Happy Black Woman

10 Profitable, Passion-Based Income Streams You Can Create in Your Business This Year

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A few weeks ago, I gave a series of free webinars to help you earn more money in your business this year. Those webinars were actually my most popular and most well-attended in the history of Happy Black Woman! Stay tuned, because I’m planning to offer some more detailed premium classes for those who want to go deeper with me over the next few months.

In the meantime, I’ve put together a summary of the 10 different streams of income you can create based on your passion, skills, expertise and experience. These are all areas that I’ve actually made money in over the last six years. I hope you find them helpful as you brainstorm profitable ideas for your business!

1. Freelancing

You can earn income through offering contracted services in a specific area such as photography, web/graphic design, personal styling, copywriting, editing, social media management or personal training. You can offer your services by the hour or in a package, depending on what you offer. As a freelance writer, I was paid a monthly fee for producing several articles per week for a career website.

2. Consulting

You can get paid generous fees for advising businesses, nonprofits, churches and government agencies in your area of expertise. Consultants typically provide key deliverables as part of a time-bound contract, which typically runs for a few months to a year. As a nonprofit consultant, I maintained two long-term contracts with organizations that borrowed my brain and my time for 10 hours per week.

3. Speaking

You can build a lucrative stream of income as a keynote speaker or workshop leader for conferences all around the world. It’s a great way to make a difference with your message AND get paid to travel at the same time! I’ve been a professional speaker since 2008, with more than 100 clients from New York to Nebraska who have paid me to teach, inspire and motivate their audiences. I suggest you start by speaking for free at local events and attracting paid gigs from there. Click here to learn about my 3-hour training on becoming a professional speaker.

4. Training

You can earn a good living as a trainer for the staff or members of businesses, associations nonprofits, churches or government agencies. Training is usually done with a smaller group than you would speak for at a conference, which allows you go more in-depth with a 90-minute, half-day or full-day session on a specific learning goal. As a trainer, I’ve worked with staff to get them up to speed on social media, show them how to manage millennial employees and build their leadership skills in the workplace.

5. Coaching

You can help people all over the world through coaching in person, on the phone or via Skype. The five most popular areas are life, career, business, health and relationship coaching. Most coaches either charge by the hour or create packages of sessions to help clients reach their goals over a period of one month up to a year. As a life, career and business coach, I’ve helped clients change jobs, improve their lifestyle, switch careers and build businesses doing what they love.

6. Online classes, courses & programs

You can earn income by teaching what you know via teleseminars, webinars, homestudy programs and audio/video trainings. I’ve been teaching online classes since 2010 when I was still an adjunct professor in DC. What I found was that I could make a lot more money with my own courses than I ever would teaching part-time at a university! Once you establish yourself as an expert online, you can begin to offer opportunities for your tribe to learn from you. Setting up a blog and writing useful articles would be a great way to start building your audience!

7. Physical products

You can add physical products to your business to earn additional income. Items like t-shirts, jewelry, mugs, purses, CDs and DVDs are becoming easier and easier to sell due to advanced online technology. You can post your items on Etsy or Ebay, then ship them out when you receive orders. I’ve sold branded Happy Black Woman t-shirts and mugs through Zazzle over the past year – people love giving them as gifts!

8. Books & ebooks

You can create another income stream by adding books to your business, in either paperback, PDF or Kindle format. I have self-published both a paperback and an ebook on PDF and Kindle. The process is relatively simple and the revenue potential is huge if you can build a following and a brand related to your book(s). The paperback book that I co-wrote back in 2010 is still producing passive income with sales on Amazon.com!

9. Blogging

You can earn money with your blog by participating in affiliate marketing or placing advertising on your site. I’ve been blogging since 2007 and I’ve seen several hundreds of dollars of advertising income come in on my best traffic months! The downside to this income opportunity is that you do have to post often and be getting a decent amount of traffic to your blog to really see some profit. So it’s not the best option for those just starting out, but the potential is huge for adding another income stream through your blog.

10. Live events

You can bring in additional income through hosting your own workshops, conferences and retreats. They can be local or national in scope from a three-hour workshop to a week-long retreat! I held my first paid event back in 2011 as a weekend career training intensive that brought 11 attendees from all over the country. If you have valuable knowledge, resources and tools to share, people will be  excited to come learn from you in person.
Last year, I brought in 30% more revenue than I did the year before, all because I had multiple streams of income coming into my business. I highly recommend that you incorporate at least one of these income streams so that you can build your business with less stress and more confidence this year!

Leave a comment: Which income streams do you plan to create in your business this year? Which ones do you want to learn more about? I’d love to answer any questions you have!

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Comments & Feedback:

  1. I am already writing and selling books (in German), because writing is my passion. I find the idea of holding speeches and giving courses online and in real life very interesting! Thanks for the inspiration!

  5. These are fantastic ideas! I just quit my job of 6 years to pursue my dreams and it is good to see all of the ideas for streams of income! With that said based on this list I will pursue the following: selling physical product, which I do at http://www.tboutique.bigcartel.com; blogging; speaking engagements, consulting and freelancing.

  6. Great Information! I’m an obsessed lover of high-end Creativity. My issue seems to be selecting the ‘right’ area that I’m passionate about and sticking to it. I’m bored easily, or lack extended focus so I tend to bounce around between my love of Natural Health, Wardrobe Specialist, Writer / Author, Idea Person, and mix media Artist.
    How do I make a wise choice when I happily embrace several layers of addicted passion ?

  7. I was JUST looking up multiple streams of income. I do some of these, but oddly enough thought they were all ONE stream of incoming. Thanks for clarifying that misconception, Rosetta. Very valuable information.

  8. I was thinking about starting my own blog site. I saw that you stated in order to generate a decent amount of income that you need to post often. How often would you recommend posting?

    • If you have a blog in general, I recommend posting at least once a week. If you want to generate income through advertising on your blog, you will need to post more often, at least 3-4 times a week to maximize your traffic and potential ad clicks.

  9. I agree with all of these suggestions. My question is, how do you get people to want to buy into your services? For instance, with training a non-profit on social media skills, did you do cold calls to get them interested?

    • You *can* do cold calls, but it’s better and faster to go to networking events and get to know the ideal clients that you want to serve. You also need to have a professional online presence with resources and articles to showcase your expertise. And if you want to get hired for trainings, getting booked to speak on a panel or at a conference will raise your reputation. I can count on one hand the number of cold calls I’ve made. It’s best to stick to “warm calls” to people you’ve met at networking events.

  10. Thank you. All ideas floating around in my biz consciousness, but this article gave me the incentive to put them on my to-do list. Beautiful.

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Rosetta ThurmanRosetta Thurman is a nationally-recognized author, speaker, mentor and coach dedicated to helping women create their ideal lives.

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