In episode #3, we discuss how to monetize your expertise beyond services. Service-entrepreneurs know all too well the constraints and challenges of trading time for money. But, did you know that you have options to generate revenue other than working with more clients or raising your prices?
Join us as we share tangible ways to increase your income without working more hours.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
[01:04] Intro to today’s topic: 6 Ways to Monetize Your Expertise (Beyond Services)
[02:55] Why you want to monetize your expertise beyond services
[03:27] Monetizing your services through speaking gigs
[04:20] Monetizing your services through digital products
[06:10] Coaching and consulting to monetize your expertise
[08:28] Earn more passive income through affiliate marketing
[10:39] Generate more revenue through one-to-few or one-to-many products
[13:20] “Productize” a service to earn more
[15:20] Reframing trading time for money
[16:42] Wrapping it up
LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:
Introduction
If you’re a service-based entrepreneur you know all too well the constraints of trading your time for money. It can be really challenging to make more money without working more hours. So, how can you increase your income without increasing your client workload? If you have been asking yourself that question, you’re gonna love this episode of the messy desk podcast.
[Meghan] It’s great to see you today, Theresa. How are you doing?
[Theresa] I’m awesome. How are you feeling today, Meghan?
[Meghan] I’m a little allergic today, but I’m feeling fine. It doesn’t sound like that with my voice.
[Theresa] Ah, that’s OK. Still sounds good to me.
[Meghan] All right. Well, good. I’m glad to hear it. So let’s start today’s podcast with a couple of startling stats that probably you won’t really be surprised about because most entrepreneurs like you live this reality. I know we do.
The Reality for Small Business Owners When it Comes to Work Hours and Salary
[Meghan] First of all, did you know that one and two person teams make up the majority of small businesses? That means most small businesses do it all! Not only do they run their business, but they also work directly in their business to deliver services to clients.
Secondly, Fundera researched small businesses. They discovered 70% work more than 40 hours a week, and almost 20% work over 60 hours a week, which is well over the national average of 38.6 hours.
[Theresa] Oh my gosh, I’m so relating to these stats! Lastly, the majority of small business owners work harder and more hours than 9 to 5 employees, but they earn less!
86% of small business owners said they take a yearly salary of less than $100,000. And, 30% don’t even take a salary. That’s just amazing.
Just to give you some context, the national median salary for CEOs is about $158,000.
86% of small business owners take a yearly salary of less than $100,000. And, 30% don’t even take a salary!
[Meghan] Dang! So, we way may start our entrepreneurial journey with grand ideas of being our own boss and making more money. But, the reality is that small business owners have a rough road a lot of the time.
The good news is 92% of them say they don’t regret it. Which, of course, is totally awesome. But, is this really what you wanted when you envisioned being your own boss? I know that’s not what I wanted.
[Theresa] Oh, yeah, me neither. Absolutely not. Well, since you have a finite amount of hours in a day and you don’t want to limit your earning potential, what can you do to improve the situation? Are there ways to boost your income without increasing your client workload? The answer is yes.
Selling one thing to many people gives you leverage and earning potential that services can’t.
6 Ways to Monetize Your Expertise Beyond Services
[Theresa] Today, we’re talking about ways you can generate more money outside of delivering services. Not only that but in the long run, these ideas save you time in addition to increasing your revenue. All you need is your own expertise and an open mind.
1) Monetize Your Expertise Through Speaking Gigs
[Theresa] One way to generate more revenue is through speaking. Paid speaking gigs are a great way to make extra money without a huge investment of time. This is especially true if it’s a local speaking opportunity, which doesn’t require travel expenses of course. And, if you use the same presentation for multiple speaking gigs, you can maximize your time and effort even further.
And, even unpaid speaking gigs can lead to revenue. Why would you even do an unpaid gig? Well, these opportunities can help you build your influence and authority as well as help others see you as an expert in your field. This can lead to more visibility and more clients. Plus, they can take place in person or online.
Even being a guest on a podcast could fall into this category.
2) Monetize Your Expertise Through Digital Products
[Meghan] I think speaking gigs and events are so perfect for some people, specifically those who love the interaction and the energy of a crowd. For me, of course, I’m more inclined to create digital products.
Digital products are ways to take your expertise and experience and package them into an offer that you deliver online. Some examples of digital product ideas are:
- downloadable templates
- workbooks
- ebooks
- training webinars and workshops, and
- online courses.
These ideas are a really good place to start, especially if you’re not familiar with digital products or experienced with creating digital products.
With digital products, you can take something you’re already doing and digitize it. This gives you the ability to share your expertise with more people because you’re not delivering a 1:1 service. You aren’t limited by the time you have in a day.
Here is a real-life example. In my previous business, Smart Bird Social, we offered a social media strategy that was $850. I knew everyone couldn’t afford that. So I used my social media strategy template and method and turned it into a workbook. People could purchase the workbook, which was just a downloadable PDF, and they could fill in the blanks to determine their own strategy. I think this was around $27.
[Theresa] And, it was awesome!
[Meghan] Thank you, Theresa!
The point is, think about what you already have in your brain and in your service offering. You can likely come up with a lot of ideas. This is something I help businesses figure out. And you’d be surprised how many digital products you probably already have at your fingertips.
[Theresa] Yes, I know. I just recently did a digital course myself with lots of encouragement from you, Miss Meghan.
[Meghan] It was incredible too, by the way.
[Theresa] Thanks.
3) Coaching and Consulting as Ways to Monetize Your Expertise
[Theresa] So, while I am starting to move into the digital course creation space, I didn’t start there with this business. I actually started with once one coaching and consulting. This was a very deliberate choice. I knew when I moved from the craft hobby industry into coaching that I needed to do it a little bit differently.
Actually, every fiber of my being fought the temptation to build the perfect website and start with a low dollar offer or to offer some type of service that required a lot of my time. Instead, I went directly into high-end coaching.
I leveraged the influence and authority that I’d already built within the craft and hobby industry to do two things. First, I wanted to generate more revenue. Not necessarily faster because I think that 1 to 1 high-end coaching is a little bit longer of a sales period. In other words, from the time somebody meets me to when they opt to close a contract, it takes a little bit longer in the sales cycle. But because it’s a higher dollar offer, I need a few of those to generate the type of revenue that I want.
Secondly, it also enabled me to determine whether or not I actually liked coaching. And, it helped me determine what my framework was going to be. You know, what was the process I was taking clients through?
And there’s even a third reason for approaching my business in this manner. In building out my framework, I was able to discover what people really need. That helped me bolster up my services and my offering.
[Meghan] I think coaching and consulting are such great ways to monetize your expertise outside of services. Whereas it might take you 15 hours to complete a service, it might take you only an hour or two to provide higher-end coaching and consulting. You can make more money working fewer hours. So, I love that about it.
4) Earn More Passive Income with Affiliate Marketing
[Meghan] Another idea to monetize your expertise is to incorporate affiliate marketing into your business. If you have an email list or an existing audience, this idea could work more quickly to generate revenue in a more passive manner.
Basically, if you’re not aware, affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s or another company’s products or services. Ideally, you’re looking for things that you’ve used yourself for that align with your business and then align with your community. Then you promote that product or service to others and earn a piece of the profit or commission for each sale that you make.
Probably one of the most well-known examples of affiliate marketing is Amy Porterfield’s promotion of Marie Forleo’s B-School program. But, both Amy Porterfield and Marie Forleo have huge followings and enormous audiences.
A smaller example is that you could start with something like an app or a tool that you could promote to your clients and to your email list. I know ClickFunnels has a really popular affiliate program. That’s just one of many examples. Obviously, the more expensive the product, usually the bigger your affiliate commission.
I won’t belabor this idea, but I will say that if you don’t already have a bigger audience, it will take much longer to earn revenue with affiliate marketing.
Don’t exclude becoming an affiliate for products and services that you sell part of your own service offering. For instance, I mentioned ClickFunnels a minute ago. If you’re a web designer that sells sales funnels and you use ClickFunnels, you could promote it with your service. That way, you get money on the front end for creating the sales funnel for your client. Then you receive a recurring affiliate commission on the back end from your participation in the ClickFunnels program.
[Theresa] That’s a really good idea. It’s really easy to get started with affiliate marketing too. It’s not that complicated. You just have to be aware of things that you’re already using that you could be an affiliate for, right?
[Meghan] Yeah, exactly. That’s right. So don’t be afraid to think outside of the box with affiliate marketing. Embrace your creativity to figure out other ways you can make a little money with things you’re already using and your clients are already using.
5) Generate More Income with a One-to-Many Product (Membership Program)
[Theresa] Another great idea is to move to a one-to-many model rather than a one-to-one model. This is good for getting yourself out of the service rat race, right? ‘Cause you’re always trading your time for money when you’re doing a one-to-one service. And you – as one solo person – tap out on time and hit a revenue ceiling a lot quicker when you’re working in one-to-one services only.
Even for me, with my coaching clients, I will always tap out. There are only so many people I can work with at one time.
So, you can try to switch your model to move from a one-to-one service model to a one-to-few or one-to-many model. For example, having a monthly membership program really helps you do that. It allows you to generate recurring monthly revenue that you can count on having month-to-month.
A membership program can be even one-to-few where maybe it’s a six-month program where you’re working with 10 – 20 people in a small group. But, for that six month period, you’re going to have consistent revenue coming in without having to deliver services for 10 – 20 clients at once time. It’s getting you out of that one on one type of work habit and into that one-to-many where you’re generating a lot more revenue with fewer hours of work.
For example, I launched a very small monthly membership program called the Daily Achievers Academy. I launched it to a very small group. We worked on building out what the membership would actually look like. While I was generating revenue for the membership, I gave those members a few extra bonuses because they were helping me build something that then I can offer to many more people.
Whether you’re doing monthly small group coaching or doing a lower dollar monthly membership program that’s something different than coaching, the point is that this model helps you boost your earning power without increasing your workload.
[Meghan] That makes sense. And by the way, I am a member of the Daily Achievers Academy (shameless plug). It’s completely worth it. It’s a great program that has really helped me with my goal setting and achieving more in much of my life and my business.
6) Turn Your Services into Products to Generate More Passive Income
[Meghan] Alright, onto the last suggestion, which is to productize one or more of your services.
[Theresa] I love that word.
[Meghan] It’s not really a word.
[Theresa] It is now!
[Meghan] This is when you generalize and package your service in a way that meets the needs of more than just one client. Then you can deliver that service to more than one client or one business at a time.
This will not work for everyone. However, you may be in an industry where you can rethink about how you deliver your services. If you can deliver your services in a model that’s one-to-many rather than 1 to 1, you can help more people and earn more money without the pressure of increasing your workload too much.
Here’s an example. When I was doing social media marketing, there was a definite need for graphics and content. I saw this need with different colleagues and with clients too.
So in 2017, I “productized” the service of social media content creation. I developed a program called The Content Cure, a monthly membership for business owners who wanted ready-to-post social media images, text to go with those images, and hashtags. That’s just one idea of how you could take a service and turn it into more of a product. In this example, I took the service of monthly social media management and turned it into more of a product. Besides the potential for generating more revenue, you can help more people with this model, and I love that about it.
Productizing a service also has great earning potential over the long run. Not right away though! Definitely, in the long run. There’s a lot of upfront work, and there’s possibly ongoing monthly work, depending on your offer. I mean, Theresa, you know how much work that program was for me!
Every offer requires creation, management, and selling–no matter what you do, services or products. You won’t get out of that.
[Theresa] That’s true.
Time to Reframe Trading Time for Money
[Theresa] For the most part, everyone is trading some time for money, right?
Even when you’re doing a digital product or you’re doing a membership, there’s still time involved and there’s still money that you’re making. I just don’t know how else to say it except just plainly right. We’re trading time for money, no matter what we do.
The concept is that we’re going to try to now think beyond the limits of one-to-one service. How can you reach more people with your expertise? Because that really increases your earning potential. The real goal is to start trading time for more money, right?
You’re always trading some time for some money. The goal is to trade less time for more money.
Instead of trading a lot of time for some money, I’m flipping that statement around. Trade some time for more money.
[Meghan] I like the sound of that. It reminds me of that skit from the TV show In Living Color.
[Theresa] I remember that show!
[Meghan] “Mo money, mo money, mo money!” That was a saying in my time for awhile. I’m sure that just dated myself quite a bit. Do you remember that show?
[Theresa] Yes I do. That’s where Jim Carrey got his start.
[Meghan] Yes, that’s right.
[Theresa] And Jennifer Lopez. She was a Fly Girl.
[Meghan] (laughter) Yeah, exactly. A bunch of people!
Final Thoughts on Monetizing Your Expertise Beyond 1:1 Services
Okay. To wrap this up, you can earn more money by adding one-to-many offers to customers, like digital products and group programs. But you can also modify or productize your services to make it easier for more people to buy from you and for you to increase your earning potential.
I just want to mention that transitioning into digital products, speaking gigs, membership programs, and the other ideas mentioned here still requires time. You’re not going to get away from that. You will spend time on the front end developing these offers and making them happen. Then there’s the time it takes to market and sell those offers. It’s different from services, though, because you’re selling one thing to many people, which gives you leverage and earning potential that services can’t.
[Theresa] And in that spirit, which of the suggestions we made today most interest you and why? And then when will you get started?
We will see you next week on The Messy Desk Podcast!
