How to Turn Your Passion into Profit

You might think your top priority for starting up a new business should be making as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. But in this lesson, you’ll learn how to identify other priorities that will better lead you to long-term business viability and financial success. You’ll also meet Liz and Nick, two hypothetical business owners you’ll follow throughout this course.

To build a sustainable, thriving business, learn how to identify your passion. What do you feel passionate about and what types of experiences bring out the passion in you? Discover that when it comes to starting a business, “passion” is much bigger than a specific hobby or even a particular type of work.

Explore the type of brand you want to develop by describing three key attributes of your ideal business—even before you have any idea what the business might be. Does this sound backwards to you? Consider why this is exactly the direction you should be headed in.

Who is your ideal customer? Discover why it’s crucial to know your customer even before you’ve identified the products or services your business will offer. What goals do your customers have, what do they value, and who influences them? Answering these important questions will help move you toward success.

When you choose your business model, you are deciding what you offer (product or service), how you make money from it, and how you deliver what you sell. Learn why it’s important to choose and stick with a singular business model—and why trying a bit of this and a bit of that leads to a complicated “business soup” that can quickly get out of hand.

Explore six different business models you can use as a jumping-off point for designing your own model and learn how to evaluate them with your personal goals in mind. As you explore the various models, you’ll get a sense of the relationships you could build, how much money you might make, and how each would fit into your preferred lifestyle.