The multi-income career: what it is and how it can work for you

Ever heard of the term ‘multiple income streams’ and know exactly what it was and how it worked?! Me neither; until I dove head first into the world of self-employment and realised nearly EVERYONE I spoke to had multiple income streams (but it wasn’t something they necessarily shared openly). Entrenched in the employed world, I was led to believe you got paid for doing just one thing whether that was a teacher, graphic designer or financial analyst.

Multiple income streams can be defined as deriving an income from multiple different streams, using one skill set or many. You may already be familiar with the term ‘multi-hyphenate’, popularised by the queen of multiple streams, Emma Gannon (author, publisher, podcaster, speaker, blogger – the list goes on!). A multi hyphenate is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a person with several professions and skills”.

The most important consideration in my coaching experience, whether you have multiple or single income streams is to ensure you have clarity on how the work you do is supporting the life you want to lead. This might seem a given, but it’s surprising how many people solely focus on the work rather then what the work *should* be unlocking. Understanding and spending some time reflecting on the bigger picture and your long term vision to come up with a set of criteria which you can run each stream through to ensure you are moving in the right direction. This doesn’t need to be a complicated or time consuming process and the ideal for clients I have worked with is around 4-5; examples of this criteria being

• Allowing flexibility to work when they want

• Monetary goals

• The work is exciting/fun

There is no cookie cutter approach to having multiple income streams and no right or wrong way to do it (so don’t listen to anyone who will tell you otherwise!). The streams do not purely need to be self-employed and I’ve seen some fantastic examples of women who juggle multiple self-employed streams alongside an employed streams (perhaps a fixed term of a day a week or a certain amount of hours dedicated). 

As humans we are never single faceted, however the world of work where you do ‘one thing’ utilising ‘one skill set’, plays into the assumption that we are. Each stream can utilise similar skill sets or completely diverse skill sets. Similar skill sets tend to relate to one vocation, so for me I have multiple streams that relate to coaching: 1:1 coaching, group coaching programs, partnering with other coaching organisations, running coaching masterclasses for membership groups and clubs. I also work with a client who is a musician – she plays in wedding bands, solo saxophone, DJ’s and also teaches music to children – so focusing on the score skill of music and adding in other skills such as teach and coaching to the mix! Diverse skill sets being where you are using completely different skill sets such as an accountant I know who also does freelance graphic design on the side! You may also have a mixture of similar and diverse skill sets!

Kim Kardashian is a huge flag waver of multiple income streams and whether you love or hate her, none of us can deny that she hasn’t done very well out of it. Her most famous stream is probably her TV show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’, but as well as this she has created a cosmetic and fragrance company, shapewear line, guest appearances, mobile app called ‘hollywood’ (which has made $220m so far!) and she is training to be a lawyer (sadly failing her first exams this month). Having diverse incomes, of which many are passive streams which takes little to no effort from her personally to grow and maintain has allowed her wealth to continue to grow even in unstable economic environments.

The biggest benefits of having multiple income streams is it allows you to focus on your passions and what you love. Many clients I know cited this as the biggest driver for leaving employment, they were just fed up with doing work that they didn’t believe in or the felt was just ‘busy work’. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio advises in his book ‘Principles’ “make your passion and your work the same thing” as doing so is said to be the path to success. 

Gone are the days where people were happy doing monotonous tasks day in and day out. Doing multiple different things also allows you to live a varied and exciting life, full of opportunities!

In today’s post pandemic world, it is more important than ever to create financial stability. We’ve seen huge industries become decimated overnight and it’s set to be a long recovery road for many. Having multiple income streams allows you to flex up or down on certain streams depending on the economy or your audience. Working on multiple things means you are strengthening multiple skill sets and elevating your super strengths, which means you are constantly increasing your value! Working in this way also means you are open to other opportunities that compliment your streams, therefore continuing to grow and evolve your multi-income portfolio career!

If this is something you are interested in, here are some journaling prompts to begin your exploration:

• What are you good at and what do you enjoy doing?

• How could you turn this into an income stream?

• Who could your clients be? (corporate or consumer, small or large?)

Emily Button-Lynham is the founder of Emily Button Creative and is a certified business and life coach supporting women to ditch the 9-5 to live a life on their own terms. You can find more information about her and her services through her website www.emilybuttoncreative.con and LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/emilybuttoncreative