How to make £1000 more this month
In my last post, I talked about how to bring in £1-£100 extra fairly quickly. This was more about making mindset shifts than making life-changing sums of money. Read it here if you missed it.
In this post, we’re getting to sums that do make a real difference. What would an extra £1000 a month (or two) mean to you and your family? Would it give you more freedom to make the work you really want to make? If so, it’s worth being single-minded about this for a while, and working on your income.
Many of us focus on smaller sums because it feels easier, less to ask for. But do remember that it’s much easier to sell one service or product a month for £1000 than it is to sell 100 things for £10 or 1000 things for £1. In the higher price bracket, you only have to build a relationship with one person or organisation. To sell to 100 or 1000, you have to get far more people to know, like and trust you.
If you don’t already have a product or service priced at this level, or if you want to expand your offerings, start with research. What can you offer that would be really valuable, and who could you offer it to? Find your people, then ask them,
(And if you work in a field where a £1000 budget would be laughable, just add more zeros until this does feel worth investing some of your time.)
Some things to consider:
Find your tribe
If you haven’t done this already, consider your ideal clients, the people you enjoy working with, the kind of jobs you love to be commissioned for, the galleries and retail outlets you would love to partner with.
No idea? List the people you dislike working with, the red flags from clients, shops and galleries where you’d hate to see your work on show, or where their policies are unfair or restrictive. Now go look for the opposite.
Once you know who your people are, connect with them, tell them how you can help. Be hyper-specific, to make it easier for them to find you. Niche down.
You’re not trying to please everyone. You’re looking for the people who love what you do, or see that you can solve their problems. You won’t need to pester or push. You’ll just need to make warm invitations. If they’re your people, they will be eager to know more.
Do some research
Talk to ideal clients or to existing clients about their problems, their challenges. Reach out to brands, companies, galleries/retail outlets you like. Ask them what they need most, what’s keeping them up at night worrying.
Notice the language they use, and add that to your services, your marketing, your offers, your website. Too many of us sell the tools, the method, our time. Try to sell the result instead.
People don’t care what camera you use, or whether they’re getting a half or full-day shoot. They want gorgeous pictures for their website, taken by someone who understands what they do and what their customers want.
People don’t come to me for coaching. They come to finish their book, to talk about their art with confidence, to lead their team more gracefully, to overcome the perfectionism that stops them getting work out there. See the difference?
Call your agent, your manager, your stockists, your partners, your favourite clients. Ask them what they need most right now. What’s selling? What is changing? What trends are they noticing? How do they think you might adapt to that?
This is not about compromising your art. It’s about knowing who is looking for it, and how you get noticed by them. It also tells your business partners that you’re looking for more – and that you want to help them make more money, too.
Teach what you know
Consider workshops and mentorships as an income stream. We often forget how much we know. And how magical it can be to share it with others. Teaching, giving talks or lectures about our work also helps us clarify our thoughts, communicate more clearly. So we learn, too.
Your skills are transferable. So a film production designer could also teach sellers how to make their homes look inviting for buyers. An actor, singer or comedian knows a lot about holding an audience, owning the room, controlling nerves – all skills that people who are nervous about public speaking would love to learn.
Once you know what you’re doing, go premium with this. I have lots of clients who make £5-£20k from an intimate two-day workshop in a lovely setting. Could you do this too?
Find new partners
Seek out people or organisations who already have a big audience, following, customer base of your ideal clients. How might you help them or their audience – and grow yours?
This could be a free workshop or talk for their people, a guest post, a support slot on their show. Or perhaps they’ll host your event or workshop or offer your product/service to their audience in exchange for a cut of the sales?
Questions to ask here: what could you offer that would be valuable for them, or for their audience/fans/customers/members/followers? And what could you then offer this new audience that would bring in an extra £1000 for you?
Approach new clients/outlets
Set a weekly or monthly target, and just do it. Make a habit of this. You can’t control who says yes, but you can control how many offers you send out, how many new people you contact. Include organisations that feel way out of your league: they might say yes!
Use any feedback to home your message, improve your offers. Outreach is rarely easy. But focus on the difference it will make to your business, to have a few more clients, a few more outlets commissioning or selling your work. And remember you’re not always asking for work on first contact. You’re building a relationship, finding out what they actually need.
Once you have new clients or outlets, look after them. Stay in touch. You’re looking to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with people who will employ you or buy your art or services again and again.
Don’t neglect older work
Use your assets. Your past work should still be working for you. If you have product, prints, work for sale, mention it regularly. One post on Instagram isn’t selling anything. One post a month? Better.
Remember only a tiny percentage of the people that follow you will even see it, each time. Also you’re a professional, this is how you make a living. Your audience, fans, followers don’t have to buy from you. But if they object to you making offers, they’re not the people you need.
Run a sale/promotional offer if you have old stock. Mention your book, film, album, exhibition, project every year, on the anniversary of it being released, winning an award – whatever. If you actively look for opportunities to mention it, you’ll find them.
Celebrating a job you did 10 years ago might just remind someone how good you are – and lead to new work.
Check your capacity
If you have the time and energy to do more work, ramp up your marketing.Tell people what you do, loudly and clearly. Make sure all your socials, your website, and anything else you put into the world makes it clear how to book you, or buy your stuff.
Lots of people think they’re doing this, but when I ask them how I might buy that print they shared on their socials, or how I book them via their website – they realise it’s not as obvious as they thought. If you’re not sure, ask friends to take a look and tell you if they can see a clear path to spending money with you.
If you are fully booked, but exhausted and struggling, put up your prices. Do this client by client, if it makes you nervous. You might lose some people, but that’s OK.
Remember that if you double your prices and lose half your clients, your income will remain the same. You’ll also be left with the clients who really value what you do. And have more time and energy to find new ones!
Recurring income/retainers
Is there anything your audience, clients, ideal customers might need, over and over again? Offer it as a subscription or recurring service. Show them how you could make their lives easier, or more fun.
A website designer might also offer on-going maintenance for a monthly fee, for instance. A copywriter might offer seasonal updates.
If you have an audience or fan base, consider offering some kind of privileged access for a monthly fee. This could be a Zoom workshop or talk, a how-to video, an exclusive track, a paid newsletter: anything that gives your super-fans a closer window into your world, and brings you a steady extra income.
Explore other options
If you do have savings, make sure they’re working for you. Are your investments growing? Are your savings earning the best interest possible?
If you don’t have a financial cushion, is there anything you can do temporarily to earn or save a little more, and start building one? The freedom and security this gives you is worth some sacrifice!
Explore everything. Do you have equipment you can hire out? Would your home make a good shooting location? Do you have workshop space you don’t use, a spare room at home? Even a parking space you don’t use in the daytime or at weekends can bring in an income (there are now apps that match drivers with spaces).
Don’t over-think this.
And certainly don’t spend days crafting offers, making a new product, building a website or adding pages to your existing site. (Not unless this is something you can do quickly and easily.)
Test your idea first, as quickly as you can. Just call or email someone you think might want it, and offer it to them. If they’re not interested, ask what would make it attractive to them – then adjust your offer.
If you have a newsletter or a following on social media, tell your audience you’re running an experiment, and make an offer there. Be upfront and tell them you’re only going to make it if a certain number of people buy it. Then if you get interest, create it.
Play with this, make it fun if you can. And remember, there’s no failure – only data, useful information to help you craft something people will pay you for regularly.
Next Monday, I’ll send publish the final part of this income-focussed series: how to bring in an extra £10K or more. If you want to discuss how any of these ideas might apply to your specific business or situation, book an introductory coaching session with me. Or come to my next free group session in July (you’ll have to subscribe to my newsletter for that). And if you try any of the ideas above – let me know how it goes!
What do you think?