3 Ways to Build 10K Per Month Residuals

I woke up one morning and reached for my iPhone so I could pull up my bank balance.  Today was the second of the month.  There it was – a deposit for over $10,000+ in merchant services residuals.  That was a good day.  Many of you reading this blog have never experienced that feeling.  In some ways, it isn’t as hard as you think.  In other ways, it is probably harder.

The first step is to make a conscious  decision to hit $10,000 per month by a certain date.  The next step is to spend four hours every day, five days per week getting intentionally closer to this goal.  Remember I said it was easier than you think?  There is a catch.  This four hours per day needs to be consecutive, uninterrupted, focused time, dedicated only to activities that will help you grow your residuals.  The hard part is to fit everything else into the other four to six hours of the working day while protecting your growth time.

Why don’t more people achieve this goal in the bankcard industry?  Too often, they slip into “Survival mode.”  Survival mode means defense.  You lose your vision for and focus on growth.  Everybody has an earning ceiling which is purely mental.  It has nothing to do with potential or even reality.  It could be based on past earnings or current obligations.  The closer you get to this number, the more nervous you are to lose your progress and the more satisfied you become with your results.

Before you can choose a strategy to reach the goal of $10,000 per month in residuals, you will have to change your mindset and increase your ceiling.  I personally know of dozens of reps in this industry making over $20,000 per month in merchant services residuals.  If you know how to sell and are willing to cold call, you can achieve this goal.  But you must be 100% committed with a daily drive to press forward.

With all this in mind, here are three proven strategies to reach a minimum of $10,000 per month in merchant services residuals.

#1 – Build a part time administrative team around you.  Understanding your strengths and transparently – accepting your weakness – is a prerequisite to any of these three strategies.  If you have a strong background of sales success and a history of dis-organization and lack of attention to details, this is the perfect path for you.

Go to upwork.com and find a top notch telemarketer (I advise hiring three or four at 10 hours each.  Then make up your mind.)  Have them set three to four appointments per day for you.  Find a stay-at-home parent you trust who is interested in making a few extra dollars and ask him/her to do your schedule.  Partner with a local computer repair shop to do your installations upon request.  This is how you can now spend four hours per day completely focused on prospecting for new business while spending the other four hours following up and protecting your base.

#2 – Build a local brand and hire full-time employees.  In my opinion, this is probably the fastest way to reach your goal of $10K per month in residuals.  However, you will either need some money in the bank or a very high stress tolerance, because this path is risky and expensive.

You need to become a local presence at all the various networking meetings; send press releases to your local paper; produce content about your local market that highlights local business owners.  You can build a strong W2 team by hiring them to scout leads for you to close.  Over time, you can build a rock solid sales team.  If you have some money to invest and a background in sales management, this route is highly recommended.

#3 – Build a referral team.  I never recommend this path unless you have a big pool of potential reps from which to pull.  People often point out to me that I started a referral team from scratch.  But they don’t seem to realize I had 170,000 Twitter followers and a knack for producing lots of content in an industry where almost none existed.  If you are an expert in online marketing, you might pull it off, but it will not be easy.  This model is best for a sales recruiter coming from another industry with a group of reps and contacts from which to pull.

The good news about this model is that it is the truest form of residual income, because you are completely removed from the merchant relationship.  The merchant doesn’t even know you exist.  So when you go on vacation, you are not worried about a merchant calling you at 10 p.m. with a batch error.  Carefully negotiate your deal with the processor.  And make sure you jump on a quick call with me to answer questions and talk about your model.  I always enjoy talking to recruiters to brainstorm new ideas.

Make it a great day!
James Shepherd

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