The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses has made me realize the importance of continually building different streams of income. With so many businesses taking a hit or going under because of the pandemic many professionals, business owners, and entrepreneurs are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But while many businesses are struggling, others have never done better.
I pay close attention to my surroundings and to the feedback I receive from my clients. This allowed me to create five streams of income since I started my business nine years ago. I began my entrepreneurship journey by tutoring high school students in their math and science courses. After a year or so my client list grew and I created a tutoring company, expanded into the elementary and middle school market and hired other tutors to help me. I then started to get invited to speak about topics such as goal setting, study skills, and personal development so I created my speaker website. Now companies and organizations contact me for speaking engagements. Then recently people in my network asked me to coach and mentor them in their self-discovery and professional development journey so I added those services to my offerings.
Then the pandemic came along and wiped out my speaking and consulting schedule as these events were cancelled or rescheduled. The majority of my income is now coming from just a couple of income streams and I feel blessed to have built and developed them before this crisis.
Diversifying your income may not be as hard as you think, especially if there is a unifying theme. Although I offer a lot of different services to different industries and age groups, the underlying theme is goal setting, growth mindset, and learning the process of mastery. These are the topics I work with and it doesn’t matter whether I’m speaking to corporate executives or running my tutoring company. The material is the same, I tweak the content to my audience’s profile. Before when people asked me what I do for work I struggled to answer that question because I do so many things. But now I explain the underlying theme – I am an educator and a progress specialist.
There is great benefit to expanding your skills and offerings during this slowdown. Try to find the underlying theme in your line of work and see if you can repurpose your skills and content to another group of potential customers who can benefit from what you have to offer. It’s the surest way to scale for success.
