Starting and running a business is easily one of the most challenging and rewarding accomplishments. However, when you run a business that is directly aligned with your passion and soul purpose it makes every challenge worth it. Not only that, but if you’re currently working in a 9-5 and feeling drained, unfulfilled, and that you’re meant for more - I’m here to tell you that making money from what you love is more than possible. In fact, it’s your birthright.
Affiliate Disclosure: some of these links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to purchase after clicking one of these links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only ever promote tools & products I love and genuinely recommend!
If you’re ready to turn your passion into a business and start making money doing what you love, here are my top tips to get started:
1- Clearly Define What Your Passion Actually Is
Turning your passion into a business sounds like the dream, right? But if you have no idea what your passion is, or you can’t clearly define what it is that you’re passionate about, this needs to be step number one. Maybe you’re multi-passionate or you know what you enjoy but not what is truly your “passion”. If this sounds like you, it’s time to uncover your “why”.
My biggest suggestion for finding your passion is not to rush it. Take time, get quiet, and reflect. Maybe dedicate an evening, get cozy, light some candles, make your favourite tea, play your favourite music and dedicate an hour to journaling about YOU and your passion.
Some of my favourite topics to journal about on this topic are:
What do you LOVE doing in your current job
What do you NOT love doing in your current job
What could you spend hours doing or talking about and never get bored
Can you remember a time you were in a state of “flow”? What were you doing?
What are you really good at
What are some things that are really important to you (think values, etc.)
Map out your dreamiest work day… What are you working on
2- CUT The Limiting Beliefs And Step Into an Entrepreneurial Mindset
This one is SO IMPORTANT. I see this so often that new entrepreneurs get so excited to be finally starting a business around their passion and then their limiting beliefs start creeping in. “Who am I to start this business?” “Nobody is going to actually pay for this.” “I can’t learn all of this tech.” “I don’t know enough about this topic.”
If you’re going to turn your passion into a business, it’s time to CUT the limiting beliefs. It’s crucial to unlearn these unhelpful frameworks and step into an entrepreneurial mindset of self-worth, growth and abundance.
I’m a huge advocate for incorporating spirituality and energetics into business, and I find it’s a topic that’s so often overlooked. But quite honestly, it’s been the biggest game changer for me when going from hundred-dollar to 6-figure months. Visit my other post if you want to learn more about spiritual business coaching & my approach to integrating business, energetics and spirituality.
3- Do Your Research
I would LOVE to tell you that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. But, I’m here to tell you, unfortunately, this is not ~totally~ true. When you create a business around your passion, let me tell you, it is AMAZING, but there will always also be real work that goes into it. The first being, do your research. Once you’ve identified your passion, it’s important to do your research into:
Your competitors
Your niche
Your target audience
We want to be able to clearly define who our target audience is, what their pain points are, and how we can help. It’s helpful to look at the competitive landscape, understand what other people are offering, how they are speaking to their audience, and what sort of solutions they offer.
4- Determine Your Offer
To make money doing what you love, you need to have an offer that solves a problem that people are willing to pay for. But how you deliver the solution is up to you. When you’re first starting your business, you’re in a unique position to be able to decide, early on, what type of business model you want to build. I personally am a huge advocate of creating offers that are more passive in nature. This means that you are not directly trading your time for money, but rather, you build a passive offer that you can sell over and over again.
Since we’ve already identified what type of niche we want to work in, our target audience, and what is working/not working for our competitors, putting together a strategic and scalable offer should feel a lot simpler.
5- Get Your Business Operations in Check
Turning your passion into a business is SO much more than throwing up an Instagram page. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done to keep your business running smoothly and efficiently. But this doesn’t need to feel overwhelming by any means. Having a clear understanding of what you should prioritize when you’re first starting out can help.
Some of my favourite tools for new business owners that are helpful to set up early on are:
17Hats CRM
17-Hats is an all-in-one CRM for small businesses. A CRM system, or Customer Relationship Management system, allows you to streamline your interactions with customers and keep their information organized in one place. This includes invoicing, emailing, contracts, reminders, questionnaires, etc. I promise your business will look and feel more professional when you’re sending things from a CRM system rather than a PDF you created in Word (no shade to the PDF invoice - we’ve all been there).
If you already have your business set up & you want to try 17Hats, use my code “xpphrrhsfk” for 50% off.
Square
I know it can feel scary setting up a payment processor, but I promise that Square is SO easy. Many payment processors also charge a high fee and also upcharge currency conversions when clients pay in a different currency than the one you use in your bank. Square’s fees are totally reasonable at roughly 2.65% of your payment plus $0.30 per transaction.
Use this link to save the processing fee for your first 6 months (or up to $1,000!).
Kajabi
If you’re planning to add courses or memberships to your business, I highly recommend Kajabi. It’s a bit of an investment, but honestly, I think it’s worth it to invest upfront in a solid platform that will grow with you rather than having to switch platforms down the road. Kajabi is the best platform to turn your services & knowledge into passive, scalable offerings such as courses, paid communities & membership programs. Get your first month free here!
6- Start To Build Your Authority & Brand
When you begin to turn your passion into a business, it’s crucial to start positioning yourself as an authority and a trusted brand in your niche. You really want to aim to become a “go-to” person when people think of your industry and one of the best ways to do this is through creating a personal brand. To get started, I usually recommend creating a “brand deck” or brand guidelines to keep your branding consistent throughout your marketing, website, social media, etc. This means sticking to the same colours, fonts, and overall “vibe” to keep things consistent and help people start to recognize your brand.
7- Create Your Marketing Strategy
Identifying your audience, creating a “hell-yes” offer, setting up your business operations are all foundational steps to turning your passion into a business, but we can’t forget the crucial step of actually getting our business in front of the right eyes. I personally believe the best marketing strategy for coaches is to attract and creating a magnetic marketing strategy will get you in front of the right eyes and speak to your audience in a way that draws them right in. This is done through creating relationships and trust with your audience on whatever platform(s) feels right to you (and them!). When your marketing comes from a place of value, education, and relationship-building the vibe is genuine and high, and people naturally gravitate toward you. Combine that with a clearly identified marketing message, and we’ve got a winning strategy.
8- Don’t Get Caught In The “Perfection” Trap
Okay, I know I’ve said “this one is important” for almost every step on here, but this one really is so important. So many new business owners get caught up in needing everything to be “perfect”. A perfect offer, a website, social media post, blog post, etc. but unfortunately, this is completely just an illusion that keeps people stuck. We want to put our all into things, but once you’ve truly done your best, done really is better than perfect. It’s time to get it out into the world! In almost all cases, version one will not be as good as version two, three, or four, but we need to start in order to get there.
9- Celebrate Your Wins & Freedom Life
When you’re building your passion business don’t forget to celebrate your wins! This is SO important to keep you checked in on how much you’ve accomplished. As a business owner, we’re often so focused on our goals (which in theory is a great thing), but the problem is that the “goals” always change as we hit our milestones. It is so important to celebrate your wins - big and small. Launched your new website? Congratulations, you have a freakin’ website! Signed your first client? You’re making money doing what you love! Hit your first $1,000 month? That’s amazing! Spent a full month in Costa Rica while running your business? You are living your DREAM. Our goals keep us moving forward but should never take away from where we are. Remembering to take a minute to slow down and appreciate how far we’ve come is another important step to running a business.
Ready To Get Started?
Ready to get started with turning your passion into a business? I know just the thing to help. My signature offer Freedom Club was created to help new entrepreneurs do exactly that. Everything I’ve included in this article and SO MUCH MORE is covered in a detailed & action-oriented way in Freedom Club. Learn more now!