Passion is Great, but is it Profitable?

Starting a Business Takes More than Love for Your Job

Can your passion become profitable?

Passion is a word that is thrown around a lot in the business world – everyone is telling us to “do what we love” and “be passionate about what we do every day.” Although doing what you love and making a living is a dream for many business owners, the reality is that passion alone is not enough to run a successful business. They key to having success in a business is providing a product or service that consumers want to buy, and even though you are passionate about something, consumers may not be.

Evaluate Your Passions

Evaluating and assessing your passion is the first step in figuring out whether doing what you love is going to pay your bills. A great starting point is to make a list of all the things you love to do and start crossing out the things that will definitely NOT make a good business model. For example, if you love watching reality TV, that can quickly be crossed out as a business concept. Other ideas, like caring for animals, working on vehicles, cooking, or baking are all good ideas that can be then reviewed further.

After you have narrowed down the list to a few solid ideas, start thinking about whether or not it is profitable in your geographical area. Will consumers want to buy your products or services? Are they something that people need or want? If you want to design and manufacture bathing suits, but live in Minnesota, there is probably not a huge market for you to take advantage of (unless you consider opening up an online store). It is important to really think through whether or not a business model with your concept will be sustainable long term.

Figure Out is Your Passion is Sustainable

After settling on one or two ideas that may work, it is time to really dig into the financials and see if the profit is there. Calculate how much it will cost to start the business, how much it will cost to produce a single unit of your product, and what margin or how much you will sell that unit for. Also, use market data to predict how much you may sell each month or in a year. Finally, compare costs and expenses to your projected profit – if the numbers do not work, you may want to go back to the drawing board.

Will Your Passion Fit into Your Life?

Let’s go back to the bathing suit example. Let’s say you are living in an area where this business model will work - if you are spending 60 hours a week designing and producing your offering, does that leave you enough time to meet other goals in your life? Will you have enough time to spend with family and friends, take a vacation, or go back to school to get your business degree? Goals are much more than what you want to achieve in your business but also what you want to achieve for your life.

Passion is great and it drives a lot of the best owners to see success in their business. But, before they jumped in with their business model, chances are they went through all the steps to see if their passion was profitable and got very lucky that it was. Doing what you love is important, but being able to sustain your business and yourself while still being able to meet your personal goals is really what matters.

Are you still looking for that perfect work at home opportunity? Have you ever heard of Stacy O'Quinn? Stacy started out much like you and then found Dani Johnson training. He used  and uses her techniques in a travel business that has enabled him to work from home and make six figures every year. Stacy can help you do the same and all you need to do is give him a call! For more information about Stacy and his opportunity, click here. 

*Photo Courtesy of Anthony Easton via Creative Commons License