How to Know What Passions to Pursue in Business

We all have that question where we ask ourselves: “I have a passion for a lot of things. How do I know which one I should really choose?

Well, we all have heard many times in our lives, if you want to make a living, do something that you love to do. But our biggest concern is: how do we know if your passions can become a successful business? Fortunately, according to entrepreneur.com. there is a formula for determining if an idea is a viable opportunity.

It is a two-step process.

First: You look at the idea itself and see if it meets the criteria for success.

Second: You examine the industry to see if it is an attractive field for launching a new business.

If you launch a true opportunity in an attractive industry, your chances of turning a passion into a viable business go up dramatically.

THE FIRST STEP

Most of us have several things that we are passionate about. The trick is to pursue the one that has the strongest probability for success. Start by evaluating each of your passions against the criteria for a true business opportunity. Here are the critical components:

–          Need – You have to obtain first hand evidence that people really need your product or service.

 

–          Experience – You need to understand the industry from working in it or from regularly using the products.

 

–          Resources – Cobble together the resources to create an initial prototype of your product or service.

 

–          Customers – You have to find customers how are ready to buy your product as soon as you launch venture.

 

–          Model – You need a sound business model where pricing, costs and margins allow you to make a profit.

Let’s take one example: Marshall Miller is a great example of turning a passion into a true business opportunity. He had a corporate job for eight years that he didn’t like. On weekends to maintain his sanity, he would take to the skies parachuting, paragliding, and base jumping. He and his friends started talking about how they might make a living doing this. They approached GoPro about filming their feats and making the footage available to the company – this was the birth of the GoPro Bomb Squad. Marshall now has a number of companies that sponsor his jumps. He displays their logos on his helmets and parachutes, and provides incredible footage they use in commercials and custom videos. Marshall has been doing this full-time for nearly 10 years and is one of the top human flyers in the world.

THE SECOND STEP

The second step for turning a passion into a business is to launch in an attractive industry. Research suggests that about 30 percent of success in business is a result of the industry you enter. Some are more attractive than others. Here are some tips:

–          Size – You want an industry with at least 50 million in sales, but not more than a billion, that means there would be too much competition.

 

–          Growth – You want an annual growth rate of 10 percent or more which means the industry is not shrinking.

 

–          Margins – You want gross margins on products of 40 percent to 50 percent and profit margins of 10 to 20 percent which means it is possible to make money.

 

–          Competitors – You want a handful of competitors but not hundreds which indicates that the market is overly saturated.

 

–          Customers – You want multiple market niches for your product or service as opposed to a single group of buyers.

 

 In sum, list the things you are passionate about and see which ones can become true business opportunities. Then evaluate each industry to see which ones have the highest probability for success. When you launch a true business opportunity in an attractive industry, you can create the company of your dreams.

 

***ARTICLE BASED ON ENTREPRENUER.COM***

 

How Does your Passion Reach Success?

Imagine yourself doing something that you are most passionate about, and then making tons of money just by doing that “something” you are most passionate about.

 How much better would your life be?

You can enjoy that lavish lifestyle, going out eating some delicious lobster with your buddies, going out to try that one wine bottle that you’d think you’d never get to try, or drive that Mercedes Benz model that you’ve dreamed about, picking up girls in the streets with your ride (or guys, whatever preference, no judgments here!).

The reason I ask this is that, I’d like to talk about a young individual who was able to make it big without having any sort of experience working in the business world, and then attempt to inspire the readers (you) that anything you do that you are passionate about can drive you to success. (Along with hard work of course.)

Connor Franta, an American Youtuber, entrepreneur, and writer, mainly created videos for his fans about his life, talking about his day and expressing his thoughts and opinions about everything while implementing a lot of humor into his videos. Not only did he make videos about his daily life, he also created many videos about relationship advice in which majority of his audience seems very interested in. Nonetheless, Franta enjoyed what he did that kept him going. Not only did he make videos, he was also very timely and persistent with his videos making sure that his audience was thoroughly entertained. In fact, he was always active with his youtube channel. However, his youtube fame did not last very long. Luckily, with his smart thinking about drive to become successful, he began taking different approaches to advance his passions. Since Franta is a coffee addict, (his fans also know) he began to take on the idea of selling his own coffee brands. He figured it would be beneficial to be authentic about selling something that he is crazy in love about.

How did he start this new product brand?

Franta began by approaching a company in San Francisco called Ritual Roasters, which was a wholesale company that had a variety of different coffee beans. The process was a simple one for him: He picked out the bean that he loved and then designed the package. Once it was created, he did a test run of the sales of the product in a span of 48 hours. At the end of it, he was able to sell thousands of pounds of the coffee! And from then on, it became an ongoing business. See what happens when you treat coffee like its your world?! YOU BECOME RICH!

How is he staying consistent with the coffee business?

Franta formalized his business, where he named his product Common Culture Coffee, under the umbrella brand called Common Culture. With his creativity and strategy to consistently produce revenue, he created a subscription plan for the coffee beans. The product itself is handled by his wholesaler company Ritual Roasters, while Franta manages the creative side by creating the new packaging of the beans. The most important aspect of his skills however, was the company presence. His company has more than 70,000 Twitter followers, and 160,000 on Instagram, and “is growing everyday” he says. His expertise is advertising, and still working to improve his advertising skills.

What did I learn from this?

Well, the most important thing to take away from this blog, is to understand what it took for this young indivdual to reach success. Someone who came from a completely different background, without any knowledge in the business world, who suddenly became a millionaire. The point is, anyone can become a millionaire if the passions and drive to become successful is there. As Franta would say “Never underestimate the power of pure passion” Look into what you love to do, and drive it into a business! You never know!