What's My Business?

Hallelujah! My middle sister has finally come to her senses. After years of struggling to get by on disability (from an automobile accident), she has decided to start her own business! YES! She called me last night to discuss ideas. She has looked at my network marketing business (Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing) and decided it's not for her. She is not excited about affiliate marketing except perhaps as a sidebar to her own products or services. What is she going to do? Tell you later!

How did we decide what type of business she should start? It's fairly easy process. If you aren't excited about network marketing or affiliate marketing but want to do something totally new, I suggest you follow along.

First, list all of the things you love to do. I love to teach (adults - not children! I'm a certified master trainer) and I love to plan and organize. That's how I got started in event planning - by planning training events. I also noticed that as a Girl Scout volunteer with my daughters, I loved the cookie sale. I had great fun helping them come up with clever and creative ways to sell their cookies so they wouldn't have to go door-to-door. So I discovered I loved marketing and promotion. That was a natural fit for FHTM! And now I'm taking my love of travel and my love of animals off on another venture - The Adventures of Traveling Bob.

What do you love to do? What are you absolutely passionate about? If you could do anything in the world with your time, what would it be?

Now, make another list of things you are good at. This list is just as important as the first one since it's hard to build a business on passion alone. For example, I love to paint and draw and do crafts. But I'm not good at it. My 6 year old grandson draws as well as I do. So even though I love it, the odds of making a living with my artwork are slim. (Don't completely discount these ideas though. There may be other options. Perhaps I could organize art-based tours?)

Now put these two lists together. Where are the common factors? I love to organize and train. I also am able to write well. So organizing and conducting training seminars might be an option. I travel well. By that I mean I know my way around, where to go, what to see, how to find the best bargains - and I almost always take Bob, my dog. And I love exploring new cities. So The Adventures of Traveling Bob could be a great fit for me.

How about you? Love photography and crafts? Good with a camera and your hands? Creative and imaginative? Watch for my daughter's upcoming venture.

Are you a gourmet chef who loves to cook married to bona fide redneck? Keep your eyes peeled for "The Redneck Gourmet" coming soon!

Find your passion. Match it with your skills. Turn it into a business. When you are passionate about your business, you have more energy and drive to make it work. Your enthusiasm for what you do shows and excites your prospective clients and customers. When they get excited they will do business with you. When you are excited about your business you are constantly thinking of ways to do more. And that makes for more opportunities for you to serve your clients - getting them more excited......

So what did my sister decide to do? Well, she loves to travel as much as I do. And she's quite the organizer herself. And with three children - all of whom are married and none of whom got married in their home towns (one in Puerto Rico, one in Hawaii, and one in Utah) - she discovered she loved help them plan their weddings. So - we are planning a joint venture: "Destination: Weddings." Stay tuned for details!

If you are still uncertain about what to do, I highly recommend a book by Barbara J. Winters called Making a Living Without a Job.