The Quest for Passive Income | Coming up with a Plan

Having passive income and better yet, multiple streams of income is the biggest pursuit of many people right now. For years I have had dreams of creating a passive income source. Just one I wanted, but that never panned out. Slowly my dreams of achieving, what seemed unattainable, died. I never fully blamed the process. I blamed myself. Partly because I was never consistent with trying to pursue the dream, but there were also other factors against me back in those days, like how would I actually get paid “the income” living on this tiny island of mine. That was my biggest question.

Well, times are changing. Now that I am a lot older and know myself way better, I have decided the dream lives on. I have so many ideas for income streams and my goal is to get them all in motion.

Obstacles to Passive Income Exist

The first steps is to identify what I was doing wrong. Some of the reasons I have identified as being obstacles to success were:

• I never really started
• limited options or knowledge on payment options
• lack of consistency with posting
• too many ideas, so never focused or zoned in on that niche idea that lots of people talk about having
• lack of time to work on building things up, had to focus on work and studies

Can anyone relate to these? I guess everyone would have their own obstacles that keep them from doing the things they want. But now that I’ve identified mine, I can come up with a plan.

The Road So Far

Firstly, my biggest issue has been having too many ideas. This blog is a testament to that. After one whole year, and a bit, of starting this blog, I have a whole two post written. Two. Embarrassing, I know! The reason I was stuck was because I didn’t know what to write about. I am in tech, I am a DIYer, I build apps, I want to make more money, and my interests just kept on growing. I had so many different ideas on what I wanted to do, but was just paralyzed on picking something. Ultimately, I did nothing. So Disappointing.

The next issue, has been time. Finding the time to post or come up with a plan has been a big challenge especially when you work full time, are studying or just have other responsibilities. Of course, no time to post makes you inconsistent and inconsistency is a big killer when trying to build an audience. No audience means you practically don’t exist in this online world. Kind of like right now 😉

Finally, the issue of actually making money was a big concern. Back in the day, like early 2000s, I looked into the whole affiliate marketing option for getting paid, it seemed to be the only option that existed. But it felt like a never ending rabbit hole trying to figure out how, in Trinidad, I would actually get the money if I did make any referrals. That was an up and down journey, signing up for one program after another and then realizing there would be no way for me to receive the payout.

Thankfully things are different now and most importantly getting paid is no longer a major issue. That leaves the focus now on being consistent and to rein in my interests. Sounds easy enough.

The Plan | Creating Income streams

I still have a wide variety of interests that I want to share as I really think I could help someone who might be seeking information I might be able to pass on. I think that might be a way to deal with my varying interests.

The plan will be:

• to blog about passive income and income streams, sharing my journey. It will allow me to discuss my various interests as they are what I want to turn into a passive income and blogging could help me be accountable. Even though I am speaking to myself right now, it will allow me to keep track of my process and progress and maybe, if someone finds my blog, it helps them too.
• to create at least 1 post a week. Having a schedule for this will eventually help me build a habit. Consistency is my biggest problem. To follow through with this, on the first Saturday of each month, I need to determine the post topics for the month. This will help me not feel lost or overwhelmed when the week approaches as I will know what I want to write about, and have the entire week to write. Saturdays will be my brainstorming session.
• to create my passive income and income streams. The most important part is creating the income streams. I probably spread myself too thin, but I enjoy the things I do and I want to share them. Again, coming up with a plan is important. My income streams and proposed income streams (outside of my full time job in IT) are:
  • blogging – this blog, Life on a Dot
  • sharing how to build and run your online business – like me, at Crafted Favours
  • SAAS (Software as a Service) Product – Logiztic – Inventory Management Solution
  • youtube – a noisy soul channel

Next Steps to achieve Passive Income

Now that I’ve put this out there, I have a responsibility to do what I said. I hope saying that is enough to make me feel accountable. I honestly have not felt this focused and sure of how I was going to do things.

If you’ve found this post, yayyy. Let me know if you have or plan to create a passive income stream and if you’ve ever experienced challenges or felt stuck getting started and how you may have worked through it.