Running a business is challenging. There is so much to do and much of that responsibility falls on you, the business owner. You aren’t just doing the core work, you’re also doing the accounting, HR, sales, content creation, website management, branding, marketing, etc. It can be extremely challenging to prioritize your to-do list when every single “do” is on your shoulders. You can outsource, hire employees or contractors to help but the day-to-day decisions about what actions you take are your responsibility.
Revenue Generating Activities
Let’s talk about revenue-generating activities and what you can be doing in your business.
Revenue generating is all about “show me the money,” right?
But, that’s not where you begin. Before you ask someone to open their wallet, you must first serve.
You have to give.
You have to nurture.
You have to help.
Serving underpins everything that I’m going to talk about, first and foremost.
We must give in order to get.
Always but especially during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis.
Once you show up and serve your customers, you can begin your revenue generating activities.
Activities That Are Not Revenue Generating
For the sake of clarity, let’s first cover activities that are not revenue generating:
- working on your website
- being on social media
- creating a new blog post
- making pretty graphics in Canva
- watching webinars
- opting in for yet another newsletter from the latest guru
Basically, all the things that make you very busy but are not actually ringing the cash register.
Pick up the Phone
Now, let’s discuss revenue generation activities. These are the things that should be a priority on a daily basis.
First, let’s find the hidden money in your business.
More than likely, you are in a position where there are things that your clients, customers, and patients need from you right now! You can fulfill that need and get paid for it! Dust off the Rolodex, pull open your CRM, and get busy making phone calls to all of your existing clients.
Set Daily Goals
How many phone calls are you going to make? Reach out to past customers and current customers! I’d recommend setting a goal of reaching out to 10 to 20 people a day!
From those 10 to 20 people, you will have three to four meaningful conversations. When you have those conversations, start the conversations off with, “I care about you. You’re my past customer or you’re my current customer and I first and foremost wanted to check in on how you’re doing.”
This is the human thing to do. This is an important thing to do! Create human connection and say, “I see you, I feel you. I know that things are hard right now, and I’m calling to check in on you.”
Then, you can see where they’re at and what they need. Remember, they may not necessarily need your service in this moment, but that’s okay. That’s where your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes into play. If you don’t have a good CRM in place, I would highly suggest HubSpot. It’s a free software service that you can enter your contacts into so you can follow up at a later date.
Referrals
The second thing that I want you to do, from a revenue-producing perspective, is reach out to current clients and talk to them about who they can refer you to. This is a great opportunity to put that referral marketing program in place, with structure.
Google “referral programs” in your industry. There’s a lot of technology out there that’s going to help you automate this process. It is very important that you have a strong referral base and referral program in place to be able to help you to expand your organic reach without having to spend any money.
Partnership Marketing
Next, let’s talk about partnership marketing. Who can you reach out to that may be willing to send out an email on your behalf?
Maybe you can do a revenue share. I was just talking about this idea with one of my clients who has a medical weight loss clinic. I suggested to her that she reach out to all the gyms that are closed right now and ask them about referring people to her and offer them a revenue share. They need to make money. She needs to make money. Why not make money together?
Who can you reach out to right now, as a strategic partner, to be able to help you to move the needle in your business?
You could also create a free gift to build your email list. That’s a great way to attract people to your business and with nurturing, will generate revenue for you.
You can also be strategic with social media networking. LinkedIn, if you’re a B2B, is an awesome way to do this. Sending out connection requests and creating genuine rapport with people and find out how you can work together in a mutually beneficial way.
Intellectual Property
If you are a brick-and-mortar business owner, or an online entrepreneur, I want you to think about your intellectual property.
What are the things that you have become an expert in over your career? What are the things that only you know how to teach other people to do in a specific way or provide as a service through an online portal?
For example, I know a photographer. She is not brick-and-mortar per se, but she works one-on-one with people. I talked to her about the idea of creating an online photography coaching package.
Since everyone is currently at home with the COVID-19 quarantine, she can virtually go into living rooms and guide her clients through a photo shoot so they get amazing pictures from their home!
What about you? What can you offer? This is the time for you to think outside-the-box! Think about the intellectual property that is unique to you and how you can use it to serve others.
Once you decide what that will be, I have a 6-Day Online Visibility Blueprint that I would love to offer you. It is totally free. You just need to sign up for it then you will receive an email of what to do every single day, so that you too can create an online community to help your business grow! Sign up here
I have gone through six months of hardcore training on this. I have taken in hundreds of hours of videos and course content and I wanted to make it as simple for you as I possibly could! Who really has time to sit and listen to 7 million videos, and be on all those livenars and webinars? Not me. Not you!
Get started and you can engineer your own celebrity within your target niche so that you can deliver value.
When we deliver value and we help people, the output of that is going to be that people are going to want to work with you and you’re going to make money, but in a way that feels good and appropriate and awesome, because you’re serving and helping people first.
Sign up for the Visibility Blueprint
Recap
- Get on the phone. Human connection is your superpower. People are feeling distance. People are feeling lonely. People want people to connect with. Why can’t it be with you? Pick up the phone, have a genuine conversation with 10 to 20 people per day. Pull open your CRM or grab all the business cards of people that you’ve met over the last three years, and get busy talking to people. You are marketing without spending a dime! It’s just your time (which many people seem to have plenty of these days), getting on the phone, talking to people, serving them, seeing what they need and how you can fulfill that need.
- Ask current clients for referrals. Get a strong referral program in place right now. This is a great revenue-generating activity.
- Create strategic alliances. Help each other out! You can create a free optin to build your email list and connect with others on social media as well!
- Intellectual property. What can you do with your intellectual property to help people with the magic that only you know how to make?
Now is a great time to launch a new offer for something that you can deliver virtually I can help you bring that to market with the free Visibility Blueprint program.
The last thing I want to remind you of: There are a lot of people who are putting their head in the sand right now. These people who are not able to move forward.
There is going to be an end to this. It will end. And when it ends, I want you in a stronger position than you were when you went into this. You are the only person who can make that happen for your business.
Now is the time to dig in. Now is the time to pick up the phone. Now is the time to take massive action to generate revenue and help people in as many ways as you can.
We must help as many people as we can, as often as we can, and that’s really how this world is going to heal.
If you are ready to dig deep but are not sure what your next steps are, please schedule a “Find the Hidden Money” call with me. It is complimentary and you will know what next steps you should take when we get done with our time together.
