“How can I increase my income without increasing my workload or overhead?”

At first glance, most business people would say there’s no way they could do that, however, the reason has more to do with their perception of the situation than actual reality.

The typical response to this question is that, in order to increase business, one has to either hire more people, work longer hours, or in some other way, add to the costs of operating the business.

This is simply not true.

Over the course of two decades, I have helped hundreds of businesses increase their revenue without adding to their work load or increasing the cost of running the business.

This is why I’ve repeatedly said,

“If you’re in business or sales and are not working with a coach you’re leaving money on the table.”

Almost any business can add revenue by becoming more creative in their thinking, learning to use a technique known as “powerful questions” and changing their focus.

Client brainstorming meeting

One of the best techniques I’ve used with my business coaching clients is inquiry. Simply put, this is a process of using laser focused questions to elicit responses that are radically different from your usual line of thinking.

For example, I was recently sitting in a medical office waiting for a friend to complete his follow up visit from a recent surgery. If this doctor wanted to increase her income, the obvious response would be to attract more patients, however, this would also mean performing more surgery. Not the result we’re looking for.

By changing the question to something like, “What can do to I increase my income without having to work more hours?” we are giving our creative, right brain hemisphere a new challenge, one which it will happily accept. With her creative brain fully engaged in providing a solution, as a result of the more focused question, she will begin to see other possibilities.

In this case, since there was a lot of unused office space, adding complementary services performed by someone else, would accomplish the same thing.

An author wanting to add more revenue without having to work longer hours would use a similar question which may result in discovering new foreign markets where they could license the translation rights, explore alternative distribution channels, offer the material in different formats, and so on, increasing their revenue potential without adding to their workload.

A former client of mine had created a series of training videos. During one of our coaching sessions we were brainstorming possible sales and distribution channels. The result from this one session was an idea that was to generate an additional six figures in income annually from the core product.

To help you get started, here are two of my favorite business questions:

- What new markets are there for my existing products and services?

For example, Arm and Hammer Baking Soda went from something only bakers used, to a product that most people are using as a deodorant in their refrigerator.

- What new products can I market to my existing customers?

Once again we can look to Arm and Hammer who took their sleepy little baking soda and created an entire line of products from it, including the Cat Litter we use.

Using the questions above, what new income producing ideas can you come up with?

Get your team together and brainstorm these questions. Breakthrough ideas come from simple inquiry.

And, as I suggested above, if you are not working with a coach for your business you are leaving money on the table.

While you may know that I offer business coaching services, you may not know that I only work with a small number of people at any given time so, if you are interested in having me as your coach, don’t hesitate. Contact our office now.