New Game Plan: The Base 6
The most common numeral system, one that you probably use is the base-10. There’s also the senary numeral system (also known as base-6 or heximal) which has six as its base (wikipedia). When I narrowed the categories I will be focusing on to just 6 (I think you all know my obsession with multiples of 3), I wanted to give them a name for the sake of easy reference- my nerdy side took over and my fascination with the senary numeral system overcame me and “the base 6” name was born.
It wasn’t until I told my girlfriend about it that she nonchalantly responded with “it’s always good to get back to the basics”.
After a short confused exchange not knowing we were referring to two different things, we finally got on the same page and laughed it off. I walked away from that conversation excited because I had accidentally stumbled upon a name that fully reflected exactly what I intended to do moving forward- get back to the basics.
If you’re interested, you can learn how to count in the base six number system here.
Back to the Basics — Reverse Engineering
When I realized that I probably wouldn’t be hitting my goal, I went on reevaluation mode. I did this by reviewing my “notes to self”, reading, listening to podcasts, traveling, praying and reading what other successful people were currently doing. I was essentially on a mini-journey to recenter myself. During this soul search, one thing that resonated with me was the whole concept of “reverse engineering”- starting with the end in mind.
I’ve always known about it and have always practiced it especially in my Brand Strategy days. Yet somehow along the way, I had completely lost sight of why I was doing what I was doing which might have contributed to how things turned out.
My end goal has always been freedom, in short, retiring early! Retiring early to me doesn’t mean I never work again a day in my life, it just means I work how I want, when I want, with who I want- yes lawd! For the first time in a while, I was reenergized by this thought and immediately wanted to know how much this would take.
So after doing the math, I came to the conclusion that I need to make about $15,000/mo or $180,000/year. This would enable me- after taxes to net about $10,000/mo or $120,000/yr.
At the moment, my expenses are nowhere near that number so I don’t need anything close to $10,000/mo but I set that number with the future in mind. I’m sure my needs will change as time goes by so my hope is the extra padding will be able to cover that. I realize living off of $10,000/mo is not that much (and I apologize in advance if that number doesn’t inspire you) but after aligning my goals and values- this amount should be sufficient for me. I’ll go into more details about this in a future post- hold me accountable :)
If my math is right, in order to generate $15,000/mo, all my 30 income streams combined should generate an average net of $500/mo. Each stream moving forward will be gauged based on how close it is to this number.
The Base 6
As mentioned in my last post, I plan to leverage and scale the base 6 for a minimum of 30 streams of income. I’m excited with this because although my strategy has changed, my goal remains intact! So moving forward, I’ve come up with a new game plan that call for me to focus my resources on 6 categories that make up The Base 6:
- eCommerce
- Real Estate
- Membership Apps
- Premium Content
- Niche Sites
- The Sandbox
Allow me to explain!
1. eCommerce
Under this category, I’ll engage in drop-shipping & Amazon FBA- which in itself is a form of drop-shopping.
eCommerce specifically drop-shipping was one of the things that got me intrigued with starting an online business. This was after working for a company that primarily focused on drop-shipping. That plus reading The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris (if you haven’t read this book I’d highly recommend it).
As opposed to starting one from scratch, my plan is to buy a existing drop-shipping businesses and grow them. My Amazon efforts tanked after I took a break late last year and were especially affected by Amazon’s ban on incentivized reviews.
I’ve been there, done that- it shall be done again!
2. Real Estate
I didn’t even realize there was a term for it, but apparently I have been house-hacking for a while now.
I found out this was a thing after hearing a mention on the BiggerPocket’s podcast (shout out to Ross Greene for recommending this to me last year). Side note: Ross and I met when he sold me my first house and we have remained good friends ever since. He went on to start his own Real Estate business in the Las Vegas area. Him and I are meeting in a few weeks and I am hoping to convince him to guest post or at least interview him about Real Estate- I’ll keep you posted.
Although I’m currently not house-hacking anymore, I plan on actively engaging in real estate moving forward. My plan is to own at least 10 rental properties in the next few years and as I gain more experience, start house-flipping.
3. Membership Apps
My dating app is still alive- somewhere. Now that I’ve improved my programming skills, I’m working on revamping it. This involves a rebrand: I have a new name and concept for it that I believe will enable it to grow from the current 3,000+ membership base to at least 12,000 within a year of relaunching.
After I validate this concept, I will replicate the app and apply it in various niches and of course the goal of all this is to generate revenue by charging membership fees.
4. Premium Content
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot through free content which has in turn turned me into an advocate for democratizing information.
I’ll continue giving away 99% of my content free of charge. My goal is still to freely share my experiences- both good and bad in order to provide you with as much information as you possible to build a sustainable business and achieve the freedom you deserve. However, if you’d like to support me, I’ll provide about 1% of my content at a price. I plan on doing this with things like e-books, physical books, swag, 1:1 Coaching etc.
Additionally, I’d like to establish an online community of people like you and me- who are driven by the desire to achieve freedom by building businesses that enable them to generate passive income.
This is as result of realizing that there’s so much to learn and it’s easy to fall off, so having a community of like-minded individuals that is generous with information and keeps you accountable could mean the difference in achieving freedom. I’d like to hear your comments on whether you think this idea is worth pursuing or not.
5. Niche Sites
If you remember a few years back, I bought a natural & organic recipes niche site that was making roughly $40/mo in ad revenue. I haven’t done much with it which is a shame because this has resulted into decreased revenue, about $20/mo at the moment.
The goal of these sites will be to generate enough traffic to capture ad revenue. I might also sell some e-books and/or merchandise related to the niche to maximize their potential.
My goal is to focus some effort and get my current niche site back to where it once was. Once I prove to myself that I can get this done, I’ll start acquiring and/or creating more niche sites and scale this category up.
6. The Sandbox
It would be silly of me to be closed off and not experiment with other ideas outside of what I have decided to focus on. That’s why I created this category because it will allow me to get my hands dirty and try out different things that don’t necessarily fit in any of the above categories.
At the moment, although a bit late in the game, I’m learning about Cryptocurrency. In fact, I’m working with a good friend of mine based in San Francisco who’s been in the game since the start and has reaped the benefits. I’m trying to get him on 30 streams for either a guest blog post or interview
I’ll keep you posted!
Rewards with Goal Setting
With all said and done, my 30 streams endeavor is one BIG goal, broken down into a bunch of actionable segments that make up a whole. Over the past two years, I’ve realized that though important, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey and what I make of it. That’s why I’m revising my whole approach to all the mini-goals I’ve set to reach my BIG goal.
With each goal I meet, I’ll unlock rewards and make sure to celebrate before moving on to the next milestone. Again, nothing revolutionary here, this is a proven method that’s essential to someone with my undertaking.
This is a really fun part of the whole process because I get to choose a bunch of gifts/rewards for myself. Balancing the size of the reward with the size of the goal met is the tricky part but I’m working on getting that down.
Conclusion
That, my friends is what I will be spending the next few years working on. I’m sure tweaks will be inevitable but for now, that’s the general game plan. I don’t know everything and if you think this plan is naive, please stop me before it’s too late. I’m always open to suggestions and your feedback is always welcome.
If you’re interested in joining me on this journey, leave a comment here and I’ll use that to gauge interest on the community idea I outlined on category #4 (The Premium Content) above.
Until next time, stream on!
