One of the reasons you became an entrepreneur is to make as much money as possible. Even if your primary goal wasn’t to “get rich,” there’s no doubt that you find appeal in the idea that your income as an entrepreneur is, effectively, unlimited. Having a source of passive income can prove to be very helpful.

But in practice, entrepreneurs usually struggle with income instability – especially in the first few years. What can you do to mitigate this problem and improve your overall financial stability?

The Income Instability Problem

Income volatility and instability is one of the most annoying aspects of being an entrepreneur. One month, your business might be booming, and you might be overflowing with work, forcing you to work long hours in exchange for lucrative paychecks. The next month, you might experience a veritable drought, finding it difficult to make ends meet with your sudden loss of income.

This makes it incredibly difficult to budget effectively, and if you’re not already in a good financial position, this can lead you to make some uncomfortable sacrifices. Thankfully, passive income can help you mitigate this issue significantly.

What Is Passive Income?

Passive income is the term for any income generated that requires little to no effort on the part of the person generating it. A simplistic way to think about this is that it’s effortless, free money.

If this sounds like it’s too good to be true, that’s because it is. There are some genuine passive income sources out there, but almost all of them require an initial investment of time and/or money before they become effective strategies.

Still, if you’re willing to put in the initial effort, these passive income sources are excellent ways to mitigate the income instability problem associated with entrepreneurship. You’ll be generating income from a variety of different sources, so a drought in your business shouldn’t lead to a drop in income from these secondary sources. You’ll also be making more money in total, so you’ll have an easier time accumulating savings and wealth. All the while, you can maintain your full focus on your business, since these passive income sources don’t require any extra time or attention from you.

Ideas for Generating Passive Income

The best way to understand passive income is to understand it through examples. These are some of the best ways you can generate passive income consistently:

• Rental properties. If you buy a rental property, you’ll be able to find tenants and collect rent from them, often exceeding your monthly expenses and allowing you to reap a consistent profit. The typical downside is that you then become responsible for ongoing property maintenance and handling emergency repair requests. However, if you get someone else to manage your property for you, you can cut your manual effort down to zero or near zero.
• Dividend stocks. You can also consider investing in dividend paying stocks. Stocks of major companies frequently distribute profits in the form of quarterly dividends, functionally supplying you with income based on the number of shares you hold.
• Blogs. Are you a solid writer? Do you have an area of expertise that you can share with the world? If so, you can start a blog and monetize it in any number of ways, including through ads, affiliate marketing links, and merchandise.
• Peer lending. If you have some spare capital after making your other investments, you can consider making it available for peer lending. Your money will be put to good use by people like you and you can capitalize on a reasonable interest rate.
• Side businesses. Of course, you can also devise new forms of passive income by starting new side businesses. Just be careful not to wear yourself out by managing too many businesses at once.

Other Valuable Tips for Improving Income Stability

If you need to increase your income stability even further, consider the following tips:

• Diversify business revenue streams. You should consider diversifying your business revenue streams. Essentially, this means making money in your central business in multiple different ways. It could mean selling new types of products and services, offering supplemental upgrades, or pursuing in alternate form of monetization, like advertising.
• Anticipate and plan for seasonality. Seasonal businesses are hit hardest when it comes to income volatility. If your business sees seasonal fluctuations, make it a point to anticipate and plan for this seasonality.
• Build more stability into your business. Do whatever you can to make your business more consistent. Monthly subscription models, customer retention strategies, and consistent execution of sales and marketing can help.

There’s not much you can do about volatile income in the beginning of your business’s development. But you can mitigate the worst effects of your income volatility with the help of passive income and a handful of secondary income stability strategies.