846: Are You Missing These Hidden Income Streams in Your Business?

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2:01Someone who needs way more support and has a budget can opt into the highest level offer. Well, most people who just want to test the waters or get started will start with that entry level product and then choose to move up the ladder slowly if they need or want to. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks, all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency.

2:40We mix the woo and the work, and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:16This is the Gold Digger Podcast. What if you're leaving money on the table without even realizing it? As entrepreneurs, especially when we're just starting out, it is so easy to focus on the obvious ways to bring in revenue. Like for the first few years of my photography business, I hadn't even considered things like online courses or affiliate income. I just booked my wedding clients and was happy trading time for money. But what if I told you that there are so many income opportunities sitting right under our noses, ready for us to take advantage of them? That's the exciting thing about entrepreneurship.

3:52Your business has more potential than you might realize. And today we're revisiting an episode that is all about helping you uncover those hidden opportunities. This is one of the most actionable and idea packed episodes we've ever aired. And I'm bringing it back because I know it's been a game changer for so many of you. In today's episode, we explore creative, practical ways to expand your revenue streams, even if you're just getting started. It is the perfect listen if you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or wondering how to take your business to the next level. So grab your notebook, get ready to reflect on your current business model, and let's uncover the income streams you might be missing.

4:29Growing a business isn't for the faint of heart. It's a whole lot of everything. building an audience, nurturing leads, managing channels, tracking metrics, and juggling all the moving pieces of your strategy. And let's not forget those late nights, long days, and working weekends. Sound familiar? Sometimes it feels like you're wishing for just one thing to make it all a little bit easier. Well, meet Breeze, HubSpot's brand new collection of AI tools built specifically for marketers just like you. With Breeze attracting the right audience, increasing leads, and turning those leads into loyal customers just got faster and, dare I say, easier than ever before.

5:07Imagine less stress and more success, more wins and fewer all-nighters. With Breeze, you're not just keeping up, you're staying ahead. And pretty soon, your business is going to have a lot to celebrate. Check out Breeze at HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. That's HubSpot.com slash marketers. So first, let's start with talking about the importance of a client's experience and this term called value ladders. Have you ever heard of value ladders before? Here's how an article from Medium describes them. A value ladder is where you gain a customer when they purchase an entry-level inexpensive product.

5:45Then as you build a relationship with that customer and gain their trust, you can introduce more valuable and more expensive products. So essentially, you're basically just taking your customers on a journey and imagining their future needs. When I visualize a value ladder, I kind of picture a set of stairs and you're starting someone out at the lowest step and then consistently extending invitations for them to take that next step with you. Generally speaking, as they climb each step, the investment is greater, but so is their return. Now, not every single client will be ready or willing to climb the steps, but knowing that they at least have an invitation or a possible next step is your job as you create a powerful value ladder.

6:27So I personally believe the best place to start is in getting someone results for free through what you create, whether it's a freebie that they can opt in for or give you their email address for, or a podcast episode like this one, or a video, or even just an informative post. But starting the value ladder out from a place of service is the best place to begin to build that trust. As a wedding photographer, this showed up in the packages available to my clients. So the bottom step was the introductory offer, which was shorter shooting hours, no add-ons, and then each step up, up to the delivery on my end and the extras, like they could get an engagement session or a second shooter albums or prints or extra wedding coverage.

7:08And this was a great method in pricing your products and services. And it also gives you this opportunity to add on extras or upsell your clients to increase your income as you build up that relationship and understand their needs at a bigger level. So beyond the service industry, this idea is super prevalent with the digital space. The other day, one of my guy friends messaged me to ask me to review his current offers. And I realized that he either had lower ticket priced courses or super, super expensive masterminds. So I drew him out this picture of the ladder or the stairs, and I showed him the gap in his, the people he was unintentionally leaving out or missing because his offers were worlds apart and people are probably not going to be ready to go from a$200 course to a$20 ,000 mastermind.

7:56So my challenge for him was to create opportunities to guide people from the course to that high ticket mastermind with mid-range offers that get them results and continue to build steps towards that premium offer. Now, one final example was something I noticed the other day when I got a new cell phone after Coco's brand new water bottle spilled all over mine and ruined my screen. Long story. But I got this new phone. And then they wanted to upgrade it. And then they wanted to add on more storage. And then they wanted to throw in a screen protector and extra charger and a case. And they had all of these products as a part of their sales pitch.

8:31And the woman continued to upsell me. And honestly, it was really fascinating being a consumer because I'm thinking the entire time I'm like dissecting their sales practices. I'm visualizing their value ladder in my brain. I'm thinking about her commission structure and the sales just continued. Like it was so smooth. It would have been really easy to like miss all of the extra add-ons, but I was paying attention. And what's so interesting is you can see how there are different levels of investment for your target audience, as well as different levels of products, support, education, and insight based on each person's individual needs.

9:08Someone who needs way more support and has a budget can opt into the highest level offer? Well, most people who just want to test the waters or get started will start with that entry level product and then choose to move up the ladder slowly if they need or want to. So ideally the least expensive product or service will give them some sort of sampling of what it is that you have to offer. It's kind of like a bite-sized taste, just enough to give them value and a quick result, but not the whole enchilada with the fixings that will take their business or their life to the next level. And then if they want all of that, and then some, they'll need to invest in the next step, your mid-level offer.

9:47And if they want even more after that, then they'll invest in your most premium high dollar offer. And it's really interesting too, because one of the things that I've known for years is that I am missing out on income opportunities because I refuse to create those higher ticket offers. Years ago, I did a high ticket mastermind. I loved it. I was actually just speaking with one of my mastermind girls and it was an amazing experience, but it took up a lot of time and energy from me. And so what's interesting is like right now I can say that my value ladder isn't great. I have a lot of courses ranging from$197 to$497 in terms of price point, but I don't have any opportunities beyond that, whether it be group coaching, one-on-one mentorship or a mastermind.

10:32And right now in this season of my life, I'm just saying, I understand that there's a gap there and that there's an opportunity there, but it's just not compelling enough for me to take it. And it doesn't necessarily fit with what my idea of success looks like in my life right now. So as I'm preaching this, I'm also recognizing like, Hey, your value ladder could definitely use some work, but I think it's something to be thinking about as an entrepreneur, no matter what industry you're in, because value ladders don't just mean you have to have like three offers and then you're done. you can have several entry mid-level and premium offers that can meet different needs that your clientele are facing but as you get started diversifying your income a good place to start is figuring out three so like what is your lowest tier what is your middle tier and then what is that premium offer and how can you guide that journey and that experience because so much of the effectiveness of a value ladder is based on that relationship and something to think about too is that when you focus on creating a really awesome value ladder, you're maintaining that customer relationship.

11:37Their lifetime value is going up. And we all know that it is way easier and more cost effective to keep a customer than to constantly being going out and getting new ones. So think about a value ladder and that client experience and imagine ways that you can expand that as your first step to figuring out new ways to bring in more income. this podcast is brought to you by mercury banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money okay i remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey clients would literally mail me checks and then i would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them it took me literal years to make things go digital and i am ashamed to admit i still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because i'm way too afraid to throw them away but that's the beauty of growth, right?

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13:50That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash golddigger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. So next, you might want to consider offering some sort of product or merchandise to accompany your offer. So whether you have a loyal and engaged Instagram following or a super active email list or diehard podcast or YouTube subscribers, there are several different opportunities to create merchandise or products for brand loyalists. My first taste at doing something like this was when I launched that print shop back on Society6. This was years ago. And basically what I did is I uploaded the art and then they do all of the printing and payment processing and fulfillment.

14:33So I could see prints and mugs and shirts and blankets and pillows and shower curtains, like you name it, they can probably print whatever you upload onto a surface. And the funny thing about my print shop is that I actually started painting as a means to step away from business. So it was in this season where I was very stressed out as a wedding photographer. I was nearing burnout. I was like, I need to do something just creative to feel creative again. And then it turned into a business and it was never my intention or plan, but that transition and that transformation and turning it into a business totally transformed the way that I look at passive income opportunities.

15:12And so while my print shop was this deviation from my job as a photographer, I marketed it and shared about it on my channels, which at the time were pretty small. And people purchased my work. I remember the first time I woke up and I saw someone had ordered something while I was sleeping and having that feeling of like understanding, oh my gosh, you actually can make money while you sleep. And I also remember when my monthly checks got large enough to cover our mortgage and seeing just how powerful extending my brand into a new space could be. You know, not everyone that bought a$15 mug would become a multiple thousand dollar wedding client.

15:52And if I was only having a business that was serving brides and grooms in the Midwest, looking to plan a wedding in the next year, needing a wedding photographer, the amount of people that I could reach was really small. But when I started sharing about funny prints and cute sayings and beautiful floral mugs or phone cases, it really expanded who I could reach with my audience. And it kind of opened the doors in the sense of a value ladder where someone could invest in something that was a low ticket item. And so I kind of loved that. And the funny thing is, is a lot of times people don't think about products.

16:26If you're in a service-based business, you kind of forget about products, but whether you create related merchandise to extend a brand that you already have, or you start a new division of your brand, creating a product or some sort of merchandise where the fulfillment piece is covered for you could be a super great option. Now, because they did all of the payment processing and fulfillment and printing, the margins were very small. But at the same point, I didn't really have to invest anything other than the time that it took to create that print. There wasn't a lot of risk. I just uploaded it and then maybe it would sell, maybe it didn't.

17:00But at the time, I didn't want to have to carry an inventory and go to the post office every day. So you got to weigh out where your time and energy fits into what you're thinking of expanding into. Now, another thing that I did is I created our gold bar necklaces. So I have two necklaces for sale. One is I am enough. And then the other one is I am worthy. And they sold out time and time again, like I couldn't keep inventory in. And while those necklaces didn't necessarily correlate with any specific part of my brand, it was something that my audience wanted. They loved, they wear it. It's something that I personally wear and my family wears.

17:38And these gold necklaces are available right now. If you want to just check them out to see what I'm talking about at shop jennacutcher.com, that's shop jennacutcher.com. You can see them. And while we manage ordering inventory and shipping. It's not as passive as my print shop was, but it's a super fun way to introduce a physical product into my brand and also to just kind of expand my offers. Now, if you do do merchandise or things like that, it doesn't always have to be clothes or accessories. Look at what your audience is into and what they'd actually find fun or useful. It could be all kinds of things from stickers to pens, notebooks or journals to water bottles, magnets, koozies, sunglasses.

18:17the options are literally endless. So try surveying your audience on social media or in an email to see what they would be most interested in purchasing. And another fun way to test it is to get a sample created of something that you might be creating and just see what the response is. I wore my necklace for months before we sold them and people would ask me about it all the time. And that was just a good indication that, hey, you might be moving in the right direction. So the next income opportunity to create are upsells and downsells for your products or services. When someone is buying from you, do you have any extra add-ons that they can easily purchase at the same time?

18:57So let's start with the topic of upsells. This is where you add on an additional offer at the time of purchase. So this could come in the form of an extra product, a suggested offer they might enjoy, a list of other recommended products to complement their purchase. Like the opportunities here are endless. And this is merely just you suggesting an additional thing that they might enjoy. Now this doesn't just apply to digital or product offers. This tactic is just as important for service-based businesses as it is for product-based businesses. It could be as simple as when someone is checking out, you could have a pop-up that says, do you also need this product?

19:35Like right now, this week, we were doing a launch and we were selling my program, the Pinterest lab, and we have an upsell where people can add on an additional program called the content lab and it's at 50 % off. So it's literally being sold at half price and they can make that decision at time of purchase. We've generated an extra$10 ,000 in upsell revenue because not only are we connecting people with an additional product that will complement the product that they're buying, but we're also giving it at a steep discount that makes them want to take action right away. So let's say maybe you sell handmade candles.

20:13An easy upsell opportunity at checkout could be offering a box of branded matches or an amazingly scented room spray for someone to add to their cart for just an extra few bucks. Or maybe you're a service provider. Let's say you're a social media manager. When someone inquires about working with you, a part of your booking process could be saying, hey, my services cost$500 a month and I can throw in my super helpful social media content planner PDF for just$20 if you join in this first month. You can also tack on additional services. So let's just say you're a copywriter and someone is wanting to hire you to write their website copy.

20:48As you're discussing the details of the job, you could also throw in that you could help with their ongoing blog content for X amount of dollars per month. You're basically just exposing them to extra invitations that are aligned with what they're already saying or showing you that they want. And it's a really easy yes or no. It doesn't feel like this pressure tactic. It's more of just a suggestion and an invitation. And upsells can be a super easy way to increase your revenue per customer while also extending that customer's experience with you, your products, or your service is. So then let's talk about what a downsell is.

21:25So you typically do a downsell after someone has not made a purchasing decision, i.e. they didn't buy something. So for example, after a cart closes on a course launch, if someone was interested but ultimately didn't end up purchasing the program, can you ask yourself, is there another offer that's maybe more reasonable but still aligned in getting them results in an area that they've expressed they're interested in. So this is where you could extend a downsell for non-purchasers. This allows someone to become a paying customer, even if they're not ready for the main offer that you have. And it gives you time to build up that trust and get them results at a lower price point.

22:05So can you see how both products and services can utilize things like add-ons, upsells, and down sells? Most upsells happen at the point of purchase when a buyer is most likely to add on products. Like does anyone else add on products just to get free shipping? It's like, I don't, I don't know why my brain can't compute. Like adding a$30 shirt is still going to cost you$30. Even if you're saving$10 on shipping, I get it, but I do it all the time. But here's the thing. You can also offer upsells after the customer has been given time to enjoy their purchase. So you've got to kind of look at like, what is a customer's experience?

22:43When will they have gotten results? when would be the adequate time to reach out with that next step or invitation. So you can share an upsell through an email sequence, a time promotion, or an extra recommendation. My best advice for upsells is to make the offer enticing, make it complimentary of their purchase, and make it discounted so it feels special and more time sensitive. If there is an expiring discount on it, people are way more likely to take advantage than if it's just an extra product being suggested that they could buy at any time. So regardless, the point here is to make sure that you have a good follow-up for your clients and customers, because at the heart of all of this is giving them a memorable experience.

23:27The cool thing about all of these tactics and ideas and ways to boost your income is that it's rooted in the customer's experience. It's thinking through their journey, their path, anticipating their needs before they can even express them. And it's super important to consider this because it's way easier to retain and sell to past customers again than it is to go out and recruit new ones. So listen to this. According to Forbes, increasing your customer retention rates by just 5 % can increase your profits by 25 to 95%. Let me say that again, because it's just insane. Increasing your customer retention rates by just 5 % can increase your profits by 25 to 95%.

24:12So when you're considering ways to boost your income as an entrepreneur, do not discount the value of simply working to retain past purchasers and people that you've worked with. Do not let a new client go underserved. Send follow-up emails to see how they enjoyed their product and if they need anything else. Reach out to see how else you can serve them or if they need anything else from you or if they have any questions. Put a reminder in your calendar to touch base a few times a year with past clients to see what else they might need or set up an automation so that two weeks and two months after someone purchases a product, emails deploy with more opportunities to purchase certain related items and you're checking in and really honoring that relationship.

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