Identifying and overcoming three myths about earning more money

Whenever a friend tells me they wish they could earn more money, I'll ask what's stopping them from doing it right now. The resulting conversation usually goes something like this:

"I can't," they say, "I have a job."

"Okay," I say, "so start it in on the side."

"But I don't have enough time."

"How much time can you spare each week?"

"Maybe only 10 hours."

"Perfect, that's plenty. Do some brainstorming and come up with next steps — I'll check in on your progress in two weeks."

"But... but... it's just not that simple! Waa..."

But be honest with yourself: Think about something you've gotten good at by sustained practice. Let's say you've lost 20lbs in the last 12 months. What would you say to yourself from a year ago? "It's really as simple as eating less and exercising more."

That doesn't mean it's EASY, though. It's HARD to try new things and to admit what you don't know. It's a lot easier to make excuses, procrastinate, and dream about how things will be different some day.

FMF readers might remember that I posted a guest post here last year called "Trying to earn more money? Stop wasting your time."

If you want to be different and really start earning more money, you'll need to be able to identify and overcome three big myths of entrepreneurship:

Myth #1

"I need a lot of money to start a business."

I call this the myth of resources, where people claim they'd start a business if only they had more time, money, experience, or contacts. In fact, there are LOTS of ways to start a business on just a shoestring budget and a few hours a week, especially if you focus on providing a service (like consulting, tutoring, or dog-walking) instead of selling a product.

The simplest way is to directly e-mail a person you'd like to work for and offer them your services. Every one of you reading can try that today, and it would take you ten minutes, zero dollars and no website.

(In fact, I pay someone on my staff over $10,000/month and he has no website or significantly social media presence. He's a highly valued consultant who simply solves my problems.)

I'm strongly in favour of starting any business you can with the resources available to you, and using your first business as a launching pad for your next.

Myth #2

"I don't think I'm a big enough risk taker to do it."

This is the myth of type. Wishful entrepreneurs often have a habit of convincing themselves that they're just not cut out to do business. Maybe they're just too risk-averse, or they don't like promoting themselves. Or maybe they weren't born smart or creative enough. In fact, if you say this, you've just selected yourself out of the pool!

Our own popular culture is partly to blame for perpetuating this myth. We always hear stories about entrepreneurs who risked everything and ended up with billions, and never about the ones quietly running safe, "boring" businesses.

Don't fall for that. For every supposed must-have entrepreneurial personality trait, I could find you plenty of success stories of someone who's the exact opposite. In fact, one of my programme members who teaches violin told me she was afraid of being "financially illiterate" and would be my "worst student ever," but she ended up making $80,000 in 8 weeks (for the free in-depth case study, visit Earn1K.com).

You don't have to have been born an entrepreneur to start thinking entrepreneurially.

Myth #3

"I just can't think of any lucrative ideas to go after right now!"

This is the myth of opportunity. You've all seen this phenomenon — it's the crazy uncle living in the attic, still working on patenting his million-dollar invention. Or the guy who says he'll do it when the economic conditions are perfect, or when he finds the perfect mentor or business partner.

Of course, the timing is never right. The perfect mentor or business partner doesn't really exist, and of course, great ideas are vastly overrated. What you end up with here is a really bad case of procrastination — and not much more.

The truth is, there are opportunities all around you. There are people starting businesses every day. EVERYBODY has skills and the ability to learn something new. And it's always a great time to make money. So what's holding you back?

So what's the biggest barrier?

In my research, the biggest barrier is finding the right idea. People often think their idea has to be unique ("I can't just be another freelancer writer / IT consultant"), when in reality, the more competition you have, the better.

Others think the idea has to come from within, when really, nobody cares about your initial idea — almost everyone should be looking to the market to see how you could combine your idea with what people will pay for. If it helps, I've put together a free Idea Generator Tool that will show you how to identify and test a profitable idea.

When you start earning money, you'll find the myths that held you back will slowly melt away. This is true of losing weight, improving your career, managing your time, and...earning money.