10 Steps to Become a Money Savvy Entrepreneur

Step 4 – Creating Access to Markets

When you are ready to start your new business venture, you need to think about all the ways this product or service can make you money. How many sources of income can you get from this one business? Can you build multiple income streams and make those income streams passive?

How do you make passive income, you ask? Traditionally, passive income is made from interest on your savings and investments, or from rental income. Today, however, we have the internet, automation software, and access to many free online tools. Passive income is one of the best ways to stabilise your cash flow. It means having products or services that make you money automatically, enabling you to work on other areas of your business.

Passive income is easy with technology. You can automate almost any process in your business these days. For example, let’s say you are the best cupcake maker you know. You can sell cupcakes to friends, family, and venues, but you can also teach people how to make the perfect cupcake. Or, even better—teach people how to make the best vegan cupcake. Did you see what I did there? Veganism is a global trend. Keeping up with what is trending will open up far more opportunities for you.

Next time you are baking, why not make a tutorial video on how to make the best vegan red velvet cupcake? A good starting point, using this analogy, would be to simply film yourself making the cupcakes. Then, sell that tutorial online.

You can automate this entire process. From social media marketing to payment processing, you can resell this single tutorial thousands of times. Imagine you sold your tutorial for R100 and sold 1,000 a month. You would have made R100,000 in passive income! You are no longer just selling cupcakes; you are building a business with a sustainable, scalable income.

You have to start thinking differently about how to diversify your revenue. Multiple and passive income streams are essential for the long-term success of your business. The more ways you can diversify your business and create greater access to markets, the more likely your business is to thrive.

Now that you have familiarised yourself with the concept of creating multiple income streams, you need to understand exactly who you are selling those products to. Each target market you identify will require a different selling approach, and you need to understand each of those markets intimately. Each market should have a dedicated customer profile and avatar so that you can maximise the efficiency of your marketing spend.

When we understand exactly who our customers are, we are far more likely to make sales and avoid wasting our marketing budgets.

I have created a template to help you identify your ideal customers. The template allows you to categorise them by business vertical and will assist you in creating your highly targeted customer avatars.