The holy grail of business - the idea that you can put systems in place to provide you with income while you're not working - is something that we've all dreamed about at one time or another. Especially for the budding entrepreneur working a tireless schedule to make a small amount of money, eventually achieving a plateau where money just rolls in regardless of whether we show up or not, is a great, and much talked about concept.

But is it possible?

I am still on my journey as online business owner, so I can't say that my current conclusions are set in stone. However, it is my thinking that yes, it is possible, but it's a lot harder than you might think.

One of the main problems with starting a business that can pay you even when you're not working is that you most people start by being the driving force behind the business. The entrepreneur, or business owner, is THE reason the business works, and without him or her, everything falls apart.

It's only after years of toil, hard work, blood, and sweat does the entrepreneur start to think how nice it would be to remove himself/herself from the mix, go on vacation, and reap the rewards of the hard work previous sewn.

The problem with this is that the systems currently in place require the presence of the business owner.

Whether it be keyword research, core website installation and setup, writing articles, or choosing keywords for a PPC campaign, it's very likely you've place yourself at some core point in the business. To remove yourself, you're going to have to re-engineer your business to work without you.

I know this because I have run into this problem myself.

The answer is simply to start a business with a model in mind that doesn't require YOU to be there. It sounds simple in hindsight, but most people starting an online business don't consider this from the beginning, and if they do, they might not have the skills or broad enough vision to actually implement the idea.

Without any kind of system in place that can allow you to retreat from your business for a period of time, you will notice that the less work you put into content creation, social media engagement, article marketing, and other aspects of your online business, the less traffic you're going to get, the fewer return visitors are going to show up, and the less you'll get talked about on social media sites.

It may not happen instantly, but you business will start to fade.

So, although many gurus hawking their wares will have you believe that you can, with no experience, start a website to provide you with residual income for years and years, with only a few minutes of work per day, this is not entirely true.

It is possible to build a business for years of sustainable, residual, passive income online, but it's going to take some experience, some planning, and plenty of work to achieve this lofty goal.