Newsletter #5: The Three Income Streams Secret That Guarantees You'll Never Go Broke

Most entrepreneurs make a fatal mistake of focusing on making money today without building anything that creates income tomorrow or next year.

But I get it, sometimes, we’d be happy if we could just make money today, right? However, there’s always the option to build both - for today and future’s income.

I see this constantly: someone launches a product, makes good money for a few weeks, then scrambles to create something new when sales stop coming in. They're essentially starting from scratch every single time.

What if I told you there's a simple framework that ensures you always have money coming in - not just today, but consistently for months and years ahead?

It's by understanding the "Three Types of Income" system, and it's the foundation that allows my business to operate without employees while generating consistent profits.

Today, I'm going to show you exactly how this works and how you can implement it in your own business, regardless of your current stage.

The Three Types of Income System

In my Operation Zero Employees course, I teach a framework that balances three different types of income generation for the Expert’s industry/ content creators:

Income Today: Active Cash Flow

This is money you can generate relatively quickly to cover your immediate expenses and needs.

Examples include:

• Product launches to your existing audience

• Flash sales or limited-time offers

• Affiliate promotions

• One-time consulting or coaching

• Speaking engagements

The key with "Income Today" campaigns is that they're designed to generate cash quickly, usually within days or weeks.

For someone just starting out, this might be promoting an affiliate product to a small email list. For an established marketer, it could be launching a new course to existing customers.

Income Tomorrow: Recurring Revenue

This is money that comes in consistently over time from work you do once.

Examples include:

• Membership sites with monthly fees

• Subscription-based products or services

• Recurring affiliate commissions

• Installment payment plan offers

• Network marketing or MLM income streams

"Income Tomorrow" requires more upfront work but creates predictable monthly revenue. This is what gives you freedom because you know money will come in next month, even if you don't actively promote anything.

In my own business, I've built recurring income through various programs where people pay monthly for ongoing access and value.

Income Millionaire: Asset Building

This focuses on building long-term assets that generate wealth over time.

While a product can be an asset, the two most important assets for any online business that are not widely visible:

1. Your database (email list, social media following)

2. Your personal brand (reputation, authority, recognition)

When you’re building your Income Today and Income Tomorrow, you should contribute to building these two assets at the same time because they're what allow you to generate “income on demand”.

When you have a responsive database and a strong brand, you can launch almost anything and have immediate success.

Real-World Example: How I Applied This System

Let me give you a concrete example of how this worked in my business transformation.

When I was running a traditional business with employees, I was almost entirely focused on "Income Today" - constantly chasing new sales to pay salaries and expenses. For instance, we’ll sell seminars. While we can earn a decent income with it, it has always been Income Today.

When I implemented the Operation Zero Employees model, I restructured everything around these three income types:

Income Today: I continued launching products, but streamlined the process so it required less of my time. At the same time, I’ll open up 1-on-1 coaching and mentoring for selected clients to generate this type of income.

Income Tomorrow: I focused heavily on building recurring income with our software platform, which is AutomationCart. For any products (or coaching) being sold, it’ll always tie back to the software.

Income Millionaire: Every piece of content I created, every email I sent, and every video I made was designed to build my database and strengthen my personal brand. In terms of products I’ve created to be assets for Income Millionaire and did not achieve the sucess include:

1. The affiliates.com.my e-commerce platform was built for creators and affiliates. We weren’t able to launch quickly enough; it took us too many years and 6 figures in expenses. Finally, we have no choice but to permanently close it down.

2. Our NFT collections. This was doing well during the boom of Web3. However, due to the crash and sentiment, it didn’t take off. For this, I don’t see if much of our fault, it’s just the entire market’s situation. Some other famous entrepreneurs’ projects, including Tim Ferriss’ The Legend of CØCKPUNCH™ NFT collection and Tom Bilyeu’s Founder’s Key Project, didn’t take off either.

The advantage of building a product for Income Millionaire is having an exit plan. This is why, I’m also building a product brand now where in the future, it can operate by its own by having a system in place.

The Unconventional Approach: Network Marketing Component

One strategy I've used successfully for "Income Tomorrow" is network marketing.

Now, before you skip this section thinking "that's not for me," let me explain why this fits perfectly into the Operation Zero Employees model.

Here's why network marketing works well within this framework:

1. Recurring Income: Once you build a network, you earn ongoing commissions from team sales

2. Leveraged Effort: You're building a business where others' efforts contribute to your income

If you need training for building a network marketing business using the internet, make sure to check out the Recruit Empire Workshop.

Implementing the Three Income Types

Here's how to start implementing this system in your business:

Step 1: Audit Your Current Income Sources

Write down all your current income sources and categorize them:

• Which ones provide immediate cash flow?

• Which ones offer recurring monthly income?

• Which ones are building long-term assets?

Most people will find they're heavily weighted toward "Income Today" with little or nothing in the other categories.

Step 2: Create Your Income Balance Plan

Decide how you want to allocate your time and effort across the three categories. If you're starting out, you might need to focus more heavily on "Income Today" initially, then gradually shift toward the other two.

But you can always be creative: If you’re promoting an affiliate offer for Income Today, why not consider promoting a recurring commission offer instead? This will help you to build your Income Tomorrow too.

Step 3: Identify Quick Wins in Each Category

For Income Today: What can you promote or sell this week to generate immediate cash?

For Income Tomorrow: What recurring revenue stream could you start building this month? This might be a membership site, a subscription product, or joining a network marketing company that complements to what you’re currently doing.

For Income Millionaire: What will you do daily to build your database and brand? This might be creating content, building an email list, or engaging on social media. And of course, if you can develop a software product, that can also be your Income Millionaire.

Step 4: Track Your Progress

Each month, measure your progress in all three categories:

• How much "Income Today" did you generate?

• How much recurring "Income Tomorrow" revenue do you now have?

• How much did your database grow and how much stronger is your brand?

This tracking ensures you're making progress on all fronts, not just focusing on immediate sales.

The Long-Term Vision

As you implement this system, you'll notice something powerful happening: your business becomes more stable and predictable.

Instead of constantly worrying about where next month's income will come from, you'll have:

• A growing base of recurring revenue

• A responsive database you can monetize when needed

• A strong brand that opens doors to new opportunities

This is exactly how I was able to eliminate employees while increasing profits. The business became less dependent on constant effort and more dependent on systems and assets.

More importantly, you'll have true freedom - the ability to step away from your business for weeks at a time while income continues flowing in.

To your balanced success,

- Patric Chan

P.S. Remember, the goal isn't to eliminate "Income Today" activities - it's to balance them with "Income Tomorrow" and "Income Millionaire" efforts so you create both immediate cash flow and long-term wealth. This balance is what gives you true business freedom.