There's No Such Thing As Passive Income in Business

As a Personal Trainer or group exercise instructor your earning potential is limited. Let's face it, there's only so many hours in a day you can book yourself out. The model of swapping time for money is flawed, and it's for this reason plus a few others that unfortunately the average Personal Trainer only lasts 9 months in the Fitness Industry before they're burnt out, buggered and busted!

So, what's the alternative to training people hour after hour, day after day, week after week all year around?

It's the term every Fitness Professional is throwing around... PASSIVE INCOME!

Passive income is income resulting from cash flow received on a regular basis, requiring minimal to no effort by the recipient to maintain it.
Passive income can more often than not be confused with 'Revenue Streams'...

In our industry it's usually through sub-leasing out your premises to trainers, selling online products, marking up & selling products in your premises, taking commissions from direct debit fees, or getting $$ from your affiliates for referring to them, and building a team of trainers and earning money off the sessions they complete.

Notice that all of these REVENUE STREAMS require EFFORT. They are not Passively earned revenue, however are revenue earned through effort & work.

Most people try to create it expecting it to pay for their lifestyle for the rest of their life, so they can eventually give up the grind of 'working' and live the life of their dreams on a private yacht with the misconception of not having to lift a finger ever again!

Seriously???

In what world does that actually happen? There is so much CRAP out there on social media conditioning us to believe that we can all become millionaires overnight. Conditioning us to believe that PASSIVE INCOME means that you will never have to actually put effort into your business again to earn money through your business. Well, I'm about to dispel that myth and bring all those Social Media wankers back to reality.

I've been in the Fitness Industry for 18 years now, an have made a lot of money through many companies I've created, and NOT ONCE have I made a single dollar without working for it. Sure, I've taken commissions, resold affiliates products (with permission), built teams of trainers to make money for me, but they all required initial & ongoing time, energy & effort.

Let me tell you, money doesn't fall in your lap for doing zero! You have to work for it, and unfortunately many have forgotten this. Perhaps I'm a little 'old school' in the way I think but these days Gen Y and millenials want everything NOW, and are prepared to put minimal effort in to achieve what their parents achieved over a lifetime.

Now, let me define working. Working is..

WORKING on relationships to help build your brand ie relationships with local businesses
WORKING on developing your team of trainers to help you make money in your business (people will work for you , your brand will only last so long)
WORKING on developing Products to sell online and make you money while you sleep
WORKING on nurturing relationships with Affiliates who sell your products on your behalf to make you money while you sleep
WORKING on fine tuning and evolving those products online so they don't just sit there and become obsolete

So, as you can see, even though I'm making money online without DOING anything to sell the physical product (the effort has been done in developing the product and the sales process is all automated), I'm still WORKING to ensure the people handling the automation are paid, the products are with the right affiliates, the affiliates are being compensated properly, there is a good relationship with the affiliates and the education around why people need the product is happening.

So as you can see, there is still ongoing EFFORT and ENERGY that goes into your businesses to make it money. It's not a drop and leave situation...

Note: In the publication above, I am referring to business. There are exceptions to this point, where you own or have invested money into a product lineand you are receiving income due to sales,or you own a physical structure like a commercial or residential building with tenants paying you rent, or of course are earning interest off investments etc

For YOUR products and YOUR business though, PASSIVE INCOME IS A MYTH