u/DefyKashan

I feel like most things marketed as passive income are actually just businesses that require a different kind of work.

So I’m curious about people who are actually doing it:

What income stream became genuinely low-maintenance after the initial work, and how long did it take to get there?

Could be affiliate sites, digital products, SaaS, investments, content, rentals, or something completely different.

I recently realized that the expenses hurting my budget most weren't necessarily the big purchases. It was all the small stuff I barely thought about.

Subscriptions I forgot about, random food orders, convenience purchases, impulse buys, etc.

What’s one expense you didn’t realize was costing you so much until you actually started tracking it?

I’ve been experimenting with AI automation and keep noticing that the biggest wins aren’t always the complicated workflows.

Sometimes it’s something simple like sorting emails, qualifying leads, summarizing customer messages, or updating a spreadsheet automatically.

If you had access to a small business’s processes for one day, what would you automate first and why?

I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to stay in a career just because you’ve already invested years into it.

For people who have actually changed careers, what made you realize it was time to move on?

Was it burnout, lack of growth, money, wanting to learn something new, or just realizing you didn’t see yourself doing it for another 10 years?

I always assumed the hardest part of sales would be getting people to say yes.

But the more I look into it, the more I feel like there’s probably a lot more to it — finding the right people, following up without being annoying, handling rejection, knowing when to walk away, etc.

For people who actually work in sales, what part took you the longest to get comfortable with?

I feel like a lot of entrepreneurship advice is about adding things — more content, more tools, more features, more outreach.

But I’m curious about the opposite.

What’s something you were doing for your business that you eventually stopped doing, and it actually made things better?

Could be a marketing strategy, a workflow, a type of customer, a tool, anything.

Everywhere I look, someone is selling a course about making passive income, but most of the examples seem to involve constantly creating content, finding customers, answering emails, or maintaining the product.

So I’m curious — for people actually making money this way, what’s the closest thing you’ve found to genuinely passive income?

And how much work did it take before it became relatively hands-off?

I’ve tried a bunch of no-code tools over time, but I feel like there’s a big difference between something that looks impressive and something you actually keep using.

Curious what tools people here use regularly and what you’re using them for. Could be automation, websites, internal tools, databases, anything.

What’s one no-code tool you’d actually recommend to someone getting started?

What’s the first n8n automation you built that actually saved you time?

I’ve been playing around with n8n and was curious what other beginners started with.

What was the first workflow you built that you actually ended up using regularly?

I’m especially interested in simple automations rather than complicated AI workflows. Something like notifications, data entry, lead follow-ups, moving data between apps, etc.

Would be useful to see what other beginners found worth automating first.