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4 Steps to Small Business Success - Move to The Next Level
Create your Own InfoProducts
What is your secret to success? Success sells, and if you have your own personal method to get to the top, others will pay to hear it (which explains why "how to succeed"-style ebooks continue to top the sales charts). Ask yourself "What do I know that's special, unique, and could help others?" The answer to this question will make a successful infoproduct.
Do you know how to fix something, find something, save something, do something more quickly, do it better, do it more efficiently, do a greater amount of it, do it with greater quality, do it less expensively, do it more easily, it more often, be happier doing it, do it automatically, or more effectively, take existing knowledge and apply to a new situation? Then you're an infoproduct waiting to happen.
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Create your Own System or Software
Franklin Covey has created an income by showing others his own secrets to prioritization and organization. He packaged up his personal methodology, and now sells the tools, classes, and equipment to others who want to achieve those same results.
Do you have a unique form, software, or process that you use to make your work easier? Document your process, find a developer to produce the software, or package your process as an infoproduct, cd, teleclass, or ecourse.
Become an Expert Consultant
Do people value your business advice? If so, there's a chance you could create an income through consulting. Expert consultants are paid by the hour to provide advice to others about how they can achieve greater success.
Think about how you can highlight your expertise, and position yourself as an expert. Some "hot" fields of consulting now include publicity, search engine techniques, epublishing knowledge, Website traffic analysis, Internet marketing, business coaching, and business strategy. You could even mentor "juniors" in your field on how to take their business to the next level.
Services Reseller
As a businessperson, your customers will often turn to you for recommendations on reputable service companies. This puts you in the perfect position to earn commissions by reselling appropriate goods and services.
Make a list of all the services your customers use. For example, as a Web developer, my customers use hosting, merchant accounts, shopping carts, newsletter broadcasting services, and domain name vendors. Then approach suitable vendors about becoming a reseller of their services. Here's a list of the top 50 reseller programs, to get you started.
Earn Partner Commissions
Do you recommend consultants' services to others? Often my customers need assistance with proofreading, multi-browser compatibility testing, copywriting, virtual assistance, and animated graphics, so I decided to seek out partnerships with companies in these key areas.
When I refer a client to these businesses, they pay me a referral fee -- and when they refer their clients to me, I pay them. Who do you know that you could create similar deals with?
Sell Advertising
You may be sitting on valuable real estate and not even know it. If your Website attracts a lot of traffic, or you have a popular ezine, you may be able to earn income through advertising sales.
Consider offering banner ads, text ads, sponsorships, partnerships, paid classifieds or business directory listings. Another idea is to create "co-branded" paid (or free) ebooks, with ad space that you can sell as a targeted opportunity to potential advertisers.
Create a Referral Network
Think about who your audience is, and then ask yourself what other types of professionals have the same target audience. A referral network allows you to charge businesses for membership, in exchange for promotion of their services to your audience.
The concept is similar to 1-800-Dentist. Here, dentists pay a fee to be part of the network. Then, when a customer phones 1-800-Dentist and asks for a dentist in their area, the operator looks at the list of member dentists, and match the client with the member that offers the qualifications or services the customer seeks. And 1-800-Dentist earns a small commission for sending the member dentist a qualified customer.
So, how can this concept work as a Web application? You could create a network of "preferred" Web developers, to which Web development companies pay a small fee to be included. Then offer on your site the facility for people to search for a Web developer in their area. And when your visitor signs up with one of the developers in your network, you get a commission!
The Pay-Per-Inclusion Club
If you're an expert in your field, why not create a community where others can learn your secrets to success?
By offering free membership, you can allow visitors to poke around and see that you know your topic. Then, offer paid memberships to your members-only section where more specific, detailed or important information is covered.
Internet Marketing Challenge is one such community. Built by Internet Marketers, it's geared toward aspiring entrepreneurs. CoachVille, by Thomas Leonard, is another community that was developed for the business/personal coaching audience.
How much do you want to earn..?
According to Think and Grow Rich, the wealthy are people who have a brilliant idea that has changed the world. But I believe that those who resell these brilliant ideas can also become rich. Take advantage of the power of passive income and you too can work less and earn more!