Relying on a single revenue stream as a consultant is an unnecessary risk. Diversifying your offerings through books, courses, speaking engagements and coaching will solidify your foundations, expand your risk and position you as a thought leader. In this blog, discover creative ways to diversify your income and elevate your consultancy to new heights.

Why Consultants Must Diversify Their Revenue Streams

As a consultant, you are going to need more than one offer. Developing multiple streams of revenue reduces risk and ensures you're not overly dependent on a single source of income. Market trends can shift unexpectedly, and external factors such as economic shifts or new competitors can impact your business. Diversifying your revenue ensures greater resilience and stability. But, the benefits of diversification go much deeper than this. Having a book, blogs, courses, a podcast, and so on, all built around your expertise helps to position you as the go-to expert in your field. They expand your reach, differentiate you in a busy marketplace and push clients to choose you over your competitors. In this blog we will explore not only why, but how you can go about diversifying your revenue streams as a consultant. 

Multiple Revenue Streams Are Key To Your Success

While having a single, highly specialized offer can work for certain consultants in niche markets, relying solely on one income stream can be risky in a dynamic and competitive marketplace. Diversifying your revenue streams allows you to adapt to market changes, serve a broader audience, and create stability in your business.

Here are just a few of the key benefits associated with diversifying your offerings:

Reduce Risk With Revenue Diversification

Having multiple streams of revenue fueling your business allows you to mitigate risk. At any given moment, there are a number of dynamic, external factors influencing your business’s performance and market demand. Such factors are often defined by the PESTEL framework (political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal). Over-reliance on your primary offer in the midst of changing consumer demand will inevitably cause your business to suffer. Think of diverse revenue streams as a solid framework, stabilizing and solidifying your consultancy. 

Reach and Serve a Broader Audience 

Establishing a diverse range of offerings will, in turn, allow you access to a wider range of clientele. Naturally, it is generally inadvisable to overextend yourself and offer services outside your target audience. However, you want to be able to serve all those within your target audience; not just a limited portion of them. In doing so, you must understand that these people and businesses will have varying needs, challenges and preferences. Offering a variety of services or products enables you to address the unique circumstances of those within your audience. This ensures that you’re not limited to serving only a subset of your market but can appeal to a broader range of clients within your niche.

Increase Your Influence 

Setting multiple streams of revenue serves to position you as an expert in your field, thus increasing your influence. The more you get your expertise out into the world, be it via online courses, books, podcasts or speaking engagements, the more you establish yourself as an influential thought leader. This will fuel your business, encouraging clients to choose your solutions instead of those of your competitors.

Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace

There are thousands upon thousands of consultants out there in almost every niche and so, if you want to be successful, differentiating yourself is vital. One such way you can achieve this is by having a diverse portfolio of assets, each of which offers your unique insights and value. Build up your portfolio of assets by developing any number of the following: 

• Digital Products: Online courses, eBooks, or templates.
• Live Offerings: Workshops, speaking engagements, or retreats.
• Coaching Programs: Group or individual coaching packages.
• Partnerships: Affiliate programs or joint ventures.

Creative Strategies to Diversify Your Income

Your expertise and unique value proposition offer countless opportunities for generating additional revenue. The key is to think creatively about how to package your knowledge into formats that resonate with your audience and provide them with value. Here are just a small sample of some of the options that you can consider:

Write a Book

You are an expert in your field, so why not write a book about it! Naturally, authorship requires a lot of work upfront hence why some are hesitant to do so. Some see it as a lot of output for a relatively small income and it is true that your book is unlikely to become a primary source of revenue. However, its true value lies in positioning yourself as a thought leader within your industry. When it comes to your field of expertise, you can literally say that you wrote the book on it! 

This is not to gloss over the fact that writing a book is indeed a lot of work and if you're not ready to invest the time, consider starting small with a weekly blog or podcast sharing small snippets of your expertise. 

Create a Program

Designing an online program or course allows you to share your expertise with clients across the globe. Once your course is created and uploaded, clients are able to purchase access at any time, meaning you can continually generate revenue from the same portion of expertise. If done right, teachable programs can work as a significant source of revenue. 

Memberships

Membership models are becoming increasingly common these days; you probably find that you are offered at least one every time you check social media. In establishing your own, focus on the approach you will take and the value you will offer members. Are you going to provide weekly insights and training or will you seek to create an interactive community? 

Mini-Offers

It may be worthwhile to include a mini-offer in your offerings: an inexpensive, entry-level product designed to bring people in, demonstrate the value you provide, and lower the barrier to entry for your principal service. Mini-offers might include a short video training, some business templates or a short guide. If you want to take this one step further, you can offer an even smaller free offer as a lead magnet.

Professional Speaking 

Speaking publicly is synonymous with building your brand. Giving keynote speeches on your field of expertise goes one step further in establishing yourself as an authority, funneling clients towards you and adding to your credibility. What’s more, the more established that you become, the more lucrative public speaking roles you will attract. Experienced public speakers in certain niches, (especially those who have written a book) can expect to earn $5,000 - $25,000 per speaking engagement. (And if you can’t think of anything more daunting than speaking publicly - be sure to check out Cadence Speakers Academy!). 

Offer Different/Complimentary Services

Another way to diversify your revenue streams is by offering services that complement your primary expertise. For instance, if you are a financial consultant, you might expand your offerings by providing budgeting workshops or personalized financial planning sessions for small business owners. These additional services not only enhance your value to clients but also create new opportunities to serve a broader range of needs within your niche.

The Case for Diversifying Your Revenue Streams

Setting a diverse range of revenue streams is essential to your success as a consultant. Over-reliance on one offer puts you at risk in the event of changing market tastes and demands. Having a diverse range to lean on, however, differentiates you in a busy marketplace, establishes you as an authority in your field and grants you access to a wider audience. The good news? There are countless ways you can go about differentiating your offerings. You already have your expertise and unique value proposition, you just need to explore creative ways to package them.

 If you are looking to diversify whilst increasing your influence, consider writing a book, starting a podcast or public speaking engagements. To introduce new clients to your pipeline, establish a mini-offer (or perhaps even a free one!). As for your core offer, this will look totally different from one consultancy to the next. Maybe your expertise is best suited to a teachable program or maybe a membership mode is a better fit. So, find creative ways to package your expertise, diversify your offerings and start winning as a consultant!