Are You Sitting On Multiple Streams of Income?

by Karen Dodd

A former coach and mentor of mine was famous for saying, "You've always got to have a big back- end."

The first time I heard that, I can tell you that what I envisioned wasn't pretty. In fact, it seemed like I'd been working forever to keep my back end, anything but big!

However, as I came to realize -- and now teach my clients -- having a back-end to your business is key, particularly if you ever hope to slow down and enjoy the time freedom that having your own business should bring.

Think of your main business as your front-end. For example, let's say you have a flower shop...that's what you do every day. In order to be a great florist, you have to have a passion and a lot of knowledge and expertise. Assuming you're already working at least five days a week in your business, the only way you can make more income is to work more hours or leverage your time and knowledge, to create additional income streams from what you already know. That would be your back-end -- which ideally, you want to be big (I know -- just put that nasty image right out of your mind!)

So, let's plug in what you do and see what a highly leveraged, big back-end could that look like.

1. If you like writing, you could write either a "real" book, or an E-book. An E-book is a quick, easy and virtually no-cost way to get your name out there. You can use it as a free gift to encourage people to visit your location or your website. Alternatively, you can sell virtually any type of E-book (with good content, of course) for anywhere between $19.95 and $69.00. In the example of the florist, she might write an E-book on decorating your home and flower-arranging for holiday entertaining. Or, how about teaching people how to make living wreaths rather than the usual store-bought, fake ones? Again, just plug in what you and your talents are and look for ways to share that with the public.

2. You could share or sell information by recording it. The quickest, easiest and least expensive way of doing that is to record your presentation and make it available via an mp3 file, delivered from your website, by email or in your ezine (like this one). You could also put it on CD's or DVD's and ship them and also make them available in your store or place of business. You Tube is also a great way to make short videos available free of charge, that in turn will direct viewers to your web and your other offerings. When I was learning how to knit, I would have given anything to see a demonstration as it would appear to me, if my knitting was in front of me. I found it very confusing trying to learn it from a book.

3. Hold a teleseminar or webinar. These are nothing more than online classes that you can either do live or pre-recorded. At the beginning, if you're nervous or you don't have a following of people to invite, you're better to pre-record it. That way, you can edit it or start over, until you get a little more experienced. I like doing them live because I like the instant gratification of feedback and participation. You can offer your seminars free, as a lead-in to something you'd like your audience to purchase in the future. Or, you can charge anywhere from twenty-five, to many hundreds of dollars for a series of teleclasses.

4. Interview an expert, get yourself interviewed, or write the Q&A for an ideal interview you'd like to do, and have a friend or assistant interview you. You can then distribute it by mp3, CD or put it in a Special Report to either give away free or charge for.

5. Offer to speak or teach classes at a local venue, appropriate to what you do. Many organizations, from non-profit to profitable businesses are always looking for great speakers or workshop leaders. For example, you might volunteer to teach scrap-booking at an art supply or handicraft store. A personal favorite of mine is to offer to teach regular workshops at the big-name bookstores like Borders or Indigo. You will probably be doing the classes for free but you will eventually get a following and you can send them home with your $20 CD, book, or have them enroll in one of your paid events.

You might be asking, "Karen, how does this create a big back-end -- when you're talking about giving things away for free or charging relatively small prices?

The key is "leverage." You only have to create these info products one time, you have them forever, and if done properly, they will generate a lot of income over time -- without you having to take take away from your main day-to-day business. In fact, many of the people I have mentored who started this way, actually had the info products part of their business take over, because it became more profitable and way more fun than being tied to their "traditional" businesses.

It is simply the difference between linear income and leveraged income -- a little like being able to buy a much more substantial house with the bank's money, versus what you have managed to save up yourself.

In the final analysis, from just one passion or piece of knowledge that you already have, you could conceivably create 7 streams of income, such as:
• an E-book or Special Report
• a published, traditional book
• a CD, mp3 or video (or all three)
• a series of articles that could be made into a course or teleclass
• a transcription of an interview that could then be used in a live or pre-recorded teleclass
• a "free" class or live event that you use to feed into your main (paid) offering
• all of the above, that could be packaged into a physical course (typically with CD's, workbook, etc.)
Don't think you have anything that you could generate great content from? Think again. I guarantee that you do!

Here's my coaching challenge to you:
Think of something you know, are passionate about, or is second nature to you. Then write 3 Tips For__________. Now, work on developing all or any of these tips...and Voila! You have your content.

With some imagination and perhaps the help of a coach or mentor, there is literally no limit to what you could have out there working for you, while you're doing your day-to-day business.Trust me, you do not need to be overly tech-savvy to learn how to do this. I find that when I share my Little Black Book of contacts and a bit of direction, with my clients -- they are able to start creating things they had never thought possible.

Question for you: how do you think you'd feel, sitting on a beach somewhere, sipping a Margarita, watching the orders come in over your BlackBerry or laptop? Whoopee! That can be YOU!

[Editor's note: as always, Karen loves to hear your feedback or answer any questions for you. Please email her at Info@KarenDodd.com and you can definitely expect a response]


©2009 Karen Dodd International

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