In my last post, Create Multiple Income Streams, I talked about a friend of ours that has an opportunity to acquire an online business that is closely related to his offline business.  Putting this deal together will allow him to add another income stream, if not several income streams, to his portfolio.

This is an excellent and, one might say, necessary strategy for survival.  There are many businesses today that have both an online and offline presence doing basically the same thing.  They both sell the same products.  While the online presence certainly increases their reach, it is still the same income stream.  They have not added any products or services to either the offline or online business.

Don’t get me wrong here.  This is an excellent strategy to increase revenue and any offline business should consider an online presence to do just that.  But, what if they added another website to their portfolio to develop multiple income streams all the while enhancing their offline and online (if they have one) presence?

Let’s say you have a pet shop, for example.  Your customers come in with the same problems, the same questions all the time.  What types of problems do your customers have?  What types of questions do you get on a regular basis?  Is there information that you feel your customers should have but can’t possibly share it with them while they’re in the store?  The answers to these questions are opportunities to create multiple income streams.

Let’s think about the possibilities for a second.  You could create an e-book or many e-books teaching people about how to solve their pet problems.  You could write about everything from dogs and cats to snakes and lizards.  Write about the “history of” to proper care or “how to” anything and everything.  When thinking of “how to” type things, consider video as a good method to get your message out.  With video you would be able to show people how to care for their pets or just convey your message visually.

Another possibility might be to create a membership site where you share this information (for a fee) and allow pet owners to communicate with each other and with you.  This not only allows you to connect with your customers but with others across the internet.  You will have an opportunity to learn more issues pet owners are having which could possibly create ideas for new teaching material.

I know, you are thinking this sounds like a lot of work and it is.  What you need to think about though is that once this work is done, you are basically selling the same piece of work over and over again without much, if any, extra effort.  Also, this is a business that can and should be separate from your offline business.  Once it’s out on the web and becomes recognized as a resource for expert advice and information, it will take on a life of its own.  It won’t need the pet shop to survive.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this and if there’s any way we can assist you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

photo by gudbjorg agustsdottir