Salutations, friend! Securing corporate clients can seem like a daunting task. In actuality, corporate clients and revenue streams are all around us. In today's conversation, we dive into different corporate revenue streams and what those can look like. This conversation will encourage you to see that there isn't a shortage of opportunities for you to secure corporate clients. There's room at the table. Hit play and settle in, friend. Let's get started.
🎯 Top Takeaway from Today's Episode
Whether you're a candle maker, a personal finance coach, chef, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultant, or anything in between, there is a corporate contract available for you.
📌 Key Points from the Episode
Three Major Categories of Revenue Streams
📊 Statistics You Need to Know
💡 Take Action
Find an example of a company that provides similar or the same services as you that serves a corporate audience.
🔗 Links
✍🏾 Sign up for the Corporate Coins Training: How to Attract, Sell and Serve Corporate Clients training
💌 Be a part of our growing email list: Co(i)nversations & Community
👋🏽 Connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram!
🌟 Leave us a review and a 5-star rating: The Profit Scale Podcast
0:00:07 Salutations, friend! Welcome to The Profit Scale podcast, where we help independent Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs earn at their highest levels by learning how to secure corporate contracts.
I'm your host, Ruth-Joy Connell, your Corporate Consultant and Sales Enablement Expert. I'm on a mission to equip you with the systems and strategies you'll need to build a business of generational impact and income.
Around here, we bring culture and coins together — providing all the learning, community and support you'll need as you scale your business. If you're ready to step into your next level of income and impact, then you, my friend, are in the right place!
Turn up the volume and lean in, ‘cause we're about to get started!
0:01:01 Salutations, friend! Welcome back to another episode of The Profit Scale. These conversations are honestly one of my favorite parts of the week, and even though I know I say it every time, I'm excited for today's conversation.
I recently returned home from a trip to England where my husband and I had traveled for a wedding, a friend's wedding. Even though it was my second time in the city, this time around was a way more enjoyable experience for me.
The first time we went to England, it was my husband and I's first time traveling together outside of our honeymoon. We were still learning how to travel with one another. It turns out we have very different travel styles. Unfortunately, we learned that the hard way, through a lot of clashing on that trip. Going back this time around, when we're both a little older and know ourselves and each other a lot better made for a genuinely amazing trip.
One of the things that I truly love about London is that their public transportation system is exceptionally well-developed. Whether you're taking the bus, the Tube, or the light rail, it's pretty easy to get around there. While I was there, I planned to meet up with a friend in town.
On that day, I ended up taking the Tube. This was my first time traveling on the Tube by myself throughout London. Again, this trip was very different from the last one. As I was going to my platform, I decided to take the elevator down or the lift, as they would say. I had my headphones in. I was listening to music. As I'm waiting for the doors to close, I happened to look up at the panel above the elevator door. I noticed it said "ThyssenKrupp," which is the name of the company that makes the elevators.
Because of the nature of my work, I tend to take note of brands and company names everywhere I go. ThyssenKrupp is one that I see often. They made the elevators in the previous building I used to work in. That was the first time that I noticed them because they had their service truck that would come whenever the elevator breaks down. That was how I became familiar with that brand. They also serviced the escalators in many of the malls that I visited while I was living in Bangkok, and here they were again, carrying me to my platform in London.
As I got off the elevator and I walked to my platform, I took note of the company that made the benches. I looked for the company name on the trash bin. I also looked to see if I could find a company name for the speakers that were on the platform. Each one of those items were made by different companies, and that meant the creation of this one train system created millions of dollars in revenue for each of those companies, from the speaker system, to the elevators, to the benches, to something as simple as trash bins. These were all contracts that these companies had secured and proof that corporate contracts are available everywhere. You just have to look to find them.
0:04:13 This experience made me think about you, the business owner that feels that corporate contracts are out of your reach or that you're not "big enough to work with larger corporations," or perhaps, you do, in fact, want to serve corporate clients, but you don't know where to begin or how to add corporate clients while still serving your existing customers.
In either case, today's conversation is curated especially for you. The fact is you're leaving thousands of dollars in revenue on the table if you're not serving corporate clients.
Corporations have the money set aside to procure the services they need. That means someone is going to get the contract. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of who. Why can't it be you?
Today, I want to open your eyes to the possibilities available to you by showing you the different types of corporate revenue streams that are out there. Whether you're a candle maker, a personal finance coach, a chef, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultant, or anything in between, there is a corporate contract available to you.
I'm going to walk you through the three major categories of revenue streams, but we're also going to break down the sub-categories that fall into each of them. As we go through, I want to challenge you to tap into your imagination and apply it to each category to broaden your perspective on what's possible for you.
Let's jump in.
0:05:44 All right, the first category we're going to cover is the category of services. Again, this is a broad category, but let's get a little deeper into it.
Services are anything that requires your labor and expertise in real-time in order to deliver results for your clients. In most cases, you're offering some sort of Done-For-You (DFY) solution to your clients. As simple as it sounds, it's selling the services you currently offer to corporations. It can be that simple.
Some examples of what this can look like are consulting, coaching, executive coaching, speaking, live workshops or training. If you are a masseuse, that could mean selling your massage packages for corporate retreats, selling your services as an event planner, copywriter or website or graphic designer, and so on. I think you understand what I mean here.
The beautiful thing about services is that they don't take much time to set up, especially if you're already offering them to consumers. You can very easily secure corporate clients using the exact same services, systems and processes you have set up right now.
For this reason, this makes it a great entry point into serving corporate clients because you already have the infrastructure in place to deliver. Some of the factors that will help you thrive offering services include good communication with your clients, systems and processes to help you gauge the scope of work and timeline, and a way to showcase the results or outcomes your clients receive. That's the first main category: services.
If you currently offer services as your main form of revenue in your business, then consider this category as a starting point for landing your first or next corporate client.
0:07:35 Licensing refers to something that you've already created and that you're giving your clients permission to use. This can also be something that you create specifically for a specific client that you then license out to them or to other clients. Often, you're licensing your Intellectual Property (IP) in the form of a digital course, curriculum, process, software or code. These are just some examples for you to think about.
Licensing is a fantastic way to create recurring revenue because often you've already created the product and are simply giving them access to use it without having to recreate it. Licensing is a great way to secure multi-year contracts with the same company. The minimal nature of the work makes it easier to expand your client base and scale your revenue while keeping your costs minimal.
A brilliant example of leveraging your existing Intellectual Property through licensing is with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Financial Peace University is an online course created by Dave Ramsey to help people get out of debt. You, as an individual, can go online and purchase a one-year license to that program in the form of a digital course, but they also license this course out to larger companies to include in their benefits packages, allowing them to leverage the same consumer product to secure big money with corporations and organizations.
I believe licensing is a revenue stream that every small business owner should take advantage of, but it's not necessarily the easiest place to start with corporate contracts.
0:09:17 Leveraging your Intellectual Property (IP) in this way requires you to have mastered your expertise. That way, you're delivering companies a proven and tested finished product and not one that's still being refined.
Licensing is something I also highly recommend you use a lawyer for. If not done correctly, you could end up giving away more than just access to your IP. Partnering with a lawyer to look out for the best interest of your company is a necessary investment when adding this type of revenue stream to your business.
Lastly, a few other things to consider with licensing include where and how you're going to share your IP, granting and limiting access to it, maintenance and updating the materials, and whether you or your clients will be responsible for the digital security. These are just some of the things to consider, and again, more reasons why I highly recommend partnering with a lawyer when you're ready to add licensing into your business. Let's take a look at the third and final category.
0:10:21 Hey friend, so you know when you were younger and you found out that the popular kid in school was having a party, but then you realized that you weren't invited to the party. Everyone you knew was going to be there. Then, you're like, "Who cares? I don't want to go anyways," but secretly you wanted to go. This is kind of like that, except you're invited.
I want to personally invite you to join me for our exclusive Corporate Coins Training. If you're an avid listener to the podcast, then you already know that here we cover all things serving corporate clients, but this workshop takes everything you're already learning to a whole new level.
During this free training, I'll be walking you through the framework, of course, for how to attract, sell to, and serve corporate clients while also diving into the coins and culture to address the challenges that we specifically face in these environments as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs.
This training is interactive. It's high-energy, industry-leading content, jokes and laughter, and of course, it's a safe space for us to come together, have real conversation, and for you to be supported on your journey.
Here's the catch: there is no replay.
You either come live or you miss it. This, my friend, is why you're going to want to make sure you register for this training and mark it on your calendar. The training, of course, is free, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an investment required. The investment is your time — that's it. You bring you, and I'll meet you there with everything else you'll need.
To get all the details and to register for the free training, just click the link in the show notes to save your spot. Trust me! You'll be glad that you did.
All right, friend. Back to the episode.
0:12:12 The last category of corporate revenue streams is products. This is when you provide a physically manufactured product to a corporation in exchange for money. Of course, there are digital products as well, but I would include those under the licensing category. Ideally, you would be selling them a license to access your digital resources instead of your clients owning them.
With a physical product, your clients are purchasing them to own or keep and to use as they see fit for the most part. You might also rent out certain things if you are selling or manufacturing equipment, so that's also an option. For the most part, you are selling an item for your customer to use, own and keep as they would like.
If you create physical products as your business model, consider this category your corporate revenue stream. An example of this is a colleague of mine who creates candles. She owns a physical candle store where you can go in and purchase candles for your home, gifts for friends, or even just for yourself. She also, though, targets wellness corporations to provide them with gift baskets that they can provide as corporate gifts to their employees and clients. What is in those gift baskets? You might be thinking to yourself. Her candles, of course.
This is another example of leveraging your existing business model, your existing products, your existing expertise into a larger market. She has taken a product she has already created, has already seen success with, and has found a corporate market that aligns with her existing product. She isn't reinventing the wheel or creating a new offer or product. She's using what she already has and what she is already an expert at creating, and finding a higher paying, high-value client who's looking for the solution she offers.
Another common example I've seen with my clients is pairing a physical product with a service. Many authors will often pair their books with their coaching, consulting or training services, so the company is purchasing both their time and their expertise in the form of a speaking engagement, but also in the form of a physical book. This is a great way to provide a lasting resource for your clients and to increase the value of your offering and the amount of coins you walk home with, if I do say so.
I've given some examples here, but at the end of the day, whatever the physical product is that you create, that's what I want you to have in mind as you're listening. There are so many possibilities depending on the exact product you create, and as I mentioned earlier, there's also the ability to pair your product with a license or with a service. At the end of the day, there is a corporate market for what you're selling.
0:15:03 I often think about a website that I came across years ago. It was centered around helping families afford Disney vacations. It wasn't a single blog post either. The entire website was centered around solving this one problem for families. Now, this was a few years back, so unfortunately, I can't remember the name of his website. I've tried to search it up a few times, but I can't seem to remember what it was called. What I do remember is that he included affiliate links all throughout his website as ways for him to monetize the resources he was sharing. They were links to places that offered discounts like hotels, motels, memberships, credit card offers, etc. Even though the blog posts themselves were free information for his audience, he had a mechanism built in that would allow him to generate revenue based on the resources he was recommending.
The other thing I remember was that it wasn't just standard discounts, like a 5% or a 10% discount. They were specific packages unique to families who were traveling and trying to afford Disney vacations. You could tell that these were ones he negotiated with the hotels and car rental companies to create packages that were unique to the audience he was targeting. I loved that, and I wish I could find the link to it to share it with you guys. Hopefully, I find it again in the future and I'll share it on social media. For now, it's just an example, so keep this in mind. If someone can create an entire business around this one problem, let me assure you that there is a corporate market for your expertise, regardless of the category that it may fall into.
0:16:47 Now that we've gone through all three categories, let's bring them all together. If we look at the first two categories alone, services and licensing in the corporate world, these fall under the general bracket of professional services. This is a multi-billion dollar market. Billion with a B.
According to a study done by Yahoo Finance, the global professional services market is expected to grow from $6 trillion in 2021 to $6.6 trillion in 2022, up to $9 trillion, $600 billion, and the number is too big for me to even say properly, by 2026. Of that number, North America accounts for 33.4% of the global market, making it the largest market segment for professional services.
There are quite literally millions of dollars being exchanged for services at any point in time. What does this mean for you? These numbers highlight an important truth — that the money is available and will be spent.
Remember earlier in our conversation, I said, "It's not a matter of if corporations are willing to spend the money, it's a matter of who they will spend their money with." These numbers are proof of that. How do you go about claiming a piece of that multi-trillion dollar pie for yourself? Well, selling to corporations requires a willingness to be visible and to show up with consistency.
A lot of the businesses who are winning these contracts are not necessarily better than you in what they offer. They're just showing up and being intentional to put themselves in the running.
Many small business owners count themselves out. The number one reason is impostor syndrome — a belief that you are not qualified, that your business is not big enough, that you haven't been in business for long enough, or some other variation of this lie that keeps you from taking hold of the opportunities that are available to you.
Yes, having the tactics behind where to find corporate buyers, how to close sales and negotiate contracts, and speak the language, all those things are important. If you keep listening to this podcast, we're going to touch on all of them. Here's the thing: None of this will matter unless you believe that you deserve these opportunities and until you're willing to show up for them.
More than strategy or tactics, my hope for this episode is that you would walk away seeing the opportunities available to you and believing that you are deserving and capable of securing them.
0:19:33 All right, friend. Let's recap our conversation today and talk about how we can convert this conversation to coins.
I started off today's conversation using a story to paint a picture for you of the opportunities that are available through corporate contracts. That led us to discussing three key categories of corporate revenue streams.
We also realized that the professional services industry alone is a multi-trillion dollar industry, meaning that somewhere in some market, there are corporate contracts with your name on them. As you know, our conversation is never complete without talking about how to take action on our conversations. Today is no different.
Your action item for today is to find an example of a company that provides similar or the same services as you that serves a corporate audience. A simple way to do this is by starting within your network, speaking to industry peers or asking your peers to connect you with someone they may know who fits the bill.
Remember: You're not looking for clients here. The goal of this action item is to solidify your belief by taking today's conversation from a theoretical concept to a tangible reality in your mind. Get to work and share with me what you find. Send me a message on LinkedIn, and let's chat. There are so many creative ways to work with corporations. I would love to know what you find out there.
0:21:04 If you found today's conversation helpful and you want to learn more about how we can help you secure corporate clients, I want to invite you to our free training, Corporate Coins: How to Attract, Sell and Serve Corporate Clients.
This free training is designed to walk you through both the mindset and the mechanics of attracting and successfully closing corporate deals. I've designed this training, so that whether you're brand new to this or you're looking to land your biggest contract yet, you'll be leaving this training with the path forward to your next level of income and impact, whatever that may mean for you. You can go ahead and register for the training by clicking the link in our show notes. It's completely free. I would love to see you there.
Friend, if you're not subscribed already, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast. Do it now because, in the next episode, we're going to be talking all about where to find your first or next corporate client. Today was an introduction, an appetizer, if you will. In the next episode, we're getting into the meat and bones of it.
To make sure you don't miss it, subscribe to the podcast, so you'll be notified in two weeks when the next episode is released.
As always, friend, I'm so grateful that you chose to spend this time with me. My hope is that each episode plays a small part in moving you one step closer to building a business that will have a generational impact.
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