So, you’re ready to take your side hustle or your passion full time and you’re trying to figure out how exactly it’s going to make you money. Or maybe you’re currently running a business and are looking to explore new income streams to boost your profit.
When it comes to building a profitable business, deciding what you’re selling is a key piece of the puzzle.
There are so many ways to turn your passions and skill into a business offering.
Today we’re talking all about finding the right business idea for you. This might be a product or a service or a way that you deliver your expertise.
For an example, a fitness coach could do individual sessions, group programs, or multi-session one-on-one packages to name three options. All three of those are different ways to package and sell their skills. They could focus on new moms looking to get fit again or specialize in runners who want to prevent injuries and up their game. Those are two very different businesses and offerings.
If you’re selling hand-crafted pottery, you could sell wholesale through stores, online to individuals, hold your own pop-up shops, or sell at craft fairs. You could sell a particular style or really focus on mugs or tea pots or jewellery. Or maybe you might even want to explore hosting DIY pottery events.
So, upside - There are so many options. Downside – all the options can be a bit overwhelming and knowing exactly where to focus your efforts can be a challenge. We can find ourselves splitting our time and trying to do all the things at once, which generally just leads to not doing any one thing really well.
Our brand stands out when we’re really good at one thing. When we have a specific signature style or service or special way we do something. That’s when people take notice.
Not nailing down our business offering can also mean that we might find ourselves pursuing a business model or style that isn’t a good fit for us and that leaves us feeling unfulfilled or burnt out.
You want to create a business offering that will be something you enjoy doing and that fits with what you want out of your business and in a way that will make you the most profit.
The goal is to be profitable while also being sustainable – after all, profit is not that great if you hate every minute of making it.
There are a few ways to help uncover the perfect business product or service or package for you and your dream customer. I’m going to share one way to do so in this post.
We’re going to cover three key things to consider when trying to come up with your business offering. What we’re looking for is where these three things come together. So, where the overlap is.
If you’re testing some ideas you’re kicking around, then the same thing – you want it to be a checkmark in all three boxes.
Is there a market for it?
This is where our audience research comes in handy – does our dream customer want/need what we’re selling? Does it solve a problem/pain point they are having? Does it make their life better or easier or happier?
Is there a business fit for you?
Will you enjoy doing this day in and day out? Will it help you achieve what success means and looks like to you? Will it allow you to live the lifestyle you want?
Is there profit to be had?
When you look at the hard costs and the time costs – so the amount of time you need to put in – is it the most profitable thing you could offer? The most profitable way you can package your skills and passions and put them up for sale. This is where you need to really evaluate costs and how much time things will take you. You don’t have to be 100% here but you need to have a good idea. So, make some calls or send some emails to get some costs where needed and really think through how long things will take – and add at least 10% to that. The time part is really interesting and important because time is our truly limited resource. We could theoretically get more money, but we can’t magic up more time in our lives or our day.
If you’re still trying to figure out some business ideas for your skills and passion and don’t have any yet, add the word “where” in front of the first question.
So: where is there a market? Where is there a business fit? Where is there profit?
If you’re testing a few ideas, run each one through these questions and one will likely emerge as the winner.
You might have a lot of ideas that do very well in one or two of the areas, but that don’t do great in all three. To be profitable and sustainable, you need to find the magic that happens when you have a “yes” to all three questions.
