Everybody wants to be rich and to be able to provide all their needs in life. A lot struggle at this, but only a few actually get there. People lament that they have done everything humanly possible but nothing seems to be working, and they end up thinking that millionaires are born not made.
But research has shown that approximately 80 percent of people who have a net worth of $1 million or more did it without a trust fund or inheritance.
This goes to show that anyone can be a millionaire, only if they know how to go about it. There are various rules that follow money, and if you don’t play by these rules, you can never be rich. It is entirely possible to become a millionaire in five years with no money, and this is how it can be made possible.
Steps to Become a Self Made Millionaire in 5 Years
1. Put your Skills to Work
For you to become a self-made millionaire in a very short time, you have to learn to be creative. You need to learn how to create what you can sell to people. You need to find something that fills a consumer need that you can produce and sell for an income.
It may be crafts, food, cleaning, writing books, just about anything that you are proficient in. You should dust up those skills you usually use to impress your mates back then, and make a business out of it. Learn to be a provider and not a consumer.
Every millionaire is a producer. Only producers get rich. They do this by seeking to satisfy the needs of people at all times. If you are a good marketer, you can start a business in retail, if you are good with wood, start looking for things to produce and sell, if you love to write, start a blog or something; the key is to offer something people can pay for.
Since you do not have the finances yet, you can start on a small scale. Clean houses for your neighbours, refurbish old furniture and sell, become a sales representative for a particular company you like their product, etc. This should be your very first approach when intending to make it big in a short while.
2. Look for Ways to Improve Yourself or your Business
So maybe you have taken the advice and have started a small business, the next thing to do is evaluate. Think of ways to double your profits, and if you have not started making profits, think of the reasons and figure out ways to get the cents rolling in.
Yes, I say cents, because it is the cents that bring the dollars. Calculate your daily worth and think of ways to increase that number. If you are earning $100 per day, you should try to double it. Just imagine, if you did twice as much, you would earn twice as much.
What are you doing to improve your daily rate? If you are making 10 sales calls per day, double your number of calls to 20. If you are babysitting one child, find a way to multiply your results by opening up a day-care for 50 kids. Of course, it would be best to maintain or increase your quality of work as you pursue these endeavors.
Always seek for better ways to improve your income be it in business or on the job. If you have a paid employment, think of ways to generate passive income that can help shore up your earnings. But you have to note that the possibility of becoming a millionaire in 5 years on a paid employment is quite slim unless you adopt an aggressive saving policy.
3. Take Big Risks
Many people are scared of taking risks, they prefer to stay put in that comfortable position so as not to upset the milk bowl. But the fact here is that without taking calculated risks, you would never become a millionaire.
To approach a risk more judiciously, ask yourself two questions: “What is the worst thing that can happen if I take this risk?” Then ask yourself, “What is the best thing that can happen?”
Owning a million dollars is no small feat, and you should be able to sacrifice everything to get there, even if it is your last dollar. The key here is to know which risk is worth taking and which one would end in disaster. But in the end, your gut is your best guide.
4. Be Willing to Sacrifice
Becoming rich comes with a lot of sacrifice. You would sacrifice whatever little capital you have, your time, family life, leisure, holidays etc. If you are not ready to lead a life of sacrifice, at least for now, then forget about being a millionaire.
Before you become rich, you must become poor. This is a verified fact. There will be many times where you will have to delay gratification to focus on a bigger goal, which is always worth it in the end. Learn to close your mind to immediate gratification and focus on the bigger picture.
Your business should always come first before anything else, and any activity that has to compromise even a single sale should be shunned. Remember 5 years is almost around the corner, so you should make the best of every of hour, minute and second it provides.
5. You Want to Be Rich? Move with the rich
This is a proven fact of life. You cannot attract wealth by keeping company with poor people. All that negativity and the borrowing tendencies won’t do jack for your finances. And what about the inspiration factor? It’s nearly zero with poor people.
You need to know what people are doing to create wealth and follow their example. You need to start thinking, acting, moving and reasoning like a rich person, and you cannot learn all these by hanging out with people that don’t give you the desired inspiration.
Instead of playing basketball or football in the evening with local kids, why don’t you go to a golf course and just watch, or visit luxury car dealerships. In fact, you need to find ways of making millionaire friends, and you can only do so through this medium.
6. Shift Focus from Spending to Investing
The rich don’t spend money; they invest. They know the U.S. tax laws favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can’t write it off.
The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces cash flow, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You buy cars for comfort and style, the rich buy cars for their companies that are deductible because they are used to produce revenue.
You need to make every cent that comes into your till count. It has to be put in somewhere productive. You must never buy for pleasure, instead buy what is an absolute necessity of life. You have to draw up a plan of which percentage of your profits to plow back into your business, and which percentage to invest into other things. This schedule is a must if you want to make the 5 year mark.
7. Create Multiple Flows of Income
The really rich never depend on one flow of income. They instead create a number of revenue streams. You may find it extremely challenging to become a millionaire in 5 years with just one income source. Look for viable sectors and invest in them.
Invest in real estate, stocks, technology; buy over businesses when you can afford it, go into retail – just do something extra. These little streams of income get to add up to a lot in the long run.
8. Re-invest your Income
The worst you can do in your drive to become a self-made millionaire is to spend your profits. All profits from your business must be reinvested back into the business in order to help your business grow. Forget the fast cars, smart suits, fine wine and all that goes with it.
If your business grows to an extent, then you should start expanding. Make sure every little profit you earn from the business goes somewhere productive.
One other habit you need to ditch is the habit of saving money in the bank. Every money that you need to save has to go towards an investment no matter how small the cash or the investment. A man’s net worth is measured based on his assets and not cash at hand because cash is ephemeral.
9. Track your Spending
You can never build wealth if more money is leaving your wallet than is coming in. This is especially true for a salary earner who aims to become a millionaire. To ensure you are earning more than you are spending, track your daily expenses, and let go of very unnecessary things.
Take for instance, if you are one that cannot do with your daily morning coffee, learn to make yours or buy an efficient coffee maker so as to save up on the daily $5 you spend on coffee.
10. Read, Read, Read
Reading is a habit of the rich. It is by reading that you can leverage on other people’s ideas to grow your business. A lot of millionaires can confirm that they were made what they are by the books they read. And while making reading a habit, ditch the fictions, and go more with finance, business and motivational books.
Endavour to read for at least 30 minutes each day, and you can start waking up early to be able to incorporate this habit into your routine.
11. Don’t Aim for $1 million, Aim for $10 million
Do you require motivation? Then this is it. Never aim for what you can get, aim for what is above your reach. When aiming to be a millionaire, you need to find an effective motivator because it would dust up your thinking faculties and put your brains to work.
Instead of ending your life in retail or sales, it would make you aim to own the company. When becoming a millionaire, motivation is everything, so you should never limit your capabilities.
12. Get a Mentor
While you are on your journey to become a millionaire in 5 years, you really need to have someone by the side who encourages you along the way.
While your parents might be your greatest cheerleaders, but they may not be the right mentor for you as they may not have the right business ideas to offer you. While seeking for a mentor, look for someone who has already achieved the goals you are looking to achieve. This is the perfect person for you.
As you are on your way to become a millionaire in five years while starting with no money, look for a self-made millionaire to mentor you. He or she would be in the best position to tell you which risks are worth taking and which are not.
You mentor would also point you to the right people to do business with, give you ideas on investments, teach you how to use challenges to your advantage, and tell you the most profitable routes to follow in your millionaire quest, etc.
In conclusion, these principles if taken in isolation may not get you anywhere, but if you are able to apply them together, then you can be sure that you would make the millionaire goal in five years. First, you need to look for a value to add to the society, this value is what would guarantee that people would buy from you.
Dust up your skills and bring up a service that can earn you money. And while you earn, you need to learn to reinvest into your business, expand it, and move into other frontiers. While you are at it, watch the crowd you roll with, track your expenses, acquire other means of income, get a mentor, read and learn from other people, and learn not just to save, but to invest.