As a personal trainer (or anyone that offers a service by time segment), we have limited hours in a day that we can work. If we want to make more money than we are currently making, we don’t have a lot of choices. You need to make more per hour, so, you could raise your prices, raise your hourly income by training more people within that time segment (small group training and/or larger boot camps), or you could take on management roles to increase your income, but, honestly, as someone that’s managed clubs for 37 years, that’s usually just more time for more money. Then, there’s the idea of passive income.

Passive income is creating something someone will want to purchase, set up an auto fulfillment program, such as kickstartcart.com, then just sit back and watch the money roll in. Well, yes and no. It’s not quite that easy. First, you have to come up with the product idea, create it, and then market the heck out of it. Coming up with the idea may not take so long, but creating it certainly can. (I just finished a book, The Business of Personal Training for Human Kinetics to be released Feb 2018, that took me the better part of 3 years to complete.) Marketing doesn’t need to take a huge amount of time, but it is ongoing and never-ending, well… as long as you want to keep selling your product.

So, let’s look at some of the types of passive income that are out there.

Subscriptions – This could be newsletters, articles, or any other product that is an ongoing by nature. My friend, Brett Contreras has a Research Review subscription where he and Chris Beardsley create a Reader’s Digest version of the research, making it easy for you to keep up with the latest. An example of a physical product subscription is a wine club, where a new bottle(s) of wine is sent to you monthly.

Memberships – Memberships and membership sites, while very similar to subscription sites, typically offer more than just the once/month (or whatever time period) delivery. They may provide on ongoing library of videos, courses, or special discounts for members for events or products. Some options include Intelivideo and powhow.

New products – This could be everything from a white paper, a book, a new piece of fitness equipment, or anything that is a one-time purchase (unless someone wants more than one of something). You can, simply take orders via kickstartcart.com or you can also check out sites like shopify where you create an online storefront.

Passive income can allow you to increase your income beyond your hourly wage position. This, for many, makes it a very attractive idea. But, while you can make money through passive income, be forewarned that the creation of the product will take time, as will the set up and marketing. It’s never completely passive. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile pursuing, though. I just wanted to help set appropriate expectations.