Passive Income Ideas for Interior Designers

Whether you feel like you've hit a financial ceiling, want to scale your business, or are simply interested in making more money, the prospect of passive income is an exciting one. Fortunately, interior design is a profession that offers numerous strategies for generating passive income.

The idea is to establish revenue streams that flow in the background with minimal effort on your part. It's important to remember that there is an initial investment of time to get it up and running and, depending on the strategy, there may be more or less maintenance. But if you set it up correctly from the beginning, you will find it to be quite rewarding.

Here are some effective passive income ideas that you can consider introducing into your business.

Digital Downloads

Selling digital downloads is one of the most popular ways to create passive income. Although it requires a significant time investment, it requires little to no monetary investment. You can create downloadable products such as gallery wall templates, e-books, guides, or pre-made mood boards. Try to opt for content that will stay fresh and relevant in the long term to maximize your earnings.

Courses

Whether you decide to sell a course on your own website or on another platform like Udemy, you will find customers or budding designers who want to know your design tips and tricks. Create a high-quality product with thoughtful content of value and attractive, cohesive graphic aids. If you sell your course on a third-party platform, you may benefit from more traffic. If you sell it on your own website, you’ll have total control over the price you charge.

Affiliate Marketing

The good news is that most major brands have an affiliate program with which you receive a commission for each sale that comes through your recommendation, such as through a link from your blog. This is a passive income opportunity with high earning potential and no need to get involved in the actual sales. The main challenge may be to work on the SEO of your site so that more customers find you in the first place.

Sponsorships

If you already have a large social media following, vendors may offer you their products so that you can market them or simply speak well of them (in exchange for a commission or one-time payment). They may even ask you to become a brand ambassador. Such an agreement may include specific kinds of posts or content, so it’s important that what you’re promoting is in line with your brand.

Online Shops

When it comes to e-commerce as passive income, you generally resell products rather than selling your own. It can take some time to get this set up on your website. Alternatively, you can use an affiliate program like SideDoor or Shopify to add items to your online shop and earn a substantial commission. In either case, you’ll need to advertise and leverage social media to attract customers.

Membership Sites

A membership site offers valuable information for a monthly or annual fee. As an interior designer, you must decide whether your expertise is better targeted to other designers or to consumers. As with digital downloads and courses, you’re sharing your knowledge in an accessible way. It’s one of the more time-consuming methods, which requires excellent marketing and customer service. But once it’s up and running, it can be a highly lucrative source of passive income.

Printable Art

Apart from being an interior designer, do you dabble in drawing or painting? Downloadable, printable art is a prevalent feature in decoration and is purchased by interior designers and consumers alike. Sell your work on Etsy, Shopify, or in your own shop in order to make multiple profits on a piece you created just once.

Hopefully, one or more of these passive income strategies have caught your attention and gotten you excited to start earning more! Looking for more help to get started?

In my eBook, Creating Passive & Multiple Income Streams For Interior Designers, I show you how other interior designers earn passive income in all of the above ways and more. You’ll find in-depth examples, case studies, important considerations, resources, and the steps to take to get these revenue streams going yourself.

xx, Danae