Your Expertise Should Get Out More
I spoke to six different small business owners last week. Only two could even remotely be considered in the same industry, but they all wanted help with a similar challenge: how can they expand beyond their core audience to make more money?
Most smart business owners find ways to diversify their revenue streams. Some find ways to double down on their expertise, like a plastic surgeon who consults as an expert witness. Or a professional chef who also hosts a podcast, and gets affiliate revenue for promoting cooking tools they use every day. Hell, name a beer company that doesn’t sell merch. I’ll be surprised if you find one, given that our favorite hand-me-down t-shirts are probably the longest-lasting advertisement a beer brand can buy.
For small business owners looking to create profitable alternative revenue streams, getting beyond your core audience is definitely helpful. But finding ways to scale these efforts can be tricky, since they can eat into your limited time if not managed correctly. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
Build once, sell to many
Recently, a few of my solo practitioner clients mentioned they had given an interactive lecture series or hosted a workshop. What they needed a little help realizing was that this experience provides a rock solid foundation for building their own online course — a repackaging of work they’ve already done, to sell again and again. Online courses can open doors to bigger and broader audiences, leveraging the same body of work with just a few tweaks and optimizations for self-paced rather than live sessions. As we were talking through the key elements for a successful course, it became clear why they’re surging in popularity. Versioning out your master talk or workshop into a digestible course lets you scale yourself. Create once, sell to many.
Courses aren’t one-size-fits-all, but with the right marketing strategy - you still need to figure out the right hosting platform and how to best promote your course - you can resell the IP that you already got paid to create to new audiences. Plus, once it’s created, you can also choose to realize even more revenue just by adding a higher price point option for increased live participation or feedback from you, the expert.
You’ve earned trust. Use it (but don’t abuse it)
Let’s say you own a modern accounting firm. By now, you probably have a newsletter packed with helpful information you’re sending to your clients and prospects regularly. Hopefully, you’re also sharing and promoting some of that expert content on social media to reach even more potential clients. That’s all great, but what if your newsletter also generated revenue from partners who want to reach an audience that already trusts you?
Every audience is valuable to some company – and oftentimes the same audience can be valuable to multiple companies. A B2B HR software tool might be a welcome sponsor of your accounting firm’s newsletter because they’re looking to reach your clientele of business owners (but aren’t a direct competitor).
When looking for potential sponsors, just make sure to focus on companies that are trusted and make sense for your subscribers – your audience is most valuable to you, and you don’t want them to start hitting unsubscribe because they’re getting spammed.
The takeaway
Small business owners looking to diversify their revenue sources can likely leverage two things that already exist: their expertise and their audience’s trust. Find the scalable opportunities in the work you’re already doing to open up additional revenue streams that aren’t a huge drain on your resources. For those who need help getting started, Third Act has your back.