No business owner wants to turn their head on an easy way to make extra income for their company. Sometimes the means to make money comes in an obvious form dictated by industry standards in place.
Occasionally, however, businesses get creative and create new ways to earn money that later become standard within the industry. Here are a few of the unique and creative things that people have realized are profitable.
1. Trading Dental Scraps for Cash
Dentists may earn most of their income by repairing and maintaining people’s teeth, but they can also use the leftover material from that work to earn extra income. These items are valuable because they contain precious metals like gold, silver, palladium and platinum.
That said, the dentists themselves don’t usually have the skills or equipment needed to process these metals into a purified form that’s worth trading for cash. Instead, they go to companies like Muzeum Dental Refining who can offer dentists a fair value for the precious materials they bring.
2. Create an App for Your Business
It may seem like there’s already an app for any business you can imagine, but simultaneously new million-dollar app ideas are introduced regularly. That’s because there’s always some business model that doesn’t seem possible in an online version until an innovative entrepreneur and a skilled programmer tweak the rules and change the game forever.
For example, when Uber arrived on the scene, the most successful part of the business model wasn’t the mere fact that ordering a taxi-style service was available online; it was because its users provided the product. What business model do you know that might work through an app?
3. Recycling Old Tech
Old electronics like smartphones may seem worthless once you’ve upgraded to the latest model, but they can actually be recycled and are sometimes quite valuable due to their components. When companies that buy phones and computers for their employees realize it is time to upgrade their entire inventory, they can benefit from selling these items, which get disassembled for parts.
4. Social Media Presence
Using social media for advertising may not seem unique or innovative today, but the first companies to get on this bandwagon enjoyed an enormous head start over their competition. This massive advantage quickly became as important as the internet was back when businesses first created proprietary websites and started offering online sales.
Social media is worth mentioning here because new ways of making money through the internet develop continually, so innovative companies are always looking to find the next significant online shift. The most recent way the internet has benefitted businesses has been to reduce costs by allowing for more distance work through teleconferencing programs.
Sometimes the most innovative new way to bring income to your business is an unexpected method. For example, if you’re a dentist and didn’t realize that you could earn extra income by refining dental scraps, get in touch with a company that can offer you services to bring in more income.