Want to start a profitable business that you’ll love?
Curious about how to profit from your passion?
“Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Every time I hear this saying, I am so grateful that I started my own business and that I love what I do.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, I know you’ve thought about doing the same.
Table of Contents:
To start your own profitable business, you’ll work harder than you ever have. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re going to get burned out, really fast.
So how do you turn something you love doing into a profitable business?
It’s not as hard as you might think. If you follow these 8 steps, you’ll be able to start a profitable business you love in no time.
Grab a notebook and your favorite beverage, and let’s get started.
If you prefer, I’ve created an awesome Start A Business You Love Workbook, which you can download here. It’s totally free and will help you organize your thoughts.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from these links, I may earn a commission. You can read my full disclaimer here.
8 Steps to Starting a Profitable Business You Love
#1. Find Your Passion
Did you know that most new businesses fail within the first two years? That’s kinda scary, but you don’t have to be one of them.
Finding your passion is the first step to starting a profitable business you love.
If you’re passionate about your business, you won’t let anything stop you from being successful.
Brainstorm Ideas
To find your passion, start with making a list of things you enjoy doing. I’m talking about those things that you enjoy so much, that you lose track of time when you’re doing them.
You may not even connect your business ideas to the things you enjoy most, but that’s where you’ll find your best idea.
You might have several activities that you’re passionate about, and that’s okay. There are really no wrong answers for this step, so just write them all down.
Narrow It Down
Now it’s time to narrow down your list.
Choose your top three ideas and cross the others off.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Find an Amazing Business Idea
#2. Monetize Your Passion
Once you have your favorite activities on paper, think about all of the ways you could monetize them.
You don’t have to sell your soul to make money doing something you love.
Ultimately, I know that you really want to help people. Write down all of the ways you can help others solve a problem or improve their quality of life, as it relates to your passions.
If you’re still having trouble coming up with ideas for some of your passions, don’t stress it.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: 7 Steps to Making Extra Money on the Side
Turn to Google and Pinterest for each of your passions, and look for the ways other people were able to start a profitable business in that niche. Simply search for, “profitable business ideas” + niche and you’ll get plenty of ideas, like these 55 profitable business ideas or these part-time business ideas.
#3. Ask Family And Friends
Sometimes your best qualities may not be as obvious to you as they are to others. That’s why your next step is to ask your closest family and friends for their input.
Make a list of those people in your life that will give it to straight – the good and bad.
Once you’ve got your list, arrange a time to talk to them when you can get their undivided attention.
Then, tell them you’re thinking of starting your own business and that you need their honest opinions. Run your ideas by them and get their feedback.
This is a great way to learn more about your own strengths and weaknesses. They may even offer new ideas that you haven’t thought of already.
#4. Narrow Down Your Niche
Now that you have an idea of which direction to go with your business, it’s time to narrow down your niche. Trying to please the masses is going to be too overwhelming and, ultimately, impossible.
The easiest way to decide on your niche is to create an ideal customer avatar. A customer avatar is a well-known marketing strategy used by businesses and is essential for creating your business plan.
You’ll create a detailed persona of the one person that you envision purchasing your products or services. This is the one person that would love everything you offer.
Create Your Customer Avatar
When building your customer avatar, you should include the following:
- Name – What is your avatar’s name?
- Demographics – How old is your avatar? Where does your avatar live? Is he/she married or single? Does he/she have children, and if so, what are their ages?
- Financial Status – What is your avatars monthly/annual income? Does he/she live paycheck to paycheck or have significant disposable income?
- Goals & Challenges – What goals and values are important to your avatar? What is he/she working towards?
- Hobbies and Passions – What does your avatar do for fun? What hobbies does he/she enjoy? Is he/she passionate about a specific cause?
- Online Habits – Which social media platforms does your avatar frequent? What websites does he/she visit often?
- Pain Points and Challenges – What obstacles does your avatar face? What challenges does he/she have that you could help with?
- Objections To Pitch – What would stop your avatar from purchasing your products or services? Is your avatar the decision-maker in his/her family?
Once you know who your ideal customer is, it’s much easier to actually make money just doing what you love and offer valuable products and services.
#5. Check Out The Competition
Now that you’ve narrowed down your niche, start checking out your potential competition.
Chances are you already know of a few people that you admire in your niche. If not, do some research and find those that are successfully doing what you’re passionate about.
Your competition already knows what it takes to start a profitable business in your niche so pay attention. Take some time to:
- Visit their website and take note of their branding
- Join their email list
- Read their blog posts and leave comments and questions
- Download their free content upgrades
- Check out the products and services offered
There’s a lot to learn from your competition, so use that to your advantage.
What’s not available for your target customer and what could you offer to fill that void? What else could you improve on to stand out from the competition?
You don’t want to copy what your competitors are doing, but getting to know their strategies will help you create a strategy that fills a need in your niche.
#6. Get Active On Social Media
You can start getting to know potential customers before you even start your business. Getting active on social media makes that easy for you.
Once you’ve created your customer avatar, you know which platforms your target customers are using. Create accounts and start interacting with them.
Once you start connecting with them, pay attention to their conversations. Jump in and participate by offering your opinions, and look for opportunities to answer questions.
If you use social media effectively, you’ll already know what types of products and services are needed in your niche. Plus, you’ll already have a circle of potential customers.
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#7. Make It Happen
If you follow these steps you should have a solid idea to build a business that you love.
If you’ve gotten this far then it’s time to make it happen. Finding time to start a profitable business can be one of these biggest obstacles for some of you.
You’ll probably have to keep your full-time job until your business takes off, and you might have a family that requires your attention, too. So how do you find the time to start a profitable business?
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Overcome Your #1 Struggle as an Entrepreneur
Finding Time
Cut out activities that aren’t bringing you closer to your end goals. If you’re stumped, consider some of these ideas:
- Stop watching television
- Stop using social media unless it’s related to your business
- Wake up an hour earlier
- Cut back on social activities with friends
Some of those activities will be a sacrifice for you but to start a profitable business, you’ve got to make sacrifices. Once you get your business off the ground you’ll be glad you gave those things up.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Be More Productive and Stop Being Lazy
Do you need more help with getting your business started? Consider hiring a career coach.
#8. Hire A Career Coach
If you can afford it, a coach can help you:
- Create a business plan
- Develop branding strategies
- Create marketing strategies
- Stay on task by holding you accountable
- Set goals and give guidance on how to achieve them
If you happen to be a blogger ready to turn your blog into a profitable business, check out my related post 13 Reasons To Hire A Blogging Coach.
Is There a Profitable Business in Your Future?
If you set your mind to it, you can start a profitable business you love and be successful at it. Yes, you’ll put in a lot of time, hard work, and dedication, but it’s totally worth it.
The Printable Strategic Planning Workbook can help you plan your new venture.
Sign up below for your FREE Workbook + weekly tips to help you slay your goals.
I started my own business after working my butt off to make other people rich for over 15 years.
Finally, I decided to take a chance on myself and pursue my own goals instead. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made, and I wish I’d have done it sooner.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: 8 Simple Steps to Being Your Own Boss
If I can do it, so can you.
Once you get started, you’ll never look back.
It’s time to stop dreaming and start earning with your own profitable business.
Tired of waiting for the perfect moment to start your business? Here are 8 steps to starting a profitable business that you love by @next_levelblog #entrepreneur #business
Are you ready to start a profitable business you love?
More About Guest Contributor
Angel is the founder of Next Level Blogging, and an entrepreneur and blogging coach. In 2016, after 15 years of helping small businesses improve their sales and marketing strategies, she quit the 9-5 to follow her passion. She now helps other bloggers and entrepreneurs create successful and profitable businesses, sooner rather than later. Sign up for a free consultation here.
Last Updated on December 11, 2021
