What type of business do I want? This is sometimes referred to as your Niche. Passion is considered very important because it will sustain you through all the ups and downs and highs and lows of being in business. Take this How To Find My Passion Course to discover it!
Your Niche Can Be About
- a specific product or service
- a physical location store or an online one
- a particular client/customer group
- a field of knowledge and/or a skill
- something you are passionate about
“What is my passion?” you might ask.
Sometimes this is so obvious that we are able to state it clearly and immediately. But for some folks, it’s hard to pinpoint because they have a very wide variety of experiences and interests; they have many passions. Or it’s not a question that has come up before so there is nothing but uncertainty.
An Exercise That Will Help You Open Up Your Past
This will help you discover your own, personal passions, interests and capabilities. And it’s not unlike trying to discover a career direction.
In order to move forward in business development, we look at past experiences seeking some personal patterns that are of relevance in discovering and clarifying our ‘why’. Experiences, which form the basis for career or business exploration, can come from every aspect of life. The experiences of each person are unique and a detailed, careful examination of these experiences will reveal some common life patterns that will tell us what choices we should make.
The process of answering the questions is as important as the questions themselves. You must be actively involved in:
- The generation of the information;
- The interpretation of its meaning;
- The application of new insights.
The ‘How To Find My Passion’ Course:
This is a pen and paper experience. Step away from all your screens for this so that you can stay totally focused on your thoughts and feelings. Take the following steps:
- Make three lists. Things I like to do –
- Leisure
- Education
- Work
- Choose one activity which is/was particularly enjoyable. (It’s interesting to begin with a leisure activity)
- Think about a specific occasion when this activity was particularly enjoyable, and an occasion when it was not so enjoyable.
- On a separate page, sequentially and in narrative or list form, describe in detail the positive and negative experiences associated with these activities. Some issues to explore are the people involved, your feelings, thoughts, challenges, successes, motivation, and dynamics that made it either positive or negative. Give as much detail as you can.
- Review your narrative and consider what patterns are suggested by the information. Make connections to goals, values, aptitudes, personal style and interests. Be sure your statements are framed as positive statements.
- Review your three lists (Things I Like To Do), and choose one or two more activities and follow the same above steps. This will confirm what you learned from the first activity and add more insight.
- Consider the remaining items on the three lists. Are there other patterns? What connections can you make to specific business choices and directions?
Are you now able to state clearly what your niche should be and what you are passionate about? Be sure to record your conclusions in your Business Journal.
Some people can sit down with paper and pencil and easily work through an exercise like this. If you respond more readily to an objective discovery conversation, then perhaps some coaching guidance will do the trick. See My Coaching Consulting Services for some choices.
Interesting to brainstorming an idea especially about what you are passionate about of, but also I think, this my opinion but also feel and listen to your heart that’s where passion comes from, something that we love to do or to teach or to be part of, really good article.
Thank you for your comment Erick. Yes, I completely agree that our passion comes from the heart but unfortunately not everyone can state that immediately without some detailed reflection, as I have discovered in my coaching.
Thanks for breaking it down systematically on how to choose a niche. I never thought of separating it to education, leisure and work. My interest list is pretty long and I am merely thinking about the fun side of doing things vs market and demand. I think I also need to find a long term connection to make sure that I can carry out the business in years to come. Thanks for the tips! They were really helpful.
You are right to want to ensure that your passion will stand the test of time. That will be a challenge since we do change over time don’t we? When considering the market/demand issue, I wonder if it would help to consider who you would like to work with as clients. Thanks for your comments Cathy.
It is so amazing to see how so many people worldwide are making a good living from their passion. all of us have a passion or a hobby where we can make a good living. I believe that our passion or our gift can help us to live the kind of lives that we always wanted to live. It is so good to see that you have written a post to help people find their passion.
Thanks for your comment Norman. It’s great when people can be happy in their efforts to make a living – it almost feels like a luxury. I will be posting more resources for new Solopreneurs, so please do return.
Hey Lowell Ann:
I think you’re right. Very often people just aren’t exactly clear about what makes them spark up. Sometimes that’s ’cause it’s such an ordinary part of their life that they sort of take it for granted.
I think your exercise/course presented in this post is a lovely way to find, explore (and learn to exploit) those things that nurture you and turn you on.
Greetings Netta – That’s a good point – that it’s so easy for us that we give it little credence. I appreciate that you took the time to review the course and hope that you found it useful for yourself.
That is exactly what I did t find out what my niche was. I love the Lord, being at church, reading, praying preaching and worshiping him. It was really hard to think of interests besides those. Then boom! I was like; well that!So great steps in finding a niche which equals a passion and a career.
I’m happy you found something you are passionate about Linda. Of course the next step will be to find a way to determine if there are others that would be interested. All the best in putting that passion to work for you.
You know, I did not realize how hard it would be to figure out what I want to do, or what my niches are. This is an awesome tool to really reflect on what makes us happy, and the activities we enjoy. Thanks for this! I think I’ll give it a try to if I’m really passionate about what I do. You also mentioned a Business Journal; that sounds like something I may need to use… What all do you include in one?
Greetings Neva – I’m happy you found the article useful. I use my Business Journal for recording ideas for the future, my thinking as I review options and making decisions, working through my ideas for blog posts. For some reason I get more ideas with a pen that i do on the keyboard.
Lowell,
Really enjoyed your article on how to find my passion. It’s kind of funny. When I’ve taken the time to stop and think about what am I passionate about I have a hard time putting it down on a list. When I think about the course of my life I can certainly come up with things I was passionate about at different times in my life. High school and college it was art. Then music. As I became a husband and father I had other things I needed to pay attention to so my priorities shifted. I’ve always been into health and wellness so that was a great starting point. Over the last 10 years or so self-improvement and living a complete life became a passion of mine. So it then became my niche!
Great article,
Mat A.
Thank you Mat, glad you enjoyed it. I too have found that my niche combines a number of interests I’ve had in the past.
Hey i really enjoyed your article, it was really informative. I am a passionate poker player and that is why i made a second website teaching people how to play poker and also review poker related products. It kind of sucks that i had to take a break from that site to put all my focus onto my main site, i hope to return to tht site in the future.
Thanks for coming by Jusitn. Hope your passion for poker helps to create the success you are aiming for.
Finding a niche can be so difficult for some people. Although in my opinion it shouldn’t be. But some people either have too many ideas or simply no ideas at all. The result is the same. They don’t know what to choose and they get stuck.
The steps you describe certainly make the process a lot easier. There is no reason to overthink it. Just go with something you feel comfortable talking and writing about. After all, failure is part of building a business and in some cases is inevitable. But that’s how you learn.
Nikos – I’m happy you thought the process outlined makes the process easier. I completely agree that we must “just do it!” and learn from the results. I appreciate your commenting.
I can remember the first time I wanted to start an online business. Everyone was talking about niches and I had no idea what I wanted to do. It took me a good couple of weeks to eventually make up my mind. Even then I realized something; you have to be passionate about what you want to do. If not, you will lose interest and run out of ideas. It happened to me; not once but twice. As they say “you live you learn.”
I really enjoyed reading your post about finding your passion. I wish I had it when I started out:). You make it seem so easy and after reading this post I realized it is actually that easy.
I am looking for a new niche and this will definitely be helpful with my next venture.
I always have the following concerns when I am looking for niche:
1. Will people find it interesting?
2. Will it be a profitable niche?
Do you maybe have some advice for me?
Thanks for a great post!
Greetings Rika – Thanks for stopping by. Yes, finding a niche has many steps. You have identified the next two steps. It’s true that just because I am passion about something doesn’t necessarily mean that other will too. More research is definitely required.