When considering a portfolio career, side hustle, or entrepreneurial idea, one of the first building blocks to understand is the difference between selling time and selling value.
Why?
Because mastering this distinction will shape the scalability of your approach and ultimately your work-life balance. You didn't start exploring this path because you wanted to work more; you started it because you want more flexibility, purpose, and financial reward. To achieve this, it is critical that you prioritize building assets on your balance sheet over merely increasing revenue on your P&L (check out Assets > Revenue for more). Put simply, focus needs to be on creating valuable products and services that you can sell quickly and repeatedly.
Selling Time
Selling your time means exchanging your time for money, typically in the form of a wage (e.g., $50 per hour) or salary (e.g., $100K per year for 40 hours per week). When you sell your time:
- You are engaged by the highest bidder, regardless of whether you enjoy the work.
- Your tasks are typically variable and different each day, meaning only you can do them.
- The progress of your work depends solely on your efforts.
Take, for example, an IT project manager working on migrating users from one system to another. Whether they are a full-time employee or contractor, each day involves meeting with users, managing escalations and navigating the personalities and schedules of stakeholders. No two days are the same. Some days are busy, others are not—but compensation remains the same.
Selling your time in this manner is the antithesis of a diversified career and is often our default mental model. We are taught to learn skills, work hard, and maximize our salary, and while this can be effective, it has limitations i.e. it does not scale well across multiple programs.
Selling Value
Selling value is different. It requires creativity. With this approach, you create a valuable asset—such as a product, service, or system—that can be bought and sold without needing your constant time and effort. Ideally, this asset is evergreen, meaning it is not time-bound and is applicable to a wide audience.
Following the example of an IT project manager overseeing a system migration, let's consider two ways to diversify by selling "value" instead of time:
Option 1: Create a digital course explaining best practices and sharing templates for delivering seamless system migrations. Sell 100 courses per month at $150 each generate $180K in annual revenue.
Option 2: Establish an online community for project managers, each paying $5 per month. Members share templates and best practices with each other. A global audience of 5,000 members would generate $300K in annual revenue.
Wrap Up
Hopefully, you now see that the first step toward a diversified career is finding ways to sell value - not time. Use your skills and experience to build products or services that can be sold multiple times without relying on your continuous involvement. Failing to apply this principle will lead you down an unscalable path, taking on more work and ultimately leading burnout.
If you’re wondering how to build something from scratch, don't worry. We'll cover this in future newsletters, along with:
- Identifying your ideal client profile and their primary problems
- Determining the right pricing for your product or service
- Building a low-cost, low-risk team (The Hollywood Model)
- Developing a sales funnel for people who aren't natural salespeople
Not done? For more, check out pōrtfolio/writing.