I have been reading and learning a lot lately about how to add additional revenue sources to my business. Specifically one book I am reading is by Michael Port called Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
I'm almost finished the book and it is really quality information for any small business that is looking for ways to grow their business in a very natural, non-aggressive, feel-good kind of way...which is what I'm trying to do.
Anyway, in the book, Michael mentions having additional sources of revenue that you can sell like books and CD's. So I've been trying to figure out how I can create a book or CD for my clients but nothing has been coming to mind...urgh!
Then I was listening to Dan Miller's podcast again (this guy is really the man for coming up with creative business ideas) and he mentioned that he once sold an information product describing how to start a business for something like $400 bucks and he sold a whole bunch of that product for very minimal cost.
BLING! The light bulb went off. What if I create an e-book that teaches people how to do what I do?
This idea got me really excited, not because I think it's an automatic money maker, but because it actually would be more fulfilling for me to help people by teaching them what I know.
What I do is help small business owners save time and money on telecommunications products and services.
I save them time by evaluating their needs and then working with a variety of companies to find the right solution.
This saves a small business owner a TON of time and frustration. And time is money so there is a "soft" savings there aside from the other benefits like not dealing with meetings, phone calls and emails from aggressive sales people, not understanding the various offerings of the vendors, not knowing where to look to get the best deal for the best price and the list goes on.
The other way I save them money is that I can shave their monthly recurring costs by 20% on average.
So, that's how I help small business owners.
That feels great but my personal mission statement is this:
"To use my unique skills, talents and knowledge to help thousands of people make a positive difference in their own lives".
So even though teaching other people to do what I do would create more competitors for me, it actually feels like a more worthy cause and worth the risk.
My particular business creates residual or passive income for me and to me, that's the most important kind of income you make because your not trading dollars for hours. You work hard and do a great thing for someone else and then you are compensated for that work for months and years to come.
This income has helped me in so many ways throughout the years and I continue to generate income from customers I helped almost 10 years ago!
It's such a cool way to generate income but it's something that most people don't even know about. I was shocked to find out recently that a friend of mine who works for a very large company in the telecommunications industry had no idea this type of opportunity even existed!
Anyway, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who would like to make a little extra income or maybe a lot of extra income but just don't know how.
I've done it and can teach others to do it in a way that doesn't take much time or even much knowledge about telecommunications.
I think that's pretty cool.
So, I'm going to get cracken on creating this training. I'm just not sure yet if I'm going to create a Physical Manual, an audio manual or maybe even just blog about it and then create the final product from my blog posts.
Hmmm? If you've got any preferences or suggestions please let me know. Shoot me an email at tim@entrepreneur-startup-guide.com.
