If I've heard "do what you love and the money will come," once I've heard it 10,000 times. I'll bet you have too.
And while it’s good to follow your passion it's not true (in my opinion) that if you just do what you love, the money will come.
That being said, I do think it's incredibly important to have a business that you enjoy (and maybe love) even if it's not your main passion in life.
So what does a business you enjoy look like for you?
The answer to this question is going to be different for every person.
For me, it centers around three key principles.
1 - There has to be enjoyment in doing the work.
Believe me when I tell you running a digital business is challenging and time-consuming. That means that if you don't like the tasks that you're going to do, you're going to be unhappy in that business.
You might be thinking, "I'll just outsource everything, and that way I won't like or dislike any tasks because I won't be doing any tasks."
I thought that too, and a hundred thousand dollars later I discovered that if you don't know how to do the task yourself, it's impossible to write a good SOP. It's even harder to know if the task has been done well.
And even if you write a great SOP, people don't execute because they don't have skin in the game.
It's not their business. They're not going to be willing to stay late, sacrifice, and do whatever it takes to satisfy you or your customers.
So let's agree you'll just be doing some tasks.
With that agreement in place, here is my advice.
Find the type of work that actually interests you and you can learn to do well over and over again.
If you find that, you will find work that you enjoy, and enjoyment really is the first principle.
And that leads to point #2 …
2 - There has to be money at the end of the day.
Nobody wants to work 40 or 60 hours a week and end up with minimum wage-level wages.
But that happens much more often than you might think.
I think the reason for this is that when we go into business for ourselves, we've got a dream.
We don't want to give up on the dream, so it's very hard to be objective enough to look at the numbers and say, "This is not working. I need to do something else."
Sometimes the something else is to improve your methods.
Sometimes the something else is to find better prospects.
And sometimes the something else is to say: I did what I wanted to do, I gave it my best shot, I need to move on.
Not to be gross about it but money really is the best way to keep score.
3 - For me personally, I have to be helping people, or the money doesn't matter.
Once you have a successful and sustainable business, you can decide to automate and outsource or step away and just collect the money.
No matter who you are, your skills will grow. Your capacity to help other people will grow. Your ability to be responsive and recognize other people's needs and meet those needs will grow.
And what you'll have to do is decide if that's what you want, or you want to just build it up, walk away, and be happy.
There's no right or wrong here. There's just your own individual choice.
Follow your heart and you will do well.
I've been blessed to own a business for the last 26 years that meets all three criteria.
I enjoy doing the work, which is why I created Business Builder.
The money's there, so that's good.
I like helping people, and I get a chance to do that quite often because I still interact with customers every single day.
There you have my three criteria for defining whether my business is satisfying or not. I hope it provides a starting point for thinking about what you do online.
What are your criteria?
Hit reply and let me know. I read every reply personally.
Thanks for reading,
Charlie
P.S. The difference between success and struggle is often the right marketing plan. That’s why I create a custom marketing plan for all Business Builder clients.