Businesses That Run Themselves For Passive Income

If you're considering starting one of the businesses that run themselves and generate income simultaneously, you've hit the honey jackpot! This blog post contains ideas for a minimal-effort business that'll generate passive income with little to no upfront costs!

Passive income businesses are a competitive market, but with the right strategy, your business idea can generate revenue for years!

From vending machines and rental properties to selling advertising space and becoming a property manager, Honeygain’s here to help you generate passive income!

Let's get back to the basics. Passive income is the money you earn without actively working for it. A profitable business venture that can generate income without much initial investment is a self-running business! 

You can earn passive income through investing, real estate, affiliate marketing, or passive income-generating online sites.

If you own one or two automated businesses, your day-to-day operations are limited, but you still generate money consistently. That's known as a self-sustaining business!

Some businesses on this list require a business loan or other upfront investment. Other businesses on this list need only a minimal upfront investment. 

Below are ideas for a hands-off business model for self-running businesses that’ll result in passive income streams.

Start generating passive income today with these low-maintenance business ideas!

A brick-and-mortar can be a successful business, but it doesn't run itself. If you want to own a store that brings you passive income, an online store for digital products is the right solution!

An online business requires minimal effort, most of which is to create your own website and perform upkeep to ensure it keeps running smoothly.

Trying to decide what to sell? Numerous online businesses offer digital products, ranging from music, and art, online courses, stock photos or videos, software, online plug-ins, video games, online books, and more! 

If you're passionate about digital commerce, online commerce businesses that run themselves with minimal effort will bring you passive income for years to come!

Dropshipping is a business model that allows you to earn a steady income and sell products online, and you don't even have to own the products physically.

Basically, you get to own a business without having a storage facility full of inventory!

A dropshipping business, one of the businesses that run themselves, is a steady income stream that requires little effort on your part. No one wants to make their bedroom into a storage facility!

A customer orders from you, you contact the supplier of the product (local businesses or larger companies), they ship it from their storage facility, and both you and the supplier make money!

How do you make money selling someone else’s products? You market the products, and for that, you get to add a profit margin to the original cost of each product. After a successful sale, you earn the difference between the original price and the price with the profit margin.

Are you a pro at knitting, cooking, or programming? Do you have a degree in Math, Biology, History, English, or any other subject? Put that knowledge to use by creating online courses!

To get started, you'll need to identify a niche or topic you know and are passionate about.

After you've chosen a topic for your online course, you can begin to categorize your knowledge and develop engaging content such as video lectures, quizzes, and informative PDF files.

Break down complex concepts into easy-to-understand knowledge bites and share your wisdom through online courses!

Nowadays, many people dream of becoming a famous YouTuber with millions of subscribers. Do you have the same dream? Have you been watching other success stories and thinking about starting your own YouTube channel?

A YouTube channel requires as much effort as you're willing to put in. Make videos, engage with your followers, and enjoy a steady wave of passive income!

In 2022, the average YouTuber made around $1,154 weekly and around $4,616 monthly. That’s more than some people make in a month at their full-time jobs!

Create an account, choose what videos you'll create, and start filming! From makeup tutorials to personal finance advice, all your interests are welcome on YouTube. The sooner you start, the sooner your YouTube channel will take off!

In affiliate marketing, an affiliate earns passive income for promoting another person's or company's products. Your cash flow depends on how many people buy products using your affiliate link.

Affiliate marketers generate passive income with virtually no overhead costs. It’s a good business model for any beginner.

Have you ever used Pinterest before? We bet that you have! Pinterest is one of the biggest social media platforms, with over 400 million active monthly users!

Did you know that Pinterest can make you money through affiliate marketing? 40% of Pinterest's users earn over $75,000 yearly from the app alone.

On Pinterest, content is a ’’pin’’, including a photo and an external link. Your success depends on how many followers you have and how many pins you've uploaded to your Pinterest account!

Say you're an affiliate for Nike. You upload a photo of Nike trainers to your Pinterest account and add a link to their online store. Someone buys the shoes using your unique link. And Nike pays you a percentage of the sales generated from your link!

Affiliate marketing has been a wildly popular online business model for a few years. If you're not sure where to start, look into joining profitable affiliate programs and start earning passive income!

If you’re more interested in starting a business in the real world, here are some ideas for offline businesses that run themselves!

Have you ever taken your car to a car wash tunnel? Then you know how much damage they can do – ruin the paint job, scratch the car, and waste a lot of money on a subpar washing experience.

Because of this, self-service car wash spots have been on the rise as people would instead save money and get it done themselves!

You can become an owner of a car wash business and make money. It's a tremendous low-maintenance business idea, as all you'll need to do is ensure your self-service car wash service functions correctly and has enough water supply!

You'll need some money upfront to buy the car wash, but after you’ve done that, all that's left to do is maintain your car wash business with regular checks!

The average car wash business brings in $40,000-$100,000 per year!

If you have enough resources to purchase a rental property or are willing to take out a loan, becoming a property manager can help earn you lots of money!

Despite the upfront costs, the rental property business has been a successful business for the last few decades!

People will always need a place to live, so you'll always have the opportunity to make money. This means that the rental property business is a recession-proof business rather than one of those seasonal business models.

Rental properties aren’t a widely accessible business option, but if you have the means for it, success is almost guaranteed to come your way!

Renting real estate is a business that will guarantee passive income every month. Evaluate your personal finance levels and decide if buying a rental space is the right business opportunity for you!

You've probably never considered owning a laundromat, right? Nowadays, many live in small studio apartments, and some don't have room for washing and drying machines. That's where you step in!

You can find a place to rent in a crowded living area and purchase a few laundromats. Most machines automatically accept payments, so you can keep your business open 24/7.

The laundromat business is one of the relatively low-maintenance businesses, considering you can outsource cleaning staff, CCTV systems, and more.

The laundromat market has reached a worth of $5 billion in the USA in 2022, and the average laundromat owner sees a yearly turnover of over 140 thousand dollars!

Many of us have found ourselves hungry at work or school because we forgot to pack a lunch. And there are no convenience stores close by! But wait, there's a vending machine nearby — you're safe from hunger! Thank God for those snack-filled vending machines, right?

Nowadays, these vending machines sell more than just food. You can buy everything from snacks and beverages to electronics and pharmaceutical items.

Starting a vending machine business requires only minimal initial investment. The most significant initial investment is the cost of buying the machine and stocking it.

Some of the newer models of these vending machines feature inventory tracking software, which would notify you when you should restock a machine, saving you time on checking up on the machines!

All you have to do is maintain the vending machine through repairs, restocking, and collecting a stable cash flow. On average, you'll spend between $3,000 to $5,000 for a new snack vending machine. If you want to spend less, consider buying a good quality second-hand machine!

The vending machine business can make you around $5k-$6k of profit per year! Decide what products you want to sell on your vending machine route and how many vending machines you want to maintain.

All that’s left is to start shopping. Take your chance at creating a profitable vending machine business!

Have you ever seen the Red Bull car driving around? Did you know a regular person owns the vehicle and earns money through advertising?

Whether driving to and from work, running errands, visiting friends, or going to the gym, you can turn your car into a profitable business and earn extra cash just by putting stickers or wraps on your car!

Putting advertisements on your car is like a mini version of the billboard rental business, where you own a billboard business and allow a company to promote its products on the billboard.

If you’re looking for a passive income stream and don’t mind driving your car with adverts, this can be a great way to earn a little extra cash. You drive your car, and your car turns into one of the businesses that run themselves!

Whether you choose any of the suggested online businesses, a car wash business, advertising a company on your car, or other businesses that run themselves, this is your chance to collect money without much effort!

While your business kicks off, we invite you to make some extra cash with Honeygain – the app that'll pay you for sharing your internet connection. You don't even need to get off your couch.

Here's how it works – you download Honeygain and create an account. You start sharing your internet connection. Trusted researchers and businesses use your data for important data-driven projects and say thank you by paying you money!