An adage that has been uttered in many different settings by motivational speakers, life coaches, and well-meaning friends and family is “find something you love to do, and you will never work a day in your life,” or some version of that statement. Put simply: do what you love.
This is most certainly true as finding your passion and then turning it into a way to make money can be the impetus for a new, better way of living life. In fact, if you don’t love what you do, even making a great deal of money will fail to ignite enough purpose to maintain your emotional health and overall wellbeing.
It Goes Against the Grain
Unfortunately, while we have all heard the statement above about the importance of loving what we do, the opposite is often pushed on us throughout school and beyond. You’re not taught to do what you love, and to find something that you are passionate about, something perhaps that can make a difference. We are instead encouraged to find a job that will earn us enough money for us to be able to afford to live up to the level we desire.
Then, in theory, we would be able to afford to do what we love doing on the side, maybe as a hobby for no profit. However, what if we could combine these two schools of thought? What if we could do something that makes us passionate, that gets the blood pumping and motivates us daily to keep going, but earn money doing it?
Well, thankfully, you can turn your passion into a business and in the process change your life. Before finding out how, though, let’s consider the dangers associated with not fulfilling a purpose or a passion.
Passion Serves a Purpose, Why It’s Important to Love What You Do
There have been many studies conducted throughout the years that have looked at the way money correlates to happiness, one of which was featured in a Business News Daily post.
Interestingly enough, once a person reached the level of earning $75,000 annually, their amount of happiness was no longer tied to the amount of money they made. In other words, once a person makes enough money to meet their most basic needs of food, shelter, etc. they want more than money to fulfil their lives. They wanted a purpose, a passion.
According to Philip Ryan who is a partner at Ipsos Strategy3, “As the lines between working life and personal life blur, a job is as much about personal fulfilment and growth as it is about a paycheck.”
Another interesting thought was presented by Masanari Arai, who is the CEO and co-founder of Kii Corporation, “A job that you love gives you extra motivation to meet your goals and when you do, the sense of accomplishment is outstanding.”
Suffice it to say that the right job for you will not only take care of your needs, in terms of paying your bills and meeting your responsibilities but will also fulfil you emotionally, giving you a purpose to get up for, a way to make a difference each and every day. Therefore, we can all agree that doing something you love, and turning your passion into a business is a great way to change your life for the better, but how do you do it? We are glad you asked…
How to Turn Your Passion into a Business and Change Your Life
Be Realistic
You must approach this whole endeavour as realistically as possible starting a small business of any kind, even one that involves a passion of yours will require a significant time commitment. It will also likely be a financial burden for some time before it begins to make a profit. Therefore, before you attempt to launch a business, consider the costs both financially and emotionally of striking out and perhaps even failing at first.
Success isn’t always quick. You must set realistic goals that you can achieve throughout this process. This will give you a sense of accomplishment even if that isn’t a financial windfall and keep you going until your passion can become profitable.
Discover Your Passions
While a hobby is something you enjoy that perhaps you could make money doing, it is not the same as a passion. A hobby can be set aside, it can take a back burner and can come in and out of your life. A passion is always there. It’s ever-present.
In other words, it’s something that makes up who you are. It isn’t something that will ever go away or not be part of you. It’s important to discover your passion, so you will know if there is something you could effectively evolve from mere enjoyment into a way of life, a way of earning your living.
Once you have this passion in mind, do some research and determine if you could make money with your passion or if it is something best left to evenings and weekends. Look for other examples of businesses that have successfully modelled their businesses out of your passion to discover a direction you might be able to head as you attempt to make this change in your life.
Also, ask for feedback from those you care most about as it relates to your attempt to turn your passion into a business.
Start Small, Be Reasonable
Once you make the decision to attempt to turn your passion into a way to make a living, you might be tempted to go all in. After all, you have likely heard the phrase “go big or go home” bantered about as a way to go for your goals.
However, when it comes to switching your career from something you did to earn money to something you do to fulfil a purpose, it’s important to go small. This allows you to make your mistakes on a small scale as well because you will most certainly make them in the early days.
Therefore, the beginning phase of the process should be small. It should allow you to test the waters so to speak without taking a huge risk. This gives you the chance to learn what does and does not work in terms of making money. When you begin to see some success in an area, you can then focus more on expanding that aspect in a controlled steady method.
Keep Your Current Job
You might feel inspired by this piece as well as others like it that expound upon the benefits of doing what you love. Don’t we all want to love what we do? Of course! However, don’t immediately quit your day job. Instead, wait until your new endeavour is providing you with a sustainable, growing cash flow.
This should ideally equal at least 75% of your current salary before you move on from your current job. It’s also a great idea to save at least six months to a year of living expenses that you can access before you stop your current job. This will give you some grace to pay bills even if your business doesn’t get up and running as quickly as you hoped.
Take Small Bites
How do you eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time. While we don’t recommend you eat an elephant, the metaphor is a good reminder of just how to accomplish any job, no matter how insurmountable it might seem. You simply plan it out and do it step by step or bite by bite.
Senia Maymin, who is a PhD and the co-author of Profit From Positive, explains it as follows “If you want to accomplish something, break it down into smaller steps, and go after them incrementally.
We encourage you to ‘just plan’ instead of ‘just do it.’” These plans can include a set schedule where you will work on your passion-backed income revenue or develop other habits that will ensure you chop away at the process of turning your dream job into a reality.
Outsource What You Don’t Do Well
We all tend to have our set strengths and on the other hand weaknesses. Therefore, when you are attempting to turn your passion into a business, know that at some point you will have to outsource what you don’t do as well.
This allows you to focus on the areas of your business where you are particularly gifted and reach out to other professionals to fill in the gaps that you don’t enjoy or thrive when doing. Some common areas you might find yourself outsourcing include social media marketing, customer service, IT services, and more.
Look at The Big Picture
It can be easy to get bogged down with the day-to-day tasks of running a business, especially if you are new to the field. Therefore, it’s important to step back and look at the big picture. Consider where you want your business to be in a year, or in five years.
Then, consider what you can do today to increase your chances of actually getting there. It’s always helpful to look at things from a time traveler’s mindset, considering what could happen or will likely happen down the road, not only what is happening in the here and now.
It Can Be Done, Here Are Some Real-Life Examples
There is evidence of many people just like you turning their passions into a successful business endeavors. Real-life success stories you can look to for motivation to try this yourself include countless successful professionals, a few of which are listed below:
– Jim Koch: Graduate of Harvard Business School, took his passion for beef and launched Samuel Adams Boston Beer Company.
– Brandon Stanton: Self-taught photographer created the photoblog Humans of New York, which became hugely popular and got Stanton two book deals.
– Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman: Turned their mutual passion for fashion into the successful business Rent a Runway, which now has over 50,000 designer dresses for rent out of five brick-and-mortar stores.
– Bill Gates: This list wouldn’t be complete without the man himself, Bill Gates who turned his passion for programming into the hugely successful Microsoft.
Now’s The Time
Keep all the above information and examples of success in mind as you consider transforming your passion into a marketable business. You, too, can live the dream when you invest in yourself and believe you can create something profitable out of your passion.
