The Fastest Path to Creating Income in Your Business

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I often have people come to me who are new in their business or have been struggling to attract clients and earn income.  One of the first things I do with them is look for the fastest path to creating income.

Some times finding the fastest path to income requires being open to taking a different perspective than what you might have envisioned.

For instance, often times we’re so eager to leave our past career behind that we don’t really think about how we can leverage our experiences, skills and contacts to make them work for us in our business.

And some times we’re so excited about a program we want to create but we haven’t really considered how we’re going to market it and to whom.

Let me share some examples (these are all based on real examples but I’ve changed the names and adjusted the circumstances a bit to protect anonymity).

Susan is a fairly new trainer with tremendous contacts and experience in the non-profit world. She wants to help people with team building, and is not sure if she should target companies, entrepreneurs or non-profits. What is the fastest path to income for Susan?  A good approach is to start with non-profits and then as she evolves in her business she can broaden her niche to include companies and entrepreneurs.

Mark is a new coach who has significant experience in corporate branding. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and was an entrepreneur himself as he ran his own advertising agency for many years. He wanted to escape the advertising world but in so doing, was limiting himself in how he could leverage all of his experience. After working with Mark he decided to focus on helping entrepreneurs with personal branding. It’s just a matter of  transferring his skills from corporate branding to working with entrepreneurs.

Jane is a fairly new coach and is really excited about creating an online membership program. She has a niche, but she has no list and barely any clients. After speaking with Jane she realized that the fastest path to income was not to create a membership site, but to start by creating active income (e.g. one-on-one coaching) . She could at the same time work on building her list before creating a membership program to try and sell online.

I’m a huge believer in creating a business with multiple sources of income. There are 4 different types of income you can create for your business: Active income (e.g. one-on-one coaching), Leveraged Income (e.g. group coaching), Passive Income (e.g. home study program) and Recurring Income (e.g. membership program).

In my business, I’ve received income for 82% of the days in the past 6 months thanks to these multiple sources of income.

That didn’t happen overnight and I could have done it faster had I known some things I’ve since figured out. What I’ve realized is this…

You have to know how and when to create each type of income.

For instance, you want to start by creating Active Income (e.g. one-on-one coaching or consulting) because a) when you’re getting started, the easiest thing to sell is your time,  b) it can give you a big infusion of cash, c) it allows you to really get to know your target market and hone your skills as an expert in your niche.

Let’s face it. Building your business is hard enough without having to overcome additional obstacles. So as you look at your own business, it’s important that you take a step back and open your mind to decide upon the fastest path to income for you.

Here are some questions to help you get started:

– Where do you have the most contacts?

– Where do you have the most experience?

– How can you take that experience and make it work in your new environment?

– Given where you’re at with your business now, which income source does it make the most sense to introduce?

– Is there a demand for the program you’re excited about creating?

– Do you know how you will market your new program before you create it?

What is the fastest path to income for you? Please leave your comments and questions below. Thanks!