Best Passive Income Ideas for Your Small Business in 2022
In this day and age of online business, it’s extremely easy to give into the elusive passive income trend. We talk about it with our family and friends, and we learn from marketing gurus on the internet that the end goal is to “make money while you sleep.”
Sure, it does sound great. Being able to give little to no effort yet still have money rolling in sounds like a dream. Spoiler alert: What they’re teaching you isn’t really passive income.
Keep reading to find out the true definition of passive income, our honest thoughts around it, and what you should do instead.
What Passive Income Is and Is Not
Passive income is income that requires minimal labor to earn and maintain. There are 3 types of passive income that are recognized by the IRS: Cash flows from property income, trade, and company royalties. (source)
Passive income is not digital products, low-priced offers, courses, and all the things that online marketing gurus say they are. That’s because those types of products do not require minimal labor. You’re actively working your ass off to market and sell those things! (Hence the term “active income.”)
The Truth About “Passive Income”
There’s really no easy way to say that the passive income belief is holding business owners back and keeping them broke. Yeah, some of the strategies they teach can work… if you already have a large audience of people who you would consider to be hot leads, people that are ready and waiting with their money in hand to purchase what you have to offer.
The reality is that, unfortunately, that’s not the case for 90% of business owners, especially those that are just starting out. Today’s social media and content landscape is completely different than it was just 5 years ago. Everyone is putting in the work to go viral, and paid ads are more expensive than they’ve ever been.
All of this takes so much time and energy that you honestly just don’t have. You’re hustling your butt off to grow an Instagram following of at least 10,000 people, trying to get 30,000 subscribers on your email list, and spending hours thinking up ideas and filming TikToks for the chance to sell at least a handful of your product.
What You Should Do Instead
Instead of draining yourself mentally, identify a niche, expert skill set of yours that you can market to a smaller crowd. There are so many different ways you can spin a service to make really great money! (Yes, without having to dance in front of your camera or spend thousands on paid ads just to get eyeballs on a product.)
Inside the Incubator, we specifically help our students learn how to refine their High-Touch Signature Service™, so if that sounds interesting, you should definitely apply. We also guide you through how to develop an automated client experience, so they can work less while making more! (But, like, actually.)
It’s super tempting to transition from one-to-one services to one-to-many when you’re wanting to scale, but we don’t want you to have to show up every single day as someone you’re not. We also don’t want you overbooked and undercharging! If you have questions about the Incubator or want to brainstorm on your High-Touch Signature Service™, just send us a DM on Instagram @bossproject!
