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When you’ve been doing something one way and it changes it can be hard to think of ways to change with it. For example, if you are a small business owner that provides products and services to people in your local area and were shut down because your business was deemed “non-essential” it might be hard to think of ways to earn money.

Being stressed about your situation it might be hard to come up with any ideas. That is why I’m going to give you a few examples of ways you can start earning money from your local business.

1. Promote Related Tools & Services (Affiliate Marketing)

This is one of my favorite ways to earn additional income in my business – by recommending related tools and services.

No matter what type of business you have, there is always something related. If you have a smoothie and juice shop, why not partner with one of your suppliers and recommend the best juicing equipment or the best juicing supplies.

To do this you could write down all of the tools, products or services that your business use. So you’ll want to figure out which businesses work well with what you offer but don’t compete directly.

Contact the companies and see if you can work with them to earn a commission on products you sell for them. If you don’t find any that agree you can also search for them. To do this go to your search bar and use the keywords “(product you pick to promote) affiliate program” or you can use referral partner or ambassador.

Then you’ll sign up to promote their products and services.

Need more tips on affiliate marketing? Check out 5 Affiliate Marketing Tips To Help You Get Started

2. Membership Site or Subscription Box

Why not set up a related online membership into a diet club or smoothie club. For example, people can pay a small monthly fee to get a small discount at the store and enable them to order large quantities of juice for their monthly cleanses.

If you have a coffee shop this works as well. You could find local coffee roasters and offer a different roaster each month.

Children’s stores could offer a different toy, book, science experient or activity each and every month.

I signed up for a subscription box for my son called Universal Yums. Each month a box of treats comes each month and they’re from a different country. Last month everything that was in the box was from Brazil. This is great because I homeschool and we’re able to learn more about Brazil in a fun way.

If you’re a local dentist you could set up a monthly plan for toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, a chart, and a fun toy. The toothpaste could be regular or subscription.

In my local area I’ve seen people put together:

• Cookie Decorating Kits
• Chocolate Easter Egg Decorating Kits
• Skin Care Kits (Luxury Kit)
• Paint at Home Kits

To make these subscription boxes these local businesses could offer a new option each month and set up recurring payment on PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad or through their bank (this is more complicated – I’d pick one of the other options first).

Take a look at your business and brainstorm to see if there is a way that you can create some kind of kit or do it yourself option for your customers.

I also have seen a company that offers monthly ornament decorating kits. They provide everything that you need and you get one a month. You’d think that this would be only a holiday product but they sell all year long.

3. Write a Book

It’s likely if you have a local business, you’re an expert in something. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent.

You can write a book about how to get your house ready for selling at the highest price. You could also write a book about before and after for houses that you have sold at high prices where both the buyer and the seller are super happy.

The great thing about books is that anyone from anywhere can purchase them. So if you’re a restaurant, coffee shop or a bar that has recipes – you can write them down. You won’t have to worry about people not coming to your business after the stay at home stay safe order for two reasons…

1. Because people will want to get out of their house and they won’t want to make their own meals, coffee, drinks
2. Even though you’ve sold recipes it doesn’t mean that people who bought them will be local.

I wouldn’t put any signature recipes in the books but I’m sure there are tons you could put into a book.

If you’re not an expert or don’t want to write about what you do – there are so many options that you can do.

Here are 5 books you can write:

• Children’s Books
• Activity Books
• Journals
• Planners
• Non-Fiction Books

Becoming a self-publishes author is easier than you might think.

4. Create an Online Course

What is your business good at? There is no reason any book can’t become an online course that you deliver via the net. Once you set it up, it’s passive because you don’t really have to do more than promote it for people to sign up.

How about a course on nutrition and why raw food is good for you when you’re trying to get healthy if you have a Juice shop?

Do you have a hobby that you’d like to switch to? Now is the perfect time.

You could teach so many things:

• Crocheting
• Painting Techniques
• Musical Instruments
• How to Take Pictures That Showcase Your House (this is needed right now, I’ve been looking at houses and very few that list their own house add more than one image of the house!)
• How To Change a Filter in Your Heat Pump
• Grooming Your Dog

These are just a few. Right now most people don’t want others in their house unless it is absolutely necessary and so they’re doing tasks that they normally wouldn’t do. So teach them how.

5. Start a YouTube Channel

Another way to get extra money is to start recording what you do. My brother fixes heating and air conditioners and if he would record what he does to diagnose the problem and then the steps to fix it – this would help so many people.

To do this set up a camera and make sure you notify customers that they may be recorded and used on YouTube to get the legalities out of the way.

Then just record the day, edit down to just a few minutes and post.

You could also just record a “Day in the Life” because people love watching that type of video. That’s why reality TV is so popular, and YouTube is so lucrative.

YouTube has tons of different niches that do really well. Here are a few:

• Cooking
• Fixing Things
• Making Crafts
• Teaching Kids (how to craft, how to crochet, etc)
• Exercise (yoga, barre, most classes)
• DIY Projects
• Blogging / Business

That is the tip of the iceberg of what you can do on YouTube.

There is so much technology that you can bring your offline products and services online or offer something that can be sold online to help you through these times.

Adding passive income to any business just requires some thought about what the business is really selling, who they’re selling to, and why they’re doing it. When you get into all that you can find some unique ways to add to your bottom line.

~April

P.S. Check out my Time To Think Outside the Box For Your Offline Business blog post to get more ideas.

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