Back to Steps to starting a business articles

When I say "how to find your passion," it's not some mushy concept that doesn't belong on a business website. You should be passionate about your business. The mistake occurs when you pick a business based solely on what you love, without considering if you're good at it or if it can make a profit.

Starting a business based on your skills as well as your passion is the better step towards finding the right business for you. To sustain balance in your life, it helps if you love what you do. Passion is the start, but skills and profitability also need to be considered.

Some people pick a business based on just profit potential, ignoring passion and skills. They refuse to think about whether they actually like the business. Eventually this could lead to frustration and stagnation, which could then lead to giving up on your business.

Method 1: First, decide what you are passionate about

What would you do even if you weren't paid? What did you dream of being when you were a child? What activities set your heart racing? Could any of that become a business?

How to find your passion in this method? Sometimes, "Do what you love and the money will follow," isn't enough. Your business will need passion, but it will also need practical skills to survive.

Just because you are passionate at something, does not mean that you would be good at it. Say you enjoy cooking. That does not mean that you are skilled enough to run a restaurant. Too many would-be entrepreneurs make the mistake of running just with their passion. Anyone who watches the TV show Kitchen Nightmares has seen way too many cooks who haven't the least idea of how to translate their love for cooking into a profitable restaurant.

Before you start a business based on your passion, take a look at what skills you have now. Which one of your skills will help you run a business?

For instance:

• To hire help: You need to be good at leading and delegating.
• To get new ideas or solve problems: You need to have imagination and be creative.
• To determine your cash flow: You need to be good at figuring out numbers.
• To sell: You need to be a good negotiator, have empathy to see how your service benefits your customer, and even, be persuasive so you can show them that your product or service will help their lives.

Take an inventory of what you are good at, and what you aren't. This will help you determine what you can work on, what you can team up with others on, or what you can hire out.

Method 3: Combine your passion and skills

You might have skills at what you are good at, but it might not thrill you. So, how do you combine your passion with what you're good at? Here's an example:

An accountant who opened up a business focused only on taxes for parents who hire nannies. Hiring a nanny means that these parents, who have now become employers, have to deal with tax forms and regulations, which they are unfamiliar with. This accountant found a specific set of people who needed help with a specific problem when she encountered the problem of dealing with nanny taxes herself.

The lesson? In your passion-based activities, you can often find people who have problems that need solutions. Your skills don't have to be as direct as the nanny accountant – look at what qualities your skills have given you. An accountant has to be detail oriented; a dentist has to be precise. Can you take those qualities and apply them to a business you are passionate about?

Recommended Reading

• This "How to Find Your Passion" article has been excerpted from LifeBizBalance's e-course "6 Surprising Mistakes People Make When Starting a Small Business". If you'd like to learn which mistakes to avoid, sign up for the course here.

Image: kongsky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

	Tweet