The million dollar question. Or maybe the thousand dollar question. Either way, it is getting more and more acceptable for us to pursue our dreams. One of the hardest parts of turning your passion into profit is knowing what you are even passionate about. I knew that I wanted to start a business. In the early stages, I thought of doing everything from landscaping to vending. Throughout that whole process of trial and error, I was always creating. Creating website. Creating logos. Creating images and branding to get my message across. That’s when it finally clicked! My passion was the creative process. I figured it out!! Now what?
I am passionate about creating. Now I could have just went around creating designs for myself, taking pictures of random things and making websites for fun. I didn’t do that. Earlier I said figuring out your passion was the hard part. I lied. The whole process is hard. You now have to find someone that will throw bags of money at you to do what you love. This next section is going to talk about ways you can secure the bag
Build an audience
Thanks to the internet consumers now rely on each other to tell them what is good and what is bad, what they might like and what they might not like. Using the internet to build your audience can be done in a couple different ways and will completely rely on your strengths and weaknesses. Below is a list of places to build an audience. Each platform will require a different method and it is up to you which one(s) you choose to build on.
- YouTube
- Music.ly
You will read conflicting advice from “social media experts” saying what platforms are most important to use and some will say you need to be consistently posting on all platforms at the same time… FOREVER! I do not agree with this philosophy. I suggest grabbing your name/brand name on all of the platforms (so no one steals it) and choosing which one or ones you feel you will be most successful at and start building
Get Clients
Depending on what you are passionate about the model of getting clients may make the most sense. To break it down in its simplest form you need to think about what you offer and who needs it. If they need it, chances are they can be your client. Now, this is speaking in the most general of ways and more analysis will need to be done to figure out who your ideal clients are. If you’re in the client services industry it is important to think about the relationship between you and your clients. It is important to have a relationship that is more like a partnership than a dictatorship.
Important Message
It is important to remember this. You don’t decide how good your product or service does. The market does. You can control how you market it, how you tell its story and how you sell it but that will not guarantee you riches or success. In the world we live in entrepreneurship is hot but it is important to remember it is not for everyone. But more importantly, if you do fail don’t look at it as an endpoint but as temporary defeat. You may have lost the battle but the war has just begun.