People in today’s economy, as well as financial professionals like Pete Briger, are familiar with the all-to-common expectation of job loss. Top that off with evolving technology and, in turn, outdated skills, and you could feel like you’re behind shortly after you get started. That’s why it’s so important for entrepreneurs to create multiple income sources.
1. Begin each income stream gradually. You don’t want to walk away from your current job or project before the next one is ready to support you.
2. Figure out what you’re passionate about. What are you good at and what do you like to do? When you narrow down your interests, skills, and talents, you can start to look for income sources that utilize those things.
3. If necessary, learn new skills. You may want to make it as a freelance writer, but that requires learning about contracts, negotiations, and social media marketing. These are skills that you can learn in order to support your passion.
4. Figure out where and what your market is. Who is it that needs or wants what you sell? Who’s demanding your services or products? Locate your potential customers so you know where to target them with marketing.
5. Start marketing! Use social media networks, newsletter software, and community boards to start spreading the word about your business. If you’re not adept at marketing or don’t have the time to handle a full-fledged strategy, consider hiring a marketing professional or a Virtual Assistant to help out. Also, plan to spend at least a little bit on advertising. Some social networks, like Facebook, make it nearly impossible to market your services without investing a bit in promoted ads.
6. Create a website and blog. Ideally, you should do this as soon as possible, but if necessary, you can wait until after you’ve started building a buzz online. Whether you’re selling directly from your website or you just need somewhere to post information about your business, invest in a professional website. To keep traffic up, try to blog at least weekly. Too much on your plate? Hire a freelance writer to take care of the writing and blog posting.
7. Don’t underestimate the power of good ol’ networking. Attend community meetings, get involved in networking events, and be friendly to everyone you meet. You never know when you’re talking to a potential customer or someone in the media. Even if you don’t have a distinctly local business, you can still tap into your local community. Often, they’ll become your biggest supporters and best customers.
8. Setup active and passive streams of income. There are only 24 hours in a day, and you can’t possibly spend every one of them at work. Some of your income sources should be passive, meaning they can be profitable even when you’re not working. For example, if you write an e-book, you only need to put in the work once. You’ll continue to make money every time that book sells. Sure, you’ll need to devote some time to marketing the book, but with paid advertising campaigns, even that can be automated.
9. Get help from others, especially influencers in your field. If somebody already has success with a similar income stream, tap into their resource. For example, you can write a guest blog post for another website, then drive traffic back to your website with links.
When you plan ahead for job or client loss by developing multiple streams of outcome, you create a sustaining, profitable business. You’ll also be adept at creating new streams of income, a skill that will continue to serve you.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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