When we lived in Vermont, my husband and I decided that we couldn’t rely on just one job to provide us with our main source of income. Instead, we came up with various ideas to make money for our family. In the six years we lived on the farm we sold vegetables and berries; made and sold maple syrup; drove a school bus; fixed computers; designed and marketed web sites; wrote books and articles; baked and sold breads, pastries and pizzas and much more.
One morning in Vermont, I watched part of a Vermont Public Radio pledge drive special from a woman who talked about creating multiple revenue streams and I thought to myself, “hey, that’s what we do already!”
I just didn’t know it had a name. In fact, it was a skill I learned from a book called The Good Life
by Helen and Scott Nearing. They advocated a very similar lifestyle during the Depression.
- The first step to creating your multiple revenue streams is to not quit your full-time job if you currently have one. As soon as you start implementing your multiple streams, you can cut back on your hours or perhaps work from home, but in the beginning, you’ll need to rely on that income to get you through. If you are one of many who currently feel that while your job is safe now, but you may be in jeopardy soon – take advantage of the time and money and start implementing your multiple stream strategies right away.
- Take advantage of your passions, hobbies or unique skills. Let’s say you are a wonderful baker. Everyone tells you so. The locals look forward to seeing your brownies (or shortbread, or whatever) at every bake sale and potluck. Use that knowledge to create multiple streams of income. You could sell your baked goods on Etsy.com or at your local farmers’ market.
- Start a blog or a newsletter. Take that knowledge, about baking or what you’ve learned being an accountant for the last 15 years or what you’ve learned by investing in real estate and start a blog or newsletter. Share your information with others and seek advertisers in return. Conversely, you could start a blog or newsletter about your town or city and seek out local advertising.
- Write a book, an e-book or just a booklet. As a person who has written 14 books and had 12 of them actually published, let me tell you that writing a full book is hard work. My first book took me a year to write and then it went through massive editing and rewriting. In fact, when I first started writing it, I didn’t believe I could do it. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to write 250 pages of something – until that point I had never written anything longer than a 40 page term paper! But if you are an expert in something, be it baking or accounting, then perhaps you should try your hand at writing. Start off writing articles on your topic and start fitting the topics together, fleshing out the details a little at a time. Writing books is one of the most rewarding things I do – and it brings in a fair amount of my yearly income.
- Create a product. Perhaps you have a great idea for a new way to diaper a baby. Or perhaps you have perfected a way to teach young children how to sink basketballs or hit a baseball. You could develop a product that does just that. Have a service instead? Maybe develop a DVD or computer application that you can sell alongside your business to help your customers help themselves.
The key to all of these things is to find what you are good at and take advantage of it. Be creative in your thinking. Even an extra couple of hundred dollars a month can mean a lot in slim times. Maybe you love collecting Star Trek toys – rather than just sell stuff on eBay (one income stream) add another income stream by writing about how such toys are valued and how to find the best deals. You could even start a blog reviewing the different movies and different conventions…well, you get the idea.
One word of caution, however. Don’t try to make everything you love into a business. I thought for a really long time about decorating cakes for a living. And what I realized is that I love to decorate cakes and I love to do it for other people, but I don’t want to do it all of the time – it would take the joy out of it for me. So I will leave cake decorating as a job to the Ace of Cakes and I’ll have fun creating cakes for my six children’s birthdays!
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Are You Poor? | Organically Inclined says:
[...] How to Create Multiple Income Streams [...]
28th February 2010 at 8:04 am