A closed mouth will never get fed. If you're not asking, if you're not communicating, then you're never going to get paid.
Dan Martell
Table of Contents
How to Make $10K a Month in 2025
Everyone wants to hit that magical $10K a month milestone. The problem is, most of what you see online is either hype or watered-down advice.
If you want to get there, you need a proven process, not another “get rich quick” scheme. I’ll walk you through the exact five steps that took me from struggling founder to my first consistent $10K months.
1. Choose the Right Business Model
The business model you choose can either be a tailwind that accelerates you or a headwind that holds you back. In 2025, these four stand out:
Business Model | Profit Margin | Why It Works |
---|---|---|
Product (E-com, dropshipping, micro-brands) | 50–60% | Easy to start, scalable, no inventory needed |
Agency (marketing, copywriting, AI automation) | 60–70% | Fastest to launch, solves real problems |
Consulting | 70–80% | High-margin, expertise-driven, no heavy lifting |
SaaS | 80–90% | Build once, sell infinitely, ultimate scale |
Picking the right model can be the difference between a headwind pushing you backwards or a tailwind pushing you forward.
Dan Martell
2. Build a Six-Figure Skill
You can’t grow a $10K a month business without a skill that commands real money. The top five in 2025:
Coding – easier than ever with AI-assisted tools.
Video Editing – every company is now a media company.
Copywriting – words and stories drive revenue.
Chat Sales – selling directly over chat without calls or funnels.
AI Automation – future-proof skill that every business owner needs.
Pick one, go deep, and commit. Passion isn’t a red flag. It’s fuel. If you go all in, you’ll outpace the competition fast.
Some of you guys actually have passion around something and you're worried it's like I'm working too much. No. If you are into it, go all in.
Dan Martell
3. Sell Before You Build
Most beginners waste time building products nobody wants. That’s why you must sell before you build.
Here’s how:
Find your customers – ask, “who’s got my list?”
Sell the opportunity – show the transformation your offer creates.
Collect payment – don’t just get interest, get the card.
A closed mouth never gets fed. If you’re not asking for payment upfront, you’re not in business yet.
If you didn’t sell something, you didn’t become an entrepreneur.
Dan Martell
4. Automate Your Delivery
Getting sales is just the beginning. You’ll never scale if you burn out delivering everything manually.
Here’s the playbook:
Simplify your offer – cut unnecessary add-ons.
Engineer success – design your service so clients are almost guaranteed results.
Leverage AI – use automation for onboarding, customer support, and payments.
Delivering consistently builds reputation and frees your energy for growth.
Your reputation is based on the feeling and the promise you delivered to a customer.
Dan Martell
5. Buy Back Your Time
You won’t get rich working 100 hours a week. You need to buy back your time so you can reinvest it into higher-leverage work.
Here’s the Buyback Loop I use:
Audit – track your calendar and flag energy-draining tasks.
Transfer – delegate or outsource those tasks. Use tools like my Camcorder Method to record processes.
Fill – reinvest freed-up time into revenue-driving activities like sales, hiring, and marketing.
Buying back your time isn’t about working less, it’s about working smarter. Don’t confuse lifestyle design with wealth-building.
Millionaires build systems. Billionaires build people.
Dan Martell
Take the First Step to $10K a Month
You don’t need another shiny object. You need focus. Choose the right model, stack a high-value skill, sell before you build, automate delivery, and buy back your time.
Follow one course until successful. If you stay consistent, $10K a month is just the beginning.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a beginner make $10,000 a month online?
A beginner can make $10,000 a month online by choosing the right business model, developing a high-income skill, selling before building, automating delivery, and buying back their time. Popular models include product businesses, agencies, consulting, and SaaS, while six-figure skills like coding, video editing, copywriting, sales, and AI automation accelerate growth.
What are the best business models to reach $10K per month in 2025?
The best business models for hitting $10K per month in 2025 include product businesses with strong margins, digital marketing or service agencies, consulting, and SaaS. These models scale well, offer high profit margins, and can be automated or outsourced to grow income predictably.
Which skills are most in demand to earn a six-figure income?
The most in-demand skills to earn six figures are coding, video editing, copywriting, sales (especially chat-based sales), and AI automation. Each of these skills is scalable, future-proof, and directly tied to helping businesses generate more revenue, making them highly valuable in 2025.
Why is selling before building important for beginners?
Selling before building is important because it validates demand and ensures customers are ready to pay before time and money are invested in creating a product or service. By pre-selling, entrepreneurs avoid wasted effort and confirm their idea has real market potential.
How can automation help scale to $10,000 a month?
Automation helps scale income by simplifying offers, engineering customer success, and using AI to streamline delivery and support. When workflows are automated, entrepreneurs can handle more clients, deliver consistent results, and free up time for sales and growth activities.
More Resources
Tools Mentioned
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ChatGPT – AI assistant used for automation and productivity.
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Dean Jackson – Business coach referenced for the “engineering success” mindset.
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Buy Back Your Time – Dan Martell’s framework and book for reclaiming time and scaling income.
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Elon Musk’s engineering framework – Approach to simplifying offers by removing unnecessary complexity.
Full Transcript
Do THIS to Make $10,000/month as a Beginner – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8akZ5Ahh6Ww
Transcript:
(00:00) everyone wants to know how to make 10K a month the only issue is there’s a lot of BS out there and there’s a lot of people that make it seem way easier than it actually is so I’m going to share with you the five main steps you need to take in order to get to your first 10K a month starting with picking the right business model I struggled from 17 to 24 and it wasn’t until then that I made my first 10K a month picking the right model can be the difference between a headwind pushing you backwards or a Tailwind pushing you forward so I an
(00:31) all the business models all the industries for the past 12 months and I put together the top four best business models in 2025 number one is a product business with 50 to 60% gross margin which means that if I buy something for a dollar and I sell it for five $4 is my gross margin you don’t want to choose a business with a low gross margin for example restaurants really low gross margin stay out of that a product business is essentially finding some kind of product or widget that people are buying today seeing if there’s a
(01:00) unique twist that you can put on it and selling it online this is all the Drop Shipping businesses the e-commerce stuff the micr brands what makes the product business one of the best business models in the world is that you can actually sell it without ever building it taking possession of it and fulfilling it to the customers it’s like the easiest set it and forget it business model out there number two is agency model the agency model is usually between 60 and 70% margin and this is where you find problems that customers have productize
(01:29) your service to them them and then do the thing you sold them so this is copywriting agencies marketing agencies e-commerce agency AI automation agencies agencies are powerful because they’re the easiest business models to start find the customer that needs leads and then sell them lead generation and go find somebody who can actually help you do the work on the back end number three is Consulting and this one is my favorite with 70 to 80% margins and the reason why if you know what you’re talking about you can come in analyze
(01:57) the data and give a report give some direction to a business to solve their problem now they can do it internally or they can hire somebody else to do it but you don’t have to actually do the work it’s a great business to be in especially if you come from an industry and you have a lot of experience number four SAS which stands for software as a service which is my world and all I’ve pretty much done my whole life with 80 to 90% margins it’s one of the most profitable business out there and it’s this model that I used to hit my first
(02:23) 10K back when I was 24 years old what I love about software is that you build it once and you can sell it literally a million times for the same price and it costs you nothing more once you build it but picking the right business model means nothing if you can’t do the work so the second step to your 10K a month journey is build a six-figure skill my first six-figure skill was learning how to write computer code and it’s crazy cuz I learned it in rehab as a 16 17-year-old I got myself in trouble ended up with an addiction and I had to
(02:52) go to 11 months of working on myself to try to become not only sober but honestly a better version of myself it was at the end of that experience that I learn how to write code and I just fell in love some of you guys actually have passion around something and you’re worried it’s like I’m working too much no if you are into it go all in cuz that’s what I did and that’s what made me great at what I do so what are the most in- demand skills that you can build a six figure income in 2025 the first one is coding I know it sounds
(03:20) difficult if you’ve never programmed before but trust me you go online and there’s apps and tools that’ll make it so freaking simple it’s one of the easiest things to learn today because it literally writes it self the second is video editing why media and personal brands are exploding every Product Company is becoming a media company and every media compan is becoming a product company you know what they all need video editors my 12-year-old is editing videos for his friends he’s getting paid and he has been for a couple years to
(03:48) edit other people’s videos on their YouTube channels or create clips and it’s something that anybody can learn the tools are out there and it’s not hard number three is copywriting words sell stories sell the cool thing about copyrighting why I think it’s one of the best skills to learn is that it’s a meta skill understanding how to persuade communicate demonstrate value through the written word even though AI can do a lot for you today great copywriters are still some of the highest paid people in the world because they know how to
(04:17) generate revenue from their craft number four is sales or more specifically chat sales I have dozens of friends today that make a million dollars a year in commission selling over chat I’m talking no funnels no webinars no calls just chat understanding the psychology of a sales Conversation Over chat getting people to purchase without ever talking to anybody sales is one of those meta skills that if you learn you can make six figures but you’ll bring that with you for the rest of your life and every interaction you might have number five
(04:48) is AI automation it is the new hotness I got to tell you I just got added to a community that one of my friends leads 14,000 people standing by learning this skill it is growing and guess what if you ask 100 business owners if they’re doing AI right now they’ll say I use chat GPT that’s not AI automation if you want to learn a skill that’s going to Future prooof your career today into the future that’s the one you want to take but if you really want to get to 10K a month skill alone won’t put money in your pocket which brings us to step
(05:18) three sell before you build I was such an idiot every time I started a new business I would go and build a bunch of stuff and then see if somebody wanted to buy it and the problem with that is that people are nice to me and they say oh yeah if you go build it I’ll buy it and then I would sit there and I’d code and i’ build these apps and I’d show it to them and they wouldn’t buy and I’m like you said is a good idea I should build it and they’re like yeah you should I’m just busy it’s not something I want do
(05:42) you know how many people go buy hundreds of thousand doar of inventory and then don’t have customers sell before you build it’s the winning recipe you won’t get to 10K a month if you can’t collect payment before you do the work what’s interesting is what I’m about to share with you is something you’re going to have to learn to do whether you have a product product or even before you build it so you might as well do the hard thing first so that you don’t find out nobody wants to buy it so how do you pre-sell number one find your customers
(06:08) I always ask myself who’s got my list where are they hiding who’s got the problem that I solve with my product or service and how do I get in front of them that you want to start with number two is you got to sell the opportunity whatever you’re selling you got to understand how to communicate its value and demo it so that people go wow that’s amazing I think we need that and third is learn to collect payment get comfortable asking for money 50% upfront as a deposit a whole payment up front for the year but whatever you do ask for
(06:38) the card if you didn’t sell something you didn’t become an entrepreneur that’s how you get to 10K a month is actually collecting payment it always makes me think of this quote a closed mouth will never get fed if you’re not asking if you’re not communicating then you’re never going to get paid but now that you got paid you got to deliver on your promise which brings us to step four automate your delivery I have a client in my community and when he started with me he was doing 11k a month last week alone he collected
(07:05) $355,000 he’s freaking out why because he’s got to do all the work now he got really good at marketing and selling and now he’s freaking out cuz he’s hiring his first employee and he’s overwhelmed by all the work he’s got to deliver because he didn’t sit down and workflow the automation of actually delivering the product and this is why you don’t want to mess it up your reputation is based on the feeling and the promise you delivered to a customer so here’s how we automate our delivery in our business number one is we simplify our offer Elon
(07:33) Musk get this great framework about engineering and creating stuff and his first rule of his five is remove anything that’s not needed see a lot of people sell whatever the customer ask for because they’re just trying to get paid what you want to do is figure out what’s the simplest form of what your offer or product is and just keep it at that and don’t add anything extra keep it simple number two is engineer success here’s a great question my buddy Dean Jackson asks often he says how would you design your product or your service if
(08:00) you only got paid if the customer was successful with your thing see then you’re engineering success you’re starting with the end in mind you’re actually making sure that when the customer starts working with you the result is almost guaranteed you want to make those things non-negotiables on both parts your customer side and you as a business so that everybody wins for example the clients in my fitness program when they start they have to do a 16-day cleanse it’s nonnegotiable guess what that sets them up to build
(08:26) momentum which almost guarantees that they’re going to lose weight number three is Implement AI the truth is is any workflow from the first intake form you ask the customers to fill out to any kind of support calls any email any payment systems AI is picking up and taking care of automating the whole process now those four steps they’ll help you get to that magical 10K a month but this next one is what’s going to help you blow past it which brings us to step five buy back your time see when I started my first successful business
(08:56) that made me that first 10K I was working 100 hours a week the reason why is I didn’t know what process I should be following to be more productive I just knew one thing which is get things done I was just all in work all the time cuz I was worried that if I stopped the whole thing would fall down on itself the truth is is millionaires build systems billionaires build people see I thought that if I just keep saving all my money that someday I’ll become a millionaire I didn’t realize that millionaires understood how to build
(09:22) systems but billionaires built people to actually buy back their time so that’s why I created the buyback loop it’s the process I used three four times a year to analyze my calendar to figure out if my time’s being efficient and then reinvest it to grow my business so step one is to audit our calendar has everything we need to understand is this High leverage can somebody else do it or does it take my energy versus give me energy things that would cost me very little in money to pay somebody else to do that suck my energy are things I
(09:51) shouldn’t be doing that’s the bucket of activities that I hire a contractor or full-time employee to take off my plate number two is transfer and this is all about taking those low leverage time sucking activities and giving it to somebody else I use the camcorder method which I detail in my book because I literally record myself doing the work then I upload it to AI so that it creates The Playbook and then when I hire the person they’ve got the recording plus the Playbook that they can follow to do the work exactly the
(10:18) way I did it number three is Phill and this is all about looking for things that give me energy and that make me money if I buy back my time for a little bit of money and then reinvest that in doing activities like Marketing in sales and hiring great people then I’m going to make more money and that’s why that trade is incredibly efficient buying back your time to hang out on a beach and do nothing will not make you rich so here’s what I know if you made it to the end I have no doubt that you’re going to make your first 10K a month but the
(10:47) truth is is that it’s going to require you to stay with your plan not get deviated not go do a bunch of things not worry am I doing the right things it’s not about doing the right thing it’s about making a decision and making that decision right you follow that process Focus follow one course until successful you will make 10K a month now if you want to learn how I’d go from 0 to a million in 12 months click the video and I’ll see you on the other side