Well, hello friends, it's Kimberly. It's episode 312, and I'm so glad that you're here today because we're talking about an important topic. How are you going to actually make money with your passion by having a business? Like, how do you do this? Like, what do we do? Because here's the deal. All of us have art that we want to create. Am I right? And when I say art, I don't necessarily mean like paintings. No, some of you are. I do have clients that actually do create art, but I'm using it more in an umbrella term. Like we all want to make money based on our art that may be a physical product that we make, it may be a food item, it may be a service we offer, it may be a coaching offer, it may be consulting. It could be any of those things. So think about your business right now. You create art with what you want to offer, right? But how do we actually make money doing that? How do we actually marry this art that we create with the things that build a business? Because my friends, today, I want you to realize you have permission to create art, which some would call a hobby. You have permission to do that. You also have permission to start a business. How awesome is that that we have the free choice to do that. But there's things that you're gonna have to do to actually bridge that gap, to take it from art to a business, to make money doing this and build a career that you actually love. So we're gonna talk about that today. And I'm so happy because I know this is gonna help you and give you fresh perspective. If you're new here, welcome. You've come on a great day. I have no doubt that this podcast in general, if you binge some other episodes, that it will help you. It will help you along your business journey, whether in the idea stage, starting, or growing. And I do have resources for you down below. So scroll down as you're listening, and you can actually click the links while you're listening and go over to my website, which will show you my free tools, my paid tools, everything to help you start living your business dream. I've got a 16-step checklist for starting your business. I got, I've got an icky guy guide that it means it's a Japanese term that means reason for being. And it's a guide to really help you figure out where your passions and skills and expertise intersect to find a great business. So, anyways, make sure you check out everything down below. And I would be so honored to help you along your journey. And if you've been listening, well, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all are wonderful and kind. And I want to read a review today that just came in. That means the world to me, y'all. When when you leave reviews, it literally puts a pep in my step. It makes me smile and it just makes me happy. So thank you. Thank you so much for doing this. This is from Liana Stigal. I hope I pronounced that right. She said, loving this podcast. Thanks for putting out such great content. I recently started my own business, and this podcast is like finding gold. Thanks for all the great insights. Oh, thank you so much. I'm clapping over here. And it means the world to me when you do that. Y'all know that my dog is usually the only one here when I'm recording, which is true for today. No one is home. My dog is here in the room. And so I don't really get feedback. I don't get to see like, did this resonate? I can I can usually tell, like, if you're, you know, sharing something with people, you can see if it resonates or not. And I don't know. And so, but I just go by the amount of listens and all that stuff. But I love it when you leave reviews. It means so much to me. So thank you so much. And if you've been listening a while and you do find value in this podcast, would you be so kind right now? You can just go over to Apple Podcasts. You can hit the five stars. You can just click that fifth star. We'll give it a five star rating and you can be done. Or if you have 30 seconds, literally 30 seconds to write a written review like Liana did, it means so much to me. It really does. And I would hope that it would tell Apple and Spotify and all the players out there that this podcast is valuable and show it to more people like us. So that would mean the world to me. Okay, that's it. On to the episode. Well, hello, friends. How are you today? I'm so happy that you are here. This is an important conversation. If you are in the idea stage of your business, or maybe you have just started your business, or maybe you're just kind of dabbling in business or trying to pivot, this is for you. Because I think we have to get focused on some focused on what really matters. And that is creating a business that you actually love, like getting to pursue your passion and make money doing it. And I think the first thing we have to do is realize that you can either create art or you can create art in the form of a business. And you have to choose. You have to choose. Is it art you are creating or is it a business? And you can have either you want. It does not matter. It only matters to your goals and what you want for your life. I think so many new business owners that I meet with are like, you know, trying to figure out how to make money doing what they love. But sometimes, sometimes they don't really want to do what it takes to make money doing this. They really don't. They really just want to create or create art. I was actually talking to my son about this because he has been an entrepreneur but wants to do this for the rest of his life, but he's still trying to figure out exactly what angle, what type of business he wants to have. And he's been caught in that. Like, how do I do I have a job and then create art? Or do I create a business that that is my art? I mean, that is his vision. I'm sure that's your vision too, is like to be able to have all of that. But y'all, it's hard. And I'm not gonna lie to you and say that this is an easy journey because it's not. But you do have to draw a line in the sand and say, do I really just want to create art? And when I say create art, create art, let me define that. Okay. Art is something that that you produce based on your God-given gifts. Whether you bake something, whether you make something with your hands, like jewelry, whether you offer some type of service where you go out and you're actually doing the the work, you know, like I'm thinking of Kim Aguilar, landscape designer, right? Interior decorator, or you coach people like I have, or you're a life coach, a relationship coach. Like that is your art. That is your art, and you can do it for free. You could actually do it for free and help your neighbors and help your family members. But you're here because you're trying to marry the two. You're trying to marry your art, your your passions, your gifts with a career. And you're trying to create like the closest overlap you can create. Am I right? Like if art was a circle and business was another circle, you're trying to lay them on top of each other so you could you almost see only one circle. But it's hard because I think there's a lot of you that don't realize what goes into a business. And that if you want an actual business, and again, no fault if you just want to create art and have a hobby. I just want you to know that you have the freedom to create art. If you can't make this work as a business, but you have to understand what it takes and you have to be willing to do that for the sake of having a career that you feel truly connected with and passionate about. Does that make sense? So we're gonna go through like three things today because I think these are important to consider in really whatever stage of business you're in, because you could have been in business a while and maybe you're not making the money that you want to make and you're realizing it's because you just want to make art and you don't really want a business. You just you want to create art and that's okay. I think we've all been in that stage. If you've been in business long enough, you have those moments. I've had those moments where I'm like, I just want to help people. I don't want to worry about all the business stuff. I don't want, I don't want to do all the things that it takes. You know, do y'all ever feel this way? You're like, what am I doing? I just want to do this. I just want to do this, and I don't want the stress of numbers and financials and accounting and sales pages and photos and emails and social media. Like, I don't want any of it. Have you ever felt that? Well, it's okay. This is what we go through. It's kind of like when you're a parent and you're like, wait, this is actually hard. This is actually really hard. And there's some days you're like, I just want to leave. I just want to go on vacation. I want to go to the beach, I want to go, right? It's the same with your business. So that's okay. You you're all good. But but listen to me here. If you actually want to make money with your passion and turn it into a business, these are some things you need to consider. Number one, and I've talked to y'all about this before, but I'm gonna say it again. You've got to research ahead of time do people actually want to pay for this? Y'all, I've seen some really cool business ideas all over the internet. And one of them has been these porch pumpkin decorating people. Have y'all seen these businesses where they go into neighborhoods where people have, you know, extra income and they get their porch decorated with the cutest pumpkins and decorations you have ever seen, especially people that have steps on their porch. And um, business owners will come and there's these women that do these pumpkin decorating. You can probably look in your town. It may be there, y'all. It has been a big business this year. This is so popular. Even I think I saw it on the Today show after I'd seen it online. And I'm like, oh my gosh, it's brilliant. And they go and you may spend$500 or$1,000, and they will decorate your whole porch with pumpkin pumpkins and they're different colored and make it look so fall and cozy and just awesome, right? And it could last you through, I think it can last people through Thanksgiving, which is really cool, depending on where you live and the weather and all that. But that's someone who has probably married a passion with a business, but there's a lot of hustle and grind that goes in that. Don't think that that's easy. There's a lot of logistics and all this stuff that goes into it. I've seen people that do baked goods on weekends at farmers markets and other things. And it is so cool to see what they've baked or created. And I just love it and it makes me so happy. But there's a lot that goes into that. Set up at the farmers markets and doing all the things. If you've got a food truck or a mobile food business, or maybe you're an online coach or something like that. Like when you actually get to serve people and you're talking to people one-on-one, there's nothing better. You will feel like you're in your element, but there's a lot of grind that goes into that. And so it can be hard, right? So we have to think about is the business that we want to have, our passion, whatever it is, is there actual demand for it? So, like the pumpkins, yes, there's demand because there's demand for paying a thousand or two thousand dollars for Christmas light hanging. Okay, this goes on in my neighborhood and all that. We have never done that. Um, we have just tried to do it ourselves. And, you know, I'm still a little like, do I need to spend a thousand or two thousand on lights? Like, is that really a smart amount of dent? I mean, I don't know. If I guess if I had a ton of disposable income, I would do it. I just kind of like the joy of doing it myself, but it definitely definitely doesn't look as good. And when I say myself, I really mean my husband because I don't get up on the ladders and do all that, but I'll do some of the decorating out in the yard. But you know, as we get older, we don't want to hurt our backs. We don't want to do all those things. So yeah, maybe I will pay for the Christmas light decorations at some point. But the the porch pumpkin decorations are awesome. There is a demand, right? So you have to ask yourself ahead of time, is there actual demand? And have you done the research? Have you talked to people? And again, you are not even going to totally know until you open your business, until people actually give you money. And I often say, before you officially open your business, see if you can get some paying clients. See if you can get some test clients. Do something to see if you can get some clients. Again, you're not even an official business, or maybe you are and you're just like, I'm starting a business. Get some test clients and see if people will pay money for it. If you can see that there's demand and momentum and excitement about what you want to offer, then I think that's smart. But see, this is where people go wrong. When they're trying to marry their passion with their business, they just take their passion and they run with it and they open a business and they didn't really know is this something people will pay money for? They created their beautiful art, whatever that is, food, coaching, services, products, anything. But they didn't verify that people actually want to pay money for it. And this is how you're gonna make money if you want it to be a business. Okay. So that's number one. Number two, you have to realize that even when you marry your passion with this business, you will be doing stuff all the time in your business that you do not like. It's flat out, it's the facts. You will not like it. Maybe you're the person that doesn't like doing your financials and books and taxes. You will not like it. You will need to do that, or you will need to pay someone to outsource it. You will not, some of you tell me, you do not like setting up your website. You don't want anything to do with that. You don't like the tech stuff, you don't like sending the emails, you don't like any of that. You you may have to go ahead and do that, or you're gonna have to pay someone to do it. I highly suggest you learn the basics of how to do it because you need to know how to do the basic things in your business, right? And then you can hire it out. Uh, you may be the person that says, I cannot stand social media. That's kind of me. I don't love it, y'all. I I've tried to be on it, I've been on it. Um, I take breaks from it. You'll see where I'm just not on it because I'm not feeling authentic in what I'm doing. And if I'm not feeling authentic, I told myself I'm not doing it. So if I don't feel truly inspired, I'm not doing it. It's hard. I should probably hire someone to be doing my social media, but I'm not right now because I'm fine with how my business is right this minute. But if you're not fine with how your business is right this minute and you need more eyeballs and you need all these things, you probably will have to be on social media. Okay. And you may not have to be the one that has to do it, but you're gonna have to be in charge of outsourcing it. So you are gonna kind of have to know what's going on and how to handle it. Okay. Don't think because you start a business based on your passion that you are having fun all the time. You are not having fun all the time. Y'all, I'm not being negative. I promise. I'm not being negative. I'm trying to keep it real. I'm trying to keep this process real. You will not have fun all the time with your business. You will maybe have a mad customer, you will have something go wrong and you have to refund somebody, you have to schlep stuff around your town and set up for a booth. You will have to work on your website, it will break, it will be so annoying. You will be trying to figure out emails. I mean, these things happen. But you have to accept that not all the stuff you will be doing will be fun. Okay. And I think that's people that's where people like are mistaken when they're starting their business. They think, oh, it's my passion. I'm gonna love every bit of it, and you're not. That's the facts. You're not. You just need to know that. But your goal is to do the stuff you love the most and outsource or make it super simple all the things that you don't love doing. Okay, so that's number two. So number one was research prior. Make sure people will actually pay money for it, get some test clients. Number two, accept that not everything in your business will be fun. Okay, you have to you have to realize this. This is real. Okay. And number three, you actually have to work out the numbers to make sure this will work. Based on what you know right now, how much it's gonna cost you to do certain things and how much you are thinking you should charge, you're going to actually have to run some scenarios. If you're starting your business, it doesn't have to be super complicated. You can make a little chart right now and go, okay, what are all my expenses to get everything set up? Maybe it's your website, maybe it's your email marketing platform, maybe it's someone to make your logo, maybe it's some of your supplies and everything you need to do. Maybe create like an amount that you are willing to spend. Let's say it's two grand or something like that. I don't know what it is for you. You can do things a lot cheaper and you can do things more higher end. I'm just throwing a number out. Okay. So let's just say it's two grand. Then you're thinking, okay, each month, what's it gonna cost me? Do you have to rent a space? Are you renting a booth? Do you have a website? Do you have things that you're doing that cost you money? Okay. All your software and apps, if you're an online business, look at all the costs and you're gonna have to figure out, okay, so to keep my business up and running, it's gonna cost me no matter what, 500 or a thousand a month just to keep things running, okay? To keep the lights on, as they say. 500 or a thousand a month. Okay. And then what am I selling? Am I selling hot dogs at a farmer's market? Am I selling paintings? What am I selling? And start doing the math for the price that you want to sell. Start figuring out how many of those things you're going to have to sell per month to actually break even. I always like to look at the break-even and say, okay, if I'm selling paintings that are$400 each, and you know, my cost to keep the lights on is$500 to$1,000 a month. Let's say it's a thousand. I need to sell three paintings to be just above, because that's$1,200 to be above the$1,000 mark. So I got to sell three paintings a month. Is that is that practical? And a lot of times it seems easy. It seems super easy. You're like, oh, I got it. Three. And then you actually get to start doing it and it becomes hard. It becomes hard. And so I want you to realize that maybe we got to go way above the break-even. And we got to say to actually have this business keep going, I need to sell five of those a month. How am I going to do that? That's going to be the challenge for you as a business owner. Okay. If you're selling something small and you need to sell a hundred of them a month, that's the reality. And I know when you don't have a business, you don't have a gate. And you're like, I don't know if that's plausible or not. Well, can you talk to other people that are in your industry and find out how plausible it is and see what they sell? Will they talk to you? Do you have mentors? I would find someone in your industry that you can talk to that might give you some data on where they get their sales, how they get their sales, and how hard or easy it's been, how long it took them to get to that point. You know, this is just like a major overview, but it's super crucial because if you don't actually do the numbers, so many people that have a passion start the business and they don't actually do the numbers because they're scared. They're scared of numbers. It is scary because you're like, oh my gosh, now I'm actually on the hook for this. Like, I need to do this. This is going to be embarrassing if I don't actually make the money. So, in summary, let's go over these three things. I just, I really want you to think about these things. You've got this passion. You want to create a business, you want to have as much overlap as possible so that it's just one cohesive unit of you happy with this business. Number one, research ahead of time. Make sure people want to pay money for it. There's momentum in the market, and this is something people want to buy. Number two, accept that you will be doing stuff that you do not like, or you may have to pay money for people to do it for you. And number three, you're going to actually have to look at the numbers. You're going to have to sit down, as painful as it may be, and really look at the numbers. Okay. What is it going to take to keep the lights on each month? And how many of whatever you want to sell are you going to have to sell to make it happen? This is what you need to make sure. This is how you're going to start making money. If you don't realize these three things, what can happen is you'll get going in the business and you'll realize it's just art. It's your creative art and it's not actually a business or a career. And you know what? That's okay if it's just your art and you want this as your creative outlet, but that was not the intent when you came in. And so if the intent when you come in is to make this profitable and to build a successful business and to have a career that you totally love so that you could maybe quit another job or leave, you know, your part-time job or start a new career, then you've got to take all these three things seriously so that you can get it off the ground as soon as possible and be making money and then be tweaking and learning. So I hope that helps you today. I'm so happy for all of you that are pursuing this. I love that you're so driven and ambitious and you're seeking to use your gifts for greater in this world through a business. I think it's awesome. And I'm just so happy for you. So that's it. If y'all need help right now, if you're like struggling in your business, trying to figure out what you should be doing next, what you should be focusing on, or even starting a podcast, scroll down in the show notes below because I have all kinds of help available to you. I would be honored to work with you and help you start living your business. Okay, that's it. Have a great day. Bye.

Now, this episode may be over, but probably just does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimperlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this below. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.