Do What You Enjoy
I’ve been interviewed a few times by reporters interested in how people start entrepreneurial businesses, and there is one thing I always share: Don’t look for a business ideas that have earning potential, take something that you love or in which you are interested and figure out how to make it a business. Is there a need that your interest can fill? Think outside of the box. Marketers trying to sell you the latest “Get rich quick on the Internet” scheme are a dime a dozen (and the schemes usually don’t work), but unless you are doing something you enjoy, it will soon become drudgery and you are likely to give up or at the very least hate it. On the other hand, being creative with your interests can build a business that you love and enjoy for years to come.
Menus4Moms is a great example. Combining my love of cooking and my inclination to organize and plan, I started M4M as a small section of my homeschool website, offering free menus to busy homeschool moms. Word spread and soon that section was getting as much traffic as the rest of the website. Realizing that the menus also appealed to working moms and stay at home moms who don’t homeschool, I decided to move it to its own domain. Since then, Menus4Moms has launched 4 premium menus (Busy Mom Menu, Frugal Mom Menu, Food Ministry Menu – for Angel Food boxes – and Living Gluten-free Casein-free) and has a loyal following of busy moms. Producing the weekly menus and managing the subscribers is work and requires some skill working with websites and scripts, but it is enjoyable and challenging.
I mention all of this because of an article I saw today on Yahoo! Finance about young entrepreneurs who started businesses (most of them while in high school and college) doing something that interested them. Their stories are examples of what I believe is true about starting a business – do what you love (using wisdom and being realistic about the market and your own abilities) and success is easier to come by. Inspiration and creativity naturally follow when you are pursuing your passion, making the dedication necessary to succeed more enjoyable.
