6 Powerful Ways to Diversify Your Income as a Business Coach

By Hafiz Muhammad Ali, allbusiness.com

If you’re a business coach, you probably make the lion’s share of your money from one-on-one or team coaching. And while that’s a hugely rewarding way to make money, it can also be precarious.

You need to be constantly finding new clients to ensure that your revenue stream doesn’t dry up. And if you’re doing your job correctly, you’re actually moving your clients toward not needing your services, which puts you in a bind.

If you want to survive and thrive as a coach,

you need to create additional streams of income. In fact, this is how the most successful coaches have the biggest impact. Think of someone like Tony Robbins, who makes money from his retreats, books, courses, videos, and a host of other things. His ability to diversify has created an enormous amount of wealth and allowed him to impact millions of people.

So what are some simple, yet powerful ways to diversify your income?

1. Book sales

Writing a book accomplishes several things. First, and perhaps most importantly, it establishes your expertise in a particular area, which can open up a host of other opportunities.

Greg McKeown wrote Essentialism and is now one of the most sought-after speakers in the world of personal development; Jim Collins wrote Good to Great and is one of the most respected individuals in the world of corporate success. Writing a book can open dozens of doors.

Additionally, book sales can significantly increase your income. Even if you just self-publish a book on Amazon, it can create a healthy amount of income every month.

2. Speaking

Many companies have large budgets for keynote speakers, and if you are able to establish yourself as an expert, you can become one of those highly paid speakers. Depending on the size of the event, your fee may range from several hundred dollars all the way into the 5 and 6 figures.

3. Training seminars

Training seminars are an outstanding way to make a sizable amount of money in a relatively short amount of time. Because you are teaching a large amount of information, you can charge a relatively high amount per person. The more people in attendance, the more profit you make. Yes, there are preparation costs and a need for space, but typically these can be obtained at a decent price that will leave plenty of margin for you.

4. Online training

More and more of the best coaches in the world are creating online training programs. These programs often include video, audio, worksheets, and a variety of other materials. And because these resources are perpetually available online, you don’t have to think about scheduling, renting space, or any other logistics—you simply have to find a way to make them available to people.

5. Hourly consulting

In addition to having regular clients, you can also make yourself available for hourly consulting. A client may not need to meet with you consistently, but they may want to pick your brain for a few hours on a particular subject. Depending on your expertise level, you can charge quite a bit for this consulting. Some specialists charge hundreds of dollars per hour.

6. Affiliate marketing

You have to be careful with this one, in that you don’t want to recommend resources to people that you don’t believe in. However, if you truly believe in a product or service, you may want to look into whether they have an affiliate program.

If they do, you can make a small amount of money every time someone purchases a product through your recommendation. For example, if you’re a marketing coach, you can get paid every time someone purchases Leadpages through your link; or if you’re an SEO expert, products like SEMrush and Ahrefs have affiliate programs.

Diversify or die

The best way for you to thrive as a coach is to branch out. Create as many income streams as possible; leverage your skills in a variety of ways.

Coaching isn’t different than any other business. If you rely on a single income source, you’ll be affected every time that source dry up. The best companies and leaders know that there is safety in numbers. The more income streams they have, the less volatility they face.