Should you have multiple streams of income?

I must admit that I used to be against multiple streams of income.

I was mainly against them because the health and wellness MLM company that I used to be involved with did not permit you to be involved in more that one home-based income producing activity.  You could have your 9 to 5 job but nothing else.  I heard of many people receiving warnings for such activities, and in some cases losing their distributorships.

About a year ago I left that company and was floating around looking at other home-based and online businesses.  I was still against multiple streams of income as I believed that you could not dedicate yourself properly to multiple businesses.

I still believe this when it comes to having multiple businesses where you are promoting  and selling physical products that are similar in type.  For example I believe it would be difficult (and perhaps unethical) to be promoting the health and wellness products from two separate companies.  You couldn’t really give an honest testimonial for the products because you would be utilising both of them.

But, if you had two opportunities that were from totally different industries, for example health and wellness, telecommunications, skincare (the list is endless) then I do believe that this could be done.  You would still need to find a huge amount of time to dedicate to each but I feel this would be more ethical.

I have since learnt after leaving my MLM company that it is very stupid to put ‘all your eggs in one basket’.  If you are relying on your home-based business to pay your entire income, which is what most of us envision it doing one day, then it is silly to only have one source of income.  Even the top business experts in the world talk about having a diverse range of investments so when one area slows down the others keep you afloat.  Even in the current difficult economic times some industries are booming while many have had a severe downturn.

So look have a look at what the rules and regulations are with your current company (if you are involved in MLM or Networking Marketing) in relation to having other businesses and start looking around at what else you could be doing.