Ep. 55: Increase Your Income Through Multiple Revenue Streams By Being Your Fierce Self (Guest Nicole Roberts Jones from Amplify Your Brilliance)
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Applify Your Brilliance Podcast - Website
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Podcast Mentions - Nikki Rausch (Sales Maven Society) Episode 32 - Selling Effectively Without Sleaze
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In this episode, we examine ten different revenue streams you can implement in your business to increase your earning potential. We are joined by Nicole Roberts Jones from the Applify Your Brilliance podcast, for a discussion on how to utilize your unique talents and experience to earn more money through multiple revenue streams. Nicole is a best-selling author, international speaker and CEO. She went from making $13,000 per year in her business to $200,000; Nicole found financial success after she hired a coach, got clear on her gifts, and stopped trying to be like everyone else. Now she teaches other female entrepreneurs and executives her formulas so that they too can create a profitable business based on their fierce self.
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Ten Revenue Streams to Increase Your Bottom Line
Let’s examine the various revenue streams that may work for you and your business. Perhaps some of these you are already benefiting from, while others you may have never even considered. This is not an all-encompassing list; there are other ways to make money such as investments, rentals, interest and dividends, however that’s outside of the scope of this blog post. Instead, we are going to concentrate on ten possible revenue streams. Not all of these will necessarily be applicable to your business, but it’s good to have an understanding of the possibilities out there and ways to repackage your offers.
NUMBER ONE: Wholesale.
This is where you sell a product to another business or customer who is not the end consumer for that merchandise. Typically, in wholesale the goods are sold at a lower price, in large quantities to someone else who will mark it up and sell it. If you’re in a service-based business, which is probably most of you listening, this revenue stream will most likely never be a viable option.
NUMBER TWO: Retail.
If you grocery shop, spend money at a department stores or order stuff online, then you know all about retail. It’s where a product is sold to either another business or consumer in a physical shop or online. An advantage of retail over wholesale is that you can often significantly mark up the product. There are different markup pricing strategies, but in the end, it really depends on what the market will allow. If there is a perceived value, such as a Fendi bag over a Nine West bag, they could look identical and the cost similar to produce, but because Fendi is considered a luxury brand, they can sell the bags at a much higher margin. The costs associated for a bag will include materials, labor, transit and duties, yet designer bags are often marked up anywhere from 12 to 20 times greater than the direct expenses associated with the bag. This does not include marketing and advertising costs, which are quite high for luxury brands, in fact the luxury brands in the US spend more than $5 billion per year in advertising. You may not be selling a luxury brand, but the concept of perceived value remains, for instance, no matter whether you’re Dollar Tree or Whole Foods.
NUMBER THREE: Manufacturing
To manufacture means to make something from raw materials by hand or by machinery. Manufacturing can include a variety of things such as cars, salsa and ipads. If you create jewelry by hand to sell, then by definition you are a manufacturer. However, here’s where things get blurred. If you sell your handmade jewelry through an Etsy shop then you’re also a retailer. If your products or services cross over into different revenue streams, it’s always good to have an understanding as to where in the selling process does it make that transformation. You should track the expenses separately for each of these activities. This will help you gain the insight needed to understand your true production costs versus your selling costs.
NUMBER FOUR: One-to-One Model
This type of service is typically priced by the hour, the job or some sort of value-pricing based on results. Think of this as a coach, advisor or consultant. But this can also include doctors, massage therapists and hair stylists. There are a variety of professions that fit neatly into this model. Chances are, if you’re listening to this podcast then this revenue stream is very familiar to you. The barrier of entry is fairly low, because it’s generally the cheapest way to start a business. But this source of income relies on your time. But what if you were able to take your talents from this model and serve a larger audience within the same amount of time?
NUMBER FIVE: One-to-Many Model
These revenue streams include live classes, webinars, summits, retreats, masterminds and group coaching. I would also classify being a speaker at an event in this category, such as a presenter or keynote. This model allows the entrepreneur the opportunity to help and impact more at a fraction of the time. The revenue received from each participant might be lower than the cost received from one-on-one, but the volume of these participants can increase the overall revenue significantly. This can be a very lucrative model, however there is still the burden of time. If it’s a live event, significant travel time and expense may be involved. However, these can be reduced by doing it online instead. I’ve started offering group coaching to my clients and I think this is a rewarding model not only for the host but the participants, because they can interact with each other, which creates an interesting added dynamic that you just don’t get with one-on-one coaching. (Schedule a discovery call to find out more about my group and one-on-one coaching.)
NUMBER SIX: On-Demand
The impact of time is diminished in this next model; number six, On-Demand. Think of this as an online course or a video, where someone can pay to download it at any time. The time for this is spent designing, preparing, marketing, etc. But once it’s ready to go, your presence is no longer required. Sure, you’ll probably need to promote it through podcast appearances, social media posts and emails, but the actual time presenting the material is no longer a time suck. This has become a very desirable format for many, just think about how many online courses are out there. Sometimes it feels like everyone has some sort of course for sale. Although this can be quite lucrative, there is a lot of noise and competition to break through, plus creating the course can be very time consuming and require a lot of cash to produce and promote. So, depending on your situation, this may not be the cash cow you’re looking for. At least not yet. But for others, this could be your holy grail. Once you sink the initial time and costs into generating this thing, you can reap the sweet, sweet benefits of earning passive income in your sleep. Say goodbye to stress-induced, insomnia.
NUMBER SEVEN: Program (Productized Service)
This is where you package up your services and sell at a specific price. These are often sold at different tiers, the one with the most bells and whistles is with the most expensive package, the middle offer is the most popular and the least expensive doesn’t quite meet the same needs as the middle. Think of various software packages, often time the least expensive version might be a few bucks or even free. There’s a lot of psychology going on with this type of pricing structure, but typically the low cost one has a service consciously left out to force the buyer to choose the middle option. This may seem sneaky and devious, but that’s how the capitalist world we live in works. Pricing these options is an artform and it may take trial and error to get it dialed in. Some people start high, but offer discounted rates until they feel more comfortable with their offers, whereas others increase their programs as they solidify the offer and our more confident about the anticipated results the offer is aimed to provide.
NUMBER EIGHT: Subscription and Memberships
OMG – talk about our capitalist world, this is it, baby. Remember when you could buy software and be done with it? Those glorious days are pretty much over. Now you need to pay a monthly or yearly subscription. I don’t know about you, but my technology costs are ridiculous. What makes subscriptions and memberships such an amazing revenue stream is that it is predictable. Sure, people might drop out, which causes attrition. But you can take measures to reduce this by offering something stellar that keeps people wanting to hang on. Everybody seems to be starting membership sites and people are making bank through private groups on Facebook or Mighty Networks. The key is to build a dynamic community that keeps its members engaged. That’s not always the easiest thing, unless you already have a big following. There’s also a lot of ongoing work that’s involved to keep folks around month after month. Our former guest Nikki Rausch from episode 32 has created a powerful membership called the Sales Maven Society. To learn more about it, check out the episode, there’s a link in the show notes.
NUMBER NINE: Affiliate, Commissions and Advertising
I’ve lumped these together for brevity, but they are somewhat different. If you’re a podcast host or blogger, you may have either dipped your toe into these waters or dove straight in. Let’s examine each of these.
The first one is affiliate marketing. This is sort of like a referral, to make money you promote or talk about someone else’s product or service and when someone purchases it by using your unique link or code, then you get a piece of the action, which can be a percentage of the sale or a set amount. The payout can be a one-shot thing or in intervals based on the buyer’s ongoing sales. There are tons of affiliate opportunities out there and you can always approach a company and see if they’d be open to an affiliate deal. If you want to try affiliate marketing, I would recommend starting with a product or service that you use, believe in, and tell others about. For instance, I really like Gusto payroll and recommend my clients to use it. I’m also an affiliate for Gusto, so if you need payroll, please check out my link in the show notes. Affiliate marketing can be a slow way to start generating cash, however the barrier of entry is extremely low. Also, once you gain momentum, you can potentially live off this type of revenue stream.
Commissions, is a reward or compensation to the salesperson who generated or closed the sale. The payout structure for affiliate and commissions can be similar, but when I think of commissions, I think of it as requiring more activity and participation between the buyer and the one receiving the compensation.
Advertising is totally different, because you don’t make money from the sale. You make money through selling the advertising spot. Unless you have a large or very targeted audience, selling advertising can be rather tough and the barrier of entry is very high.
NUMBER TEN: Passive Income (Royalties)
We touched on passive income earlier, but other ways you can make money is producing a PDF and selling each download. Once you’ve created this PDF, whether it’s a book, a graphic, a form, a sign or whatever, you can sell it over and over again. If you write a book, you can sell your book online or offer it free with the cost of shipping. Typically, these offers include other opt-ins, such as a course to generate larger sales. The book works as a gateway to the other sales. Writing books have more advantages to your business, which is our topic for next week’s podcast, so tune in for that.
