I turned my back on corporate America after getting laid off in 2015. I decided to become a full-time entrepreneur instead. I threw all of my energy into growing my personal brand and scaling my Bridesmaid for Hire side hustle — which offers bridesmaids for hire, wedding day and maid of honor support, speech and vow help, and other services.
This cost me time. I went from working a 9-to-5 job to putting in over 70 hours a week. I ran my business as a one-woman show for almost a decade, traveling all around the country and working as many hours as needed.
But when I became a mom in 2023, my priorities changed. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter, while also keeping my business afloat. That’s when I pivoted to making passive income the heartbeat of my business, earning money from a variety of products, including AI tools and affiliate links. Today, I make about $6,300 a month in passive income.
If you’re looking to start a side hustle that generates passive income, here are my top tips:
1. Take advantage of what you already have
When I realized my website draws nearly 40,000 users a month on average, I decided to monetize it with ads and affiliate links.
Audit what you’re already working with, whether it’s a social media following, an email list, or even a skill set that’s in demand among your friends. For example, are you the one everyone always asks for help choosing art for their walls? The social media video specialist of the friend group? The go-to bridesmaid and wedding speech helper?
Find ways to generate revenue from those foundations. It’s often faster and more reliable than starting from scratch.
2. Listen to your audience
I’ve learned firsthand how easy it is for side hustles and passive income streams to fail because there’s no interested audience. I once spent a few hundred dollars and over 20 hours building a course that not one person purchased. I thought people would want to invest in this topic — using Google analytics to help with brand storytelling — but they didn’t.
Before building out an idea, make sure there’s an audience for it. If I want to invest in launching a new tool, for example, I’ll first write several blog posts that incorporate SEO keywords around that topic (like “bachelorette party hashtag”). I’ll also share them with my newsletter subscribers and social media followers to see if enough people are clicking.
If you’ve built a TikTok or Instagram following, pay attention to patterns. What kinds of posts get the most engagement? What are people saying and asking in the comments? Is there a product you can create that addresses their needs or wants?
3. Turn time-intensive services into scalable products
After having a baby, I realized I was spending too many hours working on things that weren’t scalable. For example, one of my most popular services is writing wedding speeches. Each speech took five or six hours, and I’d often have 10 to 15 due in a month.
To reduce the burden, I partnered with a developer to create AI wedding speech and vow tools, trained by over 200 of the speeches I’ve written in the past. It maintains my writing quality and style, while servicing more customers at a lower price point ($35 versus $397).
This transformed my expertise from a time-for-money offering to a scalable product that brings in thousands a month in passive income.
4. Repurpose your expertise
I always hear people saying that to be successful you have to find a niche and stick with it. I don’t agree. I’ve pursued multiple different passions, skills, and interests, and haven’t been afraid to diversify.
Recently, for example, I took the speech-writing tools I built for the wedding industry and repurposed them, with some adjustments, to help people looking to write eulogies and graduation speeches.
This allowed me to create additional passive income streams without starting from scratch (starting to notice a theme?).
5. Set time boundaries to force better business decisions
I always thought being an entrepreneur meant you had to hustle 24/7. But I’ve found that this mindset causes burnout and actually hurts productivity in the long run. Now that I only work 20 to 25 hours a week, I have to ruthlessly evaluate which activities generate income versus those that just fill my calendar.
I only do phone calls one day a week and set 15-minute limits to each one. When I’m in my work hours, I block social media and news websites. I say no to events, meetings, or busy work that isn’t pushing my specific goals forward.
Having less time available forced me to focus on what truly moved the needle rather than getting caught up in tasks that felt productive but didn’t pay. I get more done working a third of the hours I did in the past.
Jen Glantz is the founder of Bridesmaid for Hire, the author of “Finally the Bride: Finding Love after Walking down Everyone Else’s Aisle,” and the creator of The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. Follow her adventures on Instagram @jenglantz.
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