Home Business Career – A Writers Dream
Running your own business might be a little scary, but it’s also quite rewarding. It means you can work from any location, at any time of the day, on what you want to do and how quickly you want to do it. Plus, this includes the freedom to take breaks or go on vacation without requiring permission from your boss!
This post outlines some actionable steps so that aspiring entrepreneurs can find their niche, as well as other perks like how wisely invested startup funds could make more money than a regular job working for someone else.
If you’ve been thinking about a home business for awhile now, here are some ideas you can start with to determine what type of home business that might be right for you.
First, it’s best to ask yourself these questions: What are your hobbies and interests? What kind of skills do you have already? Are any of your skills in demand by others? What do other people say they like about you?
Pick one or two things that come up most often in the answers to these questions. For the next couple weeks, write down how much time you spend actively pursuing each interest or skill. Do this at the end of each day and add up the number of hours during the week.
As you continue to track your activities, you will begin to see patterns, like maybe you spend an hour each week reviewing the stock market or you devote 20 minutes each day reading the latest news on technology.
These activities may become your niche in a home business. You can help others like yourself by providing advice or products, and turn your interest into extra income. To help make sense of it all, use this flow chart from the book “Finding a Niche”: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Niche-ebook/dp/B00CJGZUMU.
The book has a LOT of great material on the topic. If you’re interested in starting a home business, I suggest you read the book.
Here’s the flowchart:
Figure out your strengths and passions, then learn to market them in your own unique way with your own special twist, so that you can build a business around them.
*There are already a ton of articles out there with loads of advice, so we’ll stick to the essentials.
What Do You Know?
So what do you actually know? How much can you teach others? What skills are in demand right now that you have learned over the years? What topics do people already pay money to know more about? Note: This is independent of your skills as a writer!
When you have your list, you can begin to look for companies to mentor or simply be affiliated with. Consider writing guides or how-to books using your strengths – whether it's teaching others about home computer networks, photography or blogging, as long as it's something people will pay for.
Finally, pick one thing that you are very good at. Write a book on the topic. This is the topic that you spend most of your time studying, learning more about and researching. This can be as short as a book review or as long as an entire course.
When you're ready, you can submit your proposal to a publisher and they will accept your offer to publish it in exchange for an advance (copyright). You may also opt to self-publish the book on Amazon or other online stores.
Once it's published, promote yourself by telling your friends or customers about it and share the links with them using social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. With this approach, you can begin to build up your list of contacts and followers. You don't need an email list to start with, because you're building relationships one at a time.
Finally, when your book is published and people are paying for it, you now have a way to ask them for their email address so that you can keep in touch about related topics or provide more resources that might be helpful. This is the best way to get quality leads since they're already interested in hearing from you!
If you want some more help with building your author platform (and if there's still a market for the book once it's released), here's how to do that: https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Author-Marketing-Planning-ebook/dp/B00U6ZFOSI.
*Note: If you want to know more about affiliate marketing, I will take you through it in a couple of days by answering some questions and showing you what to look for as an affiliate marketer. If there's enough interest, I'll have the post up soon.
What do You Like?
You might have noticed that we're skipping over one very important thing: your writing. Yep, that's because you don't need to be a great writer to start and build your business as an author. You simply need to have some experience and knowledge that others find valuable. Don't get me wrong - you can be terrible at marketing yourself as an author, but if you pick something that people already want, then you've already got the first part of the equation figured out.
You can also think about what it was like when you were young. What kind of books did you love to read? What subjects did you like in school? What hobbies or interests did you enjoy?
Once you've figured out what it was that drove or motivated you, think about how you can use that motivation as a guide for your book's marketing. For example, my motivation was watching friends on television. I would sit and listen to their stories and ask myself, “How would they describe this situation if they were sitting here with me?” If the answer wasn't clear, I'd create a scene in my mind that made sense from their perspective so the story would flow better.
Another example: At 21, I needed a full-time gig and had zero experience. Two years after graduating college, I was in the Market Research Department of a major brokerage firm interviewing people. The manager needed people to answer questions on income, expenses and savings goals. There were no manuals or industry statistics at that point so we were building it all from scratch. In my mind, I had to become an expert in financial planning because it was the next step up from market research and he wanted me there.
Conclusion
So there you have it…the first steps to creating a home business after retiring. If you're starting late, then I suggest to get started immediately! The sooner you start, the more time you have to plan and make the right moves.
There's no need to wait until next month or next year to begin your retirement business plan.