Ways to Diversify Revenue Streams for SMBs

Running a small business is no easy task. On top of juggling employees, customers, vendors, and your other daily tasks, there’s also the issue of revenue generation. Revenue keeps the lights on, allows you to pay your employees, and provides the ability to order products or services that your business needs to keep the doors open.

As a matter of financial stability, income generation is often a vital part of business planning, but there’s a catch – Having only one income stream can be a major liability. When you rely on a single source of income, you may find your business in a tight spot if something happens to that source.

Instead, many business planning professionals recommend revenue diversification instead of allowing a business to rely on a single source of revenue. Thankfully, there are many ways to diversify your revenue streams for business stability and growth in the digital economy, and business owners in all industries can benefit from adding new income streams.

If you’re wondering where revenue diversification fits into your business model, below are some ideas to get you started:

Partner With Other Businesses

Partnering with other businesses is one of the best ways to diversify revenue streams for business stability because it offers many additional advantages. Partnering with complementary businesses can help build brand awareness by getting your company in front of their customers.

At the same time, you also have the opportunity to collaborate on new products or services that can then be shared between your customers and those of your partner business. When partnering with similar businesses in your area, you don’t have to necessarily form a long-term legal partnership.

Instead, you can have an understanding or informal agreement at first. As time goes by and you discover the success of this approach, you may decide to form a more formal partnership with signed contracts.

Start an Affiliate Program

You might also consider starting an affiliate program as another way to diversify revenue streams and maintain business stability. Affiliate marketing is how your brand pays affiliates for leads that convert into sales.

An example of an affiliate program may involve your company providing an affiliate program member with a custom link that leads to your company’s product page. The affiliate then advertises your products and promotes them online. Whenever someone purchases using the affiliate’s custom link, you agree to pay a percentage of that sale to the affiliate.

Affiliate programs help to build stability into your business plan by multiplying your sales efforts. Affiliates can market your products in new and creative ways on social media, through video, on their websites, and elsewhere on the web.

With this approach, your company isn’t relying on a singular marketplace for revenue. If your traditional revenue stream is weak for one month, you can fall back on revenue generated by your affiliates. The best part is that you can calculate your profits ahead of time since you set the affiliate percentage that your business pays out.

Look for Ways to Leverage Your Real Estate

If you own the real estate your company uses, consider monetizing that space to generate additional revenue. Even if you don’t own your company's property outright, you may still be able to find opportunities to make money off of it.

For example, if you have extra office space available, you might lease that space to another business owner who is looking to share an office. If you have additional parking or storage space on your company’s property, those spaces can also be rented out to other business owners or even private individuals in your community.

If you take this approach, make sure to research local zoning laws and regulations. Some areas of the country or local laws may not allow certain types of sharing for commercial spaces. It would be a good idea to consult an attorney before making any final plans for such an agreement.

Monetize Content on Social Media

Small businesses typically produce a variety of digital content each year. This content may be online videos, blog posts, newsletters, and podcasts. While it’s always a good idea to give content out for free to customers and potential customers, you can generate extra revenue for business stability and income by monetizing content.

It’s probably not a good idea to monetize all of your brand’s content, as this can keep potential customers from accessing it. Even loyal customers may not be willing to pay for content, especially if they’ve been getting it for free up until now.

Instead, consider using a model that gives away some content while keeping your most valuable content behind a paywall. For example, you can write a blog post about solving a challenge your customers face. Then, you can create a video series that goes into more detail about solving this problem using your company’s products or services. Charge a small fee to access the video content while keeping the blog content freely accessible.

This approach works because it still gives your customers free content that helps strengthen their relationship with your brand, but it also helps generate additional streams of revenue by charging for something of value. If your business relies on a single source of income through direct sales, a monetized content strategy can open new streams of revenue that can supplement your sales income.

Work With a Professional

Although there are plenty of ways to diversify revenue streams for business stability, working with a professional in the business development and marketing space can be helpful. A digital marketing agency can help you find innovative approaches to revenue generation by harnessing the unique elements of your brand and giving them a boost. Having a second set of eyes on complex projects like revenue diversification is also helpful since two heads are invariably better than one regarding business.

Contact E-Marketing Associates to Receive Expert Guidance to Improve Business Stability and Growth

At E-Marketing Associates, our experts provide various digital marketing solutions to help business owners improve cash flow and generate additional revenue. Resources like our social media managing software also help to strengthen customer relationships and build upon the hard work you’ve invested into your brand.