Are you staying opportunity focused in this economy?

Share these new ideas
Money_Man
Credit: Creative Commons

In this economy every source of income counts. But where do you begin to discover hidden or new sources of income?

You may wonder about the term “multiple streams of income”. What is it? A buzzword from some self-help business guru that helps him or her sell their books and other products. It’s really a term to entice people into believing that it so easy to make money that you merely need to turn open a tap and money will pour into your banking account. This does not happen in the real world. You need to work long and hard for any sort of income.

In every business or new venture knowing where additional sources of income will come from is important. The simplest example is a product business that adds after-market service to their offering. This provides two sources of income: product sales and service.

Many businesses already do this – car dealerships, garden centres and even hair salons although their emphasis will be on service and products will be a secondary source of income.

Because of the need to find hidden value in their business, manage risks in this economy and bring in more income to cover ever-rising costs, more business owners, especially solo entrepreneurs and start-ups in their early years of business are looking at ways to generate additional income.

Here’s an example of how a smaller info marketer could look at increasing sources of income:

An entrepreneur selling fitness information may write special reports, e-books and even publish print books and user manuals. Next, he or she would sell the information on CDs and DVDs and MP3s. If the market for the topic requires specialised information regularly, the info publishing business may launch a newsletter or print only version for subscribers. Seminars, workshops and one-on-one consulting would be other sources of revenue.

How do you go about finding additional sources of income?

The quick way is to check out others in your marketplace and see what they are doing to generate additional income. What add-on services or up sells do they have?

Look outside your marketplace in other markets and you may be able to adapt their additional sources of income to your business idea or existing business. Winemakers may sell retail to hotels and restaurants through wine clubs and directly at their premises where they can make the whole experience interesting with tastings. They may even cater for specialised events.

Next, use idea-generation techniques such as freewriting, personal brainstorming or Fusion Cards to come up with new revenue opportunties. Ideas which may seem weird and wacky could lead you to new ways of thinking about additional sources of income.

New sources of income can revive a floundering business, get a new business off to a good start and make it more robust and sustainable.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a Reply