Turn your passion into profit

By Howie Jones

Chances are, your full-time job is not your actual passion. Of course, you will do something tolerable to pay the bills, but your nine-to-five probably is not the highlight of your daily life. Some people get lucky, but most wish that they truly loved enough to make a liveable income.

The truth is that not every passion can get you rich, but that does not mean you should not try. Even a small side business can use your passion and generate some additional income while you get to do something you love doing. So while you will not be quitting your day job any time soon, your life will have a little more color which is worth all the extra effort.

Who knows, you might even be able to build a thriving business based on your true passion. Whether it is art, music, woodcarving, or even video games, here are the steps you need to take to turn your passion into profit:

Put it in Your Calendar

The first thing you need to do is make time for your passion. Even if you absolutely love something, a busy schedule full of deadlines and responsibilities will often push your passion to the backburner. To make it a more prominent part of your life, you need to make time for it, even if it means sacrificing part of your weekends or the time you spend watching Netflix after work.

When working on your passion projects — write them into your schedule, and it will be easier to commit your valuable time to the work. Otherwise, you will keep telling yourself that tomorrow will be the day you begin. Add some persistent notifications, and you will finally start getting to work on that project you keep talking about.

You have a passion for baking but standing in the kitchen is the last thing you want to do when getting home from work. If this is truly your passion, you need to push yourself by scheduling time to bake in your Calendar. You can even schedule times to deliver cookies and cupcakes to friends and family so that you have some sort of deadline or goal to work toward in the early going.

Phone a Friend

Having a partner share your ambitions will drive you further than you could on your own. When you are lacking motivation, they can pick up the slack and help you continue moving forward. The buddy system has worked for countless start-ups and successful projects throughout the years and will work for you today.

While a friend can help you turn your passion into a business, you should never rely completely on someone else to make things happen for your work. In the end, you are responsible for making things happen, and if effort starts to falter, you need to look at yourself before pointing fingers. Your friends and family should act as a support system, not your entire engine.

To coordinate with a friend who is willing to help, boot up your online Calendar. With Calendar, you can set meetings to create a game plan and set deadlines for each other to complete and share tasks. Using a tool such as Calendar makes sure that you’re always on the same page and working toward the same goal.

Find Time to Network

Your friends and family might be supportive of your dreams, but their technical expertise might not be what you need in the later stages of your project development. Let’s go back to the baking example. Of course, your loved ones will love when you deliver treats, but how many of them are able to help you create a business model and put it into action?

You will likely not know every person who will help you with your business, making it essential to make networking a part of your life. It is extremely important. Through networking, you can find mentors who can guide you in the right direction. For example, if you are a baker, your mentor could be another baker who can talk to you about how they turned a similar passion into their business today.

Another networking opportunity might connect you with a wedding planner who can refer many clients to you based on positive interaction.

If you do not know where to start networking, try a social media site such as LinkedIn. You will be able to read articles from industry experts, engage in conversations, and find like-minded individuals on a similar path as yourself. Later you can find and attend different events and seminars to expand your craft and your business’ reach.

Expand Your Business Know-How

To make money from your passion, you need some business know-how. For example, you can be the best musician globally, but without knowing how to market yourself to the world, you won’t make much money out of playing. That’s why even the greatest artists in the world use agents to grow their brand, but in the beginning, they had to start somewhere.

Read articles on starting a business, watch YouTube tutorials, and get to know the stories of entrepreneurs throughout the years. In addition, you’ll learn all sorts of valuable tips about salesmanship, product development, social media marketing, and more. These principles, when combined with your skills, will be how your passion can generate a profit.

Have you ever thought about online streaming? Thousands of people are trying to earn an income by streaming themselves playing video games to a live audience. Those who succeed are very good at the games they play, but they also have developed a successful brand and marketing strategy that they used to grow their channels. The packaging is just as important, if not more so than the talent.

Continue Practicing

Never stop developing your talents, even when you have made it big. Selling your first record deal does not mean you should stop playing the guitar. Instead, it should give you more motivation to keep working and improving.

Your Calendar will always be there to keep you in check even when your passion is starting to see some success as a business model. So keep scheduling time to practice and hone your talents so that your success can endure for years to come.

Even if you only make a few extra dollars a month, embracing an entrepreneurial spirit will be beneficial in so many ways in your life. Your passion will become more prominent in your life, and you’ll learn so much along the way. So start filling up that Calendar right away and get started! – www.calendar.com