How to Transition from Hobbyist to Business Owner

Making money from your hobby is not synonymous with having a business. Unfortunately, far too many people don’t understand that. What’s the difference between a hobbyist and business owner? Mindset.

A business owner sets clear goals and creates strategies for reaching them. There’s no time like the present to get your strategies in place and fine-tune them to transform that hobby into a real business. Here’s how:

1. Get clear about your goals for next year

Make sure that your goals are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and have a time specification. Doing this will help to get you on the right track. You can’t call it a business if you’re flying by the seat of your pants but when you get clear about what you want, you can begin to gain some serious traction in your business.

2. Validate what you have to offer against your goals

If you say you want to earn $250,000 but only have one offering, that will present a challenge. You want to check your bandwidth and make sure your goals align to it for easier achievability. If you only have a one-hour session or one widget, get clear about how many you’d have to sell to achieve your goal. It may be way more than you are able to produce and you need to know that so you can adjust your goal or offerings accordinglyBack into a plan to hit your goal.

Ask yourself things like, “in order for me to make $250,000, what is the first thing I will need to do?” And ask yourself that until you have a full-blown plan laid out. You’ll want to make sure that you’re clear on whom you serve, how you serve them and why they will choose you. You also want to make sure that you have identified the right marketing mix to reach your ideal clients.

3. Back into a plan to hit your goal

Ask yourself things like, “in order for me to make $250,000, what is the first thing I will need to do?” And ask yourself that until you have a full-blown plan laid out. You’ll want to make sure that you’re clear on whom you serve, how you serve them and why they will choose you. You also want to make sure that you have identified the right marketing mix to reach your ideal clients.

4. Create your marketing calendar

Your marketing calendar should reflect what you’re going to do when to achieve your goals. Having your entire marketing plan activities spelled out in advance will help position you to grow your business.

5. Give your business the same respect you gave your job

This is huge. You have to be disciplined to build your business. Often, that is why people get stuck in hobby mode. It’s easier to just work your business when it feels good. But true business owners are always thinking about how to grow the business.

Going from hobbyist to business owner is a mindset shift for sure and when you make the shift, you will be elated at what happens in your business.

Business optimization strategist, Darnyelle A, Jervey, is CEO of Incredible One Enterprises, a business consulting and coaching firm that helps entrepreneurs and business owners realize financial and spiritual abundance. Jervey is an award-winning coach, consultant, strategist and a best-selling author with seven books to her credit, including her latest projects: “Burn the Box: 7 Breakthrough Strategies for Standing Up, Stepping In and Igniting Success” and “Market Like a R.O.C.K. Star.” Jervey may be reached online at www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.

 Originally posted on May 19, 2015 by Lioness Staff