How Alpha 2.0 Businesses Are Managed
In this next installment on how to create your own Alpha 2.0 location-independent business, I’ll describe the overview of how a typical Alpha 2.0 business works. Before I do that, I want to thank all of you who sent or posted questions and comments. This input is really helpful to me because it paints a better picture of what kind of information you guys want and need, not only for the upcoming Alpha 2.0 Business Course (click here for it), but for future stuff I will provide you (including additional courses if this one sells well!).
To quickly recap last time, having 2-4 small, Alpha 2.0, location-independent businesses creates a solid income from multiple, diversified income sources. This provides you not only with a good amount of regular and location-independent income on a lower amount of work, but also protects you from various problems that plague other “normal” business owners.
Once you have an Alpha 2.0 business structure, you will be making at least $75,000 per year (the Alpha Male 2.0 minimum for maximum, long-term happiness) and will be doing so no matter where you are or where you wish to travel. I’ve done this myself (I have three location-independent businesses that require only 15 hours a week for me to maintain, and I make a lot more than $75,000 per year) and what I’ve done can be duplicated by anyone willing to put in a little time.
Now for the new stuff…
How Alpha 2.0 Businesses Are Managed
One of the goals of the Alpha 2.0 business is to remove yourself from the flow of work. This means you need to create a business (or businesses) that create income from systems instead of hands-on work.
People who are employees and most business owners have income that is only created from hands-on work. That means you have to use your hands to actually go do something in order for the income to flow. If you don’t do that work, you have no income. It doesn’t matter if you work at McDonalds as a burger flipper (no flipping, no money) or you’re a top-level heart surgeon (no cutting, no money).
Most business owners also are stuck in this boat. They have to go to their stupid office every day and perform the work of their actual work (consulting, selling, whatever) as well as screw around with employee problems, logistical issues, marketing, expansion, bookkeeping, legal, and so on.
It really sucks, and I would know, since I was that type of business owner myself for many years. Yeah, I eventually made some decent money, but I was working my ass off (many times I had to put in 60-70 hour weeks) because I had to do everything. Yes, that’s even when I had employees. Hey, employees aren’t going to manage themselves. You have to do that.
Today, under the Alpha 2.0 business model, I only need to work a fraction of that time and make several times more money than I used to. This is because all of my companies are based on systems instead of me working.
Your only job as an Alpha 2.0 business owner is to develop these systems and get them into place and up and running. Then you can sit back and chill, putting in just enough effort to watch these systems and make sure they keep running. In my case, this would take about 15 hours per week. I know other Alpha 2.0s who only need to put in about 8-10 hours per week.
You need to develop several systems, including systems that handle:
– Marketing (getting more customers)
– Fulfillment (getting the product/service/info to the customer)
– Finance (getting the key numbers and watching them closely)
Optionally, you can (and should) develop other systems that handle things like:
– Customer Service (helping customers with problems or questions)
– Your Own Tasks (so you can do the minimum work possible as the business owner)
– Expansion (developing new products/services/info to sell to your customers)
Once you have these systems in place, all you have to do is sit back and watch the systems from afar to make sure they keep running smoothly. This is much easier than working.
Of course, if you’re like me and have big goals, instead of sitting back and chilling out while watching your systems, you can instead choose to scale your businesses upwards to hit the really big money. But the key point is that it’s completely up to you. You can kick back and chill for the rest of your life, or you can keep working by choice to hit new financial goals. You have the choice. Most normal business owners do not have this choice. They have to keep working and working until they get old whether or not they want to. As a business consultant with over 20 years of experience I can tell you for a fact that most business owners actually own a job, not a business.
In the Alpha 2.0 Business Course I will, of course, show you exactly how to do all of this. I actually flowchart exactly how I run my businesses so you can copy exactly what I’m doing to match your own product, service, or information that you wish to sell.
And, yes, if you have no idea what to sell or to whom, I show you exactly how to do that too.
A few more questions that have come up in the last few days:
Will you allow people to purchase the second, smaller upsell course after the release week?
I have not made a solid decision on that, but 90% chance the answer is no. If I let people buy that course after the 25th, it would defeat the entire purpose of limiting the release of the main course for just one week.
Is this course only for Americans? Like when talking about legal structures and such, every country is different.
I’ve been pretty clear about this but I’ll be more clear. This course is for anyone on planet Earth, in any country, who has a decent internet connection. I state very clearly in the course that when I talk about specific items like legal or corporate structures, since I can’t list all of them for 190+ countries, I clearly state that while I’m using American examples (since the USA is the largest market), you’ll have to ask a local accountant or attorney regarding the equivalents in your country (most countries have American equivalents for these things).
Are you going to more courses in the future?
That entirely depends on you! If I sell a lot of these courses AND the number of guys asking for their money back is very low, then absolutely yes, I will release more courses as soon as possible. I’ve actually outlined four more video courses I’d like to do; two on business and two on women skills. BUT, if this course doesn’t sell well OR if it sells okay but a lot of guys ask for their money back, then no, this will be the last course I do. Designing this course has taken a huge amount of my personal time and energy (and money), so I can’t afford to do it again if the process isn’t profitable. So it’s all up to you guys. I would love to do more of these… I’m just waiting to see what you guys end up doing.
The next business article in this series will come on Monday, October 15th so be on the lookout for that. In that article I will go into more detail about how to come up with something to sell, and who to sell it to for maximum odds of success and profit.
Please either email me or leave a comment on any other Alpha 2.0 business topics you’d be interested in, or if you have any questions on the upcoming course! We’re getting closer to the big day on Friday October 19th when enrollment opens for one week!
Want over 35 hours of how-to podcasts on how to improve your woman life and financial life? Want to be able to coach with me twice a month? Want access to hours of technique-based video and audio? The SMIC Program is a monthly podcast and coaching program where you get access to massive amounts of exclusive, members-only Alpha 2.0 content as soon as you sign up, and you can cancel whenever you want. Click here for the details.
With the upcoming revolution in automatization, Do you think that is possible to start an Alpha 2.0 (or Alpha 2.0’ish) business in the manufacture field?
Reading this article, I have a strong “dĂ©jĂ vu” feeling from the “4 hour work week” book by Tim Ferris. Besides the video format, the email questions and the forum, how does the content of your course differ from the content of his book?
Another way to put it is: shall I expect a 2018cupdate of the 4HWW or shall I expect fundamental ground breaking difference with extremely detailed step by step dumbproof “how to” action items?
1) What do you think is the minimal time frame to set up those systems and start to get a decent flow of income?
2) If a guy is focused and willing to put in the work, but working a regular job 40-50hs per week, aprox. how much time does it take to get to US$ 75000 per year on the side-businesses alone?
Tim Ferris is indeed one of the sources of this information, but he isn’t the only source, and my info differences in several ways (a few listed below) in that my information is much more clear-cut, complete, and comprehensive.
1. The vast majority of Tim’s location-independent stuff focuses on product sales. I focus on product sales and information marketing and selling services; I cover all three.
2. Tim focuses on about three or four marketing techniques, all of which cost a decent amount of money. I focus on 36, only half of which cost money.
3. I like Tim, but he talks about a bullshit 4 hour workweek, which is silly. I’m objective and realistic. Under 30 hours a week is your ideal goal. I only need to work 15. But needing to work only 4 hours per week is extremely unlikely for anyone.
4. Tim doesn’t focus at all on income diversification and I do in great detail.
And so on. I cover a lot more stuff.
Define “decent.”
It also depends on how much money you choose to spend on marketing. If you want to spend zero, you’ll get to the money, but it will take more time (1 year, 1.5 years, 2 years, etc). If you want to spend some, you’ll get there faster.
As above. There are lots of variables to this (how much money you spend on marketing, the margins of what you sell, the nature of your niche, how consistent you are with your work, etc) so it’s hard to give specific time frames, but my very general answer is 2-5 years before you hit the $75K figure if you’re starting from absolute zero.
Possible? Yes. Advisable? Probably not (unless you really know what you’re doing).
Would real estate rentals fall under this? I know several people who buy up real estate (only duplexs, and apartments) all over the country, hire management company’s to handle day to day, and only work a couple hours a day. They spend most of their daily time and energy in analyzing new investment opportunities. Or at least they claim its that passive. I’ve done rentals and it does seem feasible if you pick the right locations, hire good management companies, diversify (many properties in different locations) and make an initially good investment with a high ROI.
Only partially. I consider real estate rentals a hands-on investment rather than a business. But it’s definitely a grey area. (I own real estate and I consider it an investment, not one of my businesses.)
Also, owning real estate is not 100% passive. It’s partially passive. I cover partial passive income in the course.
Thanks BD. I’m still very much on the fence with this.. After having had a location independent business for 16+ years selling hard products via email newsletters, auction sites, vendor marketplaces, trade shows, and eventually blogs, I’ve become quite the skeptic of selling hard products in the modern internet age with vast competition (i.e. mass produced hard products that literally anyone can get at wholesale and then resell via online or otherwise). Back when I started in what was a very good niche, I had competition but it was minimal. As the internet grew, so did the competition and eventually I was barely breaking even. Ultimately closing, but that was partially due to some of my own poor mistakes.
What you do here at this blog is impressive to me and it’s a business model I’ve seen many times before; Give away high quality content for free and prove to your readers that you are not only educated on the matters at hand but also that you can present that information in an easily read and understandable manner. Thus building trust in your followers. Then introduce premium products (ebooks/membership clubs/courses etc) with price tags, often up-selling on each to an audience that has an invested need/interest in that particular type of material. Then repeat, or shall I say continue the process for success.
Correct me if I’m wrong but this is 101 on “how to sell via a blog” which I’m sure will be explained in wider form for those who don’t know in the course.
The advantage at this blog is that you have the raw material to sell. You are not selling any hard products that you have to buy or drop ship. The products are all you! You design them, you create them, you execute them, you own the finished goods. Your competition is drastically reduced as what you offer is unique to you and you alone. Profit potential seems much higher. I think that this is the business model I would want to replicate in some manner.
While I’m not interested in reviving my old business in anyway whatsoever, the fundamentals are still in my mind, so that adds apprehension to my purchasing your course. It’s an entire months rent to me. More if I want the additional content. You said it yourself that there would be a lot of repeat for me. However I do want to do something new but I am unsure of the “what”. I think this is the big issue for a lot of us. I’m hesitant to purchase without a clear vision of the “what” to sell enough to make the expense. I really don’t want to do hard products again, at least not in the way I’m viewing them. I also disliked the blog format after awhile. You must relate to the fact that over the years I felt like I was repeating myself a lot, that was my experience. But I realize that may be a necessary component. So I don’t know. I’m hoping the next article will really explore the whole what to sell, figuring out your niche, a bit more. Hopefully I’ll have some kind of an a-ha moment.
I still need to figure out how to operate without Paypal. The suggestions you made to me in the last post are valid, yet much more complicated I believe as compared with the old Paypal format. I will have to come up with something if I want to be online, which I do. Without a payment handler I won’t be doing much business will I!
I mention blogging in the course but I don’t go into great detail about it. I have a podcast all about how to monetize a blog at the SMIC Program.
Regarding the rest of your comment, you seem fixated on your problems and what you don’t want. I suggest you drop that negativity and start focusing on what you do want.
The obvious solution is don’t sell the same thing everyone else can.
My ecommerce hard product site has over 100 different products, only about half of which anyone else could carry. The rest are my own OR are custom made to customer specifications. Hell, some of the generic one’s I actually buy from my competition and mark up.
The custom one’s are all hired out to a designer and produced by my manufacturer with very little involvement from me. As far as time goes, for roughly every hour I put in I get $1,000 in gross profit (meaning above cost of goods sold…I run about a 300% margin on average).
No employees.
No big overhead (I do have a warehouse, but it houses my other companies too)
Still working on scaling (this company is only 11 months old), but it’s an easy $50k/year into my pocket right now.
Just started another ecommerce company as well. I expect this one to produce income much, much faster than the last one, and scale into the multiple 6 figures.
BlackDragon, do you accept prepaid credit cards as payment for this course?
BD you talk like making 75k a year as a Business Owner Entrepreneur is a cakewalk but most people in the U.S are broke wage slave dependent location employees. Most workers cant afford these inflated housing prices in U.S. How come your confidence is so high that you feel any1 can build a 75k a yr independent location business? Also BD thanks for focusing on these wealth building type articles for a little while.
Payments are done via Teachable and PayPal. I’m pretty sure they’ll take those.
I have never said this and it’s not a cakewalk. It takes several years of work and focus.
What am I going to say about “most people in the U.S.?” This course, and this blog, is not for “most people in the U.S.” “Most people in the U.S.” can go fuck themselves and would never be interested in doing anything like this.
But my audience is.
Will your future business courses be on sale for a limited time only as well ?
I was hesitant on BD’s location independent Alpha Male 2.0 ideas (I’ve made great money working 9-5) but have started to warm up to them. Coming from where you and I are (consumption dependent making you a slave to wage from a 9-5) First thing you might have to do before you can go down this path is create as little risk for yourself as possible. One way to do this is to dump your bills. Buy a cheaper car without a payment and low cost insurance. Most of us are wage dependent because we have some ungodly gas guzzling SUV or truck. Don’t worry you’ll still get laid. I was getting laid regularly while climbing over the console of my car because the driver side door car (can afford a nice car but was investing the money) wasn’t opening. They just said it was cute, sucked my dick, and offered me money that I didn’t need. If you can’t because you’re underwater, rent it out on Turo, and buy a cheaper car for yourself. If you’re convinced it will hurt your game having an older car, Turo for first dates. Of course pay off your credit cards, cut your silly bills like cable, eating out, alcohol, cigs, entertainment, and etc.. Then dump or monetize your mortgage or stop paying rent. Airbnb your spare rooms or buy a duplex and live in one side while renting out the other wiping out your mortgage and allowing you to put down only 5%. Huge tax benefits like depreciation on the rented half. Or, just save up the cash and buy a little house outright. If you have a woman who is making all of this impossible because they consume and consume and consume, dump them. Women (relationship not regular sex) can be crazy expensive if you’re not managing the relationship correctly, as BD suggests. Now if you quit your job you won’t need as much income to succeed and the risk isn’t as high. You can do all of this simultaneously while you follow BD’s plan for creating location independent income. Once you’re comfortable in your business you can start to live more comfortably if you choose. Some would claim this lessons your SMV, and it probably will, but it hasn’t mine while I’ve been cutting back. I found a way and it’s temporary.
Not saying this is “the” way but it is a way get out from under a life of hyper consumption that ties you to wage dependence. This isn’t for everyone but I find it very freeing to not have to worry about a $7-800 (ex new Ford ExplorerTahoe) carSUV payment with crazy insurance premiums. Or a huge mortgage or rent that ties me to a 9-5.
I second to John’s comment. Go minimalist!
Hey BD,
I see your alpha 2.0 business model as a product of yours. You created a need for it, outlininig it in your blogs and books, and now you provided the fulfillment of this need. I don’t know if I’m correct with this, but if presuming that, I have a question:
Was this course one of your long-term projects, meaning that you knew for a few years that you are going to do it, and then building up the hype around it, or did you see the need arise and then decided you are going to tap into it?
I don’t know if you understand the question, but I wanted to know what was your thought process around this product. I sensed that it means very much to you.
Most likely, yes.
It does mean a lot to me.
The answer to the question is “somewhat.” For about three years I’ve been trying to figure out out a way to get seminar-level information to those men who can’t travel to see me in a real business seminar. I had the course idea about two years ago as the answer, and have been working on it since. But no, I haven’t been planning this for 5 or 10 years or something like that.
Why not just write a book about that subject? You said that you love writing, and you’re great at synthesising information, so why go through the whole drain of doing a video-course? Is it because of the reason that you can demand a higher price for your product that way?
1. You need to provide info to your niche using all modalities; reading, video, audio, in-person, and so on. I needed some video for those guys who prefer that to reading. I already have plenty of the other modalities.
2. I can charge more for a course than a book.
3. A course has higher perceived value than a book.
4. There are lots of visuals that need to be explained, which would be harder in a book.
5. This information is too important for a book.
I know it is a self-paced course but approximately how many hours will it take to complete this course?
@BD
I’m very experienced in business but there’s a few things you’ve said that have piqued my curiosity, would you want me to buy the course if there’s a high probability I’ll return it (greater than 50%)?
4 hour work week plus a bucket load of Dan Kennedy books cost $9 each.… I hope no guys seriously purchase this that haven’t read all the works from guys that are credibly multi millionaires vs BD and his refusal to disclose his earnings.
Does BD sell 10,000 $80 e-books per year so we can credibly say he’s at 10x the level he’s promising?
—
Let’s say you had a great informational product. Would you:
1. Offer it over a long period of time, confident in positive reviews rolling in here and more broadly.
2. Offer submodules separately to maximize uptake. Knowing lots of people will dip their toe in then buy the whole thing.
3. Provide free sample videos for people to judge quality.
4. Offer early copies to some people who receive and review it independently.
Or would you gun to head say “buy this week” in a way no seller of a credible information product has ever done?
🤔🤔🤔
Oh, 4 hour workweek, come on. Tim Ferriss is a well-known liar (the guy seriously says you can workout 30 mn per week and make 34 lbs of muscle during a single month, no less. Lol!) I would certainly not buy anything from such a guy, even at $9 or something like that.
Now, I’m convinced either by the made-up scarcity of BD’s course, but at he delivers quality content.
Go to the course page and look at the Frequently Asked Questions. I answer that there.
No. Returns are always allowed, but are a huge pain in our asses when they are for products at this level. I’d strongly prefer you just not purchase it.
I do not promise this. Where did I promise I’m at some kind of 10x level or teaching others how to do so?
I’m teaching how to make $75,000 per year on location independent income. Not how to make bazillions of dollars.
I welcome criticism, but first you need to have have your facts straight in order to criticize.
Jeff Walker? Frank Kern? Neil Strauss? Many others? These are not credible information sellers?
You seem to favour no employees…You’ve mentioned before that employees take away freedom and make you less alpha, I think you had that in your alpha male 2.0 scorecard questionnaire. You’re very binary about this and it appears to be a bias from your personal experiences.
Delegation! Hire a manager and move from there to building an executive team. I’ve seen plenty of business owners run their companies with very little day-to-day time requirement (they go to the quarterly board meetings). You just need to grow the company to get past the “business owner manages everything” hump. You need to make the switch from working in your business to working on your business. As you say “most business owners actually own a job, not a business” which is true because they get this part of business ownership wrong.
Look at any really successful company and you’ll see lots of employees. Aside from a few anomalies like the holding company like Berkshire Hathaway; but ultimately that is just a company without many employees that holds ownership in companies with lots of employees. It’s a very clever system 🙂