Passive vs. active income streams for mothers (10 Ideas)
With more and more people working from home, it’s no coincidence the world of online income streams is booming. This has been an especially exciting journey for me as I went from working full-time just a few year ago, to starting and growing my small business right here with Momentora. The best part for me has been the ability to focus on my family, while learning and creating in ways that fill my desire to serve through my clinical social work background. Do I miss working with students and families? Yes! What I don’t miss are the long (after) hours I’d spend writing reports, working on someone else’s timeline (my boss), and all the drama and gossip that came with working in a public school setting.
Maybe you’re in a time in your life when you want to create, give back, and have flexibility in your life to grow a business, without sacrificing precious family time. Or perhaps, the traditional 9-5 hours are taking away more than they are giving you in return and you want to make a change. Whatever the reason, consider this post a practical step forward to reflect on different options you may have overlooked.
To be frank and honest, the work required for any of these options is not for the faint of heart. If putting effort into your passions doesn’t deter you, you can expect a lot of growth over time, provided that you put in the time.
Let’s start with active income streams
I consider these to be the kinds of income streams that require your full presence and time. They cannot be left on auto-pilot.
Services / Coaching: This can look like regular weekly coaching for clients within your specific niche and it can be offered in individual or group formats. With platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Jane, and others, coaches can easily set up hours that work for them and book clients online to help them reach their goals. Think of your area of expertise to see what kind of services or coaching you could offer your ideal clients.
If you have a specialty such as nutrition, a language, craft, etc., you can grow your audience using an email list or social media, offer discounts for first-time clients, and get started with serving your community. Don’t forget to create onboarding documents with your pricing, terms, FAQ’s, etc. so your services are clear for everyone interested.
In-person workshops: These are workshops you can deliver at local libraries, community centers, masajid, or even in your own basement! Consider using this model for locals who are interested in your services and may want more general topics related to your area of expertise.
I use this model for my in-person Vision Board Workshops and Mental Wellness workshops pre-pandemic. There is plenty of preparation involved from slide decks, refreshments, breakout activities, resources, logistics, assistants, etc. but once you have run your workshops a few times, you’ll be a pro and look forward to each new group you get to work with!
Physical Products: This category is as a broad as it gets and includes anything from handmade items, books, planners, clothes, food, specialty items, uniquely sourced wholesale products, and so on. Once you have your inventory, the majority of the work involves marketing, packaging, shipping, and sales.
Now for the passive income stream ideas…
There’s an old commercial for a crockpot of some sort that comes to mind when I think of passive income streams where the punch line is “just set it, and forget it.” This applies to passive income streams because once you’ve created the content and funnel, all you have to do is maintain it without a whole lot of extra work. Once a customer pays for the offer, the automated back-end takes care of the rest. It’s been an amazing addition for my small business and I hope this list will offer ideas for you as well!
Kits: Just like my planning kits, there are hundreds of digital downloads you can create and offer your audience as single items or add-ons. Recipe books, how-to guides, templates, patterns, case studies, presets, logos, checklists, done-for-you guides, video series, are a few ideas that just scratch the surface.
Courses: One of my most popular digital offers is my Startup and Launching Blueprint for Creative Muslimahs. I had several sisters who wanted to know how I started my Seeking Jannah Planner and what goes into making a product so I thought to create this course with my own case study, steps involved, 8-part video series, and a set of project planning tools to help other women reach their own product design goals.
Is there a course you can offer within your niche? Start by brainstorming some ideas and how you’d like to teach it (modules, videos, guides, etc.) and start taking baby steps to create the course.
One key to remember is to generate interest for the course before or during the time when you are making the content by using a landing page and generating an email interest list. This helps ensure your course will have a ready audience by the time you are ready to share it.
Webinars: Maybe a course seems a bit daunting at first, and that’s okay. Start with a webinar to practice using your voice, engaging with your audience, and offering mini-versions of a potential course in the future. I have several webinars for my audience which help me generate and assess interest levels for different services I hope to offer in the future.
E-books: This is a broad category and can include anything that would help your audience reach their goals. My self-healing workbook is an example.
Resource Library: You could also offer password protected pages for resource libraries for anything from mockups, patterns, guides, templates, tools, prompts, tutorials, upgrades, learning worksheets, and so on. The ideas for this are endless.
Memberships: You could consider offering a safe community space for your audience by generating interest for a membership. With many of us at home and the rise of loneliness, I see this as becoming a growing need in the future. Joining, creating, and supporting membership groups for like-minded individuals can help bring more intentional social interaction into the digital space. Payments for these can be annual or monthly and you can even offer a trial period. My own Refresh membership list has grown with considerable interest from creative Muslim mothers and I’m really excited to launch when it’s all ready to go inshaAllah.
I must add that the back-end leg work for this stream is a long-term project and will likely require assistance through an intern or VA to help sustain and manage but it’s so worth it for the purpose of community-building and relationships.
May you find loads of barakah in your time and projects in the months ahead and I hope one or a few of these ideas inspires you to grow your own niche inshaAllah. Feel free to message or comment if you have any questions.
