Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 174 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love to you take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/174

The other week on the podcast I talked about preparing for a new year and spoke briefly about income streams.  I made a note of the fact that I needed to do a whole podcast on this, so here it is!

Income Streams and how to diversify them is the key to business success.

And that’s not science or anything fancy, just fact.

If you derive ALL your income from one source, then that’s risky!  That one source disappears and BOOM you’re out of business!

It might look a little different in retail vs service-based, but the theory is the same.

In retail, you might get your income from your menswear range, ladieswear, corporate contracts.  You might do high-end fashion but have some fashion items that appeal to the masses.  You probably carry different labels – basically just not putting all your eggs in one basket.

For service based businesses, having different income streams is important too.

The rule of thumb is that no one client or income stream can be worth more than 30% of your overall business.  Because loose that income stream and BOOM, your business is struggling.  And we don’t want that.

So as a bit of an exercise, I want you to write down all your income streams.  And put a % next to them – what % of your income is made up of that income stream.

Now if you only have 1 income stream, then we need to chat – immediately!  But also, really think about it – do you REALLY only have 1?

You need diversity in your business to survive, heck if the past 2 years have taught up anything, it’s that we need diversity!

So to help you out and give you some examples, here’s some of my income streams:

• 1:1 coaching
• Group Mastermind Coaching
• Speaking and workshops
• Webinars
• Private Membership
• Affiliate marketing
• Podcast sponsorship
• Retreats
• Book sales
• Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business memberships, Corporate sponsorship packages, % of transactions

And there’s a few more but there odds and sodds but as you can see, I have a lot of diversity in my business when it comes to income.  I’ve needed too!  That’s what the past 2 years have taught me!

2 years ago I wanted to break away from the “1:1 coaching model” and do more speaking.  Then a pandemic hit and my diary full of speaking activities turned to dust and people started to approach me about more and more private coaching.  I followed the money – I opened my books back up and took on more private clients.  It’s not what I had planned, but heck, how planned for a pandemic!

So, what are your income streams? And what % do they contribute to your overall income?

Now, just for good measure, we are going to take a U-Turn and put on our marketing hats – because I can’t pass up the opportunity whilst you are thinking about your income streams to pop some marketing strategy into your head too!

So you have a list of your income streams and the % of total contribution to your income now I want you to put a % next to that income stream again after your answer this question:

How much time and energy, as a percentage, do you spend growing that income stream?  How much marketing goes into making that income stream work for you, become more profitable for you?

Be honest, you’re only fooling yourself otherwise.

What I hope this little exercise tells you is that if you have an income stream that’s 35% of your overall income, but you only spend 10% of your time nurturing and growing it – then there’s part A of your 2022 plan to grow your business!

Vice versa, if you have something that contributes 5% to your income but you are spending 40% of your time on it – then it’s time to rethink that strategy.

Email marketing and social media, respectively, are the two I often come across here with clients.

They successfully complete an email marketing campaign that brings in 40% of their income and then don’t do any more email marketing.

Or they spend SO much time on social media, posting, commenting, creating content etc, but social media rarely brings in any direct income.

It’s topsy turvy land, right?  Think about your income, where the growth can come from and therefore where you should be putting your energy and marketing strategy.

Perhaps go back and listen to episode 135 all about your 3 Money Making Activities – it’s a great re-listen after this episode to get you into the habit of thinking income and where you spend your time!

You can listen here: www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/135

So do you need more income streams?  What could that look like in your business?  Do you need to do some research and see what others are doing or just chat to some people in your industry to see what they are doing successfully?

I find networking is such a great marketing activity when it comes to seeing what others are doing and getting inspiration from them. 

Or maybe, you have to tailor in your business.  You have too many income streams and none of them are getting enough attention to grow and really fulfil their potential.

I’m happy to have a chat with you about all this.  Feel free to reach out or book a discovery call to see how I can help you.

Reach out inside the Like Minded Business Owners Facebook Group – just tag me or book a call here: https://calendly.com/jenn-smm/discovery

Thinking about your income streams, diversifying them, what energy needs to be spent where and how they contribute to your overall income, is a great way to begin the year.

Head into the Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners – and let’s chat income streams!

Remember you can find the links in the show notes at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/174

See you next week on the podcast for episode 175.  But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!