Jan

Passive Income Opportunity Myths & Realities: How to Spot a Scam

The idea of a passive income attracts a lot of people mainly because it promises to earn you money while doing little or no work at all. Some even think of having a passive income stream as an opportunity of a lifetime. Who wouldn’t want to earn money while you sleep? Who wouldn’t want to make money the easy way? Who wouldn’t want to sit comfortably on the beach, drinking a glass of your favorite drink while your “passive stream of income” works hard to make money for you.

That is the dream, right?

What is passive income?

Passive income is the residual income you receive from rental properties, royalties from your books, licensing income from your businesses, etc. This income is passive because it supposed to be earned with little or no work required from you at all.

While passive income promises a lot of things, it is NOT without a price. Identifying the myths & realities of a passive income opportunity allows you to spot if it’s an opportunity of a lifetime or a total scam.

Myth: Little or no work at all

Reality: A lot of upfront work

The most common myth about a passive income opportunity is the allure of not having to work at all while money keeps coming to you. While this may be true at some point, it is NOT the complete picture. In most cases, the reality is that setting up these passive streams of income requires a LOT of hard work especially in the beginning.

Real Estate

One of the most common examples of a passive income is rental income from tenants through real-estate properties. To some degree, it is a passive income. But still not purely 100%. If you are the one managing the property, you have to worry about maintaining the property and possibly fixing toilets in the middle of the night. If you do hire a real-estate managing company, then you would need to make sure they do their job and worth more than you’re paying them. Otherwise, you stand to lose more compared to running the business on your own.

Business

Ask any employee what they plan to do after retirement. Most of them will answer that they want to go into business because “finally” they have enough capital to do so. Unfortunately, it could be the riskiest move they will ever make. The odds are against them. Statistics say that 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 5 years. Few do make it. Others are forced to go back into employment. The rest are content to live a “cheaper” lifestyle and forego their dreams.

Running a business needs your time and attention. It demands your focus. For that reason, it is not a passive income until you’re able to setup your business systems. Setting up these systems will demand your hard work, your patience, not to mention your time and money.

If you’re able to set these systems up properly and hire a great CEO to run your business, only then can you let the system work for you and allow it to give you a steady stream of passive stream income.

However, if you setup the wrong system, especially if the system requires you to be the one managing the property, you will end up having a job instead of a sustainable business system.

Myth: You need a lot of money

Reality: Having money is not a guarantee

Some people think that building systems to create passive income requires a lot of money. The reality is that successful entrepreneurs are not hindered by the lack of money in setting up their business systems. They even use it as an inspiration to be more creative in selling their ideas to potential investors and partners.

While having money is an asset to a savvy entrepreneur, it is actually a liability for someone who doesn’t know what he is doing. A lot of money in the beginning for an inexperienced businessman can be a hindrance to his success. With money readily available, a frustrated and inexperienced entrepreneur can just throw away money at any problem that comes his way.

This is hardly the way to set up a business system. It will only make the problem worse because the real problem is not identified and fixed, hence, the system does not improve. All it does is throwing money down the drain.

In the end, money is an asset or a liability depending on how a person makes use of it.

Myth: Setting up a passive income stream is very hard

Reality: Setting up a passive income stream can be learned

While setting up a passive income requires a lot of work especially in the beginning, it certainly is not limited only to hardworking individuals. Sometimes, not wanting to work hard can also be your asset as it forces you to think of ways to setup the business without you having to work for it.

You can choose to hire hardworking employees to do the work for you. You can spend your time learning and figuring out how to set up efficient systems. You can concentrate on the 20% of things you do that brings in 80% of your output and delegate all the rest.

Doing any of these things allows you to leverage your business system to complement your employees’ strengths and provide more high-value offerings without necessarily doing the work yourself.

Internet

In this day and age of living in the information superhighway, it is now easier for someone to be in business. With access to the internet, someone working at home can setup a blog or sell stuffs through ebay, amazon, or other online stores. While this requires you to learn how internet businesses and marketing works, you can certainly hire someone to do it for you if you really don’t want to be involved in the technical details.

Making money online is such a popular dream for many of us. The reality is, it is also NOT for everyone. It requires a lot of learning, patience and self-discipline to make the system work. As with any brick-and-mortar business, it also needs your skills, time and attention. It demands your focus and unrelenting desire to give more. And with more and more clutter competing for your customers’ attention, there’s no other way to serve but to stand out and give your customer ALL you’ve got.

Demystifying the myths of building a passive income stream is only the first step of a lifelong journey. The only way for you to learn how to build these systems, is to do it yourself, always remembering that something worth doing, is worth doing well.

In the same way that an overnight success is actually a culmination of a decade long history of working hard, building passive income streams is a journey laden with challenges and opportunities.

In the end even though creating passive income may be an opportunity of a lifetime, it is still up to YOU to make it happen.

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Tags: Business, Internet Marketing, Passive Income, passive income opportunity, passive income stream, passive stream of income, real-estate