How does your business make money? Are you relying on one source of income? One secret of successful entrepreneurs is that they magnify their wealth by multiplying their income streams.

This makes sense for volatile times. None of us can predict the future. You can't predict when some new technology will come along that makes your business moot. You can't depend on the idea that your competitors won't ever catch up to you or surpass you. There's no way of knowing when the market will crash or some other catastrophe might wipe out your source of income. Relying on one revenue stream is like putting all of your eggs in one basket: one bad slip-up and splat.

The key to real wealth and security is to diversify.

If you're a small business owner; you may be thinking the word "diversify" only applies to big business. You may be thinking that you already have too much to do. You may be thinking: "That's something I'll worry about in the future."

Pat Flynn blogger at Smart Passive Income has made $3 million in six years through passive income methods. Flynn tells Forbes contributor Laura Shin: "We don't have to trade our time for money one to one. Instead we invest our time upfront creating valuable products and experiences for people and we reap the benefits of that time invested later."

The key to successful entrepreneurship is to work on your business. not in your business. Launching a small business does take a lot of work. You may be doing everything or most everything yourself. But growth demands that you automate delegate and outsource so that you can focus on building your business.

Active versus passive streams

Passive income isn't truly passive. There's no such thing as money for nothing. Creating and managing passive income streams does take an investment of time and effort. The difference is that with active income streams: you're trading your time for money. You're getting paid by the hour or you're getting paid for producing something that requires so many hours of your time. There are only so many hours you can put into making money so this route to wealth is always capped. Passive income streams are a way to leverage your time and effort and multiply your returns. It is a way to get paid many times over for your initial efforts.

Build your brand

There are countless ways to create passive income streams: capital gains and rental properties joint ventures and affiliate ads on your website investments and how-to guides. But before you can successfully build your business outwards you must strengthen the core value of your brand. It doesn't make sense to build income streams that have nothing to do with your original business. It doesn't make sense to splinter your attention into wildly different directions. You won't generate good income from alternative streams if your original value isn't understood.

There is a difference between diversifying your income streams and diffusing your impact. It's important that your income streams are related in some way to your brand and original business but it's also important that each stream is established before you work on building another.

Multiply wealth not work

Keep in mind that the point is to multiply wealth not work. For each income stream you create you should strive to automate delegate and outsource its management as much as you can. That frees you up to improve income streams build more income streams and focus on what improves your brand and business. So how might you create multiple streams of income? Think about how you might leverage your expertise partner up or become a hub.

Leverage your expertise

What is it that you know a lot about or have special insight into? Pat Flynn's journey started when he realized that the online blog he had created to study for an architecture exam was getting tons of traffic. He created a digital study guide for $19.99 and made over $7000 the first month.

Partner up

Affiliate ads are a common way to generate a little added income. You can place Google ads on your website or YouTube videos promote someone else's book or guide or offer links to products and services that align with your business for a share of the sales.

Become the hub

Mastermind groups are related to this last category of income streams: becoming the hub. Can you create a niche website that becomes the go-to site for information and resources? What about a YouTube channel or a podcast? What live event might you host? Can you bring together experts for a seminar or interview a leader? Then you can take a percentage of any product or service sales.

Think about how you can diversify and multiply your income streams. Think outside the box think across markets and leverage your brand and expertise.

The writer is a personal branding expert wealth creation strategist professional coach and founder of Wealth Dynamics Unlimited. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.