One of the most common things you see in the world of business is entrepreneurs looking to create wealth through multiple streams of income as opposed to what I call widening their principal stream of income.
What is the difference between Multiple Streams of Income and Widening the Stream of Income?
Think about it like this.
If you had enough money and wanted to invest, would you choose to invest in different industries like Real Estate, Stocks, and Crypto, and start your own business?
Or would you rather invest in a single industry, say Real Estate, and widen the stream by branching out into turning houses, renting, teaching home improvement, and starting your own tools brand?
If you choose the second option, you’re definitely on the right path – the widening stream of income path.
Why is Widening better than having Multiple streams?
The answer is rather simple, and the principle can be used in everyday activities as well. Imagine if you had a final basketball game at 8:00 a.m. and an important job interview at 9:00 a.m. Where do you think your focus would be? All over the place, right? Now, picture that, but with a few more activities included. How frazzled do you think you would be? Would you put your 100% into any one thing?
This is where widening your stream of income comes in. It not only allows you to respect the path you chose, but you can carry forward your skills with every new venture you invest in. When you widen your stream of income, you allow yourself enough wiggle room to even make mistakes and learn from them so you can get better as you move forward rather than learning an entirely new industry and putting in the time and effort to perfect it.
It was back in 2014 when I started Engarde Financial Group. In the beginning, our company offered auto, home, and life insurance. I often ventured into other business ventures unrelated to insurance as business rolled in. As an entrepreneur, curiosity can be both a blessing and a curse. The more opportunities I explored, the more I lost focus on the insurance business. In the end, I had to cut off everything unrelated to our clients, because we started to lose momentum, and our relationships were deteriorating.
In the process of getting back on track, I couldn’t resist thinking about other business opportunities since I love learning new things. Instead of thinking about additional streams of income, I began thinking about better ways to service our existing clients. By far, this is one of the most rewarding business decisions I have ever made.
As we thought more about our client’s needs, we decided to offer financial planning because our clients often asked for financial services that we didn’t offer. Financial planning is the cousin of insurance. Adding financial planning services, not only did it increase our revenue, but it also deepened our relationships with our clients and we became more referrable.
While we look for more opportunities to better serve our clients our revenue has continued to increase. To help our clients become more financially successful, we develop financial courses and training programs throughout the year. Our most recent success came from a book I’ve written called Spend Differently – The Secret Way to Wealth in a New Economy. It has gone on to become a 4x bestseller on Amazon. Nevertheless, I owe a lot of this success to my existing clients.
Choosing to broaden our income stream rather than looking for additional income has paid dividends and facilitated deeper relationships with our clients.
So, if you’re looking to create a steady flow of wealth, widening your income stream could be your best option. Stop trying to do too many things with the limited time and energy you have and focus all your attention on the stream you are already familiar with.
This can only lead to success.
