This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can you create passive income from a skill-based service? This is fun. We're gonna help a freelance marketing consultant explore ways to turn her expertise into passive income. And if you just think about it, you realize what a challenge this is. Most freelancers are basically trading time for money.
They are performing a service, then they get paid. So there are some things you can do to make that a better scenario. You can raise your rates to where you're charging a good amount, okay, that's nice. But it's still not passive income. And not everything needs to be passive, of course, but passive income is nice because it just arrives.
It just shows up, right? So in her case, this freelancer we're gonna hear from, if she can't take on more clients, how can she grow? Because her income is tied directly to time. So what can you do in this situation? Is there a way to take your consulting skills, turn them into something scalable?
And short version, the answer is yes. I'm gonna give you a few different options. Let's consider how she can create passive income streams that build on her expertise while freeing up her time. And not just this person, her name is Kelly. We'll do our best to help Kelly, but not just her, but other people out there as well.
If you have a skill, how can you create a skill-based service that is not only trading time for money? That is our challenge, our objective. It's coming up in this short action-packed episode right after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
Hi, I'm Kelly. I'm a freelance marketing consultant specializing in social media strategy and brand positioning.
I love working with clients one-on-one, but my income is entirely tied to how many projects I can manage at once. With client work, there's only so much time in the day, and I'm starting to feel maxed out. I keep hearing about creating passive income streams, but I'm not sure how that applies to a service-based business like mine. Can skills like consulting or coaching be turned into something scalable? I'd love some specific examples of how freelancers like me can earn passive income without taking on more client work.
[Music]
Hey, Kelly, turning a service-based expertise into passive income is not only possible, but it can also unlock new revenue streams. So here's what's cool. A couple options, turn your process into a digital product. We talk about this all the time in lots of different ways. Think about the strategies, templates, or processes you already use with clients.
Can they be packaged into a digital product that customers can purchase on demand? So a marketing consultant could sell a social media launch kit that includes content calendars, campaign templates, step-by-step guides. A freelance designer could offer ready-made design templates for business cards, social media posts, presentation slides. Any other kind of skill can be adapted the same way. Consulting, coaching, use a platform like Gumroad to sell digital downloads with no upfront costs.
That's a great, great thing to do. Next, create an online course or workshop. This is a little bit different from a digital product. Courses are a fantastic way to scale your expertise, take one of your most requested consulting services and turn it into a structured course. So let's see here for Kelly.
Personal branding masterclass for entrepreneurs, maybe. Or how to build a social media strategy in 30 days. Use a platform like Teachable or Thinkific or Kajabi to host your course and automate the sales process. What else could you do? You could license your framework or methodology.
I know some people who've done this and been very successful with it. I've never actually tried to figure it out myself, but got some friends who earned the majority of their income through this process. Basically, you know, if you develop a signature process or unique methodology, consider licensing it to other professionals in your field. So could be some sort of marketing strategy certification, in this case, whatever your expertise is, might be something there. So all kinds of other stuff you could do.
You could also write a book. We haven't talked about that. You could also launch a membership or subscription service. There are lots of passive income opportunities, even for service-based businesses or at least service-based skills, let's say. You just need to start thinking much more about how to productize as opposed to physically providing the service trading time for money.
All right, that's it for now. Good luck, everybody. With whatever you're doing, I hope you take one small step today or at least one small action to get closer to a goal that is important to you. I'll be here cheering you on every single day, new case studies, tips, ideas, hopefully some positive motivation for you. And of course, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Complete Archive is available at sidehustleschool.com. Hope to catch you again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
