Why Alternative Revenue Streams are Important for Small Businesses

We have all heard the saying "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." This saying is especially true if you are a small business owner. If you have only one service, or just one product to sell, your potential customer base is exponentially smaller than if you had two products, or two services.

How you attract new customers must be multi-dimensional as well. There are many established practices for bringing in new customers or new sales including marketing and advertising, inside and outside sales teams, and the like. If you have ever participated in these activities, you know how expensive it can be to find the right vendor to deliver the best bang for your buck.

Most small business owners would agree that some, if not all, of these services are beyond their budget. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising. For a small business earning $100,000 a year to start, $7,000 - $8,000 is a LOT of money. Typically, a small business will skimp on marketing and advertising, ultimately reducing revenue.

This is why it pays to diversify your revenue streams. More than having multiple products or services to offer potential clients, a small business must consider alternate ways to bring in new sales, as well as cost-saving techniques to save cash wherever possible.

Fortunately, there is an alternative revenue stream to consider...

Ask yourself this: "What if I could use my product or service as payment for marketing, advertising, sales and purchasing?" Well, you can, if you engage with a nationally recognized, reliable B2B trade exchange like International Monetary Systems, or IMS.

IMS acts as an additional sales and marketing team for your products or services. These sales professionals, called Brokers, advertise and market your business to all of the other businesses participating in the exchange. These other businesses, or new customers, purchase your excess products or services at full retail price using an alternative monetary unit known as "trade dollars".

The value in earning trade dollars is that although you still earned the same value for your product or service when you sell it, when you go to purchase a product or service through the exchange, you do so at your wholesale cost.

Here is what I mean: You sell your product or service at $1,000. Your profit on that sale was $500. You buy an advertising promotion for $1,000. In the normal course of business, it cost you $500 to earn that $1,000, and you still spent $1,000 cash.

Through IMS, you sell your product or service for $1,000, but when you go to purchase that $1,000 advertising package, it only costs you your original investment of $500 to buy, as you have used your trade dollars to purchase the advertising package instead of cash. In this scenario, you have saved $500, still received advertising attracting new customers, thus increasing revenue.

There are many ways to save valuable cash reserves through the IMS payment platform. Travel expenses, printing, vehicle maintenance, signage, building maintenance, office equipment and supplies, personal expenses, professional services such as lawyers, accountants, dentists and doctors, to name a few.

IMS is changing the way the world does business^TM by turning small business' excess product and time into an alternative revenue stream.