Ep24: 10 Unique Ways To Increase Your Income This Year

In this brand new episode I'll share with you what I think are the top 10 most likely ways to boost your income this year (or any year). These 10 ideas are based off working with well over 100 clients in 50 different industries and taking "what works and what doesn't" in all of those industries. Each one will work regardless of your industry, business type or what you sell.

In this episode I'll discuss...

10 ways to grow your income this year...

Marketing trends you MUST know about to stay competitive...

Why working LESS makes you MORE money...

How to grow your income 50% - 100% with one new product/service...

How to open your mind to a source of completely new ideas...

And so much more!

Resources Mentioned

Funnel Day

CrazyEgg

Visual Website Optimizer

Want To Work With Me?

Visit http://www.JeremyReeves.com or email me at [email protected]

Enjoy!

Hey guys, Jeremy Reeves here again for another episode of the Sales Funnel Mastery podcast. Today's January 26th, it's a Monday and we are getting pounded with snow here in good old North East Pennsylvania here. I absolutely cannot wait to next month. I think it's February 16th to the 20th for the traffic and conversion summit. If you're going to be out there, shoot me an email, maybe we can meet up somewhere and have a drink. I will having several drinks with several different people while in there.

So if you want to join us, that's cool. I know that one night, I will be going to private masterminds so I won't be able to do that and I think that's Tuesday night of the week we're going. But anyway, shoot me an email if you want to see if we can meet up and maybe we can at the event or something like that.

Now today, I'm sitting here thinking of what to talk about and what I came up with was 10 ideas for growing your income this year. It's the beginning of 2015, we're already almost a month end, hopefully, you're doing really well. I'm having one of my biggest months ever in my business. Depending on what happens for the next couple days, it might actually turn into my biggest month. Although I should be 2nd or 3rd and then next month, we'll also be around the same area. 

So I'm off to a really, really, really good start and it's because last year, I actually decreased my business. Partially because I bought a business, so there's a huge expense. So that kind of income will be coming in this year, obviously. But also, another part because my father passed away and I took a month off and when I bought the other business, I spent like 2 months on it. So my income actually dipped a little bit last night and the reason was because I did a lot of preparation for this year. 

I got a lot of things together in preparation of growing this year because I'm going to roughly double this year, depending if you're talking about gross or net. So I'm going to roughly double this year, that's the hopeful goal. The big goal is actually more than that. It's about 2 and a half times. This year, I'm just thinking about growth. 

For me, this year's just growth and leverage and for yours, it might be the same. So I thought I would put together 10 ideas for growing your income this year. I think all of these can be applied in pretty much any business, some of them might be more relevant than others to your business, depending on what your business is. I'm pretty sure every single one of these can be applied to any business, really.

The first one is segmentation. Some people are saying that email's starting to fade, email marketing's dead, and blogging is dead, and Facebook is dead, and PPC is dead, everything's dead. Even though people are still making millions and millions and billions of dollars off these things, they're quote unquote dead.

None of those are dead. Email's not dead. The only reason it's declining for some people is because they're not using it correctly. One of the ways that you should be using email is by segmenting. You should really start to segment your audience. Don't send be sending your entire list the same message. You should be sending messages to individual groups. This is something that I've been working a lot on with my clients with really good results. So that's idea number 1, it's segments. You just start to figure out how you can segment your list and how you can split it up to be able talk to your audience more directly.

Number 2 is be authentic, transparent, and awesome. I also think that another huge trend for 2015 is just being yourself and getting out of that whole facade that you're like behind a wall and all that. I think there's going to be a lot more personal brands  built in 2015 than ever before. I really think that the whole kind of world in marketing is starting to get away from the faceless brand and starting to really transition into individual people selling their expertise, their products, their services, their widgets, whatever it is.

Even if you're a brick and mortar business, start being the face of your business, start doing some really cool PR events in your neighborhood and get to the point where you walk around town and people actually know. That's what people are starting to want. They want authenticity. They want transparency. They just want you to stand out from everybody else and just be really, really cool.

A good example for this, I have a new webinar. I think the URL it's http://www.jeremyreeves.com/2in12-webinar-replay/ and that'll be in our show notes, if you can't remember that or just email me and I'll shoot you the link and there's a replay there. So I did a webinar and the whole thing, it was my first time trying a live webinar and it was a disaster. Basically, the content was good and everything like that but I had several technical difficulties throughout the whole thing. I literally lost power at one point in it. It was like an hour in when I actually lost power so I came back, it was like 15 minutes later, most of the people left and all that.

But I still ended up getting about a 10% conversion rate on that webinar and that's because I didn't rely too much on like a script or anything like that. I really didn't script anything, I had a basic Powerpoint in front of me, that was about it. It was just me showing people what I knew, showing my expertise, showing that I knew what I was talking about, and I was just being authentic, and being very transparent. I told stories, I told jokes, we laughed and all that kind of thing, there was live Q&A, and all that kind of fun stuff.

And it went well. I actually get a whole bunch of emails from people saying how awesome the content was. Because usually in webinars, there's really no content. It's essentially like a masked pitch the whole time and I just can't do that. That's just not me, I don't like doing that. I actually give good information and I got a 10% conversion rate even though there was a 20-minute gap in the middle of the webinar and the thing went for like 2 hours, it was a technical disaster. And then there's other technical stuff along with the whole losing power thing. Which, of course, you'll randomly lose power like once a year, and of course, that was the time that it goes out. 

Moving on. Number 3. Simple fire business. I have talked with a lot of clients. I have a lot of clients, I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients and 50+ different industries, and one of the big things that I see is that people have a little list and they have a million and a half products and a million and a half different things they could sell people and that creates a lot of confusion with clients and customers, whoever you're catering to.

If you want t grow, you really have to simplify your business and I'm going to talk about the 80-20 principle next, that's number 4. You really want to make sure that you're just focusing on what's actually bringing you in money and maximize that first and then move on to other stuff. If you have 6 different services right now, you should limit that to 2 or 3 and really get them perfected and then move on to the next thing. Don't have all these 150 different things because you're not going to be able to focus on everything.

It's hard to drive traffic to it, it's hard to attract any strategic alliances like Joint Venture Partners. It's just hard to do business when there's so much going on. That's why one of the things I love about funnels is when I build funnels for my clients, we basically get it to the pint where they just send traffic to the first, the very, very top of the funnel which is typically the landing page. Giving away something, could be a webinar, could be a free report video, whatever it is.

And then the funnel takes them from there. It segments them based on the behavior taking in. It just takes them down. It's like the whole spider web to that core center to where they should be, where they're going to get the best information possible and the sales funnel is what does all of that for them. The complexity of the sales funnel actually makes it incredibly simple. And I always try to tell clients because they're like "Oh, we have this product and that product and these other 14 products and these 6 services", and I usually say "Okay, what's making you money? What are the duds? let's get rid of them. What are the heroes? Let's focus on them more".

The next thing is the 80-20 principle. Using the 80-20 principle to your favor and it's the same thing. This is number 4. 3 and 4 are kind of mixed in together. If you want to make money and you want to grow your business, you have find out what is in your business that is making you money, you have to find out where you spending your time, that you're spending an hour here and you're getting 80% of your money from there, and then you're spending 6 hours in some other place and you're getting the same amount of money as where you spent that 1 hour.

You have to find those little leverage pints in your business and where you're spending your time because if you can find somewhere that for every hour you spend there, you're making the same as you're spending, just say, 4 somewhere else? Or what if you just spend all of your time in that hour and you just spend 8 hours a day there? That's like 4 times in your business right there, doing nothing else. Just spending your time in the place that's giving you the most leverage.

And that's how you use the 8-20 principle in your favor. Just looking for those leverage points. It could be in productivity, it could be promoting a certain product that's making you the bulk of your income. You might have, let's just say, a $97 product that's making you 80% of your income and this is going to apply. You're going to have products and services that make the bulk of your income so look at that and focus more on that. It's really that simple. Just looking, finding where the money's coming from and doing more of it. It's so easy. So that was 3 and 4.

Number 5 is putting in high-end products and services into your business. If you don't have a high-end product or a high-end service, and I mean high-end as in at least 5 to 10 times higher than anything that you have right now. now maybe you already have something like this in your business, you have like a $10,000 coaching program or something like that. It's up to you if you want to go up to like 50 or 100, it depends on if your market would basically accept it, if you could sell the value, that kind of thing.

But chances are most people don't have a really, really high-end product or service in their business. What I want you to do is essentially look at number 1, look at your products and services and see what the highest-priced one is. Number 2, think of some way that you can add 10 times that value. What I usually try to do with any product or service , I always try to deliver a minimum of 10 times the value. So if I charge $10,000 or something, I'm trying to create a minimum of $100,000 in real value. In a good amount of time like a year or 6 months or whatever it is or less even for a lot of clients it's way, way higher than that.

And then number 1, see what you can do to add 10 times the value. So if your highest-priced widget or product or service is 10,000 right now or a thousand, see if you can go up to 5 or 10, if it's 5 or 10, see if you can go up to 50 or 100 or maybe even 25. Once you get higher, it's a little bit harder to grow like that. And then also, see if a good percentage of your audience is going to actually take you up on that. So you might be able to give a $100,000 worth of value and sell it for $10,000. But if you have only 20 people in your list, or even a couple hundred, you're probably not going to have enough volume to be able to make that work for you.

So you kind of have to look at those 2 things. If you can do that, I would absolutely recommend trying to do that because if you think about it, I just did a funnel today with a client and his highest price I think was 197 or it was 297 he marked it down to 197 mostly. So one of the things that we came up with was trying to do a $1,000 program. I'm even talking to him about doing a 2 or $3,000 program. It's going to make a huge, huge, huge difference in his income because for every 1 sale of a $1,000 program, he's going to make 5 times, like he would have to get 5 customers at the $197 range. 

So even if gets a 10% conversion rate on like an upsell, 10% of his 197 buyers, eventually buy a $1,000 product, he's going to increase overall and come by like 50%. If he gets 20%, he's going to double it. So just think of that and then you could have a $5,000 program and then you basically have to sell like 25 of the 197 to make 1 $5,000 sale. And there's a market for that. Every single market has a like (inaudible 15:01 - 15:02) go up to that really price point. So think about that in your business this year.

Number 6 is automating your marketing funnel. That's what I do. So obviously, I think that that should be your ideas for growing your income this year. I'm always amazed at how many people put this off and they're like "Oh, we have to do this first, we have to do this first, we have to redesign the site, we have create this product, we have to do this and that and the other thing", and it's like just get it automated and then you can add that stuff in. It's just so much faster doing that. 

Plus, when you really do a good marketing funnel, it's going to a while, it's going to take a good solid 2 months or so to get that into your marketing funnel. So you can be building those products while you're building the marketing funnel. And then by the time the marketing funnel is done, then you just add that add in. Then you can both instead of one.

Again, automate your marketing funnel because that frees up your time to focus more on top of the funnel. Like I said before, what you're trying to do is you're essentially trying to get it to the point where you get people into the top of the funnel and then your sales funnel, your emails, whatever your funnel is. 

For some people it's email, it's things like texting and phone calls, like voicemail, broadcast, and real phone calls. For some people, it might be meeting in person, for some people, it's direct mail. It depends on the business. But you just want to get people to the top of that funnel and then you take it and then the funnel takes it from there and leads people down the path.

Number 7 is working with some type of coach. There are 2 types of people. The first type is are people who like to do it themselves. The DIY-ers. The Do It Yourself-ers. And that's fine. I just went down, I did the 2 funnel days in Tampa and one of them is going to have me implement the sales funnel for them. Do all the copy, the pages, and everything. 

The other one is going to want more of the coaching role. He wants me to essentially coach him through building his funnel because he wants to learn how to build the funnel, copywriting, and all that kind of stuff. Either way is a really good learning opportunity because when you work with somebody that's a coach, they take you to places that you didn't think you could go before, they give new ideas you never thought of in your business because they have a fresh perspective.

I know this from personal experience because I have 2 coaches. I pay the one that's like $8,000 plus 4 times flying to Chicago for (inaudible 17:51) coach, and then I have another one I think he's 6 plus traveling and whatever. I mean I'm spending on all kinds of education and they coach us for smaller tasks along the way, so I end up spending somewhere in the range of like $25,000 a year just for a coach and then all the other business expenses that I have.

The point is they see things that you don't see because you're so close to your business. When you work with somebody, that is one of the single biggest advantages is that they generate ideas because you're so close to your business, it's hard to see clearly. I just actually got a new client and he's been wanting to work with me for I think it's been like 3 years, it's been a while, 2, 3 years. and he's like "I'm glad I finally made the decision to work with you. I've been wanting to do it so long and I'm glad I finally made that decision and got over my fear of outsourcing my marketing", because he thought he can do it and then he realized he really couldn't.

And I was joking with him. I said like "You're so close to the business, that it's really hard to do it", and even in my life , this is what I do, I write copy, I create marketing funnels and I outsource some of that to other people from my own side businesses. And it's because I'm so close to that business that I can't think properly. My mind is wrapped in working with clients, that when it comes to my own stuff, sometimes I actually have a hard time generating new ideas because I am beyond the typical stuff that I do.

Because my mind just isn't there, it's on my client's stuff and by the time I get to thinking about my stuff, I'm tired, it's the end of the day and all that. Again, that's another reason I have coaches because they help me think if that stuff for my own business. It really is valuable to work with some type of coach. Whether it's a couple months or a monthly thing or however you want to do it. Because you're going to get a lot of new ideas, a lot of fresh insights and it's going to help you out.

Number 8 is work less but harder and more focused. So I've been really ramping up my productivity this year and I'm actually in terms of hours worked, I'm working a lot less than I used to. Even over the weekend, I was going to work on Saturday, we got a big snowstorm and Conner, my 3-year-old, if you're not familiar yet, he was like "I want to go outside, I want to go dig, I want to on the quad", we have a quad that we plow the driveway and all that. So I was like "I'm not even going to work today, I'm going to go and enjoy the morning with Conner".

Once he went for a nap, him and Logan, when they went up for a nap, I worked for like an hour and a half, something like that, and I was done for the day. And I've realized that it's so nice just to not have it on my mind that I need to be working all the time because I can enjoy more time with my family and all these things. 

And then this Sunday, yesterday, was my free day. When  take a free day, it's zero business whatsoever. I don't think about business. I don't check email. I don't even go on Facebook because I'm in a mastermind on Facebook so I see those posts and all that kind of stuff.

And yesterday, I got so many new ideas for my business, it was actually slightly ridiculous because I kept having to write down because they just kept popping in and that's what happens when you free your mind from the daily grind of working but at the same time, I'm producing probably twice the amount of work that I was on average in 2014, because I focused not only on am I more focused, like writing, more productive like not checking email, things like that, but I'm working on the higher level activities, the higher value activities.

So each day, I achieve a specific income goal. For example, if I charge whatever x dollars for emails. My goal is to write x number of emails to hit a certain income goal. So I have that, so once I hit that then I stop working o those really high level activities because usually by then my brain is just wiped. And start working on planning, buffer activities, outsourcing some things, taking care of those little fires, whatever it is. So work less but work harder on the right things and more focused .

Number 9 understand your market better. Really quick, do surveys. It's amazing what you can uncover when you do surveys. Just do surveys. Survey people who aren't buying from you and say, "Hey, why are you not buying?", survey people who are buying, and say "Hey, why are you buying?". Just doing those 2 surveys, it's amazing what kind of gold you're going to uncover from your market. You can even go to the point where you call your customers personally on the phone. I know. God forbid.

And you talk to them and figure out. Talk to them. Talk them about their life, talk about their business, talk about why they bought from you, what's different from you about your competitors, what you could do better, all those questions to understand your market better. Doing that is going to help you if you're writing your copy yourself. It's going to help you write better copy, this is something that I do for every single client that I bring on. We start with surveys, we do heatmaps, I look at their analytics, basically all of the research.

I haven't thought of client questionnaire sometimes I actually call their customers. I'm doing that for the one client that was hesitant to start working. I know one of his customers and he's a really cool service, by the way. I'll probably talk about it on future podcasts once the funnel's done. So just understand your market better. And doing that, understanding who you're talking to is going to increase results dramatically.

Number 10 is think bigger. It's kind of funny if you want to double your business, let's just say your goal for this year is increase by 50%, that's a big jump, especially if you're already like 5 million, you want to go up to 7 and half, that's a big jump, that's adding 2 and a half million dollars in a year. now, if you're like 50,000 and you're trying to go to like 75, that's not a big jump, so maybe you want to double or triple or whatever it is. 

But I would challenge you to see, just to put it in your mind and say "If I were to 10x my business in the next 2 years...", so let's just say you're making $20,000 a year. I usually like to go with net income so say you're making $200,000 a year right now, net income. Net as in like into your personal bank account. and you say "Okay, in the next 2 years, what can I d to go to 2 million dollars a year in personal income?". 

For a lot of people, that's a bit of a stretch but the whole point is you open your mind up to a whole new center for creativity. I did this this year. And my goal, again, is not to go 10 times or anything like that, I don;t even want to to be honest with you, but just having that idea like "What will I have to do if I wanted to 10x my business?" I don't know if there's some kind of creativity block, for some reason when you do that, it just opens your mind up and you start thinking of things that you never thought of before.

It just opens that possibility and it'll give you ideas to maybe double when you only thought that you could go up 50% or whatever. My goal for personal net income, I'm trying to go up 2 and a half times in the next 2 years. Before I started thinking this way, it was in the next 4-5 years so I bumped that up to the next 2 years. And I'm going to increase my net income by 2 and a half times and I think it's very likely.

It's a very, very likely scenario especially for what I have planned out and that's because I started thinking bigger instead like "How do I hit my specific goal?", I said "How do I hit 10 times that?" and then even though I'm not going to hit 10 times that, hitting double that, hitting my original goal, seems very, very easy because I thought of literally 5 new ideas that gave ,e leverage in my business and are going to allow me to do that and hit those types of income goals.

So that is the number 10 for the 10 ideas for growing your income this year. I hope you really enjoyed this. I hope you can at least take a couple of them, I hope you got a couple ideas form that because that was a lot of stuff that you can take and make relevant to your business and how to grow your business and everything like that in this year, the next year, the next couple years and all that.

So I would say go back through this list maybe listen to it again, write them down. I'll go through them again real quick. Number 1 is segmentation, number 2 is being authentic and transparent and just being awesome to your audience and just being a cool person. Number 3 is simplifying your business. Number 4 is using the 80-20 principle to your favor and that goes in terms of productivity and what you're selling. So basically, selling the top products and services that are making you the 80%. Maximizing them essentially. Number 5 is coming out with a high-end product or service. Number 6 is making sure that you automate your marketing funnel, make sure that happens this year.

Number 7 is working with some type of coach. You could either outsource it like completely do it yourself or you could work with them if you're the type of person that you wan to write your own copy, you want to do all that, you want to learn, that kind of thing, then just work with a coach to help you through all that. Number 8 is work less but harder and a lot more focused and on the right activities. Number 9 is understanding your market better. So do surveys and things like that. Number 10 is thinking bigger.

So I hope this helps you. I hope you take it and implement it. If it helps you, as always, shoot me an email [email protected]. You can also visit me, if you want to do any kind of working together, whether it's having me implement a funnel for you, doing a funnel day which is where I spend the day with you like an in-person consultation thing or over Skype video. If you want to do like a coaching scenario. So get in touch if you're interested in any of that and we can figure out what's kind of the best option for you.

If you enjoyed it, please share it with your friends, share it on Facebook, Twitter, whatever you're on, email. Share it with your colleagues and I will see you next time.