7 Ways to Boost Your Income as an Entrepreneur

You want to increase your income. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs constantly look for ways to make more money. Unfortunately, many are unaware of how they can make more money. There are also others who have ideas but aren’t sure how to get started. As prices increase around us, the need to bring in more income is more urgent than ever. Here are 7 ways you can boost your income as an entrepreneur. 

1. Upskill

While upskilling is more of a medium to long-term strategy, it can bring more money into your business. The trick is to gain skills that will make you money. Some valuable skills for business are:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Lead generation
• Grant writing 

However, there can be other areas of study that can benefit you depending on your business. For example, if you’re a makeup artist, you could launch your own lipstick or lip balm line. Therefore, upskilling in product development or doing some chemistry courses could be beneficial. 

Upskilling doesn’t mean you have to go to college and get a whole degree. You can upskill by getting certified in something you’re interested in. There are many avenues you can upskill; you can do certificate courses, a diploma, a degree, etc. You can choose to do it online or in a more traditional environment. 

Ultimately, if you learned something that can make you more money, you’ve upskilled in our eyes!

If you’re unsure where to go to upskill, check out these 6 places we recommend. 

2. Offer Another Service or Product

Chances are there is something else you can offer. The key is figuring out what that is. 

If your customers constantly ask you about a product or service that you don’t offer, consider offering it. 

In addition to that, if there is a product or service you think could complement something you already offer, consider adding it to your list of offerings. 

What you offer completely depends on the kind of business you have and what you can afford. Here are some examples:

• Offer delivery services if you have a restaurant. 
• If you’re a service provider, you can start offering consultations. 
• Add a new product or create bundles for your product-based business
• Create digital products

We also recommend doing some research beforehand. That includes finding out what others in your industry are doing and what exactly your audience wants. That way, you won’t waste time and money launching a new product and service that won’t sell. 

Once you have identified the product or service you want to launch, we recommend testing. You can give your products for free or at a discounted price to members of your target audience for feedback. You can get great insight from them to use in your marketing or improve the product. 

Next, it’s time to work on your launch strategy. That means ironing out the copy you’ll use, graphics, and the marketing strategy. For example, you may need to do Q&A videos, pay an influencer, or send out a series of emails. 

3.  Establish a Passive Income Stream

You can establish a passive income stream within your business or outside of it.

Passive income basically means making money while you sleep. While that sounds perfect, you have to put in the work beforehand to reap the rewards. 

After you’ve finished the product, you focus on marketing it, but you’ll find that you’ll make money on your day off.

The key is figuring out what passive income stream you want to establish. According to Bank Rate, passive income streams include:

• Short term rentals
• Selling online designs
• Writing an ebook
• Advertising on your car
• Creating a course
• Creating a YouTube Channel
• Starting a blog 
• Affiliate marketing

As you can see, all these ideas require some work up front, while others may require work afterward. However, you can make money without putting in labor every day.

For example, if you decide to write an ebook, you’ll either have to spend hours writing it or pay someone to write it. Then you’ll have to market the book. However, you can make unlimited sales on a book you wrote or paid for once. 

4. Raise Your Prices 

It may be time to raise your prices. If you raise your prices, you’ll boost your income. However, this has to be done strategically. 

According to Forbes, some ways to tell it’s time to increase your prices are:

• Vendor prices went up
• The value you provide doesn’t match your prices
• Clients or customers tell you your prices are cheap
• You’re overworked
• Your prices are way below others in your industry
• There is inadequate cash for growth
• Nobody asks for discounts 

Once you’re providing value and providing a viable solution to your customer’s problems, a little price increase won’t run you out of business. However you may lose customers, but you can also gain others. 

In addition to that, if you target the right audience and promote your business effectively, increasing your prices can definitely provide a boost in your income. 

5. Invest in Marketing

You can boost your income as an entrepreneur by investing in marketing. Marketing is one of the most important parts of business or entrepreneurship. So many business owners with great products and services are barely making money because they don’t market effectively. 

Therefore, it’s time to invest in marketing. Investing in marketing can boost your income because more of your target audience will learn about your business and buy from it. You can invest in marketing by:

• Hiring a social media manager
• Getting a marketing consultant 
• Doing marketing courses
• Creating and implementing a marketing strategy 
• Buying equipment to create better-quality content
• Paying for ads
• Putting your business in the right directories
• Using other people’s platforms for promotions 
• Hiring an SEO expert
• Learning SEO
• Creating functional websites

Marketing can be expensive, but there are many free and cost-effective tools to boost your marketing and income. Here are 7 marketing tools for small businesses that we recommend. 

6. Focus on Customer Retention

If your business has loyal customers, you can boost your income. Think of the most successful brand or business you know. They have a loyal base of customers, right? Exactly, even as a small business, you can reap the benefits of recurring customers who love your brand. 

Of course, you’ll want to get more customers; however, focus on getting them to be recurring customers. 

Hubspot suggests:

• Sending a newsletter
• Having a customer feedback loop
• Offering unique services
• Giving your customers a personalized experience
• Having a strong onboarding customer process
• Building trust with your customers 
• Using customer service tools
• Inspiring your customers with a mission

It’s worth taking the time to provide excellent customer service. Always be polite and treat your customers with respect. 

We recommend collecting your customer’s email addresses and sending them discount codes, educational content, and company news. In addition to that, you can collect their birthdays and send a birthday message with a discount code or something like that.  

7. Try Affiliate Marketing 

Now is a great time to start if you’re a part of any affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is an excellent income stream for influencers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, or anyone who creates content. 

Affiliate marketing does not have a start-up cost. All you have to do is sign up for one or many of the thousands of affiliate programs out there. Once accepted, you promote their products to your audience, and you’ll get a cut of the sale. Affiliate marketing can also be considered passive income. Here’s how. If you wrote a blog post today and included your affiliate links, someone can find that blog post next week or next year and make a purchase using your affiliate link. 

You’re already creating content and recommending free products and services to others. Become an affiliate marketer and boost your income. 

If you want to find out how to get started, you can check out our guide and grab our masterclass.  

Next Steps

If you’re ready to boost your income as an entrepreneur, these 7 ways can definitely help you. Let us know in the comments which one of them you’re going to try first.