Often, when small businesses want to make more money, they increase prices, cut costs, or both. While these can certainly be effective strategies, it’s difficult not to upset existing customers or clients with price hikes; it’s also hard not to sacrifice quality or customer service with appreciable cost cutting.
Many operators don’t spend enough time looking at ways small business owners can create new streams of revenue as an alternative option for increasing income. While it can take a bit longer to see the fruits of these efforts, they generally don’t run the same risk as those mentioned above, and they usually have even more potential for boosting profits.
Beyond that, having multiple sources of revenue makes good business sense. It can help you weather slow periods and other downturns, creating greater financial stability.
So, here are some tried-and-true ways small business owners can create new streams of revenue. They won’t all necessarily be applicable to every company or every industry, but anyone should be able to find one or more practical possibilities among them.
How to Generate New Sources of Revenue for Your Small Business
- Offer a new product or service. A small business’s existing infrastructure, staff, customer base, and other resources can usually be leveraged to efficiently and cost-effectively introduce new services or products. If you’re having trouble figuring out what direction to go in, just ask your customers or clients what else they’d like to buy from you!
- Delve into e-commerce. If you’re limited to local customers simply because you only sell at a brick-and-mortar location, start selling online. Invest in well-executed e-commerce capabilities for your website and reach buyers anywhere in the country (or the world). Also consider selling through a third-party platform, like Amazon; you concede a little of your profits, but it can be a convenient, hassle-free option that lets you reach exponentially more buyers.
- Become a public speaker. As an entrepreneur, you undoubtedly have experience and expertise pertaining to running a business and to your industry that would be valuable to others. You can host webinars online, or in-person presentations at your own facility. And many professional organizations and events seek public speakers. This is great for your brand authority, and once you get some experience and a reputation, this can be one of the most rewarding, fun, and lucrative ways small business owners can create new streams of revenue.
- Monetize your company blog. If you already have a blog, that’s great. If not, get one started, publishing on topics of interest to your target market. Provide valuable content over self-promotional content. Then, you can add noncompetitive advertising and/or use affiliate links to generate revenue from your blog traffic.
- Publish e-books. It’s usually best to hire a professional ghostwriter for this. Publish informative e-books on subjects that your customers or clients want to read about, and sell them on your website. They’re very easy to format and deliver these days. Alternatively, you can create them for free (paperback versions, too) through services like Kindle Direct Publishing.
