If you are like most people, you work hard at your day job. Maybe you used to make what you considered a good salary, but now, with the economy, your income seems to be dwindling. Perhaps you haven’t gotten a raise in several years, or if you have gotten a raise, you simultaneously face an increase in health insurance premiums, negating your raise. Then, there are the increased gas and groceries prices which are costing more of your paycheck. To make matters worse, your employer may ask you to work more hours than ever before and also assume other work that wasn’t previously part of your job.
Sound familiar?
In this kind of environment, you may think it is wise to develop alternative streams of income, and I couldn’t agree more. The more income streams you create, the more money you are able to generate and the more secure your finances become. If you lose one source of income, there are several other streams of income from which you can draw.
The Internet has made it much easier for people to develop additional income streams. There are so many ideas you could choose from. You could choose to blog, become a freelance writer, be a virtual assistant, or create an online store.
Of those choices, the one that is the most passive is an online store. Decide what you want to sell, find your product, set up the website, chose a secure method to offer for payment (there are many merchant account processing businesses to choose from), and launch your store.
Of course, it is not as easy as that. You will need to market your business and advertise, and you will also need to handle customer orders and complaints as well as keep inventory. However, you can make your online store more passive by selling your own ebooks, for example. Then, you don’t have to worry about keeping up with inventory. Sure, you invest your time in the beginning when you write and produce the ebooks, but once you have marketed them, you can find that you sell copies and make money while you sleep!
The current economy has made it difficult for many people to get ahead. Now is the time to take steps to change that. Decide what is the best way for you to create multiple streams of income. You will feel much more secure knowing that you are not solely relying on your employer and his decision to give you a raise or not; you have also created your own income sources.
I’m glad that I’ve been setting up multiple streams of income over the years. It’s been a lifesaver when I’m in between jobs. Plus it is a nice bonus on top of my regular paychecks. I’m a bit surprised that you mentioned an online store being the most passive though. To me that is the one that actually requires the most work when you factor in customer service, shipping, marketing, website maintenance, etc. If passive income is your goal, you’d be best off focusing on writing ebooks or something of that nature.
do you have an online store? I’m setting one up for a client and had the thought that if I can get her set, then I can find my thing and sell it too.
@Frugal Portland, I don’t, I stick to what I know and what I’m good at, but maybe one day I’d venture out. Just have no idea what I’d even sell!
I don’t think selling ebooks is passive at all. Interestingly, the IRS doesn’t see it that way either. When you think about the amount of effort you have to put into creating and/or marketing those suckers, it seems like a pretty active way of making money to me. The only difference is you get your income after many hours of dedication and making little to no money prior to completion of the product.
@Shawanda @ You Have More Than You Think, I hear that, but I think the idea is that you set it and forget it. You put the time in at the beginning and then it works without any help after that.
I guess some would say it’s similar to spending a lot of time choosing the right dividend stocks and then sitting back and have them earn you money over time.
Jeez, if you ever find a set it and forget it business, you are all set. Never heard of such an animal.
Having multiple streams of income is great, I started a while back investing in real estate. However any passive income business needs nuturing in the beginning to make it truly passive!
Amazon is a great venue to make money online. There are lots of great products that are there and you jump on board with.
Craigslist has a lot of opportunities that start to get your mind going. One person posted along the lines of needing someone to run with them to push them harder. $10-20/hr. I DO live in Los Angeles, so theres a lot of modeling/acting gigs there too that we have to sift through, but in doing so, we found the need for low-budget SEO packages, party/catering freelance helpers (i.e. call us if you ever need just someone to help), design work in CAD, etc. etc. etc