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Whether you are just starting out in business or you are a seasoned introverted entrepreneur, adding multiple streams of income to your business can be super beneficial. If you are just focusing on one-on-one services and feeling super burnt out, then introducing other income streams can allow you to do more of the things you love. Last year I lost over half of my clients, so I had to pivot. I put more focus on creating more revenue streams. This has since allowed me to move away from mostly one-on-one services. Are you ready to start adding more income streams into your business as an entrepreneur?
Our guest on the podcast today is Business Strategist & Social Worker, Nicole Liloia. She helps women entrepreneurs build bigger businesses and create consistent income growth. She loves helping them create multiple income streams that allow them the freedom to work less while still making more money.
Nicole’s first business was a counseling private practice but she quickly added in multiple income streams so that she could travel more while still running her business. She got her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University and has contributed to Forbes, Huffington Post, Mind Body Green, and more. Nicole always says yes to tacos and loves Apothic wine.
In this episode, Nicole and I dive into how she became a social worker and online business strategist, getting sucked into one-on-one coaching as an introvert, setting up a strong business foundation to then add in multiple revenue streams, how over-worked service providers can introduce multiple income streams to their business, the most passive income stream for online business owners, and much more.
How One Social Worker Also Became an Online Business Strategist
For Nicole, she started her career as a Social Worker. She got her Master’s from Columbia University in social work and began working for an agency seeing up to 30 clients per week. She worked with families and children who had mental health issues, financial stress, and socio-economic struggles. At the time she quit, it was quite clear that her job was only focused on the number of clients being seen and not the quality of the services being provided. Not only was she burnt out, but her values no longer aligned with that of her employer, so she left that job after being there for three years. Then she traveled to South Africa to take some time for herself and when she came back, her burnout set in. She was exhausted. Once her new license came in, which would allow her to have her own private practice, she began a few different part-time contract jobs. After a few years of doing those jobs, she finally decided to open up her own private practice. Questions started popping up in her head and she realized the only way to meet her income goals was to see several clients per week or raise her rates, which wasn’t done often in her line of work.
Then she fell into the online coaching space which allowed her to be more flexible with her time. Then by chance, she fell into being an affiliate for other people’s programs. She shared one person’s affiliate link just to see as an experiment and she ended up making $5,000 from that launch, which was huge for her because her monthly income as a social worker was a lot less than that. After getting over some of her own negative self-talk, she finally started doing market research, and listening to what others were wanting to hear from her. She was able to create a course for a short time on how others could make multiple income streams themselves by bringing in programs, products, and services. It doesn’t have to take a lot of your time or energy to create the streams of income and that’s was she was able to do. She was able to try different ways of creating income for herself online.
Getting Sucked Into The 1:1 Coaching Cycle That Leads to Burn Out
Are you burnt out from trying to find your next one-on-one client this month, or for the next few months? Especially as an introvert, you can get sucked into the continuous cycle of onboarding a new client, the client then leaving, and looking for another new client. At the time when I lost half my clients last year, looking back now, it was a relief. I was way overbooked with one-on-one services. I was working at least 70 hours per week on client work alone. I wasn’t really focused on growing my own business, but with the pivot, I was able to create my memberships, workshops, and courses to start bringing in more revenue streams for my business.
This was something Nicole did a lot of with her social working clients, so when it came to her online business, she was more drawn to group coaching which allowed her to help more clients at once with the training she provided. With one-on-one services, she had always worried about having a steady income because there were never any monthly contracts and clients could just drop her services. That was definitely stressful for her. That being said, don’t be afraid to pivot in your business to include more programs, workshops, or courses to add multiple streams of income into your business, especially if your one-on-one services are draining you as an introvert.
How Building Your Foundation in Business Leads to Better Success with Multiple Income Streams
When you start your business, Nicole says that it’s unlikely you have an audience big enough to go straight into other income streams. That will require more people if you plan to have groups, workshops, or a membership. She adds that you are most likely going to have to work with one-on-one clients in the beginning to get that foundation of income where you feel safe. When you work with Nicole and you’re in this phase of your business just starting out or you have a few clients but not the visibility yet, then she will help you work on getting booked out to build relationships that will get you seen and to do it in a way that sets you up for success with multiple income streams down the road. This looks like getting clear on your niche, building your audience, and creating that online visibility.
Even Nicole in the beginning was vague with her niche. Her niche was ‘women with stress’. Looking back at that now, she says that is everyone. She wasn’t able to really help anyone because she wasn’t speaking to their main issues. Once she nailed down who she wanted to work with and started helping those women, she realized that she would have been seen more as an expert and more people would have come to her. She says she would have been able to grow faster and help more people, so it’s important to be specific.
Burnt Out Service Provider to Adding Multiple Income Streams
Do you have a waitlist of clients that want your one-on-one services? Do you feel stretched thin with the clients you already have onboarded? If this is you and you want to add additional revenue without using all of your time and energy, then a really beneficial tool for you is to add more streams of income to your business. You are really trained in your skillset and know-how to deliver good services to clients, but maybe you’re not trained on the business side of it. You don’t have time to work on your business because you are too busy working in your business with your clients, so what you need are some systems and processes in the backend that will support you and make it easier. If you know you are in this stage of your business and want to work with Nicole, then you will create a plan for your business for growth. She will help you see where money is leaking in your business like spending extra time with your clients on sessions, which adds up over time. Something like this can be redirected to higher-paying clients or focusing on new income streams and putting them to use. She helps remove work from your plate so that you can have a long-term strategy to work with.
How to Generate Multiple Income Streams For Your Business
The first step in getting prepared for multiple income streams is looking at an income goal for the life that you want, not just to pay your bills and the minimum viable income that you need. Nicole mentions that you should really be stretching yourself in these goals. She wants people to be able to put cash in their bank accounts. She wants your bank accounts to be full of cash so that you can actually move into investing your money. Every business owner wants passive income, and Nicole believes making investments is a great way to get passive income. Many people when starting their business don’t even have an income goal or if they do it is just a random number like $100,000. Is that enough for you? You want to build safety for your future and pay for decent health insurance, so Nicole recommends goal chunking. This looks like the number of clients it takes to get to your income goal, the number of packages you need to sell, or something along those lines.
Especially if you are in the beginning stages of your business, this may be a few things including one-on-one services along with a product or something similar until you have a bigger audience. So if you are confused about what to start with or you are trying to do a handful of multiple income streams at once, this not only confuses your audience but overwhelms you. A great tool for this is Nicole’s Consistent Income Generator Toolkit, which includes a spreadsheet, how you work through that, a list of income streams to look up, what you can do to achieve that goal, and a video walking you through it with some examples. This will help you with knowing what steps to take and when for the consistent growth you are wanting to achieve. Another great freebie and resource for you is her Multiple Income Streams Guide which has a list of income streams, their descriptions, and how they can support you in reaching your income goals.
The Most Passive Income Stream For Online Business Owners
All of the income streams that I have included my two one-to-one services that are business coaching and VIP days, then I have two memberships, paid workshops, digital products like template bundles and website templates, a few courses, and a signature program called The Introvertpreneur Club. The one income stream that is the most passive that I didn’t put too much effort into until more recently was affiliate income through affiliate marketing. I use it mainly on my blogs and through email marketing. When I recently sat down and looked over my numbers, it was around $1,000 per month on affiliate income alone.
There are so many tools that you probably already use that have affiliate programs and you’re likely already talking about. Why not use an affiliate link and get some nice passive income and the recurring passive income is like the cream of the crop. I have one big course that I originally took as a virtual assistant that I’ve been recommending in a few blog posts. I still get people signing up, and it’s a 12-month payment plan. Once they sign up, that’s 12 months of recurring income. It’s really a win-win-win scenario. The creator wins because they’re getting a new customer, you win because you’re getting affiliate income as a trusted source, and the person that you’re referring is winning because this is something that they really need and is actually really helpful to them for where they’re at. There are rules you want to follow when it comes to affiliate marketing, so always make sure you are being upfront and honest with your audience and that you aren’t being shady about it if you have an affiliate link.
Nicole gave so many impactful tips on generating multiple income streams for your business on this episode of the podcast today. She shared how she became a social worker and online business strategist, setting up a strong business foundation for creating connections to then add in multiple revenue streams, how over-worked service providers can introduce multiple income streams to their business to alleviate their overwhelm, and how affiliate income is the most passive income stream for online business owners. Be sure to follow Nicole on Instagram for more tips on adding multiple income streams to your business as an entrepreneur. If you are ready to increase your income like yesterday then be sure to download Nicole’s Multiple Income Streams for Entrepreneurs Guide. Do you want a personalized plan for creating consistent income in your business? Download her Consistent Income Generator Toolkit now to get started.
By taking Nicole’s advice, what is an income goal that you want to achieve by adding in multiple income streams if you haven’t already? Be sure to stretch yourself with this goal.
a breakdown of this episode
[3:12] Nicole’s story and background as a social worker and how she also became a business strategist online to help other women build their own income streams
[8:56] The never-ending cycle of one-on-one services with finding clients, and clients ending their services, so you begin the cycle over
[12:59] Who Nicole works with: those at the beginning of their business wanting to build their foundation & those who are burnt out with one-on-one services looking to add in multiple income streams
[20:10] How to implement multiple income streams into your business along with Nicole’s 2 freebie’s: Multiple Income Streams for Entrepreneurs Guide & Consistent Income Generator Toolkit
[24:23] Affiliate marketing and income: the most passive income stream for online business owners
[26:20] How Nicole made $8,000 by using affiliate marketing for a program she loved
If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to take a screenshot and tag me on your Instagram stories @introvertcoach and tell me your biggest takeaway!
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