Turn your Passion into a Business

Do you have a passion that makes you lose track of time? Something you could spend your days doing for free because you love it so much? Well, today it’s hard to work for free since we often have rent to pay and food to put on the table. But what if I told you that it’s fully possible to turn you passion into a business which provides a sum of money to live on? It shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Just take a look at these;

Jamie Oliver – He loves cooking and turned it into his job.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – He loves playing football and turned it into his job.

Sophia Amoruso – She loves vintage clothes and turned it into her job.

Any singer – They loved music and turned it into their job!

Yes, these guys have worked hard to earn their reputation and fame, but you don’t have to become a public person to work with your passion all day. What you have to do though is to work hard. Any business takes time to build up and it takes time to build it big enough to provide you with a salary to live on.

That’s why it has to be your passion. When it’s your passion, you don’t give up as easily. You want it so bad. If you’re all fire and flames about fashion, it is more likely that you’ll keep fighting to make it your life.

Where do you start?

And it could be any passion. Drawing, sewing, gardening – anything! It’s actually easy to start. Pick a passion, learn the basics in running a business, create a business plan and have a lot of patience. But you also have to be ok with starting small unless you have access to a start capital. Starting small and letting your little project take its time is great as you’ll slowly but steady build your brand and also learn tons on the way.

A good way to start working with your passion without a lot of money is to be a freelancer. A freelancer is like an entrepreneur in many ways. You decide when you want to work and how much you want to work. It can be done on the side of your job or studies and work as an extra income. If you succeed to create a great reputation and get bigger and bigger projects, you might be able to quit your job and be a full time freelancer.

My journey as a freelancer (so far)

In February, I decided to make writing a part of my job and officially became a freelance writer, translator and social media manager. Since I truly enjoy writing, social media and languages (English, Swedish, German and French especially), I’ve been able to feel motivated even when I didn’t get many projects. Today, 5 months later, I’ve managed to get two on-going projects that I can focus on and do a good job in. I’ve also done many small projects along the way and learned a lot just during these 5 months.

Here are 3 of my top tips;

1. Be passionate but realistic – Your service should be something you really like doing. For example, doing graphic design. It should also be something you are rather talented in doing. You might not have to be an expert in your field right away, but you have to be somewhat good. When you have something you like and good at you have to make sure it’s something people want. Once it’s a yes on all three – go for it!
2. Don’t make promises you can’t keep – You should always under promise and over deliver rather than the other way around. Even if you believe in yourself, make sure you don’t say you can finish a job unrealistically fast or take on too many projects and make a half hearted job on them all.
3. Be careful with payments – Unless you’re using a platform which handles your contracts, it’s super important that you are careful with trusting your clients without a contract. You might end up waiting for a payment for months or never receive it! Always have a contract and decide price and payment method in advance.

A great tool I’ve found is Invoice2Go where you can create invoices really quick and easy from wherever you are and send it once your work is done. It can even be done from your phone! They have good templates to help you great good looking invoices and also offer to create diagrams and reports for your business to keep you updated on how it’s going.

So if you absolutely love yoga and are quite talented – make it your job by becoming a freelance yoga instructor! It could be anything. Good luck with finding your passion and remember;

In collaboration with Invoice2Go