- Christine Kane - https://christinekane.com -

How to Make Money Doing What You Love

[1]My niece is showing me how it’s done. In fact, she’s showing us all.

It took me many years, countless personal growth books, and lots of money before I could GET what she’s just going ahead and DOING right now.

And she isn’t even in high school yet! Nor has she read a single book on letting go of fear or building self-esteem!

For the past three summers, she bypassed the hours-for-dollars path of the typical neonate, and created leverage instead.  She combined her skills and talents (Babysitting, Creativity, and Enthusiasm) with a market need (Moms with bored kids who are driving them crazy). She created a week-long “Groovy Girls Day Camp” 8 year old girls in her neighborhood. The day camp happened at her house.

She built the Groovy Girls camp around fun activities. Each day was dedicated to a different topic: “Candy Day,” “Fashion Day,” etc. There were projects completed, videos made, pictures taken, prizes awarded. She taught them, led them, and made them happy. She even posted everything on a website that she created from a basic template – so that at the end of each day, parents could see pictures of their little girls, and get reports on the day’s activities.

And here’s the cool thing:

In one week, she made what most little girls her age make all summer. And she’s passionate about her work and good at what she does. PLUS, the girls (and moms) are happy with her services.

Now, I coach people how to create profitable businesses and uplevel existing businesses. With that said, I meet a lot of people who, in a burst of motivation at a party, want me to help them figure out how to create their own business. Within minutes, I can find a starting place, and map out a business idea that makes the person really excited. But rarely do these people take even the first steps.

This is why I love watching my niece. Yea, I know. She doesn’t have all the bills, challenges, and time constraints that you have. But you know what? She also doesn’t have the excuses either. She just took the first steps, created her vision, marketed and made her offer. (That’s all any of us do, really!)

So, here’s the good news:

You don’t have to “have a business” to make extra money. You can start with what you’ve got in front of you.
So, let’s make it THAT easy – and see what you could do to make money doing what you love. Here’s the steps to take:

1 – Define It.

Define your skills, talents, and passions.

Throw it all out there. What are you good at? What do you love? Take some time to let this drift around in your head. It doesn’t have to come out in one writing session. Record yourself talking about it. Meet up with a friend and share your ideas with her. Let this idea roll around for a while.

When I was a full-time performing songwriter, I realized how much I LOVED connecting with the women in my audience after the show and helping them discover their own passion. So, I began facilitating women’s retreats each year.

I share this so you’ll understand that the only limits here are in your head. (Believe me, there wasn’t a lot of support in the music biz for a songwriter doing personal growth retreats. It was a combination of things that only I loved.) Don’t limit yourself!

Here’s a list of some skills and talents you might have:
Drawing
Organizing
Baking
Pet Sitting
Dog Walking
Cooking
Cleaning
Accounting
Managing Household Projects
Painting
Writing
Errands
Tutoring
Babysitting 🙂

2 – Package It.

Package your idea.

How will you offer it? A day-long retreat? A workshop? A monthly subscription service? A workbook? Again, there are no limits. What will you charge? How many people will you allow?  Who are those people? What age groups?

With the example of my retreats, I had to sit down and figure out how long they would be. I had to create the lay-out of each day. I had to map out a way to combine my teaching and coaching – as well as silence and experiences for the women. I certainly didn’t do it perfectly at first – but I got better and better at it. So will you.

3 – Offer It.

Put the word out there. Use every resource available to you. Craigslist, people in your office, relatives and friends. Let the world know what you are offering.

Warning: This is where you’ll be tempted to pull back and play small. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that!” You MUST let go of this fear. When you have a service to offer, and you know you’re good at it – then you provide value that needs to be shared so that people can choose to work with you! Don’t hide your light!

4 – Tweak It. [2]

No business idea stays the same once it gets going. You will always be tweaking, adapting and dealing with challenges. (Hey, even my niece had to alter the prize-giving activities because one of her groovy girls locked herself in the bathroom sobbing and wouldn’t come out.)  Any creative idea is dynamic. Expect changes. But remember: You can change course if you’re not moving!

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These four steps can take as much or as little time as you want.  You can put the word out and have customers rolling in by the end of the week.

Will you be nervous? Will it expand you? Will you be challenged? Absolutely!  But you’ll also make money doing what you love.  And there’s nothing better than that.  Even my niece let me know she never plans on getting a job.

Now THAT is groovy!