When Andra and I launched our business in 2014, we shared with one another what our hopes and goals for our business would be. One goal we had was to avoid the financial peaks and valleys many small businesses naturally experience. 

Whether a small business is seasonal and naturally experiences busy seasons and slow seasons — or whether those peaks and valleys happen more organically or unexpectedly, our hope was to create as much financial consistency and predictability as possible. 

I’m excited to share, since our business began, we have been able to create such consistency. Like employees of an everyday business, we earn a salary by paying ourselves every other week — with an end-of-year bonus which can vary depending upon our yearly revenue. This consistency has given us peace of mind as business owners — something we deeply value. It has empowered us to focus on serving our clients well and wholeheartedly — and it has given us space to develop and grow our business, too.  

This week, I’m excited to share a few ways to generate revenue more consistently in your small business — creative ways to strengthen and expand your small business with purpose, so if you value consistency too, you can create a small business aligned with your values, vision, and goals. 

How to Generate Revenue More Consistently

As always, my disclaimer for this week’s episode is: Every small business is unique, and the beauty of being a small business owner is being able to use creativity to design your small business in a one-of-a-kind way, purposefully-aligned with your unique values and goals. 

Personally, we deeply value having consistency and peace of mind as business owners, so our decision-making is often led by those values. In Episode 011, Your Passive Income Action Plan, we share about how your values and vision for your business can help you to create building blocks within your business — and expand your business with purpose. 

If consistency and peace of mind feel aligned with your values, too, maybe you’ve found yourself wondering how you can avoid the peaks and valleys small businesses typically experience. This week, we’re excited to share a handful of approaches we personally recommend:

1. Understand the peaks and valleys your small business experiences. Before pursuing solutions, it’s essential to understand the problem — to have a well-rounded understanding of how your finances look within your business. At With Grace and Gold, use a bookkeeping system to view our accounts receivable and see upcoming payments we will receive from clients and customers. We’re able to see upcoming payments from 0-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, and 90+ days. By having a deep and well-rounded understanding of how our finances look for the months and year ahead, we can plan our year accordingly. We are then able to accurately say, “Booking X number of clients each month will sustain or grow our business and our cashflow.” So, if you’re wondering how to plan ahead, or how to better understand the peaks and valleys your business is currently experiencing, we recommend using a bookkeeping system, or hiring a bookkeeper, so you can examine the big picture and see opportunities for creating financial consistency within your business. 
2. Create payment plans for your clients and customers. Payment plans are truly helpful for clients and customers, because they make your services and products easier to pursue. For business owners, payment plans also help to create consistency — to help your business generate revenue over the course of several months. While it’d be nice to receive all of your payments at once or sooner than later, receiving recurring payments from clients and customers helps you to more accurately forecast and understand the revenue you can expect in the months to come. This natural rhythm creates consistency within your finances, because you aren’t able to pay yourself in bulk — but instead, you can pay yourself based upon the payments you receive each month. Which brings me to my next recommendation: 
3. Pay yourself less than what your business is bringing in. For solo entrepreneurs, it may be natural to simply pay yourself the revenue your business is bringing in. As a business partnership, we have a business bank account which pays us our salary every other week. Our salary is less than what our business brings in, not only because of monthly business expenses we need to honor, but also because we know we need to be prepared for the natural ebb and flow of bookings and sales all businesses experience. When we pay ourselves less than what our business brings in, we create peace of mind. As an example, we’re able to review our accounts receivable, knowing we can continue paying ourselves consistently, even if 0 bookings or sales were to occur for X number of months. Of course, this is an extreme example — but helps to show how creating a ‘buffer’ can help to create more consistency and peace of mind. Further, should you go on vacation, take a sabbatical, or go on maternity leave, you can rest assured you and your business will still earn money. 
4. Fill gaps with passive income opportunities within your business. Once you’ve created balance and have a better rhythm of payment plans and pay days, we recommend filling any gaps with passive income opportunities within your business — such as creating digital products. In Episode 011, Your Passive Income Action Plan, we share a wide variety of recommendations and resources for building passive income into your business with purpose. Here, we believe it’s essential to ensure any additional layers you add to your business are added with purpose. 
5. Fill gaps with passive income opportunities beyond your business. Perhaps you can sign up for an affiliate marketing program, become an affiliate for a fellow small business which has offerings complementary to your own, or run ads. There are a wide variety of creative ways to earn passive income beyond creating a new service or a new product within your own business. Whether you create a Resources page on your website, share recommended products with your newsletter audience, these passive ways to earn revenue can also help to fill in any gaps or missing pieces you may discover.

Today, we shared a handful of approaches we personally recommend for generating revenue more consistently — and avoiding the peaks and valleys commonly experienced by small businesses. We are so hopeful one or more of these approaches resonates with what you value and with what feels aligned with your business, vision, and goals.

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, and founders. Weekly, brief, actionable episodes will equip you to build a successful, sustainable small business. Since 2014, With Grace and Gold has provided award-winning custom brand and Showit web design and completely customizable Showit website templates for small businesses worldwide.