I know that the majority of my readers are entrepreneurs. Some of you are just starting out, others have been in business for awhile and have multiple six or seven-figure businesses. Regardless of where you are on the income scale, it is SO important that you diversify your income.
Just like with anything there are good things and bad things about working on diversifying your income, but the good FAR outweighs the bad.
The good includes things like…
- Multiple streams of revenue
- A more stable and secure business
- More room for business growth
- And, can eventually lead to more freedom and financial security
When, I try to come up with the bad, the ONLY thing that comes to mind, is when you start focusing on the other streams of income, it could take your attention off of your initial business model. However, if you hustle hard to bring on another source of income, it is well worth the slight diversion.
Part of my struggle with my last company, FITzee Foods, was that I had some really huge opportunities come up. They were GOOD opportunities, but they took a lot of my time and effort away from the most profitable part of my business, which was the direct to consumer side of the business.
My hope was that by getting involved in these larger opportunities, my revenue stream channels would increase dramatically and help me build FITzee Foods to a larger scale.
One such opportunity was when I got into Scripps Hospital, a large hospital chain here in Southern California. This had the potential to more than double our revenue, but the amount of work that went into it, and the length of time that it lasted definitely put a dent in what should have been my time spend on the primary focus, direct to consumer online sales.
I should also mention that I am not ungrateful for this opportunity. Every single thing that happened throughout FITzee Foods was meant to be, but had I kept myself focused on the direct to consumer products, FITzee might still be around today.
But, on the same token, The Pitch Queen Brand may never have been born. Life is so funny, like that!
Anyway, back to the topic at hand… 😉
I am NOT saying that you should have a TON of different product or service lines.
That’s not a good idea either, maybe you want to have one to three different offers. This way you are charging what you’re worth without worrying about not making enough money.
You just can’t have all of your eggs in one basket, by only working with clients, or selling just ONE digital product.
I like to think about it as your financial investment. You want to have a diversified portfolio, so that if one stock isn’t doing well, your others are doing great, and will pull ahead. Just like diversified portfolio, you want to have multiple streams of income as well.
Products, Services or Both
Now you need to decide what you want to offer? If you’re already offering services, is there a way for you to create an online product that you can sell that complements your services? Or, if you have lots of digital products, could you start doing some one-on-one coaching that would complement your products?
It’s important to think through what will work best for you and your business!
Billy Gene, a guest on Success Unfiltered, experienced a devastating business loss, before he’d taken the time to diversify his income.
Billy had two clients agree to work with him. The contract was signed and they both had said YES to working with Billy.
One of those clients was a $30K / month for three or four months client, and the other was for $8.5K / month. Billy was ecstatic because these were the types of clients he’d been hoping for.
Within 30 days, both of these clients decided to cancel their contract.
This was so hard, because who’s prepared for a financial loss like that?
Billy shared that it was the most stressful financial pressure he had ever experienced, because he didn’t have anything else. He was still working to figure stuff out, so when he lost those clients it hurt. Not only financially but mentally.
Instead of calling it quits, and leaving the game, Billy came up with a new strategy to help take his business to the next level.
At the time, Billy had a couple $1K clients. He realized that if he could get hundreds (possibly thousands) of people to say YES to his $1K / month offers, he and his company would be a lot safer and diversified.
It wouldn’t matter if some months he lost clients because he’d have lots of others to fill up those gaps.
At the time of our interview, Billy’s goal was to have 10,000 individuals in his online product, Gene Pool, and 1,000 in his School of Genius.
This will allow for the normal fluctuation of students coming in and leaving, without hurting Billy’s bottom line.
That number will bring in between $10M to $20M in revenue, which gives Billy enough margin for everybody in his company to live a healthy lifestyle and have more flexibility in their schedules. Multiple streams of income have created massive success.
Don’t Say YES to Everything
I understand that after reading this, you’re going to think you need to say YES to everything, but that isn’t true.
If the opportunities or ideas that are coming up don’t excite you, or complement your already existing business, it’s okay to turn them away.
The first thing you want to think about is… What is your skill set?
Money can be simple to acquire, if you are bringing more value to your customers.
Billy believes that you have to be fantastic at something, in order to bring value. In order to become fantastic it takes hard work and sacrifice. It will not just happen!
If you want to succeed, you must be willing to get uncomfortable!
In Conclusion
I want you to remember that you must have multiple streams of income. If you’re only working with one or two clients (even up to four or five), you want to figure out what other ways you can bring value to clients, and then start offering your products or services to them.
This way if one person decides to stop working with you, your business and your mindset won’t be impacted!
I’d love for you to share how you’ve added multiple stream of income in the comments.
