Every day we are seeing more and more content on social media of people leaving their full time corporate careers to do something that is truly them. You, yourself, may have been feeling this itch to leave your full time job and dive head-first into your passions. We are here to tell you, your passion is more than a hobby, it can become a business that supports you and you don’t need a complicated, 20+ page business plan to get started. Here are a few simple steps to build a sustainable foundation to get your passion and vision into a small business.
Step 1: Set Simple, Clear Goals
If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you have been researching this for a while and the messaging is probably very similar to this. It is so hard to constantly hear that you need to set simple, clear goals, but its true. Goals will help you get some direction on your business. The goals around your passion and business need to be SMART.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time
An example of what a great SMART goal could look like is
- Book 3 design clients over the next 45 days.
- Write and publish 2 projects to my online portfolio this month
- Come up with 2 services that compliment my passion this week.
We recommend coming up with at least 3 to get started and write them down. Put them on a sticky note, write it in your planner, put it in your favorite project management tool like Asana or Notion. If you write it down, it will be easy to remember and stay top of mind.
Step 2: Price for Profit, Not Just Time
This is always very tricky for clients, especially creatives. We love what we do so much, we can’t seem to put a price on it. A piece of advice we got from one of our own peers was to come up with a price that makes people flinch. This number should be:
The total cost of the time it takes + materials + overhead + profit = rate.
If you are a service creative like a copywriter, you might want to consider packaging your services over an hourly rate. This would allow you to bundle services together for a set price. On paper this could be very appealing to your clients. To start in your small business though, we would recommend determining your hourly rate. This would give you a chance to actually see how long something will realistically take and if packaging is right for you.
Pricing your product or service is extremely hard and personal. Remember, money has no emotion. If you set your rate early, maybe go a little higher than you think you would be willing to pay for that product or service, and see how it goes. It takes some trial and error, if 3 months go by and your potential clients are like absolutely not, then lower the price a few dollars. If 3 months go by and every lead is turning into a client, maybe go up a few dollars. That sweet spot is the price or rate that makes them flinch but not say no.
Step 3: Track What’s Working & Find What Isn’t
Tracking your goals sounds very corporate but it’s actually not that hard to do. In fact, tools you may be using already will help you determine where you go next. We will use one of our earlier goals as an example for tracking. Let’s say your goal was to “Book 3 design clients over the next 45 days”. Some questions we might ask ourselves around this goal is:
- Did we book 3 clients (Y/N) ?
- How many people came to our website or channel?
- How many people visited our service page?
- How many people visited our contact us page?
- How many people filled out the contact form?
- Where did our clients come from or how did they find us?
By answering some of these questions and staying true to the data, we can start to piece together a picture of what is going on. In the case of our 3 clients goal, we may look at our website analytics using free tools like GA4, Squarespace’s built-in analytics or even HubSpot if we have an account with them.
If we didn’t hit our goal of 3 clients, then we may ask these tips of questions:
- Why are people not filling out my form?
- Why are people not visiting my website?
- Is my website slow or timing out?
- Is what I am offering clear?
- Is my form displaying properly?
- Do I need to look at other channels to get 3 clients? Maybe my clients are not on social media and I need to network locally instead.
If we did hit our goal of 3 clients, then we would see how we can leverage or keep that momentum.
- I noticed this client project I shared on LinkedIn is performing really well, maybe I can share another one similar to this on my website or add a call to action on my post.
- I captured more than 3 clients in my goal time frame, maybe i can increase my rate slightly since my services are in high demand.
Notice that the types of questions we are asking are helping us determine what goal we need to set next. We also are able to answer these questions using the tools at our disposal like our social media’s analytics, website analytics, or simply asking potential clients or people in that target audience how they feel about your product or service. This helps us refine our business and grow.
Step 4: Review and Adjust Accordingly
Once you get the first few goals written down, you can start getting into a routine. We recommend doing end of month check-ins with yourself to review your goals and see what’s working well or what isn’t. This will help you stay on track and see how your business grows over time. Once the goal is over, then set some new ones. We can recommend some templates that you can use to help you check in at the end of the month and set a goal set for the next month.
Conclusion
Turning your passion into a business does not need to be a huge undertaking. Start small with a few goals, determine your rate or pricing and check in. We encourage you to write down at least ONE business goal for the next 30 days and follow the process above. You got this.
