How This Entrepreneur Balances Multiple Income Streams Working 10 Hours a Week
Grace Ryu is a 23-year-old entrepreneur based in Houston. She quit a job in the tech industry to focus on creating streams of mostly passive income.
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The results have been great, according to Ryu, who says she now earns six figures working just 10 hours a week. Here’s a look at her many income streams and how she manages them.
How Ryu Earns Money
Ryu says she currently has eight income streams. She earns over six figures annually through the following hustles:
Her luxury picnic business
Social media brand deals
Affiliate marketing
User-generated content
Pet sitting
Airbnb arbitrage
Selling digital products
Nannying
Ryu estimates she spends an average of just 10 hours on all eight of these jobs combined. So how does she do it?
Breaking Down Grace Ryu’s Strategy
You need great time management skills to work as many jobs as Ryu has. But there are also only so many hours in a week. So, Ryu uses a few really smart strategies to make her lifestyle possible.
More Work Upfront
First, it’s important to recognize that Ryu’s 10-hour work week is the end product of a lot of upfront work. For example, she only spends about an hour on her luxury picnic business weekly. But that’s only possible because she has a team of employees that can handle events independently now.
Before reaching this stage, Ryu says she and her partners reinvested all of their profits into the business. They also had to build a name for themselves over time and did so through labor-intensive advertising like posting flyers around their high school and town.
Similarly, Ryu earns passive income by selling digital products like her e-book. This requires no weekly work but took her time to write. This just shows that although you can reach a 10-hour work week, you’ll likely need to work significantly more than that for a while before you get there.
The Power of a Social Following
Ryu calls herself a micro-influencer on TikTok, where she posts about her life and financial strategies. She also leverages her following to earn more income.
For example, Ryu partners with brands to promote products on her TikTok page. She says she used to make content for brands for free, but now charges at least $1,000 per post.
Ryu also earns income through affiliate marketing deals. She creates social media content that features products, which she includes links to in her posts. When a follower clicks on the link and buys the product, she gets a percentage of their purchase through Amazon’s influencer program.
Ryu says she earns $500 to $2,000 monthly from this. She also makes $6,000 to $8,000 per month creating user-generated content, which is often social posts that brands share directly on their pages.
These strategies each reveal how your income-earning potential increases after you’ve built a social following. Ryu even sells digital content like her e-book through her social media posts. Once you have an audience, you can monetize it in many different ways.
Jobs With Downtime
Ryu also chooses some jobs because of the built-in downtime they have. For example, she started pet-sitting while working remotely in the tech industry. During that time, she was getting paid for her day job and her side gig during the same hours.
Nannying is another job Ryu has that fits this mold. She does it three or four times per year for a family in New York that pays her $1,200 weekly. Ryu has much of the day to herself while the children she watches are at school and uses those hours to make more money.
Applying Ryu’s Ideas to Your Life
Grace Ryu has gone all-in on diversifying her income with work she can do in just 10 hours a week. You may not want to go as far as she does. But there are still some takeaways from her lifestyle that can help you get ahead on your financial goals.
Think Low Maintenance, Not Low Barrier to Entry
Ryu looks for opportunities that will generate income without much ongoing work, even if they take some significant time to set up.
You see this in the e-books she sells, her luxury picnic business and her social following. Each took time and effort to create but now let her earn money with minimal weekly work. These kinds of jobs are what make it possible to earn a lot of money without much work.
Focus On Your Strengths
It’s also important to focus on your strengths when looking for passive income opportunities. Ryu enjoyed social media, got good at it, and then turned her following into a business. She’s also a great writer and decided to turn that skill into income by writing e-books.
Whether you’re great at working on cars or love to play music, there’s often a way to turn your passion into money.
Keep Your Eyes Open
Finally, Ryu’s story is a good reminder to always keep your eyes open for new side hustles.
If she had settled at just pet-sitting while working her tech job, Ryu would never have gotten to the point of earning six figures in 10 hours a week. It’s a reminder that you have to keep looking for opportunities if you want to continue improving your financial situation.
The Bottom Line
There have never been more ways to earn passive income. Ryu’s story shows us how far you can take these opportunities to improve your quality of life.
Just make sure you allocate the passive income you generate effectively, with regular contributions to your retirement accounts. The best way to make sure your money always goes where it should is to create a budget.
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