|
Finance tip: Income
Become a part-time ‘broker’. In essence, a broker is someone who helps to facilitate business on other people’s behalf, and acts as a form of match-maker. This could be helping them to find customers, helping them to sell their goods or services, or helping to find ways to cut costs. The broker then takes an agreed upon percentage of the deal as a brokers fee (or commission). Now, before you think this is way too much work, think about the huge variety of businesses out there that could use extra customers or sales.
They would love to be able to tap into your personal network, to see if there is someone there who wants what they offer (and you’d be surprised how many people you know when you really think about it in a specific context). An easy example is a guesthouse or hotel – next time you know of someone staying in your area that needs accommodation, recommend that particular establishment. Having a personal referral will definitely increase the chance of that person going there, and if they do, you can claim a percentage of their stay (assuming you’ve organised beforehand with the guesthouse/hotel). The best thing about this type of income is that there are so many different businesses out there that could use a boost (think your local salon, dog groomer, taxi service, financial advisor, estate agency, etc.) All you have to do is approach them, and agree on a commission structure – very few would turn down the chance to bring in more business. Although there are plenty of people who do it as a full-time occupation, it’s also very, very flexible, and you can still have a nice little income stream even if you’re only putting together the odd deal every now and again…
Business tip: Innovation
Learn something you know nothing about. One of the first things I tell my clients who are wanting ‘innovation, innovation, innovation’ is to expose themselves. Not in the trenchcoat-outside-a-school sense of the phrase, but rather to put themselves out of their comfort zone, where they can pick up things they’ve never had on their radar before. One of the best ways to do this is to learn something you know absolutely nothing about. Applied to business, this could mean taking a course in accounting if you’re petrified of numbers; devouring a marketing textbook if, quite frankly, you’d rather leave this part of your business to an agency; or buying a sales training CD to listen to in the car if the thought of cold-calling gives you night terrors. Outside of business directly, it could be something like taking up a new sport, learning a new language, or even just taking a different route to work. Exposing yourself to these new stimuli helps you to think and see the world in completely new ways, and these new approaches can cross-pollinate with other existing ideas, to potentially come up with something fantastic for your business…
|