Natural disasters can occur at any time and any place in the world. Recently I watched in dismay with the rest of the world how families and businesses were displaced as a result of the devastating earthquakes in Nepal and on Mount Kinabalu in Sabah or the heatwave in India and Pakistan.
Looking at the destruction, I questioned how long would it take for some of these businesses to get back on their feet; especially those with major property damage. I wondered how these families would survive given the rural nature of their homes.
Other countries today are experiencing similar challenges with volcanic eruptions or pandemics that are causing businesses to shut down or keeping people indoors for periods of time.
With all of these unforeseen disasters going on, it caused me to take a step back to consider what the impact would be to my business and family life if the same things occurred in my own backyard.
How would you handle a situation like this? Do you have a Plan B? Do you have a means to generate revenue other than your core business? Then it hit me. It may take too long to get Plan B in operation. Whether you are self-employed or you work for some else, I say scrap the Plan B, you need a Plan A1, A2, A3 and A4.
So what exactly do I mean by a plan A1-A4? In a nutshell, multiple streams of revenue. Any natural disaster with property damage or a pandemic could potentially put your business out of action for several weeks or months. Your focus would be getting operational again, so you wouldn’t have the time to kick-start your plan B. Therefore you need to have multiple ways of generating income. Here is how I envision the plan A1-A4.
Plan A1 is Salary derived from your main business
Income A1 represents your primary income derived from your salary or business income. This is your main bread and butter. Financial gurus are always sharing that you should have a 3 to 6 months’ worth of savings, enough to cover your monthly household expenses. Whether you work for someone else or you are a business owner, this is good advice. But what happens if this were to suddenly go away? You’ll need to have another stream of revenue already in place. That’s were Plan A2-A4 come in.
Plan A2 is Passive income earnings or second job
The revenue from A2 can come from a second job or an online business. Stop, stop, stop! I can already hear you saying that you don’t have the time or energy to squeeze in a second job or that you don’t know anything about setting up an online business. I get that. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t steer you down this path if I didn’t have a solution for you.
The simply solution is to sell/promote other people’s products via an affiliate link. You don’t need any capital outlay, nor do you need to purchase any product. You can sell digital products via ClickBank.com from the marketplace or send people to Amazon.com via a link under the Amazon Associates programme. Both Amazon Associates and ClickBank offer step by step instruction on how to grab a link (called a hoplink) to put in a newsletter, Facebook post or Twitter link to promote a product. When someone makes a purchase that happens via your link, you get a commission. Products sold through affiliate programmes typically pay commissions of 40 – 75%. High-ticket products can pay a hefty commission resulting in a nice regular pay check if you do it right.
Another option is to sign up for Amazon Associates affiliate programme and do the same thing. Find something you enjoy and then add the links to your pages. Every time a sale is made from people going to the retailer’s site from your link, you get a commission.
Both ClickBank and Amazon Associates are reputable resources for you to consider.
Plan A3 is Income that can be derived from equity in assets
Another way for you to generate income is from the purchase of assets such as property, stocks or mutual funds. I admit, not everyone is in the position to purchase a property, yet if this is something within your reach, by all means consider it for the equity value you could derive from this. You might even be able to partner with other investors to secure this type of asset. Purchasing property is one of the best ways to build up equity.
Alternatively, you can also look into stocks or mutual funds. Buy stocks when they are at a low purchase price. Hang onto them for a while to allow for them to gain some equity. If you find yourself in need of cash following a natural disaster, selling some of your stocks may provide a short term fix.
Plan A4 is Income generated from Intellectual Property (IP) assets which you create
This is probably one of my favourite means for generating income; creating your own product assets. Some people call this making money in your pyjamas because a sell can happen anytime of the day, even while you are sleep. Everybody and I do mean everybody has a skill or hobby that they are good at. Determine what your talent is and then create information products around that. Share your knowledge in the form of e-Books, paperback books, podcast, online video course, virtual learning course which can be delivered weekly via email. Sell your products on Amazon.com and places like Udemy. Once you start doing this, you’ll want to create more and more products.
So there you have it, my plan A1-A4. Determine which plan(s) work best for you and implement it. Build up the reserves or use the money as a regular steady second income. The key is to start now. Have this money flowing to you before an incident occurs. Let’s hope that nothing will happen and you get to build a nice nest egg instead.
