4 reasons why consultants and coaches should create products and courses

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online-business-consultants-coaches-products-courses-1Are you a consultant or coach providing services to individuals or companies? Or maybe you’re a…

  • Healthcare practitioner, such as a physician, chiropractor, massage therapist, yoga teacher, or dentist
  • Computer training or repair provider
  • Virtual assistant or other gig worker providing a service
  • Financial services provider (bookkeeper, accountant, financial advisor, etc.)
  • Plumber, electrician, or other repair or maintenance provider

 

Did you know that there are 4 reasons why you should complement your services with an online product or course?

We usually think of some businesses as service-based businesses and others as product-based businesses. Service-based businesses have clients. Product-based businesses have customers.

In this article, I’ll explain the 4 reasons why service-based businesses should create online products, including courses.

1) Get more clients who are ready to work with youonline-business-4-reasons-consultants-coaches-products-coursses-2

You’ve certainly experienced the fact that not everyone who comes to your website or hears you speak signs up for your services. But maybe that person will sign up for something that’s free (a freebie) or buy a low-priced course that solves an urgent problem or even just provides some valuable information.

Not everyone is ready to buy. Many people need more information before they can make a decision or they may be ready to buy in a few weeks or months.

Meanwhile, you can subscribe these people to your email list and send them a free report, guide, checklist, or white paper. From there, you can upsell them to an e-book or a short course. What’s the value of these free or low-priced products and courses?

In this process, you educate potential clients as a bridge to your services.

The people who sign up

  • Become your subscribers so you can stay in touch with them and send them future offers
  • Get a taste of what you have to offer and appreciate your knowledge and expertise, so they’re more likely to invest in your services
  • Start to know, like, and trust you so they’ll feel comfortable making future investments with you

 

You get the opportunity to create a long-term relationship with them, staying top of mind. When they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you. 

On the other hand, they may discover that your services aren’t what they need and that’s OK, too. 

2) Add a new stream of more passive incomeonline-business-3-reasons-consultants-coaches-products-courses-3

Providing services involves your time, especially if you’re doing 1-on-1 consulting, coaching, or other assistance to people. Often, that’s a LOT of time. 

But when you sell products, the income comes in without using up your time at the point of purchase or while people are consuming your content. Of course, you have to spend time creating products and there’s also some time involved to market them. 

But you create products once and sell them many times over.

A lot of your marketing can be automated or outsourced.

For this reason, income from products is considered more passive than income from services. This means you can make more money in less time. How does that sound?

This additional income is in addition to your service-based income and — as I explained above — can increase your service sales.

3) Even out income ups and downs4-reasons-consultants-coaches-products-courses-4

Many service-based businesses experience cycles of high and low income. This is especially true for coaches and consultants. It’s hard to market while you’re busy with clients, so you help your clients and then experience a drop in income when you’re done helping them. So you turn to marketing to get new clients, but that creates a gap until the new clients come in.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an ongoing stream of income to even out the income ups and downs? That’s what products and courses provide. 

4) Reach more people around the world4-reasons-consultants-coaches-products-courses-5

Most service-based businesses both market and deliver their services 1 to 1. For marketing, that might be networking, asking for referrals, etc. For delivery, that will be whatever service you provide — coaching, consulting, providing healthcare services, providing support/maintenance/repair services, etc.

With online products and courses, both marketing and delivery is 1 to many. You can market using a video, with ads, with partners, with webinars — the possibilities are endless. You can deliver by letting people download an e-book, a course, a worksheet, etc. The possibilities are endless for delivery, too!

When you don’t have to spend 1 on 1 time with people, you can actually help more people. And it’s easier to help people all around the world when time zone differences are not important. Your customers access your products and courses when convenient for them.

What’s the next step?

4-reasons-consultants-coaches-products-courses-6

I have 3 resources that can help you with this process.

  1. Most months, I do a free webinar called Knowledge to Income Roadmap. You can click here to see the upcoming webinar and register for it.
  2. I have a self-study course, Create and Sell a Profitable Online Product that brings you through the steps to plan, build, and sell an information product or course. You can purchase it here.
  3. The first step in creating an online product or course is to outline it or create a table of contents. My Outline Your Knowledge guide will help you get this step done.

 

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of this blog post or to ask a question. And please share with your friends and colleagues using the Social Media sharing buttons below.

by Ellen Finkelstein

How can I make passive income?

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online-business-passive-income-1

Someone asked me,  “What is the next big thing for passive income?”

The word “passive” is very relative. If you want to make income without doing any work, you won’t find a solution here. You can outsource a lot of the work, but of course, you’ll have to pay for that.

Usually, you get passive income by doing a lot of work up front. Passive income is not doing 1-on-1 coaching in which you get paid by the session or package. That’s not to say you can’t make a lot of money doing 1-on-1 coaching, but it isn’t passive income.

Partially passive income would be creating an electronic product and selling it. You still have to promote for each sale but the delivery is automatic.

Let’s talk about some ways to make income that’s even more passive, because everyone wants passive income! Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein

The joy of recurring income from commission payments

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online-business-recurring-income-1It’s one thing to promote someone’s product as an affiliate, make some sales, and get a one-time commission.

It’s another thing entirely to promote a recurring product, such as a membership.

When I first joined the NAMS (Novice to Advanced Marketing System), I was paying $37 for the Insiders Club. Then I sold 2 memberships, which paid me 50% each month. In other words, I got the Insiders Club for free!

Just 2 months ago, I promoted Kelly McCausey’s Image Monthly Club. This is a great $7 monthly subscription that provides online business owners with a continual stream of images and quotes. I was pleased that 15 people bought the product in response to my email. Each month, I get 15 emails telling me that I made a sale!

So I get 50%, which is $52.50 each month ($7 x 50% = $3.50 x 15 = $52.50).

Now that’s passive income! I promoted the program with 1 email (not always enough) and now I get $52.50 each month automatically. Imagine doing that with several membership programs! You could get recurring income from commissions payments month after month.

Action Step: Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein

Grow Your Online Business: Day 15 (Ultimate Blog Challenge) Why products are such a game changer for your life and your business

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online-business-products-1This is the first post of week 3 of Grow Your Online Business and it’s on products.

Not everyone with a website has products — you may offer coaching or another service. But if you really want an online business, you need products.

What is a product? A product can be or include an e-book, a series of videos, audio recordings, a workbook, PDF files, and more.

What makes it a product is that you don’t have to actively participate when the buyer uses the product. The buyer clicks on a button on a sales page, enters credit card information, and downloads the product.

OK, it’s a little more complicated than that, but those are the basics.

I still remember when I sold my first product — an e-book — in 2004. Yes, I worked hard to write, edit, and format the e-book. Yes, I sent out an email about it and put ads for it on my website. But once that was done, I was done. Getting that first email from PayPal saying “Notification of payment received” seemed like magic! I didn’t know the person but he or she had gone to my website and bought my e-book! It felt great! Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein