A lot of people out there desire to own their own businesses. However, they feel challenged when it comes to deciding what business to pursue. They find that there are so many businesses that they can do but they have to pick one and few of them know which to pick. It takes time to discover a passion that you’d like to convert into a business. However, there is help out there. Here are four simple steps to help you uncover your business passion.
Step 1: Revisit your childhood. What did you love to do?
As we grow older, we tend to let the pressures of life obscure those things that bring us the greatest joy in life. There is a lot that we can learn from what we enjoyed doing during our childhood, when we were uninhibited. If you fashioned laptops out of cardboard material as a child, it might be a pointer towards a calling to be a manufacturer, programmer or engineer.
Find out what you did as a child and ask yourself why it gave you great joy.
Rob Levit, a US-based creativity expert, speaker and business consultant, suggests asking yourself these questions to get started: What can be translated and added into your life now? How can those past experiences shape your career choices now?
Make a list of those things you enjoyed doing as a child and ask yourself if you still enjoy doing them today.
Step 2: Make a list of people who are where you’d like to be.
Most of us like to think of ourselves as the ones who know how to do business. We rarely like to listen to others and while that is an essential entrepreneurial quality, it is also a weakness in itself. As you mould your business idea, it is important that you study people who are successful in the area you would like to pursue. Assess your strengths and weakness, then learn what the business persons successful in your area of business have done right to succeed. There’s rarely a need to reinvent the wheel.
This step will also enable you to identify possible mentors who can be there to help you chart your course in business.
Step 3: Start doing what you love to do – immediately!
When one decides to start a business, they often come across advice that implores them to have a concrete plan before venturing off to start their business. While it is essential to have a solid business plan before starting a business, the process of developing one, may slow down one’s momentum, leading to what may be termed as commencement paralysis.
Start doing what you love to do even without a business plan. This will help you overcome the fear of starting your business and help you generate the momentum you need.
Step 4: Make time for your hobbies.
It is easy to get caught up in the bustle that is your business. However, your daily regimen needs to be broken once in a while in order to allow your mind to refresh itself.
Take time off to enjoy your hobbies every so often (once a week is great). Go off to the park, paint, listen to your favourite music away from your desk, swim, or whatever else makes you tick. The best ideas often come to us when we are doing something we love to do. Taking time to enjoy a hobby relaxes the mind and spurs creativity.
After taking a mental break from your “business-mode,” write down those business ideas that have come to you in your diary. You’ll be amazed at the ideas you come up with. Implement these ideas.
All the best in finding your passion!
