⌛ By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛

I’m going to be honest, as a first-time business owner, I didn’t always think about diversifying my income.

I thought, “Hey, I will provide a service, and people will come when I offer said service.” It doesn’t work like that, as I am sure you are well aware of by now. Owning and growing your own small business is HARD work, but it’s some of the most gratifying work you will ever do.

When I started thinking outside of my own little bubble, my business began to rapidly grow. I am not a perfect business owner by any means, but I learn from mistakes and what works and doesn't for my company. The important thing is the action, after all.

In this blog post, I’m not going to tell you to become the next greatest influencer on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. But hey, if that’s what you want to do, you do you. I do want you to start thinking about ways that you can earn more wealth and grow your business with active and passive streams of money coming from different sources.

As a business owner, you should always think about how you can scale your company and build wealth. Work smarter and not harder, right?

Why should you think about diversifying your income in the first place? Here are some benefits of diversifying your income streams:

It gets you past your comfort zone and thinking outside of the box.
You can save more money for a rainy day and scale your company in multiple ways. In other words, you become more financially viable.
It’s a lower risk option that allows for some experimentation to see what works for your business and its structure. By looking at your income streams, you can assess cost-benefit analyses and other KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
You can make adjustments to your current price structure, especially with project rates and retainers.
Your business can become more marketable if you decide to expand, sell, or make another business decision. You won’t be stuck in a narrow box.

via GIPHY

Here are a couple of ways you can think about diversifying your income:

Create a profit pie.

I suggest creating a profit pie as you construct or reconstruct your business plan. For a public- relations- and writing-based company, Hourglass Media’s main focuses are in-person clients, online clients, and writing projects. As we continue to scale, we plan to include more courses, products (mainly books), and other income streams in our business and communications strategies.

Here is a basic version of what mine looks like, without exact financials attached:

Find passive income.

Based on the above very generalized profit pie, our active income streams include projects and retainers with our in-person and online clients, as well as certain writing projects (royalties not included). All of us are probably interested in making money in our sleep, BUT it takes a lot of work to get to that point. A good example of a passive income is to create an online course. You do a lot of work to plan, write and organize content, record videos and audio, and market to interested target audiences. Once you have the structure and process down, though, your courses can make more passive income for you. The only work would be the launch (or re-launch) and marketing that it’s available. And everyone would love to make active and passive income in order to retire earlier, am I right?

Here are some examples of passive income streams you can try:

Online courses (like I mentioned above)
Book sales and royalties
Monetizing videos, blog posts, and social media posts
Forming influencer partnerships with other companies
Affiliate marketing, like through Amazon, Target, and other retailers
Rental properties and real estate
Selling stock photos, like on Shutterstock or another site
Invest in another business or angel invest
Invest in stocks to diversify your portfolio (such as for retirement plans)
Start and market a podcast
Sell something on Etsy, Amazon, etc. (especially if it’s a digital file that can downloaded an infinite number of times)

Do what works best for your company’s makeup and overall goals and objectives. I just don’t recommend being part of multi-level marketing companies. Here’s why.

Here are some best practices if you want to start maximizing your diversified income streams:

Branch out in different areas of your niche.

Make a list of what you currently offer and then brainstorm ideas about how you can offer more in your realm of niches. For example, if you’re a writer and offer writing consulting services, how can you expand your reach and earn more money? You can write and publish that book you’ve been putting off, find paid writing opportunities in major publications, monetize your blog, create a writing course, book a writing speaking gig, etc.

Automate as much as possible.

I am the Queen of Automation at this point (note: this is an automated and planned-in-advance blog post!). Make your life easier by automating what you can, including your social media posts, invoices to your clients, your sales funnels, opt-in email lists and communications, and more. The more you automate, the more time you will have to focus on how to grow your business and generate more income and clients.

Generate new leads.

Have a communications plan that ties into your active and passive income streams, as well as your business plan at large. You will know where you receive the most leads, from which sectors, what still needs to be accomplished, and other measurements. For example, as a writer, you will want to be part of writing Facebook groups, attend local events, schedule interviews with media, and outreach to major publications to write for them and increase your digital footprint. Be present within your communities and for your goals and objectives as you attempt to gain and diversify your income streams.

Kaylin R. Staten, APR, is an award-winning, accredited public relations practitioner and writer based in Huntington, WV with 18 years of professional communications experience. As CEO and founder of Hourglass Media, she uses her compassionate spirit and expertise to delve into the heart of clients’ stories. She is a recovering perfectionist, mental health advocate, wife, Luke’s mom, cat mom, and Leia Organa aficionado. Connect with Kaylin on LinkedIn.

Ways To Diversify Income Streams