Aaron Hoos

The financial software market is very competitive. If you run a financial software firm, here are 10 ebooks you should write to help you market your business or to add a new revenue stream.

1. How your software fits within the bigger picture of developing a financial portfolio or managing wealth.
2. List the different kinds of problems that an user faces and how your software solves those problems (i.e. investors need your trading software do solve inflation risk and political risk; business owners need your accounting software to uncover new profitability opportunities ).
3. Step-by-step user guide explaining how your software works.
4. An introductory ebook (i.e. Investing 101 if you sell trading tools; Corporate Finance 101 if you sell accounting software, etc.)< /li>
5. Specific strategies to for a higher level of success using parts of your software that aren’t used very often.
6. A collection of best practices, hacks, tips, and add-ons that your clients have found useful.
7. A collection of interviews, case studies, and step-by-step screen shots from real-life users who are more successful because of your software.
8. How to use your software with other software (i.e., how to transfer data from unused software; how to get new software to talk to legacy systems).
9. A handful of client-specific goals and how your software works to help them achieve each goal.
10. Opportunities for developers: Collect ideas and requests from clients into an ebook for developers about building and selling apps and plug-ins to help specific types of users get even more out of your software.

Even though you likely serve a local clientele, that doesn’t mean you can’t excel online. You can grow your local practice using ebooks, or you can broaden your client base by selling some of these ebooks.

In the list below, I’ll use “Springfield” as an example of how to use local-specific content in some of your ebooks. Obviously you’ll want to exchange “Springfield” for the name of the area you serve.

Also, I’ve used the words “accountant” but you will probably want to only include the title that best describes you.

1. What to look for in an accountant
2. How to become a successful accountant
3. 10 ways to save money on your taxes WITHOUT having to use an accountant
4. How to start and grow your business in Springfield
5. The 7 most common financial problems most Springfield businesses face (and how to solve them)
6. The 9 quick wins you’ll get when you first starting working with an accountant (and what you’ll need to do before hand)
7. How to start a Springfield business with less than $1,000
8. A simple guide to understanding and interpreting your own financials
9. 18 ways to increase profit in your business
10. The must-have team for success as a Springfield business

Most financial and real estate professionals perform a service for their clients (for example: investing in stocks, selling life insurance, searching for a home to buy, or listing a home to sell). This is “active income” because it requires you to be present and spend some of your time and talent to deliver the service.

Unfortunately, you only have 24 hours in a day so there is a potential cap on the amount of money you can make by providing services to clients. And in some cases, if you have multiple service offerings (as is the case of a financial advisor who also sells insurance, for example), you can end up overloaded with so much service-offering that you don’t have time to grow your business any more.

That’s where the passive income model comes in and it can help you to grow your income and it can give you a little more freedom to reduce your face-to-face time with clients, if you want. I also like the idea of passive income for financial and real estate clients because these industries can be boom/bust industries so passive income provides another revenue stream to help smooth out the peaks and valleys.

WHAT IS PASSIVE INCOME?

Passive income is another type of business model. It’s a revenue stream where you don’t have to spend the time delivering a service. Instead, you sell something else that is complementary to the services you deliver (I’ll tell you some of the options later in this blog post).

For that reason, there is less of a “cap” on your income potential because whether you sell one or one hundred, you still spend the same amount of time.

The name “passive income” is a bit of a misnomer because there is still work involved. (Side note: If you look around the web at passive income possibilities, you are going to find a lot of opportunities that requires some effort even if they promise no effort at all, and you are going to find a lot of failed entrepreneurs who didn’t realize that their passive income required some effort to be successful). Some of the work involved might include marketing and advertising, emailing, accounting, and team management.

But don’t get scared off! What makes passive income so attractive is that you can put in some effort but get a much larger, ongoing result than you would by working one-on-one with clients.

You can continue working one-on-one with clients but the passive income part of your business allows you to generate additional revenue and grow your business to the point where you can dial back on some of your face-to-face time-intensive services.

PASSIVE INCOME OPPORTUNITIES

For financial and real estate professionals, there are many different passive income opportunities. Here are a few that are popular:

• Sell a book
• Sell a digital download product (like an ebook or software, etc.), sell advertising space on a popular blog, or promote other people’s products or services (this is an “affiliate model”)
• Manage a staff of junior partners (who pay you a percentage of their sales)

These are some possibilities that I’m really excited about and have seen many of my clients succeed with. (Plus the following two blog posts give you some ideas to turn your existing financial or real estate business into a more passive income business: How to be a lazy serial entrepreneur part 1 and How to be a lazy entrepreneur part 2).

HOW TO GET STARTED IN PASSIVE INCOME

• Look at your own skills and weaknesses. That can tell you a lot about what you’re likely interested in promoting. If you have a weakness in the business that you’ve overcome, an ebook on that topic might be good. If you have a weakness that you haven’t overcome, don’t focus your efforts on creating a passive income stream around that. If you have a strength in a particular area, spend your efforts on that. (Case in point: I don’t love managing other people so my passive income streams are going to be focused on things I can do. It’s not likely that I’m going to build up a huge staff of people unless I can get an Operations Manager involved very early).
• List the problems that your clients come to you with already and find ways to solve those problems… for example, by writing something (a book or an ebook) or by promoting someone else’s services (as an affiliate).
• Look at your systems and processes. Is there something you do well that makes you so successful? Perhaps it can be developed into a product.
• Look around to see what other competitors are doing and add your unique twist to it. (Note: I’m not recommending that you steal the content or the idea!!! But if you see a real estate agent who is selling an ebook on how to prepare a home to be listed, and you have a better way to do it, you should write your own ebook on the topic.
• Here’s a blog post about how to develop products that are complementary to the services you already provide.
• Click through Amazon and see what popular books are for sale in your category. Do you have any insight that you can share on one of those topics? Even if you don’t have enough for an entire book, perhaps you have enough for an ebook.
• Send me an email. If you’re at a total loss, I’m happy to help with some free email-based consulting to give you some ideas and get you on the right path.

WHAT’S NEXT

It never hurts to broaden your options. Make it a goal in the next few months to create one more income stream. It doesn’t have to be big, comprehensive, or perfect. But get something together and put it out there and build from there. In the short term, you won’t retire from a flood of unexpected cash. But it will give you more credibility and more opportunity.

People rarely have enough insurance and they don’t really know what to do with their insurance when they get it. And while they have it, they don’t always see the value of that insurance. You can address one or more of these issues with the following ebooks, some of which you might give away free and others you might consider selling.

1. How to calculate the amount of insurance you need.
2. A step-by-step guide to make sure your family is protected and prepared in case something happens to you. (For example, if you sell life insurance, write a step-by-step guide about preparing a will, making your burial wishes known, making sure that you have adequate insurance, etc.)
3. Your “net worth” portfolio and how insurance plays a part in that. (Hint: Bring in other professionals like investment advisors and lawyers and real estate professionals who can help you write this!)
4. The ten things you need to know about insurance… BEFORE you buy any insurance!
5. If you sell business insurance: How to run a more successful business.
6. If you sell life insurance, consider writing a series of ebooks on helping people improve their quality of life: How to quit smoking; how to lose weight; etc.
7. If you sell car insurance: Top ten ways to save money on your car insurance.
8. Insurance 101: Everything you need to know about insurance to make the best insurance-buying decision right now.
9. If you sell life insurance: How to live a healthier, wealthier, happier life.
10. Typical insurance needs for various life-stages. (Cover the major life-stages – college, newly married, young family, growing family, empty nesters, retired, etc. – and discuss the typical insurance needs at each stage.

If you are a financial advisor or real estate professional, a condition very similar to “the CSI effect” could be hindering your success.

WHAT IS THE CSI EFFECT?

The CSI effect is a problem faced by the justice system when juries place too much faith in fingerprints and DNA evidence. It’s called “the CSI effect” to suggest that forensic shows like CSI (and others) are tainting real-life juries by making them believe that forensic evidence is easy to obtain, can be processed by a lab in hours, and decisive beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt.

Although the CSI effect is just a hypothesis, it does raise the issue that today’s media might be making everyone an expert.

WHAT DOES THE CSI EFFECT HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?

You might not be prosecuting criminals but you might be impacted by the CSI effect anyway… or, at least something similar. Our prospective clients have access to all kinds of information — from us and from others; on TV and the web. There is no shortage to the information that they can access.

Unfortunately, it has made “amateur experts” out of many clients, turning naive homebuyers into superstar DIY real estate agents and untrained investors into the next Jim Cramer.

Let me be clear about something before you read any further: Savvy clients are good. I’m not proposing that financial and real estate professionals would be better off with clients who couldn’t tell their left hand from their right hand. The root of the problem is NOT that they have access to lots of information to make better decisions. Rather, the root of the problem is that they have no filter to help them navigate the complicated world of real estate or investing.

They’ve been empowered and informed but not equipped.

The result is: Real estate professionals are finding lots of people going the list-it-themselves route or are assuming that they are expert househunters. And financial advisors are finding lots of people who leave voicemails on the advisors’ office overnight because of some great stocks they found while browsing online.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

This is tricky. You don’t want to belittle them by telling them that what they know is wrong, nor do you really want to validate that their unsorted knowledge is a replacement for your expertise.

What clients really need is structure. They need decision-making systems. They need rules. They need ways to synthesize their information. They need frames. They need order. They need taxonomies. They need context. They need the bigger picture.

Right now, your clients are looking at splotches of paint on canvas; you need to help them step back and see the entire painting.

Here are some ways to work with your clients to counter the CSI effect:

• When writing your blog, make sure you use categories (or some other sorting system) that make sense in the bigger picture.
• In all of your marketing, make sure to highlight that the one piece of information you’re expressing is a single cog in a giant piece of machinery.
• Prepare information, verbal and written responses, and proactive marketing to address the reality that some of your clients will tell you about something they saw on TV or the web that doesn’t mesh with what you do. (For example, a normally conservative investor tells a financial advisor about a speculative stock they just heard about from a friend on Facebook).
• If you’re looking for a great idea for your next downloadable document, consider a “big picture” ebook that your users can use to sort out the huge, unsorted mass of information available to them on the web.

I believe the CSI effect is real… and it’s affecting more than just the justice system. I think many of my financial and real estate clients are facing a similar situation.

But I also think that this is an opportunity for you! Rather than joining the ranks of real estate and financial advisors who ONLY give out unsorted, unfiltered information, why not become the professional who helps prospective clients MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL.