The concept of building an empire of micro-businesses can be an intriguing idea, particularly for solopreneurs who are most interested in supplementing their current income. While some individuals may find great success in discovering the next amazing passive side hustle, it is important to recognize that the majority may only achieve moderate success. It can be frustrating to wait for moderate success to transform into something bigger.

I was talking online with a friend last week about the “Passive Income Online” trend to make extra money. She has come up with a clever approach that is now earning her a respectable amount of extra income. Her current approach was accidental, but now she intentionally follows this strategy. So what does she do? She has a portfolio of micro-businesses. Her own micro-empire!

Each of her online businesses does not generate massive revenue on its own. They are good for a side hustle, but not great. On average each one only generates several thousand dollars (3-7K) a year in revenue annually. Which is why I called them micro-businesses. Some make a little more, others make a little less. But she does not own one or two of them, as of writing this she has just over 30!

She is a self-admitted serial side business starter. She enjoys exploring the ‘next big’ passive income trend. Like many, the concept of passive or near-passive income has been very appealing. After the initial launch and promotion (social) each new one would grow to a certain point, and level out. When the potential for stellar growth and international success stalled, she loose interest and she would move on to the next idea, always searching for that elusive lighting strike business.

Accidental luck often presents an opportunity. While most people will close or abandon a moderate or underperforming side hustle, she did not. “I just let them ride” she said. It was not intentional, she would just move on to the next thing. All the previous attempts would remain live in the wild, “Just in case”. But there was a moment, where one month she noticed the sum of all the auto-payments deposited to her bank account was significant. The small sum of what she was learning from each started to collectively add up to something, something bigger. At that point, she had curated a number of ideas, and they were still generating revenue behind the scenes.

• Estsy – Drop Ship T-Shirt Store
• Etsy – Drop Ship Mug Store
• An Amazon Store
• An Ad-Based Travel Blog
• Affiliate Funnel for a fitness product
• Affiliate Accounts linking to Assorted Products and a Review Website

What she decided to try next was very creative. Instead of trying to build the next big something new, she asked “Can I clone and double what I have?”. In other words, could she double her revenue just by repeating the success she already had built? So she created a second Etsy T-shirt store with variations of existing products, A 2nd funnel for the same fitness product under a different domain with slightly different messaging. She duplicated the product review site under a new domain, with many of the same products, along with some new ones. She replicated the same ad and social media promotions for all.

The result? After 3-4 months, while not quite double, these replicated sites were doing close to the same volume as the original ideas. Which was enough success to continue expanding her experiment. As I understand it, next she tried related but similar but alternate variations. A local travel blog, and a new funnel for a competing fitness product.

The Ah Ha moment was just by duplicating what had worked, even if only moderately successful, she could scale her income. A pattern she continues to this day. The lesson for us is that opportunity exists everywhere if we break norms and rethink the assets we already have.