- This post is a collaboration with Twill, but all thoughts and experiences are my own
Many self-employed people, like myself have a number of income streams and try to diversify how to make money. Building and scaling up a business has been really challenging in the past few years but having all your eggs in one basket is also a risk!
My plans include expanding to sell physical products and this will mean that I need to work with a company like Twill who are the experts in custom clearances. Twill will be able to facilitate an effortless and secure custom process for me, ensuring my products go exactly where they need to in a global market. The Twill Go Global campaign can help with the transition to operating globally and this is a step I can’t wait to take!
Since I left teaching I would call myself someone with a portfolio career. I get bored quite quickly and like to have new challenges and I am not afraid to invest in myself and my business to secure another income stream. In recent years I have taken a number of courses, the two most significant have been an Executive Coaching Course (level 7) and also an online course on how to build a thriving membership.
Today I make money from a little bit of tutoring, lots of blog coaching, our Hobby to Heyday membership, freelance writing and of course the direct income generated from my blogs.
In this post, I am sharing some of the most important lessons that I have learned about scaling up a business and sharing my future plans too!
I have, in the past, already explored drop shipping and some buying and selling. Therefore I would like to build on this but with a more structured and organised approach.
However, before we get to that point let’s look at how I diversified as a blogger. The question I am always asked is how do bloggers make money? There are a number of ways that bloggers can make money which include selling advertising on their websites. I do this through a global company called Mediavine, they pay bloggers who receive a large amount of traffic and the more traffic the more you earn!
Secondly, bloggers make money by collaborating with brands on sponsored content. This is essentially promoting the brand to the blogger’s audience. It can also help with a brand’s SEO presence.
Thirdly bloggers can make money by recommending services or products to their readers. Bloggers can add affiliate links to their content and if a reader clicks through and purchases the product the blogger receives a commission.
Blogs can also showcase the blogger for many other opportunities that include public speaking, being an expert in their niche or writing for other publications. All of these are chargeable services and add extra income streams.
Scaling up a business
I expanded my business into coaching bloggers and creating the thriving membership Hobby to Heyday. Coming from a teaching background this was a natural step for me and I invested in myself and undertook the extensive executive coaching course that has enabled me to learn and practise the art of coaching which I use alongside my 12 years of teaching experience.
These days I offer a 1:1 package and I also co-run the membership which teaches the techniques and mindset needed to make a good income from blogging. We deliver a monthly masterclass, plus weekly Q&A’s and our highly successful job board. The job board shares £1000’s of paid opportunities every single month and our bloggers report making more money than ever after joining us. You can find out more at Top Blog Coaching
Creating a membership at this time was important to me because, with the increasing cost of living, many families need a side hustle alongside their other income streams. I wanted to create a way for other bloggers to work flexibly from home and we have done that. We now have members from as far away as Quater and the US. We are already a global business and I’d like that to continue to grow.
I am actually going to a conference in Czechia later this year which is a great opportunity to promote the Hobby to Heyday membership and continue to build the brand.
Lessons I have learnt scaling up
- Be brave! You have to put yourself out there and believe in yourself and your business idea. Many people have an idea but don’t take the risk. I was already a successful blogger but knew I could replicate this and teach others how to do the same.
- Know your perfect client so that you create products that solve a problem for them. I built the membership as I am often asked by other bloggers how to make good money or more money from their blogs. I took a course on how to set up and run a membership – I had the content but not the systems in place. therefore the course gave me the steps I needed to build the platform and organise how I would deliver my course. I was able to identify the gap and I was right as had an amazing first launch!
- Be an expert in your niche, I have worked really hard to build up my reputation as a blogger myself. I have been doing this for 12 years and keep up to date with changes. Therefore I am seen by other bloggers and also PR’s as an expert. I ensure I deliver high-quality services and I have a clear messaging about how I can work with brands and also how I can upskill other bloggers so that they too can be successful.
- Outsource! If you want to upscale your business then you need to outsource so that you are working on your business not just in it. It can be easy to be busy doing the day-to-day but this leaves little time and energy to be strategic and think of ways to grow your business. I have VA how I have outsourced some tasks too, things like fixing my broken links, posting to social media for me and creating Google stories. This frees up enough time for me to be creative with the things I enjoy. For product-based businesses outsourcing the logistics can be more than worthwhile and not only will it become seamless it is one less thing to have to understand in your business.
- Invest in courses and learn new things. You don’t know what you don’t know but that shouldn’t be a barrier if you have ambition. Be a problem solver and your business can flourish.
The future
My next venture would be to offer subscription boxes to bloggers, stationery boxes are super popular and I’d be interested to expand this into boxes for bloggers as I know that this could appeal to a global community. I would source stationery items and business products that would inspire and motivate bloggers.
We have also run events for bloggers and again this is something we would like to do again, now that face-to-face is back up and running! We would like to offer a blogging retreat where a small group of bloggers take themselves away to work on their business for a couple of days. We would have time to work collaboratively and share ideas. A time to get laptops out and work but also to talk and be taught more by experts.
Choosing to have a portfolio career and ditch the traditional employment route has probably been one of the best decisions I have ever taken. If you can dream it then you can do it!
