I met with some really interesting people this week and had several conversations about alternate income streams.  It’s challenging to be a small business owner in that your time is limited to, well, to your time.  There are so many things you could be doing and so many ways you can drive your business that it can become frustrating trying to find the “right” options.

Regardless of whether you are a single consultant, an owner with 5 employees, or a company with a larger staff, you are limited in the time available to get the work done.  There are only so many hours in a day.  With this in mind, you may want to do a simple exercise to help sort out your priorities. 

Consider your potential income streams and the available resources, and test out some options.  If you have an annual revenue goal in mind and you are finding your current plan to get there is falling short of your hopes, you may want to think about making small changes now.  For example, maybe you had $1,000,000 in revenue last year.  Things were looking up in the fourth quarter, so you projected that you would sell $1,150,000 in 2010.  We’re nearing the end of the first quarter now, and maybe you are on track to sell $240,000 for the quarter.  Don’t despair, but consider reviewing your plan for areas to improve.

You might discover that the “cash cow” from 2009 is looking a little anemic so far this year, but there is a new product taking off.  If you shift your advertising focus to the growth product you may be able to move back into a growth mode overall.  Or perhaps you’ve invested some time in social media and now have a fan base on-line.  An occasional special discount to this group may result in increased sales as well as growth in your fan base.

If there are no obvious adjustments, however, you may need to think bigger.  Is a product line expansion feasible?  Maybe you could find a company offering a complimentary service and partner with them to expand sales for both companies?  Have you considered conducting webinars or speaking engagements?  Haven’t you always wanted to write a technical book about the work you love?  OK, maybe a book is a bit ambitious, but there are options out there just waiting to be found.