Absolutely. I have done this in various aspects of my business, either as a consultant for film projects or as a sponsorship consultant / referrer and in many other aspects. There's a nice quote - it escapes me who said it - but "Your network is your net-worth" - what they mean by that is there is incredible value in who you know, but not just that - it's really WHAT you know, about how to HELP them.
Couple of ways you can make money by introducing:
- Find out what someone (or a business) needs. It could be more sales / clients / or a service. Then figure out how to get paid for that. Let's say a business sells XXX service for $10,000. If you were able to bring them a new customer willing to spend that, do you think they'd be happy to pay you a 10% referral fee? Probably, as long as they have a healthy profit margin, and you agree this upfront. If you bring people what they need, they will usually be happy to share the proceeds with you. In my own example, event organizers for major celebrity events often ask me for help to introduce sponsors, for which they pay a commission. The equation is easy - they need sponsors to finance their event. So if I help them find a brand, or advise them on doing that, they pay me some of the proceeds for making that introduction. It helps them achieve their goal quicker.
- The other way is online. Many companies run "affiliate" or "referral" schemes. Just like Uber will give $10 of free rides if you share with a friend, online companies often give fees for clicks or leads to potential customers. Just do a search for "affiliate marketing" or look up sites like Clickbank or Peerfly. If you have a good online network, social network or email list, you will be able to make money by letting your contacts know about things that interest them.
The great thing about referral income is it is often a percentage, and so it has great leverage for you. The more the client spends, the more you earn, for often the same effort. So focus on referring either big clients, or a wide spread of small ones, but be careful of too much effort on one small client!
Hope this helps.
