Follow Your Dream & Get Started Today!
Prepare To HAVE FUN & GET MOTIVATED!
Not everybody is able to “quit their day job”, however, with very little startup cost, some enthusiasm & work, at least you can make a gratifying sideline out of the activity that you LOVE.
INTRODUCING MYSELF (Alison)
I am not an MBA!
I’ve done all kinds of jobs from selling encyclopedias to making coupon books, yet I always enjoyed computers, the Internet, and website development – finally a few years ago, I started doing that full-time!
How It All Started
I came up with the idea for this course once I started my own business When I started out, my prices were SUPER LOW, so that I could build myself a portfolio, and I found that a lot of the customers who came in at this low price point were HOBBYISTS!
They were looking to invest a small amount of money into turning their own hobby into a business, and what really amazed me was their passion, dedication, expertise on their particular subject. Some of these hobbies are Reiki healing, handmade jewelry, MMA, and – believe it or not “EXTREME Pumpkin Carving”
Almost ANY Hobby Will Work
You can turn pretty much ANY hobby into a business! I wanted to share with you a funny story – I was talking about my upcoming course with a friend and saying how you can turn ANY hobby into a business… then I qualified it and said: “…Well, maybe not if your hobby is WATCHING TV…”
OK, guess what: even WATCHING TV can be monetized!
Many years ago, I personally met a person who was a huge fan of the TV show “Survivor”. He started a fan / gossip site all by himself and made a LOT of money blogging about his favourite TV show! He had big-paying sponsors and lots of traffic. Who’d-a-thunk!?
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The aim of this course is to inspire & motivate you to start turning your actual passions into a business. Oh yes, and I’ll teach you some tips and tricks on how to do it, too! Relate the material in this publication to YOUR hobby or passion & YOUR business. After reading this download, feel free to contact us at www.bcbizdev.com for one-on-one consulting to help you MAKE IT HAPPEN!
COURSE OUTLINE
SESSION 1:
Your Hobby – Is There A Business Model? (Don’t quit your day-job YET!)
SESSION 2:
Register Your Business & Get Your Corporate Identity In Place – Business Loan & Grant Resource
SESSION 3:
Marketing / Advertising / Getting A Website – Not An Option; A Must
SESSION 4:
Managing Orders & Customer Lists & Getting Repeat Business
SESSION 1 OBJECTIVE
- Each of you has a hobby or perhaps several! One of these is likely your PASSION.
- First, please list your hobby/hobbies, and decide what you are hoping to get out of the course.
- Soon you will be going over the business basics, including SWOT analysis and Business Plans
YOU ARE AN EXPERT!
…Even if you don’t think so! Your hobby is something that you DO – you are interested in it, you do it, and chances are, you take every opportunity to learn more about it – if you don’t already, start thinking of yourself as an expert.
- What do other people ask you about your hobby?
- What advice would you give to someone starting out?
- What mistakes have you made?
- Are friends & acquaintances starting to ask to buy your products and services?
- What techniques have you found/developed to help you do your hobby better?
HOBBY TO PRODUCT/SERVICE
Turning your hobby into a business means converting what you love to do into a product or service that you can offer to
others who can’t do it or don’t have the time.
- Beatles Fan –> Beatles memorabilia site
- Dog-lover–>dog walking service or training
- Pottery enthusiast –> selling artisan pieces, specialized equipment or training others
- Artist –>Custom designs for print, web, etc.
DON’T FORGET- you can even sell an ebook on whatever you are good at!
SOLVING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PROBLEM
Make sure you ask yourself the question:
- “What problem does my product or service solve for a potential customer?”
- Example: You want to start a business of being a Decluttering Consultant (or “Professional Organizer”)
PROBLEMS POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS HAVE:
- Can’t find anything
- Clutter is driving them or their spouse nuts
- Need to get organized
PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION
- There is a lot of competition out there – what is it about YOUR product or service that makes it different from (better than!) the others?
- Why should customers choose YOUR company?
YOUR BUSINESS NICHE
Finding your own niche in your market is perhaps the most important part of launching a new small business.
There is always a major player in a broad market – you are well advised not to go head to head with a large, established competitor at first – find a niche that they can’t or don’t serve.
If you are selling aquarium products or services, as a random example, consider specializing in a specific breed of fish, or perhaps SMALL tanks or LARGE tanks or even AQUATIC PLANTS
YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
- WHO is your customer?
- What is their location, age, income, and so on?
- What problem do they have that you can solve?
1. Are your customers individuals or businesses?
2. If they are individuals, describe their gender, age, income level and any other significant demographic variables.
3. If they are businesses, describe the industries, sales levels and any other relevant descriptors of the businesses you will target.
4. Where are your customers located?
5. How many customers are located in your market?
6. How many unit sales are in your market each year?
7. What is the dollar value of the sales that occur in your market each year?
REACHING YOUR CUSTOMERS
…Once you have defined your target customers, you need to decide how to reach out to them.
- Where do they look for information?
- What other things are they looking for?
- What kind of language do they prefer?
- Can you offer them something free to bring their attention to your products/services?
- Will they all be attending some upcoming conference or trade-show?
- We will go into a lot of depth on this in Session 3 on Marketing/Advertising/Web Presence!