Many aspiring entrepreneurs seek to get into business because they’re passionate about their idea. However, strong passion for an idea may not always be enough to ensure profitability, and to succeed long term in the business world, making enough money to both survive and thrive is vital.
But for those not willing to compromise their idea for another they’re less passionate about, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have a few tips. Below, they each share one piece of advice they would give an aspiring entrepreneur for ensuring their passion will also be profitable and why you don’t necessarily have to give up your dream to make more money.
Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Make A Revenue Projection
Entrepreneurs who focus solely on passion or profits reduce their chances of success. Without passion, it’s hard to maintain focus, but a lack of profits is like a car without gasoline. Before starting a new project, make a revenue projection. Is there a clear path to profitability? What’s the expected timeline? What are the best- and worst-case scenarios? Ask yourself these questions to gain clarity on whether your idea has the potential to become a business. Numbers don’t lie. If your idea doesn’t make economic sense, no amount of passion can change that. Passion will help you build a great business. But first, make sure your idea has the potential to become a great business. – Rob Hoffman, Contact Studios
2. Know Your Audience’s Pain Points
Know your market, but more specifically, know how and why people buy whatever you are selling in your market. Passion is great and a big driver behind why you work hard every day in a new business. But, if you don’t know the pain point your buyer has, your solution may only partially solve a business problem. If it doesn’t solve an issue, it could be “nice to have” instead of “critical.” Critical solutions typically get more focused attention, and that usually translates to sales. – JT Allen, myFootpath LLC
3. Test The Market
If you are passionate about your idea, but no one else seems energized by receiving the news, you may want to hit the whiteboard again. If you share your idea and people are thrilled with it and send you lots of support and excitement, you have an idea that is on track to be a good one. Work out all the details for what it will take to turn that idea into a reality and what the process will cost you, how much you will spend along the way and how much it will profit you when it is in full swing. Research the details, ask all the questions, get the answers and march forward. – Mary Harcourt, CosmoGlo
4. Start With A Minimum Viable Product
If you’re passionate about your business idea, that’s great! However, you need to ensure that your passion will also be profitable. One way to do this is by ensuring you have a minimum viable product (MVP). Your MVP is the most basic version of your product or service that you can create and offer your customers. It should be able to solve their problem or meet their needs in some way. By starting with an MVP, you can validate your business idea and ensure that there is a market for what you’re offering. Once you’ve validated your MVP, you can then start to add more features and functionality. But keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to create a product or service that your customers will love and that is also profitable. – Pratik Chaskar, Spectra
5. Ask The Experts
If you want to know if you’ll make money off your idea, talk to industry experts at professional meetups, in online communities or on LinkedIn. If you’re new to a specific product or industry, listen to people with years of hands-on experience. You can then compare the average customers’ expectations to your idea and find common ground before starting your business. – John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC
6. Turn Your Passion Into Discipline
I always say that passion is the first ingredient to becoming an entrepreneur; however, it may not always be the most important one. Ideas mean nothing without execution, and execution requires showing up every single day. It means not giving up. It means coming up with creative solutions to unique problems. It means being an inspiration to others when you’re struggling to find your own inspiration. It means creating business plans out of thin air and sticking to them. It means believing in your passion even when you’re finding it difficult to believe in yourself. The difference between an idea and a profitable business is the effort you put in every day and the accountability you hold for yourself. Once you turn your passion into discipline, profit will come. – Riccardo Conte, Virtus Flow
7. Stand Out From The Competition
Passion is so important in entrepreneurship because it’s what’s going to keep you going when things get tough. However, the best advice I would give for turning this passion into a profitable business is to make sure you’re doing something different from your competitors. It can be hard to come up with an entirely new idea, especially in crowded markets. But creating a new version of something that already exists means you’ll have a constant uphill battle to climb. If you can find a way to put a new spin on an idea and offer a new feature or pivot into an underserved section of the market, that’s how you’ll be able to stand out. – Diana Goodwin, MarketBox
8. Be Receptive To Change
Your passion needs to be fluid or you will find yourself clinging to previous ideas that do not serve your practice anymore. How your passion manifests into your work will change significantly over time, and you need to let it. Trends change, business expectations change, and that will all have a knock-on effect on how you feel about what you do. Accepting these changes will put you in an optimal position to maintain profitability. It’s also important to remember that business and pleasure don’t always mix. If you choose to pursue your passion in a professional context, you may find that your love for what you do ebbs and flows as time goes on. This is normal, and it doesn’t mean your passion has died. It’s just evolving. Embrace it! – Nick Venditti, StitchGolf
9. Find A Way To Communicate Your Passion
Passion is always a prerequisite for taking any good idea to market and winning. However, it’s not the only requirement, as there are many other elements to creating a profitable business. Loving the product or service you sell is always important, as the energy you convey when talking to prospects is easy to see. My advice is to find the right way to communicate the reasons why your ideal customers should also be excited. Although you might see the benefits as a home run, maybe other people have different needs. Working to understand all the reasons why someone might become your customer can help direct your passion in ways that connect with them. This connection is what drives both the initial purchase as well as brand loyalty for building long-term success in business. – Richard Fong, Disability Help