to start outsourcing work.
Of course, if you do not have a customer list, now is the time to start building one.
The last concept I mention here (there’s much more in my book), is one that anyone can do.
This concept applies to many businesses, even if they are just starting. It is easily modified like this: “who else sells to my ______?”
Fill in the blank with any of these:
Whoever sells to the same people you do or want to will pay for you to advertise or do marketing or hire people to sell or outsource too.
In this way, it is easy to scale a business without money or even experience.
Now, this concept is not easy but it works big time. And I explain it in more detail in my book and in my follow-up materials.
Now let me give you my book for free (well, part of it).
During the pandemic, I finally found the time to write a book about how to make more money with the have your cake and eat it too principles.
Obviously, I know how to do it or I would not have made it in magazines nor have the experience to write this web page. More importantly, I know how to teach it to you.
You can have more income without working harder. In fact, you can have more income and work less!
In 2000, I broke the million-dollar earning barrier. My earnings hit $1.12 million that year but I love to tell the story of 2001.
That year my income was right on pace for $1.2 million when 9-11 happened. Sales tanked in the fall that year or I easily would have surpassed my previous year’s income. But, that aside, I took just short of 12 weeks off that year.
Yes, I had the equivalent of one week’s vacation per month. I also never missed hockey, paintball, school and other events that kids were in.
The top earners I had worked with 15 years earlier when I sold business equipment were away from home 65 hours a week on average (I stayed in touch with them). These people made $300,000 a year and none of them got 4 weeks off (they were too afraid to miss out on a commission!).
When I went on various holidays, including 4 cruises, canoe trips and more, my income continued because I had a team. When they did they would lose out on a chance to list a house or sell a copier!
You need the income so you can build a team, so you can live your life the way you deserve to. That is the reality.
If you want to make more money without sacrificing your personal life you need to start by reading my book. And, the first 12 sections are free, so you can find out what I do without spending a penny!
To download a PDF or an eBook (ePub) version, click this link:
When, with much anticipation, I discovered that the website address SmilingSteve.com was available, I didn’t know about the connection to Minecraft. All I knew was the brand name I had chosen for myself was doable because of the website address availability.
Of course, back then I had heard of Minecraft but that was about it.
Imagine my surprise when through my keyword research I discovered the existence of a Minecraft character or ‘skin’ called Smiling Steve?!?
I should apologize to the Minecraft MCYT (fans) for ranking #1 when a Google search is done for Smiling Steve. After all, I have nothing to do with that game.
However, the fact that this Minecraft was released in 2011 and still has a strong cult following plus a character called Smiling Steve is not harmful to my brand and this site, as you will see.
Searches like “does Smiling Steve have a beard” were common and continue. And, even though this Smiling Steve™ does not have a beard, the term Smiling Steve is searched, which helps my brand.
I don’t play video games because I am terrible at them. What I do is help entrepreneurs make more money. But traffic has its benefits and Minecraft is not the only reason why people search Smiling Steve on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
In the U.S. there is also a group of pharmacies that are known by the owner’s nickname, which is Smilin Steve (no “g” on Smiling).
Here you can see a screenshot of the then two pharmacies of Smilin Steve in 2011 (from the Wayback Machine). And all I can say is I am glad he chose to use the slang spelling and not my spelling of Smiling Steve™.
I am sure that searches in the local area for Smiling Steve or Smilin Steve bring up the pharmacy website and not Smilingsteve.com or anything on Minecraft.
So, when I discovered that Smiling Steve was a Minecraft character, my first goal was to rank #1 for any search for Smiling Steve, as I had name-brand competition.
This was achieved in 4 months through simply having the website with the name Smiling Steve in it and doing a little blogging plus very limited SEO (I had not even optimized this site for speed yet!). And now it is time to really establish this brand.
If you want to watch it happen AND get lots of tips on how you can make more money as an entrepreneur, I suggest you opt-in with the form below.
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With few exceptions, if you own a business you need a website and everyone who owns a site needs to know marketing & SEO basics.
That is why I wrote The Free Cheese Secret™, so entrepreneurs could learn how to turn advertising and marketing from risky to risk-free.
Think of it like this; if you don’t know the basics of SEO and marketing you will either overpay for these services or not even know if the people you hire to do it for you know enough to make sure your website will generate new business.
There’s a lot of fraud in SEO and Marketing.
Even more importantly, if you do not know the basics,