Do you want (or need) to earn some extra money to help you fund everything that you want to be, do and have in life? Here's an article from top UK Wealth Coach, Nicola Cairncross to give you some ideas:
There must be a market for these hand made slippers / old fashioned cakes / feng shui'd nursery cot dressings / low fat nutritious ready meals, we say. And wouldn't it be wonderful to make your living - or even better, make your fortune - doing something you love? In my time I have tried being a fashion designer, a specialist dinner party chef, flat finder and a hairdresser - none of which made me any money, all of which I enjoyed immensely.
I don't want to go into the details of starting a business too much - this is about Profiting From Your Passion not Minding Your Own Business! But one of the secrets is not to try and re-invent the wheel, don't start from scratch but do your research. Find out if anyone is doing what you want to do, successfully. Perhaps look at related or complementary fields to your passion where business is booming and it's a similar target market. Don't be worried about finding out that there is competition; that's a good thing. It means that other people are making a living from a business based around their hobby or passion and if they can, you can.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed? One of the best quotes I heard recently was by Dolf De Roos, one of Robert Kiyosaki's advisors (Robert wrote "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"). He said the best reason to set a goal to become a millionaire is for the knowledge you will acquire along the way. I agree and also think that one of the best reasons to start your own business, doing what you love, is for the knowledge and skills you will acquire along the way (and the fun you will have).
So many people never get started because they think that they have to have something else (equipment, staff), know something else (perhaps technical knowledge, marketing skills, book-keeping skills, how not to fall foul of the tax man) or be someone else (more positive, from a business background, cleverer) but really, you don't. No one else has all the answers. Just get started and learn along the way.
And what about the people who don't know what they want to do, but only know that they want to do something?
I have always loved the idea that you can create an income flow or business from ideas. Think about record royalties (Dolly Parton made more from the song "I Will Always Love You" than Whitney Houston did. Why? She wrote the song); think about the greetings cards made from the paintings of Cezanne or Van Gogh. The estates of those painters are profiting from every greetings card sold!
There is also a growing industry in packaging knowledge, or intellectual property, into programmes" or e-courses. I have just created the Financial Intelligence 101 eProgramme, which is delivered by email, once a day, for 101 days. It turned into an ebook, which sells from my website http://www.themoneygym.com/ - while I'm asleep. Then it became a real life book on Amazon - while I'm asleep. All largely passive income, created from the thing I know about and am passionate about. Financial Intelligence.
What do YOU know about, or have experience of, that other people might need to know, or that could help people get through a specific situation? What skills do you have that could be packaged up into an ebook or eprogramme? If you have a collection of resources that you found helpful, someone else might pay for the knowledge. What have you done in your life that could help others?
Napoleon Hill said in his book "Think & Grow Rich" that if you can find a way to serve a great number of people, then you will almost certainly become wealthy. I like that idea a lot, because it gives me pleasure to serve others. It's a positive thing.
In addition to "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E Gerber, you should also read "Striking It Rich.com" by Jaclyn Easton, the story of 21 online businesses you probably never heard of, that make more than 1 million dollars PER YEAR. Most were started by people in their attics or garages about things they were passionate about. That'll really get you going! After reading that book I finally took action about an idea that had been knocking around from my music biz days.
My other site www.artistmanager.com matches up unsigned artists and music managers, worldwide, via an automated powerful database, while I sleep. People pay to be able to browse the database for one year, then every so often, fifty, sixty, one hundred pounds pops into my bank account. Marvellous! Go on! What are you waiting for? Don't make the slippers, sell the secret of making and selling slippers! Virtual slippers R Us. Dot Com.
Copyright: Nicola Cairncross, Wealth Coach, www.TheMoneyGym.com
