With very little effort, you can package your employees’ expertise in dozens of different ways, then sell it, trade it, rent it, loan it, or use it as a bonus to generate additional income for your business. Expert employees are the most valuable and most overlooked asset of any small business. Not only do they have unique expertise, but they are highly marketable as well.

Certain kinds of knowledge — especially knowledge that’s needed by your customers and peers — can be turned into consulting revenue, project management revenue, more lucrative service contracts, and so on.

Here are a few of the most commonly marketed types of employee knowledge:

1. Installation services and technical support
   
   
2. Sales strategies
   
   
3. Artistic talent
   
   
4. New business development
   
   
5. Sourcing raw materials
   
   
6. Industry research and market intelligence
   
   
7. Online expertise

You can package and sell your employees’ knowledge in a number of ways: through multimedia (creating “how-to” DVDs, for example), through coaching, mentoring, or apprenticeship programs, through speaking engagements and teleseminars, corporate training programs, consulting, etc.
 
To what extent could you generate extra revenue by setting up your top employees as expensive experts — ex. if you had specialists?
 
When you’re hiring new people, keep this in mind — does this person have the potential to become an expert in an area?
 
How interesting is this to an employee if they are being groomed for that level of expertise? This is not only a present-day source of income but a source of future income as well.