When I interviewed my colleague and friend, Tisha Morris, earlier this year, her big piece of advice for small business owners was to create multiple streams of income within your business. This was something I was not doing with my business at the time, but it’s something that you should definitely be considering (if not already implementing) in your small business. And-let me tell you-the sooner, the better.
Tisha is a Feng Shui consultant and has quite a few other holistic skills and titles as well-yoga instructor, life coaching, energy healing, etc-but when she was referring to “multiple streams of income”, she didn’t actually mean getting some of her income from yoga, some from Feng Shui, and so forth. She explained that she’s set up her business so that when the coaching/consulting part of it wanes during the year (because it’s normal to have ups and downs with one-on-one clients), then she had income coming from both virtual products AND physical products that she’s created over the years.
Specifically, these are the streams of income that Tisha set up in her Feng Shui business:
- One-on-one Feng Shui consulting
- An online 28-day Feng Shui course
- A 3-day Feng Shui live training course for certifying other consultants (which she’ll probably turn into an online course soon)
- Two books – Feng Shui Your Life & Mind Body Home
- A physical product-Smudge Spray
- Feng Shui Bagua Map App for Smartphones
At first glance, that might seem like a lot of work, but it’s all just content. She’s effectively taken all the content that she has created and repurposed it into various products and courses to create multiple streams of revenue for her business. Not only that, serie tv streaming but now she’s able to provide more value to her audience just by offering her services and content in a variety of different formats.
When you set up multiple income streams in your own business then (1) you no longer have to rely on just one aspect of your business to pull in all the revenue you need, and (2) you can mix passive and active income streams so that you’re not working dollars-for-hours all the time. Also, as you’ve probably noticed with your clients/customers/audience-some of them like to read a physical book, others like to take a course online, and there are always those who want to interact with you directly. When you can reach all of these people by creating various services and products, your audience and your business has the potential to start growing like a dang weed.
Today, when any part of Tisha’s business wanes, she’s set it up so that her bottom line is not greatly affected. And we all can definitely learn from her example.
So how can you get started creating multiple streams of income for your business? Well, the first thing you want to do is brainstorm how you can re-purpose the content you’ve already created. Consider how your audience or potential customers would like to receive information from you. Does your target audience spend a lot of their time online? If so, they’d probably love an online course. Is your audience older or more old-fashioned? Well, then they’d probably prefer a physical book or product. Is your audience younger and more computer savvy? If so, they might prefer a Smartphone app. Or, like Tisha, you might want to try all of the above.
Don’t know what your audience or potential customers are looking for? Well, don’t be afraid to ask them directly. Try creating a survey and sending it out to past customers/clients or potential ones to get instant feedback. It’s always much better to give your customers what they want instead of what you think they want (that gets tricky sometimes, but there can be a big distinction).
Once you get a feel for how your audience wants to absorb information from you, you can start to repurpose your already existing content into a new format. For instance, if you have been writing a blog, you might choose to repurpose the content from your blog into a book or an ebook. Or if you’ve already written a book, you might want to take that content and use it to create an online training course. If you don’t have any content, well, it’s time to start creating some.
Here’s a list of 10 ways that you can expand your business and repurpose your existing content to create multiple streams of income…
1. Write an ebook: Ebooks are an easy and inexpensive way to create and sell your content (and to be seen as an expert in your field). You can sell your ebook on your website, on affiliate websites, post on ClickBank or turn it into a Kindle Book to sell on Amazon. People like ebooks because they can access information instantly and don’t have to make a huge financial commitment, so they can easily “test the waters” with you before fully diving in.
2. Publish a book: The truth is that authors appear to be experts in the public’s eye. If you write a physical book, not only will you create another stream of revenue into your business, but you’ll also be viewed as an expert, which will open a lot of other doors (speaking engagements, workshops, etc). Publishing a book will expand your business on so many levels in addition to just income from selling the physical product, so consider this if you go this route.
3. Create a physical product: You always hear that pills, potions and lotions are the products that sell the best because they constantly need to be replenished. If one of these relates to your business, go for it. If not, consider other physical products that you could create and sell. Look at what other entrepreneurs in a similar business are selling to get ideas.
4. Design an online training course: The world has moved online and it’s a good idea for you to be offering valuable content to people who like to learn in a virtual format. Selling a prerecorded audio or video course or workshop is an easy way for you to create another stream of income into your business just by repurposing the great content that you already have. Just like an ebook, once you get the product created, there is no additional overhead and you can sell and