I’m Trying to Build Multiple Income Streams Online.
I don’t have a success story to share. Not yet.
Right now, I work a retail job. It pays the bills, barely, and it’s not where I want to be in a year. I’ve been here before, actually. Multiple times. I’ve started businesses, closed businesses, pivoted, experimented, gone back to retail, and started over again. If entrepreneurship were a frequent flyer program, I’d have enough miles for first class by now.
But this time feels different. Not because I’ve found some secret formula or unlocked a new level of motivation. It feels different because I’ve finally stopped pretending I need to figure everything out before I start talking about it.
So here’s what I’m doing: I’m building multiple income streams online, starting from zero, and documenting the whole thing as it happens. The wins, the mistakes, the revenue (or lack of it), and the boring parts nobody posts about.
This is the plan.
Why I’m Doing This (Again)
I’ve been in the entrepreneurial space for over twenty years. I graduated from fashion design school in 2003, launched my first apparel company the following year, and have been building things ever since. Apparel brands, a handmade beauty line, e-commerce stores, digital products, marketplace work for a friend’s business. I’ve touched almost every corner of online selling.
The common thread? I always ended up doing everything myself. Design, production, photography, web development, marketing, copywriting, shipping. That’s been my superpower and my bottleneck at the same time.
The other common thread? I kept going back to retail jobs between ventures. Not because I wanted to, but because the businesses couldn’t sustain me financially. Too expensive, too dependent on one revenue source, or too reliant on my energy alone.
I’m tired of that cycle. Not in a dramatic, “burning it all down” way. Just in a quiet, practical, “I’d like to stop doing this” way.
What I Actually Want
Let me be specific, because vague goals are where good plans go to dissolve.
Income target: $2,500 to $3,000 per month in extra income. That’s not “quit your job and buy a Tesla” money. That’s “cover my bills, breathe a little, and stop relying on a retail job” money.
Work style: Two to three days per week of focused, independent work. I don’t want to manage a team right now. I don’t want to hop on calls all day. I want low-interaction, high-leverage work that I can do from my desk with a cup of coffee and zero small talk.
Timeline: I’m giving myself a real runway. This isn’t a 30-day sprint. It’s a slow, deliberate build.
The Three Pillars
After years of experimenting with different business models, I’ve narrowed my focus to three income streams that complement each other. None of them require inventory. None of them require employees. And all three can start small.
1. YouTube (The Audience Engine)
YouTube isn’t the money play right away. It’s the leverage play.
I’m launching a channel that’s essentially a real-time documentary of this entire journey. Making money online, my way, through whatever means actually work. Digital products, fashion, print-on-demand, maybe consulting down the road. Nothing is set in stone, and that’s the point. People aren’t tuning in for a curriculum. They’re following along to see what happens.
The channel builds the audience. The audience builds trust. Trust opens the door for everything else. Ad revenue is a bonus down the road, but it’s not the reason I’m doing this.
The real value is becoming someone people follow because I’m actually in the trenches, not because I’m pretending to have all the answers from a rented studio.
2. Digital Products (The Scalable Side)
I already sell digital products through Splendeur Studio, and this is the pillar I’m most confident in long-term.
The products are designed to help people build Shopify stores and launch online boutiques. Think templates, guides, and resources that solve specific problems. Not fluff. Not “ultimate bundle” nonsense. Just clear, useful tools that save someone ten hours of Googling.
Digital products are beautiful in their simplicity. You create them once. You sell them repeatedly. There’s no shipping, no inventory, no restocking. The margins are almost entirely profit after the initial work.
The key is making products that are genuinely good enough for people to recommend. That’s the bar.
3. Print-on-Demand (The Testing Ground)
I recently launched a print-on-demand apparel boutique, and it’s still in the earliest stages. This is the pillar with the most unknowns right now.
Here’s why I chose POD over traditional inventory: I’ve already lived the “buy inventory and hope it sells” life. Twice. It nearly broke me both times. With print-on-demand, nothing gets produced until someone buys it. No upfront inventory costs. No boxes stacked in a closet. No panic when a design doesn’t sell.
The tradeoff is lower margins and less control over quality and shipping times. I know that going in.
But this business also serves a second purpose. It’s a real-time case study. Everything I learn while running it feeds directly into my YouTube content and my Substack. What’s working, what’s flopping, what I’d do differently. The boutique isn’t just a business. It’s also the content.
Why This Combination
These three pillars aren’t random. They feed each other.
YouTube brings attention. Digital products convert that attention into income. The print-on-demand boutique gives me real, current material to talk about. Remove any one of them and the whole system gets weaker.
I also chose this model because it matches how I actually want to work. Independent. Creative. Flexible. No warehouse. No employees. No pretending to love networking events.
What I’m Intentionally Not Doing
I’m not offering coaching or consulting. I’m not launching a course. I’m not building a membership community. I’m not trying to become an influencer.
Those aren’t bad business models. They’re just not the right ones for me right now. I know myself well enough to know that anything requiring constant live interaction will drain me faster than it pays me. Maybe later. Not now.
I’m also not pretending I have this figured out. I don’t. I’m placing bets based on twenty years of experience and a very clear picture of what I don’t want my life to look like.
No guarantees here. Just a plan, some experience, and the willingness to be honest about how it actually goes.
If you’re an aspiring print-on-demand boutique entrepreneur trying to get your store off the ground, check out my digital products at Splendyr Studio. They’re built from real experience, designed to save you time, and made for people who are just getting started.
Let’s see what happens.