10 Ideas to Monetize Your Business

ads balance coaching create direct sales entrepreneur finances income membership monetize podcast products services May 29, 2023
10 ideas to monetize your business podcast cover

This is an AI transcript of episode 280 of the Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast.  Grab the free checklist of the ten ways to monetize your existing business now: Download here
 
Hey girl. Welcome to the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose, and really unlock our potential with the pixie dust thrown in, what is pixie dust? You might ask. It's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay Dollinger, dog mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full-time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full-time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

 

Hey, hey friend. I am popping in here to make sure that you know about the best kept secret membership that exists for women entrepreneurs and shocking. The name is The Magical Membership for Women Entrepreneurs. So what is this magical membership you might ask? Well, it is a super fun place that I have curated. Uh, there's a Facebook group component to it as well as a website portal. So if you're not on Facebook, no worries, you can still be a part of the membership, but there is amazing community accountability, challenges, trainings, templates done for you, uh, social media, calendar content, all all the things, literally all the things, and I don't talk about it nearly as much as I should. So here is your open invitation to join the magical membership for women entrepreneurs. The information is in the links, or you can definitely send me a DM and I can get you all of the deets.

 I hope I just realized that rhyme. I'm, oh my gosh. Well, I hope you go out there creating on your magic and I will see you inside the magical membership for women entrepreneurs. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another Purpose in Pixie Dusts podcast. My name is Lindsay Dollinger and I am the host of this show. And today we are diving into 10 ideas to monetize or monetize in a different way your business. So you obviously have one way that you are making money or you would not be in a business, right? But a lot of times, um, we get stuck kind of on your one thing that you do and forget that there are other ways that you can add revenue into your business. Um, one thing I want to preface this by saying though is I am a firm believer in doing one thing and really focusing on it and making it good and then adding in other streams of income as it makes sense for your business.

 Now, some of these you might be able to do at the same time and I'll, I'll chat about that as we get there. But in general, as I have said on this show before, you can't ride, what is the, I always mess it up. Uh, you can't ride two, two asses with one, two donkeys with one ass, two horses with one ass, okay? So idea number one for something that you can do in your business is create a digital project like an e-book, a printable, a template. This could be social media posts. Um, I see them all the time in my ads and I don't know if that's because of the type of things that I like to look at or not. I see them all the time on Pinterest as well. But something that you can create, and this can be, these are usually low ticket type offerings, but you know, if you make enough of them and you get enough of a following, you could easily make a very nice income or supplement to your business with a digital product.

 Now this is especially easy now if you have the Canva Pro version. I don't think you can sell them if you use Canva free, but the Canva Pro version, which I'm obsessed with, um, can make things really pretty, really quickly and you can sell them, obviously read their terms and conditions, or you can just use old-fashioned Google Docs. Um, and you don't have to have any fancy website to set up to do this. You know, you could old-fashioned send people through a PayPal business link. I don't even know if that's old-fashioned, but very simple way. Um, I've also seen people make really nice checkout pages with Stripe and Square. So those are other options as well. So you can create a digital product. Idea number two, offer some sort of one-time coaching or consulting session for your clients to provide guidance or insights on whatever your particular area of expertise is.

So if you are in the makeup field, this could be a consultation for, um, you know, skincare matching. This could be some sort of a nutrition consultation, uh, where maybe you set together with them and you come up with a nutrition plan together and you hold them accountable. Maybe this is a pack of sessions. So for me, I have packs of one-on-one coaching that I sell. I also have a VIP coaching strategy that I have divided into two calls. They are both 45 minutes each, plus you get a month of my membership in between them. And so for me that I've kind of made that into two separate services that I offer. But that's what I do for my coaching because people want that. Um, I've seen a lot of VIP days as well. I'm also offering v IP days this summer.

 So a little plug there if you would like to get a lot done in a very concentrated amount of time and have all eyes on your business, v i p days could be something really cool that you could add as well. Idea number three, create a paid membership that offers exclusive content, resources and support for your most dedicated followers. This started out in the quote unquote old days on Patreon. Patreon is still around a lot of podcasters. Um, a lot of educators use Patreon and you'll pay like, I don't even know, but lots of times there's different tiers and if you pay an extra $5 a month, you get an extra podcast or two if you pay in the $10 tier, you get this, et cetera. So there's lots of ways you can go about this. Um, I obviously have created the magical membership for women entrepreneurs.

That is my membership that I have created. And you know, I really go all in in that membership. So they get all my trainings, my resources, they get, I'm literally right now on a co-working call . So I am multi-tasking also getting work down. Um, but we have a monthly co-working call and we also have a monthly small group coaching session in addition to accountability time. So like I knew that that was the support that my dedicated followers need. So maybe think about that for you. Maybe you need to do a, not need to do, but you could do a paid membership for homeschool moms, for teachers, for, I mean let's brainstorm this. This would be a really cool thing we could do together during a VIP strategy call because memberships are hot, hot, hot and they're a very nice way to get monthly reoccurring revenue host.

Idea number four. This one is probably the one that I think you have to be the most careful with, but you could partner with another business or influencer to create some sort of a collaborative product or services that's going to appeal to both of your audiences. I say be careful with this because I have heard stories of this where it has gone quote unquote wrong where you know, someone stole other people's, um, clients. I'm saying stolen parentis or not es in air quotes. You can't see me saying that, but um, and sometimes they can just make a very interesting relationship. So make sure you trust the person. It's super clear, I'm doing this, you're doing this, this is what it's gonna look like. Um, and this is what we're both gonna get out of it. This is, you know, what we're gonna lead people into, et cetera.

 Idea number six, sell a physical product such as merchandise or branded items that align with your brand and your values. So this could be, and I've created this in the past, um, I haven't really talked about it much, but I had t-shirts that I made and had printed, um, with like my branding on them or like girl boss branding. Back when I had a travel blog, I had some travel sayings put on shirts, um, my sister makes and sales Disney earrings and different Disney sorts of merchandise that go along with her brand and her values. Her shop is www.bellablingshop.com. So make sure you check that out. I'll link that in the show notes. Um, also this could be, you know, a direct sales company. I know there are a lot of you who are partnered with direct sales companies, myself included. So you know, as long as they align with your brand and your values and it can really easily go into what you were doing in your business, absolutely sell away , you know, do your thing.

 Idea number seven, host a workshop or an event that provides valuable information or training in your area. Expertise. Again, this is gonna be different for everyone. Um, and you could charge, I do these free from time to time. I also just did my first one where I charged, um, I think it was $7 because it was a seven day challenge that I did. Um, and that felt really good for me. I have seen people charge $97, I have paid and been in ones. I just was in one that was $111. Um, I've seen people charge multiple 3, 4, 5 figures for different, um, workshops or events. This is gonna depend whether it's in person. You know, there's all kinds of things we could talk about in regards to pricing, but you could definitely do this, a cooking class, um, a mommy and me something or another, you know, manicure day where you come, you get a little goody bag, you get a manicure and something else for $49.

Idea number eight, offer a service that compliments your existing business. So this is gonna depend on your existing business, but it could be something like copywriting, graphic design, or social media management. If you are listening to this, you're building your business already on social media. Chances are maybe you're pretty good at social media or graphic design, making social media posts, captions, emails, other things like that. So maybe it makes sense, especially if you are looking to get to a certain income goal so that you're able to leave your job, that you take on a couple of social media clients to help supplement you learn from them. I, um, I didn't actually do it, but I know several people, especially in the direct sales space who have hired people from, I don't know if it was actually from their team or not, but someone else from their company to run their social media.

And it was a great way for that person to learn what these bigger leaders were doing. Um, so that's, you know, a different perspective on that. To keep in mind. Idea number nine, launch and this one's gonna be a more long-term strategy launch, a podcast or YouTube channel that provides valuable content and attracts sponsorships or ad revenue. So I say a long-term strategy because getting sponsorships that, or even ad revenue that is going to pay you anything substantial, you have to be getting numbers, you have to be getting views. So you know, especially if you are already have an established audience, you're already creating things that are going quote unquote viral or mini viral. Hey, why not? So put that stuff on YouTube. Launch a podcast if you're feeling called to do that. And even if it is not directly getting you income from sponsorships or ad revenue, it's definitely getting you more visibility that hopefully will lead to people buying something else that you are selling.

And last idea number 10, offer a limited time flash sale or discount on your current product or service to incentivize purchases. So I don't like to do this too often, but, and when I do do it, I guess I should say not, but I like to make this an upsell, meaning. So if you spend, okay, let me walk back my strategy for this. So when I was with a particular direct sales company, our average order size before tax and shipping was like $40. So what I liked to do is to increase my cart value, say, okay, I know the average cart size is $40. I'm going to say if you spent $50 with me, I will give you X, Y, Z for free. Um, and to even make it better, the thing that I gave them for quote unquote free was a future purchase incentive.

 So this is what it could look like. If you spend $50 on my website this weekend, I will give you a $10 coupon for your insert next month purchase. So I always did it off of a future purchase so that I knew hopefully I would be getting a sale again the next month or two months later, however long you wanna run that. Um, plus increasing my current average sale price. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, send me a dm. I will try to make that a little bit more concise in my wording, but long story short, I like to make it an upsell or, and or a future purchase incentive for those sorts of things. The other thing that I liked to do, especially when I was in direct sales and I was trying to get my um, personal volume up, was running a sale.

You know, if you bought x, y, Z on my site, I would send you something for free. So it was always trying to take the inventory that I had on hand, use that as giveaways for people to actually purchase on my website to increase my ppv, all of that. Okay, so there you have it, there are 10 ideas to monetize your business or add business revenue in, um, without adding a significant time commitment. So some of this is a little bit of a time commitment, you know, the one-on-one, uh, coaching for example, or the paid membership. But the idea is that over time a lot of this would become quote unquote passive revenue and would be something that you can kind of sell while you're sleeping, which is kind of like the dream business, right? . So I'm gonna go over these ideas super quickly.

One more time. Idea number one was to create a digital product. Number two was to offer some sort of coaching or consultation session number three, create a paid membership. Number four, partner and collaborate with another business or influencer to create something. Number five, offer a premium version. Oh, I think I skipped that. Oh my gosh, I think I skipped that when we were talking. Um, let me go back to that number five. I was gonna say you let me skip that, but you're not actually here lifetime, so you did not let me skip that, I just skipped it. Number five, uh, is to offer a premium version of your current product or service with added features or benefits at a higher price point. So for example, I have my monthly membership. I actually have three tiers of it. I have a tier that is just online access to my portal that has replays and workbooks, social media posts, all that sort of thing that I add to every month.

Then I have a v no, my normal, I forget what I called it, it, I like called it like a premium tier or something. But that is the where you actually get in the Facebook group. You get the presence of everyone in there. You get to hop on the calls live, you get to ask questions, all that sort of stuff. That's the one that most people do. But then I have a v I P option. So this is me adding a premium version to a current product that I had. I have a V I P option that also includes some private coaching with me and I do have a handful of women who decided to take me up on that, which I absolutely love that. Like that's, I really love coaching, um, one-on-one. So that was my idea. Number five, that I totally skipped over somehow.

I have no idea how I did that. Idea. Number six was to sell physical products. Idea number seven was to host a workshop or event id. Number eight was to offer a service that compliments your existing business id. Number nine was to launch a podcast or YouTube channel for sponsorships or ad view add revenue. And number 10 was to do some sales discounts around your current products or services to incentivize purchases. So I would love to know what you think. I'd love to know if there are any of these that really stuck out to you that you're like, oh my gosh, yes, I would love to get this started. Let's talk some more. So hop into my dms, um, and I will drop a fun freebie for you, a nice little checklist to, um, go over what all of these are and the show notes. So make sure you head over to the show notes, download that so that you don't have to go back and retake notes over everything cuz you have it in the checklist. . All right, go out there. My fear my friend, create and own your magic and we will talk so, so soon.

And that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you're leaving today Inspired Princess to create own and spread your magic to the world. If you found value in this episode or Noah girlfriend who needs to hear it, would you screenshot it and send it to her? And if you're feeling really generous, pop it up on your IG stories and tag me at Lindsay Dollinger so I can see you loved it and tell you thank you. I appreciate you. Now let's go do some amazing things. Bye-bye.

 

Want to stay connected? Sign up for my weekly newsletter for business tips and advice sent right to your inbox!

Sign up now