How to Avoid Making This Passive Income Mistake.
It’s 2024 and passive income is one of those things that we’re told we need by TikTok influencers. Plenty of people talk about wanting passive income, and there’s no shortage of information online giving you passive income ideas and how to start generating extra income ASAP.
I hate to break it to you, but there’s no such thing as passive income.
Hear me out.
No income coming in is truly 100% passive. You’re always going to have to manage your asset or business in some way.
Do you have a manager running the business for you? Have a portfolio manager to take care of your shares? A property manager to take care of your investment property?
Great! Now who’s going to manage them?
You are!
You’ll always have to contact your manager, bookkeeper, or accountant at some point and probably multiple times throughout the year. You want to ensure everything in your business is running smoothly, right?
In a perfect world for a business owner, there wouldn’t be any issues, ever. That’s wishful thinking because life doesn’t work that way.
Everything works well until something breaks. And everything breaks eventually.
As your venture begins to take off and your income grows, it’s great to outsource different tasks to a skilled worker to complete better than you could or an adviser who is smarter than you.
I remember the first time I hired a virtual assistant, Ahh the freedom I felt when the extra stress lifted off my shoulders…
Then in as little as five minutes, I realized that I was a terrible manager and I had to learn new skills to communicate my vision, educate them on my desires for the product, and walk with them to get things done.
It’s a quick way for the uninitiated to externalize responsibility and be taken advantage of. Either overtly by having someone steal something or even softly and slowly while the worker is showing up as best they can.
But maybe they’re just not a great fit, and without active engagement from you to walk with them, they do what they think is best.
At best they’re wandering like a ship without a captain and at worst they are wasting time on money.
An inexperienced business owner will assume that everything is fine without attention to detail…until something goes wrong!
This happens often without clear and effective communication.
The best way to avoid this as a business owner is to learn how to ask for what you need and feel comfortable doing so. It will be impossible for the person providing the service to show up for you without guidance.
All this to say, don’t get caught in the myth of passive income. Believing the untrue fact that in 30 days or less, you’ll be getting direct deposits endlessly while on a beach, sipping on Mai Tais.
Nothing is impossible, and that can happen one day. But it’s going to take time and consistency. If it was that easy then everyone would be doing it.
Before starting your passive income venture ask yourself this first, What price are you comfortable paying to maintain your level of financial success? Think about this fixed price on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis from here until then.
Once you decide what that magic number is, get into action by doing the work and learning the skills you’re missing.
Go get it!
