From a business perspective, surviving troubling times and challenging economic landscapes becomes exponentially more accessible when you have more: money.
That’s right, the way we navigate spaces commercially depends mainly on what lies after that “$” symbol on our bank statements. To be sure, you feel emboldened and empowered to make more complex decisions or take riskier chances when you can be assured of cash flow and softer landing spaces if things don’t go exactly to plan.
So how do you raise alternative sources of business revenue in these times to help you make more robust decisions and take part in the competition culture a little more boldly? Let’s have a look.
GET RID OF THE “SINGLE REVENUE STREAM” MENTALITY
Too many businesses across the USA and indeed the world have relied on traditional or well-established business structures to operate and make money for far too long. Those days had been over before the pandemic hit, but they’re certainly over now.
This means that you’re going to have to change too, which means a rethink of your business model from the ground up. So the start of this post is establishing that level of thinking first. You could think of hiring some expertise for the right job in this instance.
THEN, UNDERSTAND THE HIDDEN SPOTS THAT YOUR BUSINESS REACHES
In the daily operations of most businesses, we fall into something of a comfort zone.
Understanding all the moving parts, logistics, marketing, and so on is, of course, important. But now, you want to empower and enable your teams to communicate daily interactions they have with people and business along the way that could provide sources of revenue that, while you may not specialize in, could provide nevertheless.
So if you supply office furniture, perhaps your clients need stationery too?
NOW, GET PRACTICAL
Each opportunity that presents as a possible source of alternative revenue is always going to seem exciting and fresh. That energy alone is precious, but you also have to be able to supply that service or product practically.
So without changing your entire business plan (unless that is what you need to do), make sure that this revenue source will come with relatively little disruption to your existing operations and without too much additional cost.
Here are a few examples.
If you’ve been mainly relying on the traditional ways of generating sales, it’s time to take your sales to the digital space. Now, this doesn’t mean getting rid of your “road warrior” force if that’s been working for you; remember these are alternatives or, to use other words, additional sources of revenue. So the thinking is to develop your online and digital sales platform and not use it to replace an existing platform.
Affiliate marketing is two words that you’ve undoubtedly been hearing more and more of late, and as the adage goes, if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck – it’s probably a duck. So if everyone else is in on it, the question is – why aren’t you?
KNOW THE SPACE YOU’RE IN
This is a physical statement as well as a mental one. Knowing your business’s space from a biological point of view means understanding who is walking through the door and what they are there for?
If you’re a business that is physically selling goods or services from your premises and you offer cash discounts for your customers, the question becomes – yeah, but who still carries cash?
Answer: no one. So the solution: install a business ATM machine.
It’s this level of thinking that’s going to elevate your business from a singular line revenue thinking to multiple line revenue thinking, and it doesn’t take much.
