In previous posts, we have looked at multiple income streams as it relates to pet shop and restaurant owners.  I would have to say that the same strategies that apply to pet shops could also be used for other businesses, such as hardware stores, hobby stores, or sewing/knitting stores.

What if your business is real estate or insurance or investments?  What types of information do you possess that others would be interested in knowing?  Some might say there is nothing any of these people have to share that I am interested in.  I would strongly disagree.

If you are a realtor, you probably know more about the city or cities you do business in than anyone else.  You know about the communities, the school systems, places to shop, great places to eat or just hang out and, in general, what’s happening in the area.   Sharing that information with people that are interested in your area is great PR for your real estate business.  By sharing your enthusiasm for the community with your readers, they will come to trust you.  Gaining their trust will gain new clients for your business.  This hasn’t yet created another income stream but we’ll get to that in a minute.

What if you are an insurance agent or an investment broker?  There are a great many people that do not understand insurance or investments.  There may be a lot of those people that do not want to know either.  But, there are a percentage of those people that want to learn and understand insurance and investments and how both can benefit them.  You are the right ones to teach them.  Who better, right?  This also builds trust with your readers and would be beneficial to your businesses.

Ok, how could we create another income stream for these three businesses?   Each of these three people has a great deal of knowledge about their profession.  They are experts in their field and, as such, have the ability to teach others what they know.  I am sure there are many others that would be interested in learning about what it takes to do each of these professions and many more that are already doing them and are interested in learning how to do it better.

This is where the additional income stream comes in.  You could start a membership site to teach people how to do their jobs better.  Once you have people within the membership site, you could offer consulting services to help them one on one to improve their business.  You could offer information through ebooks and videos.  A fee could be charged for access to information on the site.

There are a number of other ways to monetize these sites as well but that will have to be for another post.

Hopefully some of these ideas will get you thinking.  Be creative and always remember you do have something to offer and there are people that want to know what you know.

What are you doing to create multiple income streams?

Photo by sean dreilinger

In the last two posts, we have talked about the benefits of creating multiple income streams and ideas for applying that to pet shop owners.  Today, let’s look at how this might be applied to restaurant owners.

A successful restaurant owner not only knows how to cook but also knows how to run a successful restaurant.  This is two different groups of people that would benefit from and be interested in what you know.

First, anyone that enjoys cooking, would love to know what you know about cooking.  I can envision their interests being everything from recipes to “how to” cook to “history of” type things.  They would be interested in what types of cookware you recommend as well as cooking utensils and how to properly use and care for them.

There’s no doubt in my mind that there are a lot of other things that you know that would be of interest to others.  As I am not really a cook much less a restaurant owner, I would have to learn from you what else you know that people would find value in.  It’s my guess, however, that your wheels are turning now and you can think of many more things to share.

The second group of people we identified that you have information to share with were those that have an interest in starting and running a restaurant.  You are in a perfect position to start a forum to share information and teach just that.  You have experienced all of it.  Your expertise in either starting a restaurant from scratch or buying an existing restaurant would be valuable information to share with this group of people.

The point here is that you have a wealth of knowledge that others would love to have and many would be willing to pay you to get that information.  Creating a product around what you know, what you are passionate about, will create another income stream for you.  One that is completely separate from your restaurant and that is sustainable on its own.  How great would that be?

What else can you think of to create multiple income streams?  We’d love to hear from you.

photo by nickwheeleroz