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Passive income is the concept of working without you having to directly trade your time for money. Unlike selling client work or products, where you receive a set sum for the completion of a project or product, with digital assets there is the possibility for these to be sold hundreds, possibly thousands of times.
If you are growing a following on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or just about any social media platform for that matter or posting original content on a blog you should start to think about a way to monetise it!! And not in the way you might expect – I want to encourage you to think about more than just brand deals or affiliate links.
Diversify your income streams is so important, don’t put all your eggs in one basket! If Instagram disappeared tomorrow what would you do?
If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.
Warren Buffet
Don’t want to read my story – no worries jump straight to the ideas section HERE
So you may or may not know that 2 and half years ago I started my account as an online home décor shop! I wandered into a home décor shop in Bristol, Ian and I met and went to university there so we decided to visit for our 10 year (dating) anniversary. Henry was only a few weeks old and he was super tired – I could have stayed in that shop for hours every single product was stunning and exactly to my taste! I still get excited just thinking about it. I mean maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t in a good mood or I would have been down a lot of pennies and probably wouldn’t have @thewhitethistle!
But as henry started crying I rushed out of there, grabbed a business card as I went and shoved it in my coat pocket and thought nothing of it again.
On the 3 hour drive home I found the card in my pocket and googled it! I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled! Probably for most of the journey but suddenly I found myself on a wholesale page… and this idea popped into my head!
I literally shouted at Ian – I could start a shop! I was halfway through my maternity leave, some of my mum friends had already started going back to work and I just knew in my gut I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to travel into the city (we live an hour outside London, so 2 hour commute) spend all day working and only see henry for an hour or two a day!
I’d been trying to scratch my brain to think of something I could do to make enough money to stay at home! At first my goal was to just pay the mortgage, I figured if I could earn enough to do that I could justify handing in my notice.
I absolutely loved it and was so passionate about my products, I loved taking the photos, and marketing them on Instagram (pretty much my only strategy at the time) but what I stated to find was the time I needed to invest to keep my website updated, take inventory, package up orders and take them to the post office or courier was super time consuming.
The idea behind me setting up my business was to be able to spend more time with my little man but I was finding the times I was with him stressful as I was constantely thinking about the orders I had to prepare and then the time I was working on my business I felt #MumGuilt about not being with him!
I started going to Mama Got This networking events and in the nicest possible way people weren’t really interested in the shop but they were interested in how I had managed to grow to over 5k followers in 6 months.
I started to share advice and tips to all the small business owners who attended each with their own passion and reason for starting a business.
I loved sharing everything I had learnt. I started to do 1:1 sessions on Instagram and started to scale back the shop. I realised the parts of my business that I loved the most were taking photos and styling them and sharing advice.
It was around the same time that I was approached by a brand to do my first paid collaboration. I had never considered this was an option before but I had a realisation that I could get paid to create the content I was already creating was amazing.
For the longest time, I was working with clients 1:1 and managing a couple of small businesses accounts. Whilst I was no longer running around physically in my business – every nap time and hour after bedtime I was taking calls and glued to my phone on my client’s accounts.
It was around this time that a friend of mine recommended I check out Lisa Johnson as she was the Queen of Passive income.
Ok so the word passive income is a bit misleading as nothing is ever truly passive, in the beginning as there is work involved in getting things established but what passive income does mean is you can create a course, membership, eBook and sell it over and over again which IS passive income.
I had heard of memberships and been toying with the idea, and actually attempted to start one myself and failed! I didn’t have the expertise or skills at the time to pull it off. Whilst I could have spent the next 2 plus years trying to work it all out for myself I invested in a course with The Quess in all things Passive Income, my friend and mentor Lisa Johnson, through her course One to Many I was able to learn how to implement all the steps and make it work properly!
It was initially a really scary thought as it was the biggest investment I had made into my business to date. But I knew that I needed to find a way to start scaling my brand, we had another baby on the way. I wanted to be able to help more than just one business at a time whilst making as much money as I could in as little time.
That might sound a little greedy but for me when I started teaching women in business how to use their Instagram I discovered I absolutely loved teaching and seeing people have success. And with a little one, I just couldn’t impact the masses doing 1:1 work.
All the things I was concerned with about when it came to starting passive income were taken away. From audience building (something I knew how to do having built one on Instagram) to done for you sales funnels and lead magnets – all words that at the time made me go ‘what the heck’!
She gave me all the tools! The course left nothing out!
Off the back of the course I decided to launch my Instagram Membership TMI (Teach me Insta).
I made my investment back the first month I launched my membership. I am a very numbers and statistics driven person so when I initially made the investment I knew how many people I needed to get into my membership to make it work. Thoughout the whole course I had this goal in mind and it is what helped me focus and succeed.
After that first month every month everything I earnt became profit because the benefit of a digital product is that there are very little overheads.
I am incredibly passionate about passive income and the power it has to offer financial freedom whilst still helping lots of people in the process. As soon as I heard about it I made it a key focus of the model for my business.
Primarily, this is because my dream was to have a creatively fulfilling business that could support the lifestyle I wanted. For me meant getting to look after my babies whilst not sacrificing the money I knew I could earn.
Maybe my little story has sparked some ideas in your head… I do hope so! Or maybe your sat there thinking ok but how do I add passive income into my life – what could I teach, no one would want to hear from me!
I had exactly the same thoughts – but I promise you, you are an expert in something (even if it is not directly related to your current business) what do people ask you about often.
Whilst there are some of the obvious memberships which come in the form of teaching some form of marketing, photography, or a skill like cake making.
There were people in my cohort starting memberships in knitting, dog training, relationship support. Honestly, the opportunities are endless.
I cannot imagine another way of working now I know how powerful this can be. I get to set aside a couple of hours a month to work on my business and the rest of the time I can enjoy being with my babies and creating content for Instagram (which is my passion).
So if you have a business and you would like to diversify your income stream, or you work full time or are a full-time mum and have been thinking about starting a side hustle I highly suggest giving Lisa Johnson a follow but also keep an eye out as I have partnered with her on something I am really excited about and I promise you are not going to want to miss it.
GRAB MY FREE IDEAS GUIDE ON 9 WAYS TO START GENERATING PASSIVE INCOME
Sign Up to my friend Lisa’s Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge to help you start generating Passive Income and make an impact in both your own and other lives! Go To bit.ly/ABIOTM
The White Thistle was founded by Abi Hugo an influencer who has a grown a following of over 100k on Instagram. She shares creative DIY and upcycling tips and tricks by rescuing furniture and transforming it into a lovable and modern addition to a home’s décor. Abi also offers courses, resources, and downloads for creative entrepreneurs looking to grow an organic Instagram following.
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