Passive income ideas for your creative business

Ok, so first things first, really passive income is a bit of a business unicorn. Because, whilst I strongly believe that you can create something that doesn’t need day to day work on it, the idea that you can spend a day or two creating something and then sit back and watch the money roll in is pretty disingenuous (despite what some people might lead you to believe).

Like anything in your own business, I’ve found that a ‘passive’ income stream takes hard work, commitment and constant revision and strategizing.

That said, get it right and you can be supplementing your day to day income with a steady revenue that supports your main business, especially during your holidays (you have those right?!) or sick days, so that you CAN have time off and still see sales steadily trickling into your inbox.

Choosing the right ideas for you

Everyone’s idea of the perfect passive income model will vary based on your own individual skills, passions and technical knowledge (or ability to invest in these areas to acquire those skills and knowledge either for yourself or by outsourcing).

So, how to come up with a passive income idea:

1. Try to be as unique as possible, create a niche that people aspire to or that solves a problem they have – creative skills are in much demand and admired – tap into that. If what you do is more readily available already, then try to find a new way of looking at it or presenting it or by harnessing your unique artistic identity.

2. Look at your business, is there anything you do for clients (however small) that they could learn to do for themselves with your expert guidance? Have any of them ever asked you how you do something? For instance, I’ve had a huge number of people ask me how I create natural dyes, so I created some recipe cards for these – once I had created them all I had to do was market them – there was no ongoing work other than that (however I failed to market it correctly and it fell flat - another lesson which I used to make the next idea work!).

3. Do you have skills that you don’t currently use in your business that you could link in to make something even more niche?

4. Do you have a thriving blog or huge social media following that could support income through advertising or by affiliate sales in something related (but not competing) with your business? 

5. Create an ebook, online course, book, membership site, Patreon community, podcast series, Youtube Channel, DIY kit or guide based on your experience and skills.

I personally have a book and online course that work well for me, not just because the face value of the product, but because it gives me an opportunity to show clients what I could do for them in my higher value offerings like my 1-2-1 coaching or photography and brand identity design.

6. If you are a graphic designer, videographer or photographer consider selling some specific designs on stock photo or graphics sites like Creative Market or iStock.

7. If you have a good following and are a confident content creator you could monetise your Instagram account by offering brand partnerships or become a brand ambassador (influencer).

Building your Audience

Key to building a successful passive income is building your audience, be it on social media, in-person workshops or through email marketing. I’ve made the mistake in the past of launching a passive income idea only for it to fail catastrophically to make sales because I didn’t do the legwork first to build an audience that would actually see it even existed. So even if you’ve had a fabulous idea and created something wonderful, if no-one knows about it then you’re going to fail at the first hurdle.

Before I first launched my online course, I campaigned for several months to increase my email list so that I had interested and engaged people on my email list before I even made it available. I had put some of the content out there in live workshops the year before, testing the content, making sure it was valuable, needed and desired, and then tweaking it with added value so that when it came to launching it as an online course I had a ready made audience ready to go. I also had around 19K followers on Instagram and 30K Pinterest followers, about 100 people of which were regularly engaging with the free course content that I was putting out as tasters to test and generate interest.

This process took months and was hard work (but it was worth it - I sold more than 50% of my annual sales goal for it in the first 4 days of launch and I’m now getting to work with my students all around the world)!

You have to:

1. Create something of value – this takes time and commitment and the willingness to take on board constructive criticism and feedback (I had several people trial my course for free before I launched it).

2. Robust technology – I had to trial website and email software for the course and get people to make sure it worked (at least 99% of the time!). There will be small glitches in any system but as long as you respond promptly to issues people are usually understanding.

3. The willingness to INVEST – I spent not just on the website and email systems themselves, but also my time getting to know the new platforms I was using as well as creating the content itself.

4. A strong marketing strategy when you are prepared to launch this new offering (assuming you have now built an engaged ready-to-buy audience). It’s no good thinking that you can now send one or two emails and pop it on social media and the sales will just come flocking in. I recommend using an organic and paid for traffic combination approach. You ned to demonstrate the value and outcomes for your offering.

5. Correct pricing – do your research, particularly if what you are offering is similar to other people you will need to create a point of difference and make that clear, particularly if your offering is more expensive (even if justly so due to your experience or knowledge), or much cheaper (why - is the value less?).

6. Commitment. If you launch to less than rapturous applause don’t be disheartened, just go back through your processes and try and get as much feedback as possible - tweak, then go again. Don’t just try something else immediately, it may be something simple that’s putting off people buying from something as easy to fix as your sales copy. Again, this comes back round to investment – if you see this as a long-term goal, investing in good copy, good photography, or the right advertising will make or break your new venture.

7. Customer service. Just because you see this as a ‘passive’ income remember it isn’t passive for your customers – be prepared to answer questions to address any problems quickly, just as you would do in the day to day arm of your business. Reviews are often the cornerstone of any successful business (see more on this in my last blog post here), and a few negative comments could really hurt your future sales, so do try and offer great customer service via ongoing support in a Facebook Group or via email – whichever avenue seems most appropriate for what you’re offering.

So – would you like to create passive income for your business?

Tell me have any of you already got passive income streams, are they going well or not as well as you hoped?

Do you have ideas already for what you’d like to create and a strategy to make it a success? If not and you'd like a little guidance or brainstorming together then do get in touch about my coaching services - together we can devise the best passive income strategy for you personally, as well as a solid way to market it.

At the time of writing I have one coaching spot open beginning in January. Book your free discovery call below.