In the last few years, you’ve heard lots about passive income ‘side hustles’; how easy they are and how profitable they can be. I’m here to shed some light on that. And before you think I’m trying to turn you away from starting your own side hustle, I promise I’m doing no such thing.
Hear me out…
Starting (and maintaining) even a passive income business, whether full-time or as a side hustle, takes work.
How many of us scroll through Instagram and see tons of ads telling how easy it is to make money through passive income? You know the ones, they’re usually from some course creator that promises a quick, easy fix. Sometimes we even fall for one and buy the course only to find that it’s not actually as easy as it was made out to be. The reality sets in that it requires more work than what we originally expected.
There’s no quick fix…
Mind you, that’s not to say you shouldn’t take any courses. It’s always a good idea to expand our skills and educate ourselves more. However, though passive income is a somewhat easier way to go, it still takes a lot of time and effort. Not only that, but you’re not guaranteed to make money…you’re not even guaranteed that buyers will even know you exist.
The reason for that is; you have to make a good digital product and in order to make a good product, you need to do some research and spend time creating it. If you don’t have the graphic skills to create a good digital product, then you will have to learn. Once you create the product, you need to sell it – and for that, people have to know about you. That means you need to advertise. You need to keep your business relevant. You need to promote on social media…often. You may (eventually) need a website of some sort, even a blog perhaps. You’ll also have to wear the hat of ‘bookkeeper’ to keep track of your finances. And so on…
Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Truth be told, how far you go depends on you; the more you want out of your side hustle/business, the more you have to put into it.
On top of doing all of the above, you’ll have normal daily life to deal with. For some of you, a new business may be your side hustle at first, so you’ll likely still have a regular job you’re working at. Or maybe you’re a mom, busy taking care of the kids. Whatever the situation, the reality is that you’re going to have to learn how to balance your time. That’s the tricky part, and it’s a learning process.
All that being said, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start your passive income side hustle. The complete opposite actually…jump right into it! Half the problem when starting our own business is all the time we spend procrastinating. Maybe you don’t have it all laid out yet, but that’s OK. Believe it or not, starting is the easy part. The hard part is maintaining…and growing.
So here’s what I suggest. Start small, but definitely start.
To help, I wrote a six-part blog series on starting your own online business where I go through the basics. Part one starts here: So You Wanna Start an Online Business? – continue on until part six. It doesn’t go deep into the manusha of things (and it can certainly change somewhat depending on the digital product), but it will help.
After reading that blog series, you’ll have a pretty decent understanding of what starting a digital product side hustle entails. Sure, you can just wing it, create a digital product, open an Etsy shop and see where it goes. That’s easy enough and some people do well just throwing themselves in. However, I would rather help you set yourself up for success and that usually requires some planning.
Having a dream, and going after that dream, is a wonderful thing. A well thought out passive income side hustle can at best, be lucrative and at least, provide you with a little extra to pay the bills. It’s a great way to do something you enjoy, while working at a pace that’s good for you. At the same time, it could also go nowhere. So if you want to be successful, you should also be realistic about what level of effort is necessary to keep it going.
The more prepared you are, the more successful you will be.
Until next time…
