If you want a business that is going to stand the test of time, one you’re going to love for the foreseeable, then you need to make sure you’re passionate about it. You need to be engaged, and genuinely care about whatever it is you’re doing.
Then, there’s the old phrase that goes ‘If you do something you’re passionate about, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ while that might seem a bit cliche to some, there is truth in it. Owning and running a business is still very hard work, so don’t take that the wrong way – you just won’t mind it so much if it’s something you’re actually passionate about.
Making passive income is great, but it’s unlikely to leave you feeling satisfied, happy, and ultimately, fulfilled. Below, we’ll discuss building a business that means something to you:
Start By Investing In Yourself
Investing in yourself means making the time to become the entrepreneur and business owner that you really want to be. Read books, take courses and workshops, and simply do your best to become the person you need to be in order to own a successful business that you are passionate about. You don’t have to wait until you are ‘ready’, but you do need to make sure you have a few basic skills.
Get Very Clear On Why You Want To Start A Business
What is your ‘why’? Your why is going to motivate you and remind you when times get a little bit tough. Every entrepreneur needs a strong why. Get honest with yourself and write down what you think yours may be.
Evaluate Yourself
You should have already done this somewhat, but you can continue using this advice to become an even better business owner. Once you have your why and you’re ready to invest in yourself, you can ask yourself the following questions to ensure you know what you need to do:
You need to be honest with your answers so you can come up with something that is just right for you.
Dump All Of Your Thoughts And Then Organize Them
By this time you should have some ideas. Just dump them all out on a page and don’t worry too much about what it looks like for now. When you’ve emptied your head, you can take on the task of organizing your thoughts.
Get To The Core Of Your Business Idea
Organized your thoughts? Now it’s time to get to the core of your business idea. This means you need to simplify it. See if you can whittle it down to just one sentence, a very short blurb, if you will. This will help you more easily talk about your idea to other people without having to do a whole presentation.
Use Feedback To Refine Your Idea
Now you’re going to use feedback to help you refine your idea. Take your sentence and then present that to as many people as you can with the goal of getting as much feedback as you can.
This could be a great way to find your target audience upon comparing those who liked the idea and those who didn’t care for it that much. You can use the objections that people come up with to further refine your idea, too. Write down the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Get Very Clear On Your Target Audience
You may even have a good idea of who your target audience are by now. Build an avatar so you have a picture of them in your head, that you can later refer to when looking to market your business and build it further. Answer the following questions:
Start Making It Official
Get some of the legal aspects out of the way early and you’ll be well on your way to starting a business. You won’t have to worry about somebody stealing your idea or something else going awry this way! Come up with your business structure, name, website, license, open a bank account…there are a number of things you can do!
Create Your Business Plan
This is a written description of your business and how it will evolve. It’s a good idea to include the following:
For each section, you can create 1-3 pages. This should be updated as your business transforms, so bear this in mind.
Financing Your Business
If you’ve done any research at this stage, you’ll know there are a number of resources you need to start your business. You could look deeper into one of the following:
There are numerous things you can explore that could give you the money you need to get started. Some people even look into a Merchant Cash Advance when they need help with cash flow right at the beginning. All you need to do is enough research to ensure you pick the right solution for you.
Develop Your Product Or Service Further
It’s going to take a village to create your product/service, so using the information you’veg gathered so far, develop your product or service further. How can you improve on it? What can you change?
Learn Constantly
Improve your business and yourself constantly and you’ll likely build a legion of happy fans. Improving yourself will directly help you to improve your business. Work on your wellbeing and mindset, and improvements will follow. Just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you don’t have anything else to learn!
Building a business that means something to you means making sure you have that fire in your belly for it. Many of the best businesses start out as a passion project. If you’re still stuck on your idea at this stage, take something you really like to do and think of the problems you have encountered with it. Can you come up with any solutions?
It’s a good idea to consider the type of information and people you’d like to be surrounded with day in, day out, too. You may be one of those people constantly saying ‘I don’t know what my passion is’ – when in reality, something is holding you back. You know what you like and what you don’t like.
Ask yourself what is stopping you from building that life. You might think you have no idea how to build a business, but many entrepreneurs don’t when they first start out. All you have to do is take small steps, build momentum, and continue learning along the way.
Things that tend to stop people include:
Start being honest with yourself about what truly matters to you. Finish off the exercises outlined here by asking yourself these questions:
The above questions should help you to gain some clarity on what you should be doing now. A business you’re not passionate about will take up so much of your time, but it won’t enrich your life!
