Can anything be passive?

[Bryan James]

Anything passive still requires some active up-front involvement, at least at first. Building a "money tree" still requires you planting and watering the seeds.

 

[RazorCut]

You've fallen into the trap of setting up a business that doesn't fit with the way you want to live your life. You need to sit down and decide exactly what your ideal lifestyle would look like, then build a business around that.

Be it high pressure, high reward, high octane high speed long hours or run from a laptop an hour a day from a beach. It will probably fit somewhere between the two extremes and will most probably change over time. I find that I can throw myself into a business and really enjoy it then 3-4 years down the line I get bored and need a new challenge.

At the moment I'm much fonder of the laptop and beach scenario but I've gone from full on, full bore 60+ hours a week, to running a business that took up 2 hours a week (so I could process paperwork, pay staff and bank takings). The rest of the time I went fishing. In fact that was the same business but several years apart.

So bearing that in mind you could concentrate on flipping houses but moving much more hands off. It will involve building a team which doesn't come without its own headaches but there is a lot of money to be made as a property developer and it's not a bad lifestyle as long as you are not a one-man-band.

 

[100k]

If you've got enough money then yes. You can hire operation's manager, a part time interim director, a consultant, a CFO and they should be able to run the day to day of the business - you can just make yourself the major shareholder and chairman. ... Point is... its possible, you just need the right know-how and the right team and CAPITAL.

 

[GMSI7D]

Anything passive still requires some active up-front involvement, at least at first. Building a "money tree" still requires you planting and watering the seeds.

anyway, this forum is an asset for MJ DeMarco

but this is not really passive for him

because instead of doing things outside his home without a second guess about the forum , he is online all the day here watching the forum

we can reframe it as kind of a job : watching the forum all the day sitting at his desk

this is not really passive even if he is technically free

because his time is involved


.

 

[farmerjohn1324]

I already have a business flipping houses that takes up most of my time. I have been talking to business brokers and am looking for something that has a manager in place so that it can be as passive as possible for me. Does this even exist? There are people that own large conglomerates that are not involved in the every day operations. Is this realistic for me?

For example, Berkshire Hathaway has over 60 subsidiaries, and Warren Buffett hires effective managers for each one. But my buddies broker said that most of what I will find will be hands-on owner operated.

 

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[GoGetter24]

Yes it exists, but returns go down the more passive an investment/business is. If a business takes zero effort to run with no chance of failing, then it's basically a bond, and the returns would be similar (a few percent).

You could start by piecemeal employing people to work on your bottlenecks. Work out what takes up 80% of your time and then work out how you can delegate most of it to other people.

 

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[Xavier X]

@farmerjohn1324

This shouldn't be too hard for you to achieve, particularly because you're already into real estate.
So, rather than flipping every single property you purchase, how about going a "flip one, keep one" route?

The goal being to keep the ones that have the most potential, as rental properties.
Depending on your location, if those rentals are cash-flow positive, then you can make it passive income by handing it over to a real estate management company.
Sure, that will eat into your cash flow, but the goal is passive income, isn't it?

You don't have to deal with the daily running and maintenance of the property, just a check every month.

 

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[TreyAllDay]

I already have a business flipping houses that takes up most of my time. I have been talking to business brokers and am looking for something that has a manager in place so that it can be as passive as possible for me. Does this even exist? There are people that own large conglomerates that are not involved in the every day operations. Is this realistic for me?

For example, Berkshire Hathaway has over 60 subsidiaries, and Warren Buffett hires effective managers for each one. But my buddies broker said that most of what I will find will be hands-on owner operated.

If you're asking about ANY business - I believe the MOST passive income stream would be low-risk investing (municipal bonds, etc). If you can sell your business asset for $10M and invest $5M at 3.5% with a monthly dividend, I'm sure you could live comfortably off the $175k a year (still some management).

Any business can become MORE passive. For example: I am in software and I sell subscriptions to products I maintain, once a business invests their time into purchasing they are usually locked in for a year minimum. However, because I charge a lot per client ($2500/month) and I have 7 or 8 of them providing lots of revenue - HOWEVER I have a responsibility to babysit them, provide 24/7 support, answer questions, help on a daily basis etc. It's maybe 3 days/week and I have trouble growing and taking on more clients.

I went about it wrong - I intended to create a low cost product that would eventually be used by thousands of companies that require less support, less training, and expect less for the smaller price tag. If I can accomplish this shift in the next year, I can work closer to 1 day a week and still make the same revenue.

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

anyway, this forum is an asset for MJ DeMarco

but this is not really passive for him

because instead of doing things outside his home without a second guess about the forum , he is online all the day here watching the forum

we can reframe it as kind of a job : watching the forum all the day sitting at his desk

this is not really passive even if he is technically free

because his time is involved


.

I would still argue that it's passive. MJ chooses to be on the forum because he enjoys it.

He's got other staff members and mods that could run it for him if he chose to start a new venture that would take up all of his time.