sjsmith.com.au - blog

New Horizons

Branching Out

It's been a challenging few weeks with one of my businesses but it's given me a timely reminder that you can't afford to be complacent.  We have lost a few clients recently due to them having a slow down in their own businesses.  What six weeks ago was our biggest sales year, has now turned to looking not so rosy.  Don't get me wrong, we're not going out of business but, we are having to make some adaptions to cope with a sudden downturn.  It can happen in any business and it's not always foreseeable.  We weathered the financial crisis and I've no doubt we'll weather this but the universe has given me a timely reminder to quit cruising.

By cruising I mean getting to a comfortable plateau and not forward planning and fool proofing for possible contingencies.  Conversely, my art business has had its best month this year and this only served to remind me that as a small business owner it's important to have a number of sales channels and sources of income.  

Whether you have different income sources from different businesses or from different sales channels within the one business doesn't really matter but, the wider your base of products or services, the better chance you have to survive any downturn.

If you're completely reliant on one source of revenue maybe you should give some thought to other products or services you could be developing. Do you have a great topic for an Ebook on your favourite subject?  Can you offer products or services at different price points than just the ones you have now?  Can you expand on your current range of products or services? Could you put together a series of Webinars that people can subscribe to?  Is there someone you could collaborate with to come up with a mutually beneficial product that you could both promote and profit from?  

You don't have to be able to broaden your sales base today but increasing the types of revenue you have available is a great way to future proof your business!

Till next time,

Sarah-Jane X