BEFORE YOU RUSH INTO THE BUSINESS OF YOUR PASSION

If you have passion for something and wants to build a business around it, you are taking the right step. On Business Sense this week, you will gain practical insight on launching out on.

I believe that passion is crucial for the success of any business and some of the challenges that characterise businesses can be tackled with the force of passion. In fact, it’s safe to say: don’t start a business or follow a career path or job that you are not passionate about.

However, passion is not enough for business or career success. A business founded on passion alone may crumble because passion is not the only pillar upon which a business or career is built.

I strongly suggest that you arm yourself with relevant arsenal required to win business battles. In this post, I like to share with you important factors you need to take care of before you rush into the business of your passion.

Be sure you can translate your passion into a solution that will add value to individuals and organisations. If not, you can’t really make money from it.   Please don’t get it twisted: I am not implying that the purpose of life is making money. My point is that making money from you passion makes it easy for you to expand your reach and influence with the passion and be of financial blessing to people around you.

Passion is not all there is to business success. You need relevant skills and knowledge to drive your passion. If you don’t have them at present, pay whatever you have to pay to acquire them. They will ensure that your passion is productively channeled.

Be sure you have   a market for the solution you are packaging and it should be large enough to sustain you as a business; otherwise, you will start and crumble on the weight of insufficient income. When you can’t see a large market for what you have to offer, then do the business of your passion by the side while you do your work.

Also, be equipped with the basic tenets of running a business – management, marketing, public relations, and financial management. If you have big funding, please go ahead and hire the best hands to man those spheres. However, if your business is self funded, please take your time to learn how to do those things, at least for a small scale business like yours.

One advantage of learning this at your level of business is that even when you grow to become big, you know exactly, what you want from the experts you are hiring.

Besides learning the general principle of running your business, please learn what is involved in your own business. Learn what makes the successful and why the failure failed. If you believe in God, pray to him. I am sure He can give you practical wisdom that will help you excel in your own business.

Launching a business you have not mastered the foundation and pillar of success in it, is suicidal. In fact, the CEO of Perfect Eye Clinic, Dr Maureen Igwe, believes that you have no business going into a business you have not mastered. Hear her: “I always tell people not to dabble into any business. You have to have a good idea and knowledge of what you are going into; backed by objective feasibility study to show that benefits outweighs the cost. Otherwise, there is no use going into the business.”

Please don’t also feel you can’t start until you do elaborate feasibility study. Nike Ogunseli of Rough n Tumble didn’t do any elaborate feasibility study; but she studied her environment to be sure that there is a market for her business.

My point?

It’s best when your business or career in built around your passion. However, before you launch out, be sure that you package you passion as solution as an offering to your client, ensure that there is a market for it. Learn the basics of business management that will enable you manage your business until you can hire experts.