Whether you work as a bartender and blog in the evening or you’re a teacher and you do pet photography on weekends, you already know just how cool having a passion project is. But what to do when you decide to put even more effort into your passion project and make a profitable business out of it? Listed below are five things you need to do if you want your side gig to become a huge brand everyone’s heard of.
Love what you do
The first and one of the most important things you need to do when turning your passion project into a profitable business is to make sure that you love what you do. Balancing your job and your part-time project isn’t easy and things get unbearable if you eat, breathe and sleep the project. Moreover, the last thing you want to do is quit your 9-to-5 job one day only to realize your project isn’t something you can do for the rest of your life. Only if you love what you do fearlessly can you expect to succeed.
Learn how to barter
Turning a side-project into a business isn’t easy and it’s definitely not inexpensive. If you can’t afford to spend a lot on building your business, you can try to come up with ways to barter with other local businesses. If there’s a company in Melbourne that could use your service and has something to offer you back, why not use it to your advantage? Also, try to avoid paying for stuff such as models for your website. Ask your friends and family members to do it instead. The more you manage to do on the cheap, the more you’ll be able to invest in your core operations.
Build a strong brand
In today’s business world, you can’t succeed without a powerful brand. Whether we’re talking about large corporations or passion projects turned into businesses, developing a brand is a must. It’s a medium you can use to show people what makes your business stand out and help them remember you. Of course, building a memorable brand is a lot easier said than done. Your safest bet is to work with local professionals who can design it for you. Luckily, finding a good branding agency in Melbourne you can turn to should be easy.
Test the waters
Just because you love something, it doesn’t mean it’s what people are looking for. This is why it’s a good idea to test the waters before you put any serious money into your passion project. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of planning events, don’t start a planning event business just yet. Do some one-off projects on weekends and see if it can work out. If people start calling you and asking for your service, it’s a sign that turning your project into a business can work out well.
Don’t mix business and personal
Just because it’s your passion project, it doesn’t mean the money your new business makes belongs with your own money. Keeping everything in the same bank account may sound tempting but it makes it more difficult to keep track of how well your company is doing. Not to mention that once you start paying taxes, you’ll struggle to get the job done. With that in mind, it makes sense to open a separate bank account for your passion project and keep all the money it makes there.
Over to you
Taking your passion project and making a business out if it is a great idea. You get to do what you truly love and make money by doing so. Do everything we mentioned in this post and you’ll be on the right track to build a business that’ll stick around long-term.