I’m a Nutrition Pro, but I don’t like consulting! How can I have other income streams?
Here’s a question that I received from a member of a Facebook group I used to be a moderator of.
We were chatting offline and here’s what she revealed,
“I need to come clean about something… I’m a CHN (Certified Holistic Nutritionist*) and I don’t like consulting directly with clients!
I don’t feel like I’m even good at it, and I’m pretty sure my clients sense this from me. I’ve even stopped looking for clients, but I don’t want to stop doing my job altogether – I can’t afford to!
How can I still make this whole nutrition business work if I don’t want to take clients?”
How a Health & Nutrition Pro Can Diversify Their Business with Multiple Income Streams
As a Nutrition Professional or other type of Wellness Business Owner, you’ve probably realized by now that you’re not going to make the kind of money you’ve always dreamed of simply by acquiring coaching clients and doing 1-on-1 consultations.
Trust me, my nutritional consulting practice was based solely on this model for many years, and the math never added up!
I was constantly trading hours for dollars.
Hey there skimmer! I sum all of this up in the vlog, including what additional income streams worked for me when I still had my nutrition consulting practice.
I don’t mean to burst any daydream bubbles you may have had about how profitable your wellness business was going to be when you were going through school or doing your coursework, but reality check time…
Just being a rockstar Health Coach or Nutritionist (which you are, of course!) is simply not going to be enough to bring in rockstar-level dollars.
That’s why I eventually moved my business online in 2015, added in group programs and e-products, and haven’t looked back.
Even if you still practice in your nutrition business 100% offline, it’s my strong belief that you need to have elements of your business online – and you need to be generating multiple streams of income.
The same thing could be said of other Health Professionals & Wellness Entrepreneurs who might typically have a physical practice or clinic or work in a gym and/or yoga studio setting.
As a Health & Nutrition Professional or Wellness Entrepreneur, multiple streams of income aren’t just a nice option, they’re necessary if you want to achieve real financial success.
In fact, did you know that the average 7+ figure income earner has 7 different sources of income?!
Now, I’m not saying you should go out and pull in seven completely different ways of generating income into your business, especially all at once!
Just choose ONE THING that you can really get behind, learn it, master it, and do it well.
Then, when you’ve nailed down your system for that ONE THING, consider bringing in another, and diversify your business using your tested system.
(by the way, systems are everything!)
Here are all the ways you could still work as a Health & Nutrition Professional… without relying on the 1:1 client model
When you try to stack individual clients, in order to meet a particular financial goal that you may have set for your business (or that your business needs to reach in order to be profitable) – it’s incredibly easy to get burnt out mentally, and otherwise.
Plus, in my experience, it doesn’t bode well financially either. I mean, have you ever really crunched the numbers on 1:1 consulting? As I said, they just don’t add up!
Here’s a great illustration of this point…
The Wellness Business Hub details it here >> How to Price Your Online Health Services & Programs
PRICING EXAMPLE: The “one and done” model = single consult with 1-2 follow-ups
Yearly Revenue Goal: $100,000 (this is not net profit because you need to factor in website fees, banking fees, accounting fees, advertising, cell phone, internet, insurance, licenses, home office, etc.)
Initial Consult: $250
Follow-Up: $95
Client Value: $345
This means if you sold nothing else and just saw clients, you would need about 290 clients per year (who sign up for – at minimum – an initial consult + one follow-up session) to make $100,000 revenue.
Umm, well, that’s not happening!
Instead of 1:1 health coaching or nutrition consulting, here are some ideas for diversifying your wellness business – and your bottom line!
- Group coaching programs – self-study or guided
- Workshops or paid talks – they may start as free but should progress to paid
- Writer or blogger for hire – psst, this is how I got started doing what I now love 😉
- Put together a cookbook or write a health & wellness book – you can even repurpose your existing content to create this
- Sell physical products
- Digital/downloadable products
- Ad income through your website (although I would caution you to NOT muck up a beautiful website with distracting ads that could detract from the user/visitor experience)
- Sponsored blog posts/ad content
- Partner with a colleague whose target audience is similar to yours and offer a collaborative product or service
- Affiliate marketing – here are several of my affiliates
- Natural health product marketing and/or sales (your own “white label” or another brand’s that you love!)
- Membership site – in which you offer your premium content to members for a monthly fee (like THE WELL!!)
- Specializing in another niche or sector, like corporate wellness – sometimes a fresh environment and change of scenery is what’s needed to kickstart you back into the health business groove
- Online e-courses using a hosting platform like Namastream, Thinkific, Teachable or MemberPress Courses
Speaking of… watch for a newly refreshed course coming to The Well Premium in early 2021!
So, after learning the hard way for the first few years into my nutrition consulting practice, I stopped relying on my 1:1 client work and eventually added in workshops (some free, and then eventually some paid), as well as created a women’s hormone health group program that I collaborated with a Naturopath on and ran locally.
This was a real game-changer for my offline physical practice.
Then, once I brought my nutrition business 100% online (after a short-lived attempt at running a smoothie bar *eyeroll*), I started selling digital products, including meal plans created with That Clean Life for Business, as well as e-guides – usually focused on women’s health & hormones — my favourite topic!
Another consideration is this: when choosing which avenues you’re going to use to branch your business out with, don’t just choose things that you think you should be doing because it seems like everyone else is doing it with some success.
Ahem, essential oil lovers, I’m glancing in your aromatic direction! Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t get into an EEO (or other direct marketing biz), but just do what feels good, and what you feel aligned with – personally, and in your wellness business.
Choose additional streams of income that you can, and will regularly and consistently show up for to diversify your Health & Wellness business. The passion must follow you in each income stream!
In choosing exactly which direction to go, Entrepreneur Coach John Spencer Ellis offers this advice,
“What skills are you most sought out for? What do you absolutely love doing? Consider your main business venture for a minute, and identify the skills you use that have been generating the most income.
If you’re a coach, clients might come to you for your expertise in a particular area, your ability to listen, or your penchant for tough love.
Once you can identify the personal quality that most easily translates into dollar signs, you can repackage those skills to create multiple income streams.”
For me, in the end, that has been WRITING.
How have you branched out in your business and diversified… with multiple income streams?
PLEASE SHARE WITH ME!