You may have heard the term “side-hustle” before and wondered what it means. Well, in essence, it is the same thing as passive income. It’s not your day job, you don’t have to work on it every day, but it still brings you money. It can be anything from a website where you sell advertising space to a rental property. Having a passive income is nothing like having a job where you can work from home.

Instead, it is a stream of income that is separate from your day job income or the money you live off every day. In other words, an active income would be a job where you actively earn money by working each day. For example, working a municipal job in South Africa. A passive income requires little work – if any work at all – once it is off the ground.

Why is a passive income a good idea?

If your active income is only covering your rent or bond and bills, then it is a good idea to have a passive income because you can save some extra money. And having that extra cash could come in handy. If you are currently looking for a job, for example, municipal vacancies, a passive income could get you through the difficult times. It can also be used to re-invest in your side-hustle in order to grow it into a full-time business. Who knows, you could end up giving up your municipal job in order to be your own boss.

But how do you get started?

How do you launch your side-hustle and figure out how to make a passive income? Well, here are some tips to help you out.  

Find something you love doing and are good at. The first thing you need to do is find something you enjoy doing and have the skills and knowledge to do right. You do not want to invest your time and, possibly, money into something which is doomed to fail because you don’t enjoy doing it and therefore give up. Having a day job is difficult enough, you want to enjoy what you do when you get home. And if you aren’t happy doing it, you will eventually stop caring about the money and give it up because it makes you miserable and takes up all your free time.

Do your research. Before you even consider starting your side-hustle and putting all your energy into launching a passive income, you need to do your research. Can you actually make money from this? Or are you simply taking a shot in the dark? If it is not already a hobby, going in blind is a bad idea. You should know what you are doing and have a plan of action, which brings us to the next point.

Create a plan of action. It is always a good idea to have a solid plan of action. But it needs to be more than simply a general plan. It should not fit onto one sheet of paper. You should have an end goal and then create milestones to help you reach that goal. But it does not end there. You should also create steps that help you ensure that you make it to those milestones. Include dates in this plan so that you can keep track and manage your time. Just remember to be realistic as you don’t want to stress yourself out by dedicating every moment you’re not at work to this project.

A side-hustle or passive income is a good way to make some extra cash and monetise a hobby so that you can save a little cash or spend money on something you really want. After all, if it doesn’t work out, at least you still have your main income to count on.