How To Find Your Passion AND Profitability In Your Small Business – Forbes

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As a kid, I was always told that when I grew up, I should do what I loved. But I was also told that I needed to choose a career path that would actually make money.

Sometimes, especially when youre a kid, those two things dont seem to go together. It can feel that way as an entrepreneur, too. If you love hiking, can you really make that into a profitable business idea?

The good news is that you can find a balance between passion and profitability with practically any business idea even if it doesnt seem like it at first. Heres how you can get it done.

Finding the intersection of love and profit begins in the planning stages. Youll have a hard time making these changes later on! Think things through now so you dont get stuck in a less than ideal situation later.

Start by looking at all the things you love to do. Add to this by making a list of things youre good at, or the things that excite you. Then, take a look at possible related opportunities that you could use to earn money.

Sometimes, these lists will cross over in obvious ways. Maybe you love to paint in your spare time, thanks to talent youve already developed by working as a graphic designer. Other times, these lists wont seem to have much in common. Your mastery of Fortnite probably doesnt seem like a marketable skill, but then again, some people have made millions of dollars this way.

Dig deep and think creatively when looking at the list of your skills, interests and passions. A Google search could help you find ideas and opportunities related to these areas. The right approach can help you turn even a normal hobby into a profitable activity with a workable business model.

Still not sure how to get started? Answer these 33 questions from our Brandshrink about your business and youll be much closer to finding this intersection.

Making a list of your skills, hobbies and passions is a good start, but a jack of all trades rarely makes a lot of money in todays market. Instead of trying to funnel EVERYTHING into a single business and trying to reach a ton of different people, hone in on the ONE idea you are most excited about.

Starting your business idea with a clear focus will make your life infinitely easier. What do you want to do? What do you want to accomplish with your business? This focus informs everything you do even who you talk to, what you say and when or where you say it.

This became especially clear to me during a recent conversation with Moha Ou Said Boughazi, founder and CEO of Top Desert. Our family has a passion for our native culture that of the nomadic Berbers in Morocco. We wanted to help others understand our heritage what makes us a beautiful people, Boughazi explained.

So, when we started offering desert tours, this became a big focus of our trips. We wanted this to be a true, authentic cultural experience. Naturally, that influences what we do and say on the tours themselves, and it also affects how we market ourselves. This focus on sharing our culture guides everything we do.

While focusing on something that you love and feel passionate about is a great start, your best bet for ensuring that your idea will actually turn a profit is to spend some time in your customers shoes. You cant forget who youre selling to!

Sure, you can spend countless hours looking at what your competitors are doing, but just because everyone else is doing it, doesnt mean its the best way to figure out what your customers want.

Im talking about really getting into your customers shoes. Not just paying this idea lip service, but really doing it. Pretending that youre the customer and that youre shopping for your service will give you better insights than anything else you can do.

I had a friend who wanted to become an interior decorator, specifically with the focus of helping real estate agents stage homes attractively so they could sell faster. As part of this, she wanted to set up a website. But as Ive seen time and time again, not all websites are created equal.

So, I gave her a tip Ive shared with others: look at your competitors websites as if you were a customer trying to buy their services. And she did. What she found was that a lot of interior designers basically fill up their website with portfolio pictures, but dont offer much in the way of useful information like rates and specific services offered especially since not all interior designers focus on real estate staging.

This helped her realize that to get customers, she needed to make it easier for them to know if her business was a good fit. Cutting down the number of photos on her site, providing short (but detailed) explanations for her services and listing rates helped her own her niche and get more contacts from potential clients.

Still think you cant balance passion and profitability? The pathway to success might be challenging, but its far from impossible. By putting in the necessary work early on, youll be able to do what you love, and actually make a living from doing it.

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How To Find Your Passion AND Profitability In Your Small Business - Forbes