HOW TO TURN YOUR PASSIONS INTO YOUR CAREER

HOW TO TURN YOUR PASSIONS INTO YOUR CAREER

Taking the step from full time employment to running your own business is a scary thought and a huge risk, but it’s also an incredible opportunity and a seriously brave move. In this day and age, being an entrepreneur and running your own business is relatively common, particularly within the blogging space. And the ‘can do’ attitude of our generation is a huge accolade and something we should all be proud of. Gone are the days where a linear career trajectory is the expected norm (even further gone are the days where we were expected to not even have a career). Today you can be whatever you want to be. And I want to help you get there …

I think and write a lot about blogging full time, things to consider before going full time (like how to be your own boss) and even sharing detailed step by step advice to help you turn your blog into a business. It’s something I’m super passionate about, and something that in my own blogging journey am experiencing and working on.

But it’s not just blogging, it’s any passion you have. The reality is, you can turn your passions into your business, and today I wanted to share my tips to help you get there.

6 STEPS TO HELP YOU TURN YOUR PASSIONS INTO YOUR CAREER

KNOW YOUR VALUE

Before taking any passion full time, you need to believe in yourself, believe in your product and believe in it’s worth.

A business turns a loved hobby into a paid for profession, and so to be able to succeed you must know and respect the value of what you do. Firstly understanding what is the value you can offer (what is the sellable or commercial opportunity with your passion), and then secondly believing the value in order to sell it.  If you undervalue your product you won’t earn money, if you doubt yourself, your consumers will doubt you too, and if you don’t believe in your value, how can anyone else believe in it?

Having self belief is critically important when it comes to taking your business full time. And this belief must be founded on both your gut and facts as well. Your belief can’t be founded solely from yourself, it must also be founded in the knowledge that your business could work, whether that’s understanding the demand, knowing your audience & what value your offering has for them, and even financially the business opportunity or the market gap. You must have self belief, but also a strong rationale to back it up.

“What if I fall? Oh, but my darling what if you fly?”

DEFINE YOUR BRAND

When you’re launching a business you need to have a clear identity and a defined offering that your audience and consumers understand and get. You also need to have a presence, a consistent brand presence that people can easily find and easily use. I’d recommend being sure to have an online hub where you can share your work, your brand and your business (for bloggers this is easily, as your blog is ultimaltely your product), a place that people can easily contact you and understand your business offering, and beyond that start to drive a presence on social media too, as this can really drive awareness of your business. From twitter and Facebook, to instagram and pinterest. Create a consistent brand presence that can really help communicate your business to your consumers … and most importantly allow people to easily find you.

CREATE A BUSINESS PLAN

Knowing that your passion has a real ‘ business opportunity’ is super important, equally so is putting a plan in place to help you harness that opportunity. When it comes to turning your passions into a business, once you’ve identified the opportunity (and this is a critical starting point), you must start creating a a thorough and robust business plan that builds up to your end goal. Understanding the realities of the step to self employment, the logical and functional things that need to happen for your business to succeed, and importantly the step by step breakdown of what you need to do to get there … and how you’ll measure it, is what will help you create a successful business in the end.  Read my post here all about creating your own business plan.

FINANCIAL STABILITY

When it comes down to it, the success of your business in many ways is determined by the money you’re able to earn. Whilst the love and enjoyment you have is super important, it’s financial stability which ultimately determines whether or not your able to sustain your business.

Financial stability means a couple of things, firstly it’s about having financial back up as you take the leap into self employment (funds to cover your living while you set your business up and as you start to build out your work & clientèle) but more than that it’s being able to manage your finances once you are running your own business. From managing invoice and payments, to delivering your tax returns to seeking new financial opportunities.

CLIENTÈLE & NETWORK

Which leads me nicely to my next point … when you’re seeking new opportunities a strong network to help you gain clientèle is critical.

A network of clients and brands who you work with regularly, a network of other bloggers to support your journey, share advice and even leads, a network of friends and family who you can rely in times of need, and even a network of agents of representatives to help build out your clientèle list.

Ideally you’d start to build out or already have a strong network behind you before you even take the leap into self employment, as it’s these people who will help you grow out your business.

PASSION & ENERGY

To start a business and to make it succeed you need enthusiasm, drive, energy, passion, determination, a strong skill set in your field (don’t stop learning and up skilling yourself), you need to work hard, and most of all you need to have the perseverance to keep going even in times when things are perhaps not going so well.

You must treat every failure as a learning curve, you must monitor and understand what works and what doesn’t and you must keep trying. More than this you have to keep learning … Don’t stop taking risks, evolving, adapting and continuing to grow into new spaces.

“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally” David Frost