Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Create Multiple Streams of Income

By Mike Prull

Many home-based business owners have a single service or product they provide. They may sell e-books or crafts or speech-writing services. Specializing in one area is good for many reasons. For one, it makes marketing easier and helps that business build a solid reputation in one area.

There are a lot of things that can be multiple in a business, but in this article I'm focusing on multiple streams of income. In a nutshell, multiple streams of income means your business has more then one way to make money. For instance, you sell products and you sell services. Those are multiple streams of incomes.

A good example of multiple streams of income at work in traditional business is the modern newspaper. A newspaper company brings in revenue in three ways: by selling the papers, by selling advertising space, and by selling classified ads. Each of these is another stream of revenue for the newspaper. Furthermore, some newspapers have added an additional stream by charging for access to their online content.

As these examples show, multiple streams of income can be derived in a number of ways if you think creatively. The key is to look for ways that complement your existing business.

There is an old saying that "don't put all your eggs in one basket" which is very useful for the home based business people. So follow the rules strictly when you are creating multiple streams of income.

Broadly speaking multiple income streams fall in to two categories active and passive. Whilst passive income streams are on the face of it the most attractive you should be aware that many of those you see advertised online are what they seem -too good to be true. You'd do well to be suspicious of any scheme that requires money upfront -not all of them are scams but many are. Do as much research as you can and never spend more than you can afford to lose unless you're certain of success.

Catch a variety of clients. No matter what you offer, a part of your target market is not going to be interested in hiring you. Why? Because they'd rather do it themselves. Or maybe they don't have the money to hire you. Or maybe they do the same thing you do and would rather learn from you to better their own skills. By offering a product or a class or a group option, you're widening your net. Not only are you able to help more people, but you'll also be making more money doing it.

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