About 15 years ago, I read a book by Harvey Mackay called, “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.”  Sage advice if you have the foresight to take and heed it.  I have been fortunate enough to hear these words at the right time and even more fortunate to have acted upon them.

Last year, my colleague approached me about getting involved in a home business based on German gold bullion. At the time my septic (private wastewater) company was in the middle of a busy installation season, and I was making at least weekly trips up north to the Alberta oil sands doing environmental testing and consulting.

The money was great, but it would be more than generous to simply state that my calendar was simply not my own.  I was a slave to my businesses and was paying the price at home -missing family events, kid’s concerts, Scouts, sports – you know – all the things that only happen once (or for a short while) while your kids are growing up.

Did I “need” more money at the time?  No.  Did I have “extra time” to invest in starting up a new business?  Ask my wife -she just about fainted when I told her I was starting a new project.  Until I told Carri WHY.

You see, the septic business is very seasonal – it is long days during summer, and nothing coming in over winter.  The environmental consulting business was also pretty busy over the winter months, but tended to slow down over the summer -a nice fit, allowing me to realistically work both simultaneously, with very little overlap of demands on my time.  When I talked to her about the new project, the “WHY” became the most-important part, and that was easy – family.

I was able to put in a couple months of diligent, honest effort and built my gold business up to the point where it was bringing in the same revenues as my other “traditional businesses” were.  Enter “Fall of 2015” and the Alberta economy goes into a tailspin.  Oil and gas is down, layoffs everywhere and there go my environmental consulting projects for the winter.  Thankfully my gold company was not only there to keep my family taken care of, but as it required very little day-to-day operational input from me, what was I to do with that free time?

As I write this, I am barely-conscious, suffering from the flu.  No way I could leave the house, absolutely couldn’t go to a client site, nor would I have the energy to perform an inspection.  Instead, I have been creating more online and home-based revenue streams.  Lately, I have added five new businesses to the fray -all of them contributing their share of revenues, each and every single day.

Three weeks ago I was clouded with doubt, would this even work?  Today, I counted up their combined profits and was astounded by the number -they are now bringing me in almost $350 USD a day -that’s almost $15 an hour, every hour, 24/7.  In three weeks, I have basically tripled what our government is calling a “living wage” (unless someone was going to work 24 hours a day like a home business does!)  And I am only getting started.)