Income Capacity Investing
A goldfish’s growth is based on the size of its bowl. If you keep the fish in a small bowl, it stops growing. If you put it in a larger bowl, it grows to match the bowl.
If you put a goldfish in a lake, look out! The goldfish (which is actually a carp) can grow to four feet long and weigh over 60 pounds.!
The same thing happens with your income. If you get bigger bowls, your income grows. In other words, the more capacity you have, the more money you earn.
“The greater the investment in more service capacity, the greater the ability to get more service capacity utilized.
“The greater the service capacity utilized, the greater the service delivered.
“The greater the service delivered, the greater the income.” — L. Ron Hubbard
To start using this method to boost your income, let’s use two definitions of “Greater.”
1. Bigger
You produce larger numbers of services or products. You increase the quantity (amount).
2. Better
You increase the quality (value) of your service or product. You make it more valuable to your customers or clients.
Three Examples
1. You’re a farmer. You grow vegetables (your product) and sell them to local food stores.
To double your capacity, you invest money in flower seed, fertilizer and a few more acres. You grow and sell your flowers to local flower shops as well as to your current customers. As a result, your income doubles.
2. You’re a comedy writer. You write funny episodes for a new Netflix show. You do your job (your service) and get paid.
To double your capacity, you invest hours of spare time learning to produce Netflix shows. You learn to schedule the episodes, manage the cast, arrange the music and much more. You invest in a perfect reputation with Netflix. Each time you hear that Netflix needs producer tasks, you volunteer.
Within a few months, your responsibilities and your pay doubles.
3. You’re a dentist. You use your dental training and skills to help patients with their teeth (your service) and you collect your fee.
To increase your capacity, you add an additional service, such as orthodontics (straightening teeth with braces). You complete your additional training and licensing requirements. You hire and train an orthodontic treatment coordinator to manage all the details. You provide it to all of your patients who need their teeth straightened. Your capacity investment pays off with a 40% income increase.
10 Types of Capacity Investments
- Get more training for yourself. Master new skills. Improve your performance.
- Upgrade your health. Become physically stronger and faster. Increase your endurance.
- Invest in your personal condition, mood, home, marriage, family and so on. Get all parts of your life supporting you and your income efforts.
- Gather more knowledge with study and research; by interviewing successful people in your field and conducting surveys.
- Train you and your existing team to increase the quantity and quality of your existing production.
- Add similar types of products or services.
- Invent new ways of producing newer or greater products or services.
- Add more space or improve your current space for greater capacity.
- Hire and train new employees, associates or partners to increase your capacity.
- Make win-win deals with similar businesses resulting in greater capacity for you. For example, mergers, buyouts and partnership deals.
Six Steps to Successfully Invest in Your Capacity
1. Write down the exact name of your product.
If you’re not sure what it is, figure it out by reading articles on naming your product and your Valuable Final Product.
2. Look at your current capacity to see what is possible.
Are you producing as much service or as many products as you easily can? Do you have the resources in place to increase your quantity (volume or numbers)?
Is there room to improve the quality (value) of your product or service?
If you can increase your current capacity with greater quantity or quality, do it. Take advantage of your existing capacity.
3. Look for new capacity investment opportunities.
List the ways you can invest time, work or money for greater capacity. Make a bigger fish bowl.
Ask yourself questions like these.
What would make your product or service more valuable? How would your quality improve?
How can you increase the number of products you produce or services you provide? If you are nearly at full capacity now, how can you double your production? What would you need to do this?
Who in your field is more successful than you? What do they do differently? How many products do they produce? How much service? What is better about their quality?
Which of the “10 Types of Capacity Investments” can you make?
4. Pick the easiest investments to start with.
Avoid long-term obligations until you are sure they will be profitable.
5. Write a plan to invest the time, work and money needed for greater capacity.
6. Get your plan done.
Make the investments. Create the new capacity. Get the new capacity used!
Make the investment pay for itself . . . and more.
7. Repeat.
Five More Examples
1. Two local auto repair shops can fix your car.
Joe’s Auto Shop can fix your car. It does a good job.
Stella’s Auto Care has a greater service capacity than Joe’s shop. It can fix your car, paint your car and replace your tires. You also get a loaner car and a free car wash. Stella’s shop earns twice as much money as Joe’s.
2. You own a grocery store. Jane and Pete work for you as cashiers.
Jane is a good cashier. She shows up on time and your customers like her.
Pete is also a good cashier who is liked by your customers. However, he knows how to do your bookkeeping and calculate your taxes. He has more service capacity and takes on these responsibilities for you.
Then, Pete invests his spare time to learn new skills. He can now fix your cash registers, operate the store forklift and handle weekly inventory calculations. He learns how to skillfully manage employees.
Pete offers to manage the store at night so your store can now be open 24/7. His service capacity is so massive, he doubles the store’s income. You triple his pay and make him into a junior partner.
3. Tara, a popular hairdresser, has a small shop with one work station.
She averages 10 customers per day which is all she can do with one chair. She wisely decides to invest in greater capacity.
Tara buys a new hair styling chair, another big mirror, more tools and supplies to create a new work station.
She hires an assistant to answer the phone calls, schedule appointments and take payments. She takes care of two customers at the same time.
Even though her shop space is now quite cramped, Tara makes it work. She gets her greater capacity used and sees 18 customers per day.
She continues this powerful approach. She takes over the shop space next door, hires more hairdressers and trains them in her new system for handling two customers at the same time.
She forms partnerships with her top people, builds a chain of hair salons and becomes rich.
4. You have a dead-end job entering data into a computer.
You make $13 per hour and have no job security. You are ready to make an upgrade. You look for ways to invest your spare time into your capacity.
You notice that whenever a workstation computer crashes in your office, the user sits and waits for the technician to fix the problem. You have a bright idea. Instead of playing video games, you invest your time learning to fix workstation hardware. You now have new capacity!
You go up to your boss and say, “I’ve just learned how to fix the workstations and since I’m already here, we won’t have to wait for the tech guys to show up. I know they gets $40 per hour, so I’ll only charge $30 per hour. In fact, I’ll fix them for free this month. If you’re happy, you’ll pay me $30 per hour for hardware work. What do you think? Is it a deal?”
Your smart boss thinks for two seconds and says, “Deal!”
One thing leads to another and your pay goes up to $40 per hour within four months. You continue to invest in your service capacity until you can fix several types of computer systems.
You start your own company, constantly increase your service capacity and become rich.
5. To get their annual bonuses, the power company’s executives need to increase the company income, but without increasing customer fees.
They do a lot of research and discover solar power can become more profitable than their old coal power plant. In fact, after they pay for the land and construction costs, and get the government tax credits, solar power is almost free to generate.
So they build a single solar farm to test the idea. Even though the weather is not very sunny in their county, the test is a success.
They invest in the construction of 10 new solar farms this year and 100 more over the next five years.
Their capacity investment pays off with increased profit and bonuses for everyone.
