workshop

Since starting to blog here on Entrepreneurs Journey, I have been giving plenty of tips and advice for building exposure and creating profile, using methods I have utilized with clients. Now I want to talk a little about my own journey and slight change of direction for me, and share what I learned about leveraging time and creating additional revenue streams with you. Now Or Never When I started my public relations business, McDuling PR, back in 2007 it was a pretty big step for me. I already had a few clients on the side when I left my full-time employment, but basically found myself in a deal-breaker position – it was now or never to make it work . I didn’t have the luxury of a nice cash cow or rich husband to give me a buffer to play it safe and build it up slowly. I had to really go for it, or not be able to pay the mortgage or put food on the table. And that’s exactly what I did – fortunately it worked out very well for me. Now, four years later, I have a number of fantastic clients I work with – all of whom are inspiring individuals in their own way. The only problem is the amount of work it takes on my part. It is all consultancy based work and requires a lot of input, time and effort . And if I want to make more money, I only really have two choices with this scenario – put my prices up (and there is a ceiling on how much one can charge for public relations services, as there is with most other industries) or take on more clients. Physically, I can really only work with so many clients at a time while providing a good service, and having a little bit of a personal life. I have one person who works for me part-time, but I pride myself on providing personal service to my clients , so there is only so much I can outsource to him. Plus, I don’t really want to be managing people while being responsible for them. It is not what gives me joy – it just adds to my stress. Many service providers find themselves with the same conundrum, and many of my clients are in the same boat. I work with them to help them discover additional revenue streams, and this is literally what I have done for my own business. But, rather than adding these additional revenue streams to McDuling PR , I created a whole separate identity – and Stratosphere Me was born and launched in February this year! Solutions The philosophy behind Stratosphere Me was to provide a number of solutions for individuals (not companies, but individuals – including entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, athletes and business owners) to generate exposure for themselves and thereby grow their profits. The high-end solution is consultancy work, where they will quite literally pay me to do this for them. However, other solutions available to them include: attending a workshop where I will show them how to do it for themselves, being part of a mentoring group, offering product sales, and finally one-on-one Skype consultations where I provide ideas for exposure specific to their situation or industry. How To Leverage Time It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that I can make more money for less effort working with a large group of people at the one time, rather than taking them all on as individual clients. Plus, the workshop and mentoring group options are far more cost effective for people who have budgetary limitations. Obviously, creating and then selling a product is the ultimate solution in leveraging time really well, because I only need to create it once and then I can sell it multiple times. I want to reach an international audience , because what I am teaching is applicable on a larger scope than just here in Australia. I am not originally Australian – I was born and raised in South Africa and then Ireland, before moving here as a teenager. I consider myself a global resident as I am very widely traveled, and would like to settle elsewhere in the world for at least part of the year. My husband is Dutch, and moved out here when we met, so we are often on the move and like to explore other countries. Therefore, it was important for me to consider whether my business was easily transferable . My products will be for sale in US dollars and are available for an international audience, and I plan to take my workshops to the US next year. I consult over Skype with people from around the world, and provide guidance and practical ideas for a small one-off fee payable over Paypal . Therefore, my business is truly international. How To Create Additional Revenue Here are some ideas and suggestions to provide additional streams of revenue for your business: If the main source of revenue for your business is currently purely service-based, is there an option to create product to sell online and to your database? For example, if you are an accountant, could you provide an in-depth report that offers tax-savings advice? If you already have a product, for example a report that your clients download, could you create a multimedia product (video and audio) to offer something extra for a higher price? Again, if you are service-based, why not offer workshops where attendees can learn from you how to do whatever it is you offer, themselves? The bonus is you can then film the workshop to create your product. This is an example of really leveraging both time and resources. Webinars are a great opportunity to offer distance training and seminars that can also be interactive. The higher your profile, the higher value people will place on being apart of it and the more they will pay. Imagine how much a webinar with Richard Branson or Bill Gates would be worth for example. I am interested to hear of other ideas to leverage time and create additional streams of revenue, particularly for service-based businesses. This is a transition I am currently going through and I am keen to learn as much as I can to ensure a successful result. Kerry McDuling Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here