Is This You?
You started a business that you are passionate about and you thought most everyone would feel the same way about your products or services. Unfortunately you discovered that not everyone feels the same. You need to market your business but you have limited funds to promote or advertise to get it going. What do you do?
“Passion or Dream”?
Unfortunately many people get into a business because of passion instead of researching the passion first to see if it is a dream or a real business. Don’t get me wrong being passionate about your product or service is a plus when it comes to being successful! The truth is being passionate is only a small part of becoming successful. Those who tell you “all you need is passion and the money will follow” are lying to you! You need to work hard, invest in yourself and your passion, seek help from others and a little luck and timing doesn’t hurt. The work hard part is easy if you are passionate. The investing, marketing and getting help part may be an obstacle for many people getting started. So what can you do when you have passion and time but little to no money to market your passion?
Get a Side Gig
First, you need to decide if you are really passionate about success or is your passion just a dream! If you are not passionate about success you probably need to get a job with someone who is passionate success. If you are really passionate and have an I refuse to fail attitude you may need to get a part time job, become an affiliate of a company to sell their products online or research popular products and buy them in bulk and resell them through eBay, Amazon, social media and other outlets. You can also contact high ticket sellers and offer to promote them on social media for a fee or direct sales for a 10%-20% commission per sale. If the item or service is a $1,000 or more and you make 2 sales per week you could make $100-200 or more extra cash per week to invest in your passion. If you can’t find a few bucks to do this look around your home to see if you can find items you can sell in a garage sale or on eBay or other resell outlets. My guess is most everyone has stuff they can sell to make money to invest in other items to sell as a Side Gig. Yes…this will take time but it doesn’t take much money! The question is do you have a real passion about the business or is it just a dream? Personally I have 2-3 side gigs that pay for all my marketing plus allows me to do my passion of helping people grow their business at little to no cost.
Do You Need Passion About Your Side Gig?
NO! In fact I have a side Gig that makes me more than my passion and I have absolutely no interest in the products I sell. I buy wholesale and resell online. My job with this business is taking the orders and forwarding to the wholesaler and checking my mailbox for checks. I have been doing this for about 5 years and now I have about $1,700 net income per month “mail box money” that fuels my passions. My time and marketing investment is about 3 hours and less than $100 per month. FYI: If I was passionate about this side gig I could probably make 3-4 times what I currently make. I tell my workshop attendees that “I love reading bumper stickers on the back of cars and trucks but will never put one on my car because i really don’t like bumper stickers on my car. I also really have no passion for selling bumper stickers. That being said if you show me a few thousand people who want a bumper sticker I will sell each one of them a bumper sticker”! In fact, I have an idea for a bumper sticker that I think will sell to the masses. I may do this as a challenge for myself. If I do here is what it will take: The first 500 bumper stickers will cost .85 cents each printed and shipped ($425.00 investment). I will promote on social media, networking groups, email, and local stores that would like to resell them. Total marketing cost about 40 hours and less than $75 in travel, etc. The minimum net profit should be over $3.00 each. When I sell my 1st 200 ($600 net) I will purchase another 500 and so on until I start a stream of ” mailbox money” to market my passion.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t have the money to invest in yourself and your passion you have two choices. Start a Side Gig to fund your passion or get a job working for someone who is passionate and successful at what they do.