7 Multiple Income Stream Ideas in 2025 to Diversify Your Small Business Offerings
Discover how to generate additional income and increase brand awareness by expanding your small business offerings.
November 24, 2024
10 minute reading
An extra side hustle can seem appealing—but also daunting for small business owners already allocating all their time toward keeping their business running. But diversifying your small business offerings allows you to add another stream of income and continue to grow your business.
The benefits of diversifying your small business offerings
Diversifying your offerings is one of the most powerful ways to increase revenue. By broadening your services and developing multiple income streams, you open up new opportunities for growth and success.
While expanding your offerings involves more work, it comes with many worthwhile benefits:
- Alleviates the stress of relying on a single source of income
- Removes any limitations you’ve placed on your business by only focusing on one revenue stream
- Allows you to attract new customers
- Grows your reputation as a brand
- Opens the door to expand your business without spending more money
- Makes it possible to scale and reinvest new capital back into your business
Here are seven different income stream ideas you can start today to expand your offerings and generate additional revenue.
1. Start a blog or podcast
Depending on which medium you’re more comfortable creating content for, start a written blog or an audio/video podcast. Reach a broader audience this way and open the door for more opportunities to earn revenue.
Monetize your blog or podcast and earn your business some extra revenue. The most common way to monetize on these mediums is by accepting sponsorships or participating in affiliate marketing (more on that later).
Along with funneling extra dollars into your business, blogs and podcasts promote brand awareness and help cement you as an authority in your industry. Businesses that share insights and knowledge to educate their consumers are more likely to gain trust and credibility among potential buyers.
Both blogs and podcasts make it easier to connect with industry leaders and reach a larger audience. Businesses that blog bring in as much as 97% more inbound links, and podcast listenership is steadily on the rise, with 144 million monthly projected listeners in the US by 2025. If you’re not tapping into this exploding market, you’re missing out on potential buyers and a great new revenue stream.
The market size for podcasts and blogs depends largely on your niche and how well known your business already is. Anyone can start a blog or podcast—especially with the advancing capabilities of AI—and there’s no problem if you need a little extra help to get going. Tap into the freelancer market for help with podcast editing, blog writing, and more. Content marketing strategies like these are great for small businesses on a budget looking to diversify their income and offerings.
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2. Add new products to your catalog
Conduct market research and explore any additional opportunities to launch new products. Only add new products to your catalog if they make sense alongside your current offerings, and if you’ve identified an actual need for these products. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and money trying to launch something unnecessary.
“We own an online jewelry shop,” says Sanket Shah, director and founder of The Opal. “Diversifying by offering jewelry-making classes or selling supplies is much more beneficial than starting a pet walking service, which has nothing to do with our business.”
The Opal sells a variety of related products—from necklaces to bracelets to men’s jewelry.
Consider complimentary, premium, or personalized offerings. Whatever you decide on, ensure it fits into your budget and doesn’t take too much time away from your main products. Don’t spread yourself too thin or offer too many products—otherwise customers may get confused and your brand’s reputation could take a hit. Follow our six-step product launch plan to seamlessly turn your new vision into reality.
Some small businesses sell merchandise—such as t-shirts, hats, and sweaters—as their primary product. If that’s not already a part of your current offerings, it might be worth considering.
With countless ways, such as dropshipping, to create and sell apparel, this idea is a hassle-free way to diversify your offerings. Plus, it gives consumers another fun way to support your business (and advertise it for free just by wearing your merchandise in public).
3. Explore affiliate marketing opportunities
When you participate in affiliate marketing, you get paid to promote another company’s products or services. It’s a great way to recommend complementary products to your consumer base and make some extra money at the same time.
It’s important to understand the commission structure and terms before accepting any affiliate marketing opportunity so you can properly gauge your estimated profit margin. Then, you’ll receive a custom link to advertise via your own blog posts, social media ads, or email marketing campaigns.
Only promote companies that align with your personal values and morals. You can try to partner with specific brands you like, or join popular affiliate programs such as Amazon Associates or Fiverr’s Influencer Program.
Fiverr's Influencer Program allows creators to gain access to a suite of benefits including Fiverr credits to help create premium-quality content, generous commission rates or a flat rate depending on the partnership plan you choose, and exclusive promo codes for your subscribers.
Like with introducing new products, it’s important to participate only in affiliate marketing opportunities relevant to your space. Introducing reputable, quality services to your customers boosts your credibility and instills a higher sense of trust between you and your audience.
“We identified that our website traffic could be monetized by joining relevant affiliate programs to our industry and niche,” says Connor Griffiths, owner of Lifty Life Vacation Rentals. “We upsell guests by suggesting things to do via Tripadvisor’s affiliate program. We also recommend items to furnish a vacation home to our homeowners via the Amazon affiliate program or insurance via our insurance partner.”
4. Offer online courses
Some lucrative income streams rely on an already engaged consumer base. If you’re confident that your audience trusts you and regards you as an expert, then online courses, workshops, or coaching are a great way to diversify your offerings.
Ensure that your course is comprehensive and well thought out so consumers gain something of value and are enticed to continue spending and interacting with your business.
If you attempt to launch this type of online educational package without an engaged audience, it’s more likely to fail. Stephanie Scheller, founder of Grow Disrupt, cemented herself as an authority in her industry before diversifying her offerings. Now, she generates revenue from products, consulting, coaching, and speaking.
“Focus on getting one really, really good income stream. Then add another. Then another,” says Scheller. “Trying to add and launch three or four offers at once rarely ends well, and multiple offers won’t make up for not having one that sells well.”
Current customers are going to be the easiest ones to sell this new opportunity to, so take advantage of your subscriber list with email marketing and reach out to your existing customer base on social media.
5. Leverage various social media platforms
In today’s digital age, a social media presence on at least one platform is usually necessary for your company to grow. In 2023, 4.9 billion people use social media, and that number is expected to reach a whopping 5.85 billion by 2027.
Discover which platform makes the most sense for your company, establish a presence, and start earning more money:
- YouTube. Learn how to monetize a YouTube channel and start producing content for your small business in video format. 87% of marketers say video has helped them increase sales.
- Instagram. Instagram and TikTok are both great for reaching the younger generation. Choose Instagram if you’re more fluent in photos and aesthetics.
- Facebook. Facebook is how companies best reach older audiences. Invest in this platform if your target audience consists of millennials and older.
- TikTok. TikTok is all the rage now, and companies are turning toward this viral platform to produce creative, quirky content. Post videos that are trendy and authentic to reach a larger audience.
Use these platforms to promote your affiliate links, create sponsored posts, or promote your new products. Run social media contests or giveaways as unique marketing ideas for your small business.
If you need help getting started with social media advertising, there are plenty of qualified freelancers who are ready to help.
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6. Adopt a subscription model
Adopting a subscription or membership model allows you to more accurately predict your income from month to month. It also makes things convenient for loyal customers who regularly shop at your small business.
To make a subscription worthwhile, consider bundling together complementary products or providing members with special content. This special content might include free monthly gifts, free shipping, or early access to new products. Exclusive content is a great way to retain customers and keep them loyal to your brand.
If there are businesses that complement your own, consider partnering with them in a joint venture and hiding that content or those products behind a membership model.
Survey your existing customers before deciding on a pricing system. Listen to what they have to say to ensure you’re launching something that’s affordable and appealing—yet still sensible for your business model.
“Create an elite premier level customer subscription that allows customers to test your new products/services,” says Austin Jones, founder of Business Goals Group. “Host monthly events that allow you to go over this with current customers. Make sure you have the demand and make sure it’'s profitable per its associated costs. Don’'t move forward until you’'ve made some progress with those two metrics.”
7. Partner with online marketplaces
If you only have a physical store, take your products online. Establish an online presence and grow your ecommerce brand to reach a larger audience. Ecommerce sales were estimated to surpass $5.7 trillion in 2022.
Designing your own website might seem intimidating (even though freelancers can take care of that for you). It’s easy to get your products online now with the help of online marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. In the meantime, you can still promote your store’s physical presence and promote your business locally.
“Partnering with well-established online platforms has proven very lucrative for us,” says Jim Christy, owner and managing marketing director of Midwest Cards. “Platforms like eBay and Walmart have an existing, vast customer base, and partnering with them significantly increased our revenue.”
Work with expert freelancers to expand your offerings
Running a small business is enough work on its own. If you want to introduce new income streams but don’t have any extra free time, consider offloading that work to specialized freelancers. It’s a cheaper alternative to hiring full-time employees, especially if you only need temporary assistance.
“Freelancers can play an essential role in the diversification process,” says Rany Burstein, CEO and founder of roommate finder app Diggz. “They bring fresh ideas, create pilots to test new revenue streams, and provide support as these streams grow or mature. Freelancers provide valuable flexibility and expertise, allowing a small business to be agile and responsive as they add more revenue streams.”
The Fiverr marketplace is full of freelancers with experience in managing these various income stream ideas. From social media management to product testing to ecommerce marketing, there’s a freelancer ready to help you out in expanding your offerings.
“Freelancers are great for outsourcing and arbitraging others skills,” says Jones, founder of Business Goals Group. “Maybe you want to try an SEO campaign out for three months without budgeting for a new employee position that requires benefits.”
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About Author
Michelle Newblom
Michelle Newblom is a B2B SaaS writer with a knack for creative storytelling, which she artfully applies to all of her content. Her expertise lies in creating compelling copy for blogs and guides, which help businesses generate conversions and attain their goals.
