5 Ideas to Get You Started Making More Money – Quickly & Easily

As a business coach to creative entrepreneurs, one of the things I am always talking about with my clients is how to diversify their income. 

When you have money coming in from multiple sources, it helps alleviate the panic attack that can come if one of those sources dries up for a little bit. 

When I hop on a call with someone—I’m looking at you wedding photographers—and they are struggling to book new clients and are concerned their industry is drying up, it’s time to start talking about diversifying.

Because you are self-employed, you need to have money coming in from multiple sources. You don’t have anyone else to fall back on and you must have enough to meet your life obligations (and, let’s be honest, your fun obligations too). 

Diversifying is the best way to always be confident you will have the necessary funds coming in.

Here are 6 ways to start diversifying your income today. 

How To Diversify Your Income with 5 Easy Ideas

Diversify Your Offerings

It’s always been common advice in the entrepreneurial world to niche down in order to make more money. 

And this is true. For example, offering every type of photography imaginable on your website is confusing, makes you look less like an expert, and doesn’t allow you to charge top dollar for your work.

No matter what your industry, to be truly successful, you do need a focus. You should never be the jack-of-all-trades but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer multiple services or offerings to better serve your client base. 

Example

Let’s take a wedding photographer, for example. Think about some other services your ideal client may be looking for. You could easily add boudoir photography, bridal portraits, destination sessions, or even anniversary sessions to your arsenal of offerings, easily adding 40k, 50k, or even more to your annual income. 

And you can’t think outside of actual shooting too. Maybe consider offering album design and wall prints, or even an interior design service where you help clients decide what images, in what size to purchase for their home. 

There are so many options. 

Case Study

One of my coaching clients, a wedding stylist, wanted to diversify her offerings. We set up an online shop where she would sell treasures that she found in her travels in Europe. From decor to styling boards, she took what she already did and scaled it up a notch to offer the industry a unique perspective and product. 

And guess what, it worked. She created a second string of income off of her European treasures and was better supported in her career as a wedding sylist.

The Key Takeaway: Diversify what you offer in order to better serve the clients you already have.

Sell a Physical Product

The goal here? To make money, while you sleep, selling a product that you don’t have to touch with every order; one for which you don’t have to be present in order to sell. 

In the business world, it’s called passive income. 

There are so many ideas for passive income through products out there. You can sell an online product such as prints from a print shop, a pdf that you created full of your brilliant ideas, or even an in-depth-course to help teach other people in your industry some of your valuable skills. 

Start thinking about your specific industry and the skill sets that you bring to the table. Where do you excel? What do other people ask you about on the regular? Where do you see a need in your industry? 

Start brainstorming now and start making money the easy way.

The Key Takeaway: Think of passive income you can start creating today. 

Start Another Business

That’s right. Start another business.  

This isn’t necessarily the easiest way to create another stream of income but let’s be honest – you’ve done it once, you can do it again. 

Building up another business, and hopefully finding other people to run that business, is a great way to bring in an additional source of income. 

You can think within your current industry or something totally outside of it (maybe related to a hobby interest that you have). You can start a business from scratch or go in on a franchise. The options are truly limitless.  

When I started looking for ways to diversify my own income, I started a beauty salon with my sister. It was a lot of effort and work, but once it was up and running, I had yet another stream of income that was coming in seamlessly. 

The Key Takeaway: Starting a second business is a lot of work but can be an exceptional way to bring in additional income, solidifing you as a bonifide entrepreneurial goddess.

Investing in Stocks

When you understand the stock market (and get a great financial advisor), investments can become a fantastic way to set yourself up for long-term success. 

I am not an expert in stocks and bonds so I am not going to go in-depth here or give advice on how to invest, but I do recommend that you do your own research on this.

The Key Takeaway: Start educating yourself and find a financial advisor that you can trust. 

Invest in Real Estate

Whether you are looking for long-term rentals or shorter, vacation rentals, the name of the game is rental properties. 

Once you are to a certain point in your career, keeping all of your money in cash is no longer a wise decision and you need to figure out ways to invest it. Real estate is one of the more common options out there—and with good reason. 

Not only are you investing in a property that will, hopefully, grow in value over the years (this is called equity) but you will be receiving a monthly stream of income by renting it to others as well. 

There are two main ways to rent houses, as long-term rentals and as short-term rentals. There is a lot to consider when deciding how to rent your properties. But, for very general purposes, long-term rentals are usually lower risk and bring in less money while short-term, vacation rentals have a higher risk, bring in more money, and are a bit more work. 

Again, you should always talk to an expert to discuss your particular situation. 

The Key Takeaway: Rental properties can be not only a great investment but a wonderful source of monthly income as well. 

How to Diversify Your Income: Next Step

Hopefully, you now have a few ideas on how to diversify your income. 

My final piece of advice to you is that, as your business and income grow, you need to make sure that your online presence is solid. So many people resist showing up online and, while I understand, I think this is a mistake to avoid. 

As access to the internet grows, so does people’s ability to start their own business or educate themselves. It has never been easier or a better time to grow your online presence.

Having an online business is a solid first step toward growing any of the ideas we discussed above. 

Do you want to go deeper into Play it Brave? And BIG? And BOLD? Come listen to the Play it Brave podcast and binge your way to a better business and a better life.

Want to uplevel your portfolio so that it screams elegance and luxury? And brings in a luxury paycheck? Check out my most popular course, The Profitable Portfolio and be on your way to $10k wedding clients.