One of the downsides of any business based on fee-per-service is that your income is limited to the number of billable hours you can work. For that reason, you should consider a business model that allows you to generate income over and above your professional fees.

This may involve the creation and sale of your own products. Digital information products such as e-books or downloadable audio recordings are an excellent choice, because you don’t need to worry about production costs, inventory, or shipping. Once you’ve created your product and set it up for sale on your website, your work is done, and your only ongoing expense will be the fees for your shopping cart system.

For shopping cart services, I recommend Practice Pay Solutions. In addition to automating the sale and delivery of your products, you can use it to send out your e-newsletter or a series of follow-up emails to be sent to customers at regular intervals after they’ve bought your product. You can also use it to set up and manage an affiliate program, where you can increase your sales by having others promote your products for you in exchange for a share of the purchase price. As a Certified Shopping Cart Specialist, I’ll be happy to help you select the package that best suits your needs, and to help you get things set up as well.

If you don’t require all the features offered by Practice Pay Solutions, E-Junkie is an excellent alternative.

To generate ideas for your information product, take a look at what you’ve done already. Have you written blog posts or articles that could be worked into an e-book? Have you delivered teleclasses of which you could sell the recordings? If you’ve ever prepared a presentation, seminar, or workshop, how difficult would it be for you to develop that material into an e-book?

In addition to supplementing your income, it’s also nice to be able to offer a less expensive alternative to clients who can’t afford to pay for your personal services.

If you’d like to create your own information product but would like some assistance with the process, you should check out the new program being offered by A Red Bench. The Six Month Become An Infopreneur Program includes all of the following:

• Monthly teleclass
• Templates, checklists and launch materials
• Personal coaching in a small group environment (the class is limited to 10 participants)
• Monthly Master Mind sessions
• Access to private Facebook group
• Audio recordings and transcripts of each teleclass
• Private weekly accountability journal
• Special discounts on other Red Bench events
• Promotion of your products on the Red Bench website

Be sure to register as soon as possible! Not only is the class size limited, but the price will be going up after October 1st.

If you’re not ready to develop your own product, you can still earn some passive income by promoting other people’s products. Here are just a few products created by professional organizers who would be just thrilled to have you become an affiliate:

• Neat & Simple – Paper and home office organizing guides by Ariane Benefit
• Organizing Connection – step-by-step organizing videos created by Kim Eagles and Elaine Shannon
• Get Organized Now – various organizing guides for the home and office by Maria Gracia

There are many others! Whenever you find a product you like and you think would benefit your clients, blog readers, or website visitors, check to see if they offer an affiliate program. You’re probably going to recommend it anyway, so why not earn some extra income for your time and effort?

Having multiple streams of income will not only supplement your earnings now, but if done successfully, can help fill the gaps when business is slow or you need to take some time off.