The idea of earning passive income is a powerful one — money that flows in while we sleep, travel, work on our passions or spend time with loved ones. But as attractive as it sounds, building a sustainable passive income stream can be tricky, especially for beginners. Over the years, I’ve tried and tested multiple ways to generate passive income, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way.

Here are five common mistakes I made in my journey toward passive income and, more importantly, how you can avoid them.

1. Focusing on Passive Income Too Early

One of the biggest traps beginners fall into is focusing too much on making passive income right away. We get so caught up in the idea of “earning while doing nothing” so that we can focus on the things we want to do that we forget that passive income requires upfront work. I’ve been there—thinking I could set something up and sit back as the money rolled in. Spoiler: that’s not how it works.

How to Avoid It: Recognise that passive income comes after an initial investment of time, effort, or money. Whether you’re creating an online course, building a blog, or setting up an affiliate marketing business, the early stages will be active. Focus on creating something valuable that you can scale later. Passive income is the reward for the work you put in upfront, so think long-term rather than expecting instant results.

The nice thing though is that every thing you build stacks and keeps working for you. It’s hard work building an online course, for example, but once it’s built it becomes an asset that help others and make you money for a long time.

2. Not Validating the Idea First

Another big mistake I made was launching projects without validating if there was actual demand for them. I’d dive into creating something I thought would be great, only to realise later that there wasn’t a market for it. I spent a while developing a public speaking course (as I’d coached numbers of people in it before) before realising that the demand isn’t that high and another skill I had (helping people to write their first book) was far more helpful for people.

This is a common pitfall—many people spend time and money developing products or services only to struggle with sales.

How to Avoid It: Before you invest significant time into creating a course, product, or service, validate your idea. Talk to your people in your target audience, gather feedback, and see if people are willing to pay for it. In my coaching I help people to work out how to pre-sell their product to ensure there’s a demand before they build it. This will save you time, money, and the frustration of launching something that doesn’t resonate with your audience.

3. Trying to Do Too Much at Once

When I first started trying to build passive income, I made the mistake of juggling multiple ideas at once. I figured if I had several projects running, one of them would surely take off. But instead of making progress, I ended up spreading myself too thin, resulting in slow progress and a lack of focus.

How to Avoid It: Start with one project and give it your full attention. Pick one income stream, whether it’s creating an online course, writing a book, developing a property portfolio and focus on mastering that. Once you’ve built one successful passive income stream, you can diversify. But in the beginning, it’s crucial to channel your energy into a single effort to see real progress. Especially if you’re doing it part time.

4. Not Having a Clear Plan to Scale

I learned the hard way that not every business model is scalable, and failing to plan for growth can be a major roadblock. I once ran an eBay business that had a turnover of tens of thousands of pounds per year, which sounds great, right? The problem was that to scale beyond that, I would’ve had to take on staff, and I wasn’t interested in doing that. Since I hadn’t planned for how I would scale the business, I decided to close it down.

How to Avoid It: When starting a passive income venture, think through how you’ll scale it. If your model relies on trading your time for money, it’s not going to be passive for long. Before you start, make sure there’s a clear path to scaling your income without multiplying your workload or time. Whether it’s through automation, creating digital products, or expanding your reach, think long-term and plan for growth that doesn’t rely solely on your time or resources.

5. Pursuing Something Just for the Money, Not Passion

Finally, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that it’s hard to sustain a project that you’re not passionate about. I once built a platform to host charity training courses, thinking it was a great idea because there was demand for it. But in reality, it felt like I was doing a tech job, and I wasn’t excited about the work. Without a sense of purpose or passion, the project became a grind, and I eventually shut it down.

How to Avoid It: Choose an income stream that aligns with your interests or values. It doesn’t have to be your life’s calling, but it should be something that excites you or that you believe in. Passive income projects require effort, especially in the early stages, and if you’re only in it for the money, you’ll likely lose motivation when things get tough. When I’m coaching someone I always ask them if they could see themselves talking about “the idea” in 3-5 years time. If not - pick something else. Basically, find something that energises you so that the work feels meaningful.

How Online Coaching Avoids These Mistakes

After years of trial and error, I’ve found that online coaching and course creation avoid many of the pitfalls I’ve mentioned. Here’s why:

1. You don’t need a large upfront investment—you can start coaching one-on-one and build your program gradually.
2. You can validate your offer early by working with real people, refining your approach before creating a full course.
3. It’s scalable—once your course is created, it can be sold to an unlimited number of people without requiring extra work from you.
4. You can build it around your passion—whether it’s fitness, marketing, personal development, or another skill, coaching allows you to share what you love.

If you’re ready to stop trading your time for money and build a scalable, purpose-driven business, online coaching might be the perfect solution.

How I Can Help

If you’re ready to learn more about creating a successful online course, coaching or mentoring program, here are some ways we can work together to bring your vision to life:

1. Subscribe to The Raw News

If you're not already receiving it, get weekly tips, tactics, and inspiration delivered straight to your inbox to help you build your online coaching program. Sign up here.

2. Join My FREE Facebook Group

Become part of a community of aspiring coaches, mentors and course creators in the Online Course & Coach Accelerator group. Here we share resources, answer questions, and provide feedback to help you grow. Join us here.

3. Sign Up for my Impact & Income Accelerator Program

If you’re ready to take the leap, my Impact & Income Accelerator Program is a 3-6 month course that guides people to turn their knowledge into their first scalable online coaching program so that they can create lasting impact and generate increasingly passive income. More information here.