Nine Ways to Create New Revenue Streams

Listen to your customers: Top-flight customer service will help you ride out this recession. And sometimes it can help you figure out new business directions. Darrin Clement listened when some clients asked if they could license Maponics data to create their own maps rather than hiring Maponics to make them. Fears that this new revenue stream would cannibalize the old one proved unfounded. As a result, Maponics now counts Google(GOOG Quote), Trulia, Citysearch and Yellow Book USA as clients.

Equally important, be careful whom you listen to. After another client asked Maponics to create mapping-related software, Clement thought they would build it and customers would come. He quickly discovered the company wasn't meant to be a software company. "Thank God we didn't do it," says the CEO. "We would have had a bloated infrastructure and probably wouldn't have a market. We said this customer wants it, so we figured there would be many other businesses that fit that profile that would want it too. But they each wanted something different."

Do your research: Don't rely only on your existing customers to find new revenue streams. With advances in technology today, it's easier than ever to find out who's buying in your industry and target those people, says Tuchman, who is also founder TSE Sports & Entertainment, now a division of Premiere Global Sports. Then cold call them.

Test first: Before committing yourself and the whole company to a new product or service, test and retest it. Let the few who believe in the new idea own it and see if they can prove it. Depending upon your business, that could take weeks, maybe even a year. Make sure you have the fortitude to give those you've picked some breathing room before pulling the plug or ramping up.