Want a Money Tree? Here’s How to Grow One From Scratch

Everyone dreams of having a money tree that keeps giving. I’m going to show you how to plant one. Through my journey of building multiple businesses and making hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’ve developed a proven system. It’s not magic. It’s a method.

I’ll share my step-by-step approach by using my real-world YouTube channel and other businesses as examples. This youtube channel focuses on helping others achieve financial and location freedom—because I got there myself, and I love this topic.

1. Plant the Right Seed: Find Your Perfect Business Idea

The best businesses combine three things: your skills, your passions, and market needs.

For me, financial freedom was life-changing. I escaped the 9-5 grind back in 1990. I travel when I want and work on my terms. I also noticed a lot of people desperately wanting this same freedom, whether to travel the world or just spend more time doing what they want to do.

I asked myself:

What am I good at? That’s Building businesses and creating independence
What do I enjoy? Teaching others and sharing what works
What do people need? A clear path to escape that traditional 9-5 work trap

These answers outline my YouTube channel.

So ask yourself the same questions:

What are you good at?
What do you enjoy?
And what can you do that people need?

Maybe you’re fantastic at graphic design, coding, or home organization. Your money tree starts with the right seed.

Make sure you are starting something you are really passionate about before going further.

2. Create Your Growth Plan

A business without a plan is just a hobby. My plan for this youtube channel was clear:

Start with YouTube videos to build an audience
Expand into other social media channels
Grow an email list from my viewers
Monetize through courses, affiliate programs, or my own products
Continuously use AI as my assistant to systematize the processes and cut down the work

I’m not doing everything at once. I’m focusing on YouTube content first. That’s all I’m doing at the moment. This is crucial.

Your plan should identify your first focus area. For most businesses, marketing deserves priority. You can have the best product ever, but it’s worthless if nobody knows about it.

Here are some options for starting:

Option 1 – Create content that attracts your target audience

This could be through videos or posts on your favourite social media channel. Once you have an audience, you can find out what products would help them. This is the way I have decided to go.

Option 2 – Build a minimum viable product (MVP) and test it with paid ads

A minimum viable product means a basic product that will help people, but without all the fancy bells and whistles. In my case, I could have made some AI products to get people started on a business. But I decided to go the audience-first approach instead.

If you have a product in mind already, you could build a simple version of it and test it with paid ads. You actually don’t even have to make the product; you could just have people going to a webpage that says it’s not available in their country, please register to be notified when it is. That way, you can test the potential of the product before spending time and money.

A third option is to piggyback off other websites. This is what I did with stock images and stock videos. There were already websites selling images and videos. So I uploaded mine and am still getting commission years later. The stock image industry is changing at the moment because of AI, but think of ways to complement other people’s products. For example This could be plugins or extensions to improve popular software.

I used to build websites and get traffic through search engine optimization. But I wouldn’t recommend this way now. People are moving over from google search to using AI, and even Google has started giving AI results, so there is less chance of getting people to your website. People are using social media a lot more, so I believe this is the way to go to get free viewers.

Pick one approach and master it before expanding.

3. Test, Fail, Learn, Repeat

I’ve had five successful businesses but failed at some as well. Even the successful ones took a lot of experimenting until they were working well. With these YouTube videos, I learned the basics, but I keep watching how others do it and learn from the successful channels. I try making improvements and see if they work.

Building up a YouTube channel is a long game, as is any business. But I learn, try new things, and keep what works.

I actually started this channel back in 2017 with a 90-day challenge where I did a video a day for 90 days. But that burnt me out, and I lost interest. It was strange that the audience actually increased for about three months after that, so I know the system works. But this time, I’ll just do one video a week so I keep enjoying it and can make the quality better.

So I learnt from my experience back then, and I’m doing it differently now.

Your business will speak to you through data. Watch the numbers. When something works, do more of it. When something fails, learn why. Enjoy the process so that you can keep going. It’s much easier to keep going when it’s something you’re really interested in.

4. Build Systems That Scale

In the past, as my businesses grew, I couldn’t keep doing everything manually. I needed systems.

I had an export business in the Philippines. I started using Excel to keep track of workers, payroll, production, exports, and finance. But it got too complicated, so I learned how to make databases in Microsoft Access and systematized everything. I could then pass it all over to a secretary and supervisors.

To organise this YouTube channel, I’m doing the same. I use AI to give me ideas for content, thumbnails, descriptions, and convert the scripts into YouTube Shorts. I use an Airtable database to organise everything and make.com to automate it. It sounds complicated but 6 months ago I hadn’t even heard of make.com or airtable so it’s just a matter of learning from others.

It all becomes easier once you’ve built a system. You can automate some parts and outsource other parts. I’ve done that for other businesses and will do it with this YouTube channel.

At the moment, I’m trying to get ahead by producing the YouTube videos in advance so I can start building the social media system, which is the next phase of my plan.

Systems free your time and the space in your brain. They turn chaos into simplicity. Find repetitive tasks in your business. Think about the process. Streamline it. Automate what you can. Delegate what you can’t.

5. Expand and Improve Continuously

Back when I started selling stock photos, I would look at which ones were popular and start doing more of those. I started by doing people photography but expanded into tabletop photography and graphic design images. I started outsourcing keywording, image editing, and graphic design to give me more time to concentrate on the business and improvements.

Things change—trends, platforms, customer needs. You have to adapt and improve or fall behind.

Your Money Tree Won’t Grow Overnight

My stock image portfolio didn’t make money right away. My export business and online businesses didn’t either. The first six months to a year were just work. That’s normal for any business.

But my strategy works. I built five businesses this way, and it’s how I’m working on this YouTube channel as well.

It takes time. You need to nurture it. Adjust what doesn’t work. Double down on what does.

Start with a clear niche. Plan your business. Learn consistently. Build your systems. And Keep refining.

Stick with it, and you’ll build something that lasts.

What’s your focus right now? Which part do you need help with? Let me know in the comments.

That money tree needs you to nurture it. But your 9-5 is stealing all your time. In this next video, I’ll show you my gradual escape plan that minimizes risk while maximizing freedom. These steps have kept me free to roam the world since 1990. They are crucial as AI begins replacing even professional workers.