| Getting Started Making Money
On The Internet: Finding Your Passion |
| Posted: 4-05-2006 |
| Author: Kathy Wilson |
One of the hardest
decisions to make concerning starting a home business
is what kind of business to start! Research proves that
in order to have the determination and drive to grow a
business, you need to have an emotional investment in
it. 9 times out of 10 that requires having a passion for
what you do. However, a lot of women wanting to work at
home mistakenly believe they don’t have a marketable talent
or skill. Here is how any woman can find a niche for her
business that will tap into her personal passions!
First off, you will need an idea notebook. This is a great
tool for the learning process, and you will use it in
all three steps of Women-on-the-Net.com’s step by step
approach! It can be as simple as a 79 cent spiral notebook.
A highlighter is also helpful to help you pick out the
ideas you want to implement. You may even wish to have
3 highlighter colors, that way, after every day’s notetaking
session, you can highlight with one color, the “No way
that’s not for Me’s”, another color for the “Maybe, I’ll
look into it more’s” and the last color for “YES, PERFECT’s!”
This will make it easier to put together a business plan
later. (Don’t let the idea of a business plan scare you…it
is for your benefit only, and does not have to be complicated.)
Now, in order to propel your passion, you need to have
a mission statement. Write on the first page of your notebook
all the reasons you want to start a business, large and
small. Now put the 3 most important reasons in positive
sentence form, such as…”I will create a profitable business
where I can create a better financial future for myself
and my family, create pride within myself, and make a
difference in this world and my community.” (Feel free
to steal that one if it works for you!)
Your reasons are very personal, and no one will see this
but you, but it is important to have this statement written
down, to give you strength in the days nothing seems to
go right! And trust me, there will be a few. But in the
long run, keep your eye on your mission, and you can succeed!
Next, you need to find your passion. In a column on the
next page, start listing all the things you can think
of that you have ever enjoyed. Putting on kid’s birthday
parties? Put it down. Reading about fine art? It goes
down too. Bake a killer cheesecake? Enjoy reading to the
blind? At this point, don’t limit yourself, you will edit
later. And don’t limit to things you feel you have a talent
or skill for, just enjoyment. (There are many ways to
gain knowledge and skill for a business if you truly have
a passion for it.) Spend a little time on this, after
all, your business future could be on this page!
Now once you have a nice long list, narrow it down to
your four favorite choices.
At this point you may have one or two things that you
know are your passion. Perhaps everyone knows you are
a passionate skydiver, and that made your top four. You
live for it, you love it, and you know a lot about it.
Start with this subject.
Notice that I keep mentioning some pretty varied passions…this
is just to show you, you are not limited on the net to
certain kinds of businesses. If there is a market, and
people want to know and learn about a subject, there is
a way to make money from it!
Now we are going to take your passions and see if there
is a market for them, and a fair chance at a profit. Using
a keyword tool such as that at Inventory.Overture.com,
type in the keywords for your subject. Keywords are the
words someone might use in a search engine while searching
for info on your subject. For instance, TheBudgetDecorator.com’s
most popular keywords are “budget decorating” and “decorating
on a budget”. When I punch those into a keyword tool,
it tells me there have been thousands of searches for
those keywords. That tells me there is a market. However,
if your subject is “mating habits of North American Widgets”…
chances are, the searches are going to be very small,
which means, no market. While it’s important to pick a
subject for your business you have passion for, it’s equally,
if not more important that you will have people out there
who want to be your customer! If your first subject choice
turns out to have a small market, no problem, you have
four more to consider! Do keyword searches on all four,
than see if you can choose one based on the market size,
and your preferences. If you can’t, go back to your list
and pick four more choices!
Narrow the list down, and you will hit on a passionate
subject with potential for profit…your new business!
To read the next article in this step by step series,
go to http://www.Women-on-the-Net.com/steptwo_internet.html
About The Author:
Kathy Wilson is an author, columnist, and editor of http://women-on-the-net.com/,
where any woman can learn to make money on the net. Visit
her at http://www.women-on-the-net.com/ for step by step
guidance, free ebooks, and her free newsletter packed
full of money making tips for women!
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