Establishing secondary sources of income outside your primary job is one of the key ways to build wealth. It allows you to earn more, and to have some added security if you lose your job or another source of money. The same principle applies to your enterprise; when you create new revenue streams for your small business, you make more money and it helps keep your company financially viable.
Running a small business comes with plenty of challenges and risks. The peaks and valleys of earnings are a reality for even the largest, strongest brands, and they can be quite pronounced for any small business. The more revenue streams that flow into your company, the better positioned it is to survive the slow times, and to handle significant unexpected costs when they arise.
Also, establishing additional streams of income allows you to invest more in your company and contributes to its growth. Sometimes, you even serendipitously stumble onto a new, more profitable direction for your business.
The exact details of your extra income sources obviously depend on your industry, products, services, location, and many other individual factors. But below are some general strategies to create new revenue streams for your small business.
How to Generate New Sources of Income for Your Business
- Introduce new products or services your customers or clients can be expected to want from your brand. And you can always ask them. New offerings should make smart use of the supplies, equipment, processes, business relationships, etc. you already have in place so they’re cost-effective and can be rolled out easily, smoothly, and with minimal risk.
- Sell products online through your own e-commerce site or a third-party platform. This lets you reach beyond your local customer base. It may also mean you can introduce new products or services that wouldn’t have enough support locally, but that have a large enough market statewide, nationally, or internationally.
- Author (or commission) e-books filled with valuable information your customers or clients want, based on your professional expertise and experience. E-books are easy to create using online tools, and they’re easy to sell via your website and promote on social media and with digital advertisements (if you’re willing to spend some of your marketing budget on it). Alternatively, it’s simple and relatively affordable these days to self-publish a hardcopy book and sell it on websites like Amazon, and these too can be offered in an e-book format.
- Write and monetize a company blog that offers valuable information for consumers in your industry. Once you establish some traffic, you can directly solicit noncompetitive ads that make sense in the context of your content, or you can have ads placed automatically that align with keywords on the page by Google or other digital ad platforms. You can also incorporate noncompetitive affiliate links to related products and services in your posts.
- Host webinars or give in-person workshops or seminars, and charge attendees a fair price. As with writing books or blogging, this is an excellent way to leverage your professional experience and know-how to generate more income. And along with creating an additional revenue stream for your enterprise, this sort of educational activity also builds your reputation and brand authority, and helps you reach new customers or clients.
