3 Easy Ways to Leverage Your Time, Energy and Expertise for More Income

The normal business model for most service professionals such as coaches and consultants is a one-on-one model. It’s where we all start because it is how and where we gain experience and hone our expertise. As time goes on, however, many such professionals begin to feel somewhat tired of this business model. They still enjoy working one-on-one with many clients, but they are tied to their schedule. If you aren’t available to serve a client, then you don't get paid. Plus, the only way to now increase your income is to either further raise your fees or take on more clients…except that there is a limit to both, and particularly, the latter.

What if you’d like to take the ceiling off your income totally?

The good news is that it’s possible and easier than many professionals realize. Here are 3 easy ways to leverage your time and energy for more income, an income which is limited only by your own creativity and willingness to extend more offerings to your clients.

(1) Run a workshop or teleseminar

Running a workshop or teleseminar allows you to share what you know with your clients. As a massage therapist, perhaps you could teach a workshop or teleseminar on, “How to Boost Your Health with the Art of Gentle Touch”. Or as a coach, you might teach parents “How to Deepen Your Relationship with Your Teen Kid through the Power of Listening”.

Workshops and teleseminars move you out of the one-on-one model into a one-to-many model. You show up once for that workshop but you are reaching many people at the same time. Because the fee for attending a workshop is less per person than it is for working personally one-on-one with you, it becomes an easier decision for potential clients to get to know you and your style before they commit to a higher fee service with you. In this way, it helps you to open your doors more easily to potential clients.

Priced correctly, you will also increase your income for the same amount of time you spend on running the workshop or teleseminar because you leverage the number of people you reach.

(2) Create an information product

When you create an information product, you invest your time and energy once, when you create the product, but you then get paid for it over and over again, everytime someone purchases that item from you. It is a passive stream of income, which means that you can make a sale even when you’re on holiday or asleep. The way to do this is to set up your systems so that it allows you to be “out of the picture” completely. But you still get paid – how good is that!

Creating an information product is not difficult. Do you enjoy writing? Do you enjoy talking about what you do? If someone asked you questions, about what you do, could you tell them? What’s a favourite topic that you enjoy talking about? What questions do your clients typically ask you that you find yourself responding to over and over again?

These can form the subjects for your information products which you can deliver as an e-book or as an audio product, for example.

(3) Create a membership program

If your subject is extensive, you could create a membership program. On membership programs, individuals become members by paying a monthly subscription that provides them with monthly benefits. These benefits could be ongoing and new information that they can access by being a member. It may also give them additional benefits such as discounts off other services and products. They can access a membership area of your website in order to get the information or you could deliver it via email.

For example, one type of membership program is where people subscribe for a set period of time to receive an e-course. You deliver the e-course to them through an automated service, let’s say, on a weekly basis, for six months, and so they pay you a monthly fee for six months. By automating, you set up the system to run and then you no longer need to be there to make sure that people receive their e-course, because it has already been set up at the beginning.

Because these programs have a continuing element over a period of time, they are also often called continuity programs. It’s a great way to smooth out your cashflow because you know that you’ll be receiving a certain amount of income each and every month for the duration of their membership. It is also a passive income stream.

So there you have it - 3 easy ways to leverage your time and energy for more income. The best thing about it, is that you can use the same subject as the core for each of the 3 ways - the workshop or teleseminar, the information product and the membership program.

YOUR TURN

Think about what subject you would enjoy sharing with others. Start with an easy topic for you and begin to flesh out what you might share in a workshop. Then go from there and you’ll soon be on your way to creating new and passive streams of income, freeing yourself up to more time to do other things you love, while taking the ceiling off your income potential.