We all have a passion, or at least most of us do. You can call it a hobby or recreational activity. Whatever it is, there is this one thing that doing it gives you immense joy and boosts your mood. It also increases your self-worth and value, and amongst other things, it is something you do quite well. Yes, we call that passion. We all have something we are passionate about and the good news is that we can make money from it. Just about any skill can be monetized. In the words of Confucius, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Most persons in recent times loathe their current job but still find themselves repeating the same ritual every morning. They hence jump at every opportunity to curse their employers and workplace. The typical response of those in this situation is that they either have to pay bills or that it is too late to start another career. No doubt this is true, but you’ve got to ask yourself a very important question: How much exactly is your time worth to you per hour? Whatever your answer may be, one salient fact about time is that it is irreplaceable. Once gone, it cannot be gotten back. Generating an income via your passion means using your time to do what you love with the bonus of getting paid for it. It is not a piece of cake, as it requires some effort from you.
Here are a few steps to guide you on making money from doing what you love.
1. Discover what exactly your passion is
You will find out sooner than later that more than one thing interests you. Here, we are looking for that one particular skill that stands out amidst others in terms of how you do it. To know what that is, you’ll need to answer some personal questions. Some of those questions include: What are the things you enjoy doing? What is your dream job or favorite hobby? What activities or skills do you do well in that make you feel proud of yourself? Sit down, answer honestly, and make a list of your answers. You would find out a whole lot about yourself just by doing this. Next, you assess all your answers and tick off those that are seemingly less important in your hierarchy or are less essential and beneficial to you until you are left with the top five.
2. Do proper research
Practically anything you want to do has already been done or written about. So, you can get adequate information about it just by doing your due diligence. Search about your top answers with the focus on how to monetize them. You are most likely to see different testimonials of other persons who left their careers to pursue their passion and are making money from it. Others simply went straight into entrepreneurship and have been independent ever since. It is not a day’s work. No matter how easily achievable it seems, you’ve got to put in enough work to make it possible. From your research, you should be able to narrow your passion down to one or two things that you can get money from. Take, for example, you have the following as your top five interests:
● Drawing
● Cooking
● Traveling
● Solving puzzles
● Writing
Based on the research you did, perhaps you pick traveling and cooking as your top two interests that are most likely to benefit you the most monetarily. From this, we can move on to the next step which is to formulate a plan.
3. Set out a plan
Having a good business plan as an entrepreneur is essential for the success of the business. Your major goal is to make an income and this can be done in more than one way. You can make a product, write about affiliate products or products that interest you, and provide information online about products or services that correspond to your interests. Important things, such as your target audience and who is willing to pay you for what you do, should be considered when making a business plan. It’s advisable to retain your current source of income as you’ll need some financing to carry this out. If you currently don’t have any source of income, you need to find one. It is really easy for an upcoming entrepreneur to get stranded because of a lack of funds. From the example given above, you could set out a business plan that involves you traveling to other countries and writing about their foods to tourists. Say the foods to eat, the ones to avoid, the cheap and the expensive ones, the easy to make or DIY ones. You could, instead of writing, make video tutorials of what you cook or your experience trying out those foods.
Now, in case someone is already wondering why you have to go through all these, some of the advantages is that you get to do exactly what you love doing and make an income while at it. This is not like a vacation, as you don’t always get paid for taking a vacation. You are also location-independent. This means that you get to dictate just how much time you have to spend on other important things such as spending more time with family or paying a surprise visit to friends.
4. Give yourself a professional touch
Your next step is to improve yourself by working on your flaws and harnessing your strengths. You would want people to pay for whatever services or products you are giving them so you have got to make it worth their money. Improvements are occurring daily in almost every field and you will need to keep up with them. Brush up your skills and add a professional touch to whatever you are going into whether it’s photography, cooking, or blogging. Aim to make yourself better for your audience.
5. Market yourself
After completing the first four steps, it is now time to show yourself to the world. The best way to start is with the support of those closest to you. Let your family and friends be aware of what you want to do and let them help you reach out to people. Since you are still just starting, you could give out discounts for some of your services. For example, if you are into photography or if your passion is talking and you would like to be the first choice, you can start by giving discounts to your first set of clients. Do a very good job and you’ll get referrals from them in no time. And if it flops, dust yourself and give it another go. No one has ever made it by quitting the first time!
6. Talk about you
Never shy away from letting people know what you do and that you offer services that might be of use to them. Bring attention to yourself and offer your perspective on what you do. You can build your network by doing this. The trick is to make yourself memorable. Whether it is blogging or through a presentation, or products and videos on your website, do it in such a way that your audience doesn’t forget you in a hurry. Don’t forget it’s your passion and it’s your niche, hence do it like no one else can.
7. Let your work speak
Build yourself to the point where your work speaks for you. No one wants to pay for garbage and neither do you. The people who will give you referrals would be able to do so very well when your services are up to par. Have a standard and maintain it. As your passion expands, you might need to employ more hands. Be sure to employ those who are as passionate as you are. Your employees are an extension of yourself and a representation of your work so employ those with the same zeal as you.
8. Get financial expertise
When your dough starts to roll in and you experience difficulty managing it, you need to employ financial experts or use accounting software that can help with budgeting, spending, and generating revenue. Incompetence in the management of finances is one of the causative factors of business failure.
9. Maximize technology
You can do this by making use of it to your advantage, showing your work to a larger audience, or by using it to meet needs such as creating applications. This can make work in your industry easier to do and make the customers closer to you. Make good use of opportunities as they come.
10. Have fun
Do not forget the initial reason that got you to where you are was your passion. Because the bustle of the work can make you forget, you need to consciously keep it alive. Do the things you love the most and don’t forget to have fun while you carry them out.
One of the major benefits of developing your passion into something that you can call your own is the immense pride it gives you later when you look back at how you spent your life.
