3 things every successful entrepreneur must become (besides wealthy & happy)

Since we're still at the beginning with this "conversation" I think it might be good to let you know where I stand on this one important topic.

Once someone realizes you've been running your own business for a year or so and are actually making a living, they want to know how you're doing it or better yet, what's the "secret sauce?" I've been asked a lot and I got it down to a pretty simple formula:

1. You have to be a business person - If you're going to be in business, you have to treat it like a business. This means local, state and federal registration, taxes, accounting, banking, taxes, etc. If you don't want to jump through these hoops, no sweat, don't make it a business.
2. You have to be a marketer - You don't have to be a marketing genius to be an entrepreneur, but you do need to know how to market and sell (ew, that word!). If you can't market your business, you won't get customers, and no customers = no business. I completely respect those people who do cool stuff and don't want to sell or market it to others. Those people have what I don't have...a hobby, and hobbies are fantastic, but if you want to turn that hobby into a living, you have to learn how to sell it to other people. This applies to guitar players, artists or bike repair enthusiasts. 
3. You have to be great at [input you passion here]. Here's where you get to show the world how amazing you are at pottery or landscaping or yoga. As long you're awesome, you can turn it into a career.

But this does bring up an important element I must warn you about. I know you love what you do. You love it SO much and you're so talented at it that you want to do it for a living, especially because everyone tells you should. Here's the rub. When you're performing your brilliance for a living, you have to do it even when you don't want to. 

This is important to know because when you get bored at your hobby, you can just set it aside and go do something else. When you're doing work for a client or to pay off that refrigerator, you don't always get to take a break when you want. 

As a wedding photographer for over 20 years, I loved shooting weddings, but I won't lie to you. There were times late in the evening when I didn't want to hear The Cupid Shuffle played to delight of the dancing wedding guests. You might say that after hearing that song a few hundred times, I had earned the right NOT to hear it, but I did not get a pass. I had to suck it up and photograph the gyrating guests loving every moment of the loathsome song...and do it with a smile.

Are you ready to take the leap, from passion to professional?

It's completely OK if you're not. I once heard someone describe amateurs as those who do what they do for love whereas professionals do it for money. It's a pretty accurate sentiment, but if you can find that sweet-spot where you're doing what you love AND getting paid for it AND you keep loving it even when you're NOT loving it at every moment, THEN you'll be in a really special place.

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both." – L.P. Jacks

I really love this quote! 

​Talk soon!