Recently, one of my community members asked the question: “How can I create residual income in my business?”

What a great question!

What about you? Are you a service-based entrepreneur and dream about creating residual income?

So, what’s residual income – you may ask?

‘Residual income’ (sometimes referred to ‘passive income”) is money that comes into your business without you having to put in excessive amounts of time to generate and/or maintain that income.

Products such as ebooks/books, CDs/DVDs, and homestudy programs that can be purchased, delivered, and consumed by your client without your direct input – can generate residual income. (Unlike your coaching/consulting services, which require you to spend hours of your time in order to facilitate delivery of your program.)

There is also another huge benefit that these types of products/programs offer, especially for prospective clients who have only just heard about you. They may not yet be in a position to step into one of your higher-end programs.

Being able to offer your prospect a product/program at a lower investment level is a great way to introduce them to you and your work as a first step.

So, if creating a product/homestudy program is something you’ve been meaning to do, here are three simple steps to get you started.

Step 1: Research

This step is vital. After all, you don’t want to spend hours creating a product that will end up sitting on the shelf because no-one is interested. Right?

These are some of the key questions you’ll need to consider:

1. How well do you know/understand your ideal client and the issues/challenges he/she struggles with?
2. Does your ideal client know they have this problem?
3. Is he/she looking to solve the program?
4. Does he/she have a reputation for investing in themselves?

Not only do you want to ensure there is a need and demand for your product, but also that your ideal client is renowned for investing in themselves.

While there may be a huge need for your ideal client, if they don’t realize they have a problem, OR they are unwilling to invest in themselves, unless you have a lot of time and money, and the stamina it’ll take to convince each client they need to invest in your products/programs – I would suggest you target a different market.

Step 2: Create

Before you try to re-invent the wheel, I have three words for you.

Repurpose. Repurpose. Repurpose.

Go back through all of your archives and pull out all of the content, the articles, the handouts and anything else that you have previously created as this information can be repurposed and added to your homestudy program.

For instance, imagine you have a recording of a webinar you have previously delivered:

•  The webinar (video) can also be converted into an audio for people who would like to listen to the content;
• The audio can be transcribed and offered as a downloadable transcript for people who prefer to read the content;
• Add a few worksheets; a workbook; and/or a few templates and you have a great introductory homestudy program

This is exactly what I did when I created my Practical Pricing Strategies To Make Selling Easy for Solopreneurs Program. It started off as a webinar on my Get More Clients Booked Monthly calls. I got the call transcribed, added some scripts, worksheets and other templates, and some additional bonuses.

I then had my design team create a graphic, the sales page and back-end (shopping cart and automatic ordering function) and voila – my: “Get Paid What You’re Worth: Practical Pricing Strategies to Make Selling Easy” Homestudy Program was created, and ready for sale.

Step 3: Promote

If you were under the impression that you could sit back and watch your product fly off your virtual shelves – unfortunately that’s not always the reality.

Marketing of your products/programs is going to be a fact-of-life for your business.

Here are some marketing strategies to get you started:

• Announce a ‘Watch This Space’ segment in your regular newsletter to start creating curiosity and interest in your product;
• Develop a special once-only launch price for your product for people on your list so they can be one of the first to get their hands on your product at a special once-off price;
• Start to seed your product in your articles. Remember, not in a salesly “buy my product NOW!” kind of way, but with an approach that creates curiousity and desire to invest in your product.

For instance, say I wanted to create interest in my: How to Get Noticed, Hired & Paid What You’re Worth in 7 Simple Steps Homestudy Program – I might decide to write an article about ‘Niching’.

In the article I would mention that defining a niche is something I know many entrepreneurs struggle with AND one of the main reasons why they are unable to build traction in their business.

Because they are trying to market to everyone – what ends up happening is that their marketing messages speak to no-one, and no-one invests in their services.

I would go on to write:

“In my: How to Get Noticed, Hired & Paid What You’re Worth in 7 Simple Steps Homestudy Program – I cover 3 different approaches to help entrepreneurs define their niche. Let’s look at the first way.”

Then I would go on to write more about that the first way and provide helpful tips and strategies to get them started. And, guess how they can find out about the other two steps? Yep – by getting their hands on the homestudy program.

Remember, if you try this; put a call to action at the end of your article. Something like this:

“By the way, if you liked this exercise to help you define your niche, you’re going to love the other two steps I cover in my homestudy program, which build on the step you’ve just completed, and will allow you to build your reputation as a specialist much quicker. You can find out more here – [which is where you would add your link].

There you have it – three very simple, yet effective steps to develop your homestudy program/product so you can reap the rewards of generating residual income for your business.

What idea do you have as your first product? Perhaps you already have a product and want to create even more to your list? Let me know what your creative juices have in store – it’s always great to hear from you!

Happy creating!!