ADDING PASSIVE PRODUCTS TO YOUR SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS

I used to design custom wedding invitation packages. I worked extensively with brides to bring their vision to life with completely custom products. It was the most rewarding thing, feeling their excitement as each new piece was coming to life better than they even hoped. Even though I produced a product, it was very service heavy. I learned just how hard it is to scale like this without adding passive products to your service based business.

"There is no alternative to digital transformation. Visionary companies will carve out new strategic options for themselves — those that don’t adapt, will fail." -Jeff Bezos

I’ve noticed an increase in the number of people that already have a service based business that want help adding digital or physical products to their existing business to increase their bottom line without increasing their workload. It's hard to scale when you're trading time for money. So I thought I’d share a few tips if you’re considering this in your business.

The most important thing is to make sure you stick to products that make sense for your brand. When you start to veer off your path, selling a random hodgepodge of products, people will assume you’re in it only for the money. But let's say you own a bakery, you could have shelf stable products like some canned jams or jellies, some adorable tea towels, & a cute butter knife, that you have staged as a gift set. When your customers come in to buy some fresh bread or cookies, they can easily add on to their sale with the curated items that make sense for you to sell. It gives them a quick gifting option or care package for a friend. If you are a masseuse, you could sell essential oils, eye masks, lotions, electrolytes, and other self care products. You just need to think through what makes sense for your business & brand.

The next thing is to remember that you'll have great success if you can solve a problem for your customers. For example, I go to an amazing acupuncturist. I’m always asking her to write an ebook with her top tips- for pain press here, for nausea, try this. She has so much knowledge. I wish I could bottle everything she knows into an “ask Heidi” app. For her business, she could create a Fullscript account for her Chinese remedies and set up “protocols” for common ailments: if you have a cold, get these things....if you have nausea or bloating, get these. Her customers could order from her link and another company ships the products to her customers. She wouldn’t have to manage anything. I would buy what she recommends during my in-person visit plus I'd add on other preventives to have on hand in case I get sick. And her only effort is setting things up originally. This would help solve a problem for me, cause I could stock my cabinet early (when you get sick, you need things now) and it has the added benefit of helping her as well. She would also have less customer requests for basic things that don't need her immediate attention, giving her more time to focus on more important things.

The next thing is to make sure you have everything accessible from your own website. It gives you a central location to send people to. You can then post a qr code on your wall and remind everyone they can always get links to anything you offer through that link. And you need to make sure that everything you offer points people back to you. Put your link on every piece of content or product you offer. If you create digital products, consider thinking through a longer strategy of building out a funnel, where you always add another offer at the end of your first one.

Lastly I would diversify. Recently we saw a large collagen subscription company go out of business overnight without any warning. I saw several influencers that relied on them as their main source of income struggle. If you think of your business in layers, you can get one source of income set up at a time. If your main thing is going smoothly, you can think through which additional thing you'd like to add that would make the most impact on your business, then spend some time getting it set up properly before starting the next one. But each layer starts to add up & really make a difference to your bottom line....all while you were helping your customers more.

Also, I know we all cringe at the idea of coming off salesy or pushy. But if you think about it from a customers perspective, whether it's the bakery, the masseuse, or the acupuncturist example- we go to them because they are great at what they do. If any of them said, "well if you like this or are struggling with this, you might want to try this other thing also," we trust their recommendation. They have more exposure to their topic & that makes their opinion even more valuable. How many times has a friend said, "oh my goodness, you HAVE to try this jam! I've never tasted anything better," and you try it just based on their review? It's the same concept, except as a business owner, your customer looks to you as an expert in your area and that earns you a lot of trust. (as long as you don't waste it on bad products.)

We all have the ability to create our own unique businesses. With some intentional thought & planning, you can build things up slowly while you're continuing with your main service-based focus so that it's not too overwhelming. Just add one thing at a time & your efforts will compound over time

Warmest regards,

P.S. I do go over more of this inside the membership in case you want additional guidance. As always, feel free to reach out with questions anytime.