Can I earn passive income as a part time side hustle?

Have you been toying with the idea of starting a side hustle? Perhaps, you’ve been considering all the possibilities from building an online business to network marketing, and maybe even getting a part-time job.

With the rising costs of food and gas, many people are starting to look at their income and asking themselves, “How can I make a little bit more?”

The answer to the question is YES - YES, you can build passive income in your spare time. In fact, many people start their passive income side-gig as a part-time thing that eventually leads to a full-time lifestyle support mechanism.

When I started I was working full-time and had all the things on my plate. You know what I mean, kids, date nights, kids, household stuff, gardening… kids…. You get the gist right.

Recently, I was talking with a friend of mine and I said, my goal is to help people like me who are juggling all the hats and still trying to build passive income. There are plenty of success stories from single people who have fewer demands on their time, or people whose kids have grown and they finally can do something they’ve always wanted to.

For some people, it isn’t just kids that could be a juggling act, it could be aging parents, a second job, or even their own disability that limits the amount of time they have. We all have things that are carving up our time, but when a person truly dedicates at least 5 hours per week they can make progress with passive income.

But, dedicating 5 hours and widdling it away watching YouTube videos that promise to be the next best idea or switching gears over and over again will not be a solid solution. Come on PIE tribe, I know you know what I’m talking about here. Every home-based entrepreneur has fallen into these traps.

So, let’s talk about how to be effective - tactical even - in our part-time passive income building approach. Here are three tips.

1 - Be strategic. Pick your poison as they say. Pick which passive income model you want to run with and commit to it. If you’re still not sure of which path is right for you pick up your phone and text the word PIE to 33777 right now. That’s PIE to 33777 and get your copy of 5 ways to earn $5k with passive income. This free guide will outline 5 realistic passive income strategies as well as outline the numbers so you can estimate the feasibility. Plus it links to already recorded episodes on the podcast with experts sharing about that strategy so you can really dive in and explore whether or not that idea is right for you. So get that freebie folks and pick your method.

2) Control your time. Once you know what you are doing divide your dedicated weekly hours up as follows…

20% planning, organizing, and essentially acting as the boss. Here is what this looks like. 20% of 5 hours is 1 hour. So 1 hour a week you plan which activities you are going to do, what the road map looks like, and think about your business in bigger terms. Ask yourself questions like, what can I outsource, do I need to be saving or planning for an ad spend. How will I get my idea to market once it is finished?

Spend 80% of your time on execution. Act like the employee. Take the list you made as your boss time and start checking things off. Turn off your distractions. Time block and put on your blinders. Sometimes things will feel hard, overwhelming, or downright over your head. Some days you will feel like nothing got done and on others, you’ll be amazed at what you got done in such a short time. Stay consistent and keep at it for the dedicated amount of time.

3) Make it a non-negotiable. Put it on your calendar and hold that time sacred.

I have a friend who dedicates entire days as her sacred day. It was funny when I recently texted her about getting together on a Wednesday because I thought Sunday was her sacred day. She replied that Wednesday is her sacred day and she couldn’t meet with me. I had to laugh at the hilarity of it because how is it that I always seem to want to connect with her on her sacred day which apparently changes as her schedule evolves. I had to admire her dedication to creating this block of time and not letting anything or anyone infringe on it. At the end of the day, we are our biggest time abusers because we LET ourselves get interrupted and distracted.

Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect is quoted as saying, People treat us the way we teach them to treat us. He tells an interesting story of how this has proven true in his life and I’ll share it with you here although I do recommend reading the book. He said he and a group of friends had known each other for a while and there was one guy in their group who was notoriously late. Everyone just accepted the lateness from this guy and in fact even planned their gatherings around his time schedule. You know, like saying it starts at 2 but we better say 1:30 because of, we’ll call him Ted.

We’ve all had moments like these and maybe even still do. Like, knowing we better tell our spouse we are leaving at 1:30 when we really need to leave at 2 because you know they’ll wait to the last minute to get ready. Right?

Well, this is the thing Darren talks about. So, one day, Ted and Darren were planning to meet at a coffee shop. Darren showed up on time. Waited ten minutes and left. Ted arrived about 5 minutes after Darren left and called Darren to ask where he was. Darren said, “I left.” We were scheduled to meet fifteen minutes ago. I waited for ten minutes and then left because I have other things to do today.” Ted tried to get him to come back, but Darren refused and instead offered to reschedule for another day.

Guess what, Ted was on time for their next meeting and since then each time Darren and Ted have an appointment Ted is on time.

Now, I’m paraphrasing the book, but I’ve read it 5 times and remember this story very clearly although I don’t recall the actual name of Darren’s friend.

But,this is a hard lesson to enforce in life. It is so easy to put our needs behind the needs of others. It’s easy to say, “Well, I’ll just do it this once, but next week… next week I’ll be focused.” Friends, when you are only giving yourself 5 hours a week, you owe it to yourself to create a sacred space around those 5 hours or whatever time you’ve dedicated so that you can make real progress that eventually will pay you back in dividends.

The hardest part is dealing with people at home or sticking to our guns on days when we just don’t feel into what we are doing.

Put this on notecard in front of you - Consistency Wins.

You can be successful building passive income in your spare time by being consistent, organized, and committed to sticking with your plan.

Alright, so let’s recap on the three essentials you need to build a part-time passive side-hustle.

1 - Be strategic. Pick a passive income strategy and stick with it.

2- Dedicate your time and split it up so that 20% of the time you’re the boss making the plan and 80% you are the employee of your business executing the plan. As your business grows the scales will shift and you’ll be spending more time as the boss and less time as the employee, but in the beginning, this is best.

3- Hold your dedicated passive income-building time sacred and enforce it by setting boundaries with people in your life. Let them know that you are working to build something that will eventually give you more time and freedom, but right now you need to dedicate these hours to your project. If it is possible to mark out those hours and keep them the same each week it will help people in your life know when to reach out and when to leave you alone.

I’ve noticed with my kids when I say, I’m working in my office, it was very hard at first, especially for my youngest. When I worked in an office away from the home she couldn’t see me so it was easy to understand that I couldn’t be bothered. But when I started working at home there were a lot of interruptions. Eventually, she came to understand the boundaries and is much better at following them.

This will happen in your life too especially when you practice consistency.

Plus it will help you build a habit of consistency for yourself. Again, when I first started working from home I found it so easy to spend an hour folding laundry, making food, or watering the garden. I learned to hold myself accountable for working in blocks of time and gave myself permission to do those other things I enjoy at scheduled intervals after I worked to further my goals.

Hey friend, YOU CAN DO THIS! If you’ve been a wallflower just thinking about getting into passive income, it’s time to take action It’s time to really start moving. Even if it is just a few hours a week.

If you want guidance join the Freedom Business community. Permit yourself to lean in and get support. The Freedom Business Community is for entrepreneurs who are looking to build online passive income businesses that support their lifestyle. Visit https://www.thepassiveincomeexaminer.com/resources

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