For the self employed business owner, one day can be great and the next can be totally devoid of income. It’s peaks and valleys, as we all know. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s not, it can be awful. What is a small business owner to do?
Create multiple streams of income. This way, when one source dries up, however temporarily, the other sources are going strong and can cover. It’s actually quite an old story. You put all your eggs in one basket, eventually the bottom of that basket falls out. Then what do you do?
Sure, you could go work for someone, if you can land a job. But then you are working far harder than necessary and for far less income. You arrive home too tired to take care of your business. Clients and customers leave because you cannot complete your obligations towards them. Then you become almost totally dependent on that job. One day, you receive the pink slip. The company is downsizing or in the case of the COVID 19 pandemic, is forced to curtail hours or shut their doors altogether.
You can always file for unemployment, but you may not receive benefits right away. Your money runs out, and your food supply dwindles. Well, there’s always the food bank in town. Which is a Godsend for the families in need who actually really need the food bank. But you could have avoided the entire scenario if you had done your due diligence.
Here’s the thing. Many small business owners, especially newbies, come up with a great product and simply expect that people will like it, buy it, and that it will take off like a rocket. Despite excellent SEO, social media marketing, and more effort and skin in the game, websites and products simply do not just hit the ground running. It takes months sometimes to get indexed by Google, other times mere weeks, and that’s great. Your website has been indexed.
So that means people will start buying right away, right? Wrong! it takes the average shopper 7 – 11 times at your website to finally place an order. If they are familiar with your brand, and they need / want your product, it will happen a great deal quicker. If they are not familiar with your brand, there’s a lot of tire kicking and thinking going on before people will actually commit to a purchase. In the mean time, you have bills to pay, a roof to keep over your head, etc.
So, the optimal balance is having multiple streams of income. The almost perfect balance is the offering of two services and one product. Meaning, offer two unrelated services to the world, through two different websites, and one e-commerce website offering your products.
For example, website designers never know when they will land the next project. Real estate agents never know when the next commission check is coming. Resume writers never know when the next client will come by who needs a resume. Secretarial services never know when the next architect will call needing a contract drawn up and paperwork done. Attorneys never know when the next big ticket client will call.
You cannot sit by and wait for something to happen. You need to take the proverbial bull by the horns and create your own income, build your own business through ingenuity and hard work, create your own future.
As I am fond of saying, always be prepared to pull yet another bunny out of that multi tasking hat of yours. And when you think you’re running out of bunnies, it’s time to start examining your business and re-inventing yourself so you stay well above the rising flood waters.