Building a business is great and all, but you can take it a step further.
Why not build so that you love your business from the start?
Imagine getting up every day to do work that you believe in. Knowing that the research you do and the hours you put in is all worth it.
Sounds pretty great, huh?
That's what happens when you love your business. And whether you're starting fresh or "it's complicated" with your business, you can make it happen for you.
If you're still feeling skeptical, we’re sharing a few success stories that might inspire an idea or two for you. Coming up are nine tips crowdsourced from different entrepreneurs on how to build a profitable business that you actually love.
Love Your Business Tip #1: Marie Forleo Puts a Spotlight on Her Personality
Long gone are the days where people associate business with boring charts, data, and semi-casual Fridays.
In this digital age, it pays to be different. It pays to stand out from the competition by using your personality.
That’s exactly what Marie Forleo, founder of MarieTV, did. Marie helps her audience build a life and a business that they love. She was named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation because of her insanely useful content and how she connects with her audience.
Starting out, Marie thought about toning down her peppy and quirky personality. She thought that nobody would take her seriously if she didn’t look and act like a “proper business professional.
Despite these thoughts, she embarked on a different route. She embraced her whimsical personality and her brand grew because of it. People flock to Marie as their thought leader because they enjoy her catchy tweetables and spontaneous dance segments.
Don’t put a damper on your personality.
Sit down and describe your own personality. Pick parts that you want to emphasize and that you would think would be best for your own business.
Are you eloquent and well-spoken? Or maybe you’re fun and quirky, like Marie. Finding a way to infuse aspects of your personality into your branding will make your business feel like an extension of yourself.
Love Your Business Tip #2: Paul Jarvis is Crystal Clear About His Why
How do you take a stand for something when you don’t know what you believe in? Similarly, how do you steer your business when you don’t know your company values are?
Paul Jarvis is a digital product creator and author of Company of One. In his book, he writes:
“Your purpose is more than just a pretty-sounding mission statement on your website; it's how your business acts and represents itself.”
For Paul Jarvis, he advocates that less is more. And that applies to his business philosophy. Your business doesn’t always need to scale to be profitable. While scaling may increase profits, it can carry more problems, like increased overhead costs. He believes that you can build a successful and profitable business by staying lean, staying small, and being smart.
That’s the philosophy of his company’s Why.
What do you and your business stand for?
Aligning your company's values with your own will help you love your business even more.
Revisit your mission statement. Does it clearly state what values you stand for or is it a generic catch-all?
Being specific also has a practical business advantage: it attracts your ideal customer.
If you try to cater to everybody in business, you'll quickly encounter disappointment. Rather, attract the right target market within your niche with your Why. Do your best to serve those customers.
Love Your Business Tip #3: Zach Spuckler Combined Expertise with Profit
Zach Spuckler, online business strategist and founder of Heart, Soul & Hustle, arrived at a fork in the road in his early career.
Before he founded Heart, Soul & Hustle, Zach ran a successful food blog. He enjoyed creating new recipes, capturing mouthwatering photos, and building an online presence.
However, he quickly burned out. At the fork in the road he could either:
- Continue his food blog that no longer fulfilled him.
- Do some soul-searching for what he can do instead.
He decided to soul search by taking a three-month hiatus.
During this break, he discovered what genuinely lit him up: marketing. It wasn't the food photography or the recipes that fulfilled him. Rather, Zach loved building the website, researching SEO best practices, and creating a marketing strategy that grew his food blog.
Zach was good at marketing and he loved it.
That’s when he started his next business venture: Heart, Soul & Hustle, where he helps digital entrepreneurs improve their businesses and maximize their profits.
Inventory your strengths
If you’re struggling with your next business idea, evaluate your strong points.
What are you good at? Do you excel at design work? Writing? Or maybe you have a knack for launching physical products.
Next, what are you interested in? Are you interested in marketing, like Zach? Fashion? Or how about personal development.
Finally, find out where your strengths and interests intersect. If you like writing and marketing, try copywriting. If you like sewing and business, start your own online store. Building a business around your expertise and interests is a great way to build a business you love:
Love Your Business Tip #4: Gary Vee Publishes an Insane Volume of Content
If you’ve been hanging around the digital marketing space, you’ve probably heard of Gary Vaynerchuk aka Gary Vee.
And it's probably because he published an insane volume of content: articles, Instagram micro-content, YouTube videos.
He’s everywhere!
And there’s a reason why content is integral to Gary Vee’s business strategy. Gary understands that providing valuable content FOR FREE builds your authority and your relationship with your target audience.
Building audience trust is invaluable. It’s the secret to create a loyal customer base. After all, how can you ask somebody to buy your product if they don't know or trust you?
Use content to bridge your business with your target customer
You probably more than a business that you love. Chances are, you also want a business that puts money in your bank account (and leads you to financial freedom).
And to make money, you need customers.
Start publishing more content to build your customer base. Send useful tips and helpful articles to your email list. Be more active and accessible on social media.
Love Your Business Tip #5: Jessica Alba’s Resiliency Kicked in When It Got Tough
You’ve probably seen Jessica Alba’s face on the big screen, but did you know that she's prominent in the household products industry?
Jessica Alba transitioned from Hollywood actress to businesswoman when she founded The Honest Company. She creates organic, non-toxic household products because she wants a cleaner and safer world for her children.
And the company was quite successful… until the lawsuits surfaced.
Some lawsuits targeted the harmful ingredients used in some of her products. Others attacked non-truthful claims about organic formulas.
Jessia Alba suffered serious setbacks but she stayed resilient. She believed in her company’s mission and that faith carried her through this stressful period.
But Jessica didn't just get through it. She turned this setback into a lesson and made changes.
She hired experts and toxicologists to optimize her product formulas. She made improvements because she was building a business that she truly loved.
Keep Going, Keep Learning
Building a business you love doesn't make the process any easier. There will be inevitable challenges awaiting you.
And it may not be as serious as a lawsuit (hopefully). Maybe it’s self-doubt or the opinions of others that are sabotaging your growth.
This is when you'll have to rely on your resiliency and faith.
Just remember: it's absolutely possible to build a six-figure business doing something you that you love and that you’re passionate about.
Love Your Business Tip #6: Amy Landino's Success Begins with her Morning Routine
What’s one of the greatest challenges in building a business that you love?
Balance.
Balancing the time between taking care of yourself, your relationships, and your day job (if your business is currently your side hustle).
And often how our day goes depends on how we start it.
That’s why Amy Landino, author of Vlog Like a Boss, advocates for starting your day on your own terms. She says that “you should have the that you’ve designed for yourself, not what someone else has designed for you.”
And she isn’t alone. Successful people, like Mark Zuckerberg, Ray Dalio, and Hal Elrod, have their own morning routines to prepare their days for success.
And you don't need a fancy one hour morning routine to be effective. For Amy, it doesn’t matter how long your morning routine is. It’s the fact that you’ve dedicated to time to even having one.
Amy says that if you can fit these three things into your morning routine, you’re on the right track:
- Mindfulness: When emails, calls, and errands are competing for your attention, it’s difficult to fully immerse yourself in the moment. Regain the art of focus through mindfulness practices, like meditation or morning pages.
- Movement: Incorporating exercise into your daily routine isn’t something new. Exercise sharpens focus, increases well-being, and improves mood.
- Mastery: With busy schedules, it’s hard to find time to refine your skills and work on your business. Use your morning routine to learn something new or to improve your business.
Create your own morning routine
The great thing about morning routines is that they’re largely personal.
When building a business, especially alongside your day job, it's easy to feel rushed and scattered.
Use your morning routine to carve some time for self-care and self-improvement. It helps you bring your A-game when it's time to work on your business.
Love Your Business Tip #7: Jon Morrow Emphasizes Experience
Jon Morrow’s journey to success was riddled with incredible challenges. For one, he was hit in a car accident that left everything but his face paralyzed.
However, that didn’t stop him. Rather, it only added to his well of experience. He worked hard to refine his writing skills, despite his physical injuries.
Fast forward to today and Jon Morrow is now CEO of Smartblogger. He built an incredibly lucrative business that rested on his experience in writing viral content.
His writing has been featured on Problogger and Boost Blog Traffic. These publications boosted his experience, sharpened his writing skills, and imbued him with the wisdom he needed to build his own writing and marketing business.
In an interview with Copyblogger, Jon was asked what advice he would give to his younger self. His answer:
“The most valuable things I could tell a beginning writer wouldn’t make any sense, because knowledge is viewed through the lens of experience. Without that experience, the knowledge is worthless.”
Experience is everything. If you want to build a business that you love, especially if it relies on specific expertise, like business consulting or writing, then your level of success depends on your experience.
Get to work
There’s a time for planning and there’s a time for doing. Some get stuck in the planning stage and suffer from analysis paralysis. When this happens, we just stay in the same spot.
Because staying still feels safer than stepping forward.
But building a business forces you to take risks. And what better risk to take than to take a risk on yourself?
Get out of your comfort zone.
Take action. Get to work. Build your experience. Love your business - and it will love you back.
Love Your Business and It Will Reward You
Let’s face it.
Starting your business and growing it can suck some days. You might feel tired, stressed, or just plain lazy (we all have those days).
But if you genuinely love your business, then those grinding days become even just a fraction more bearable. And it’s those moments where you power through the grind, all add up to build a flourishing business.
But if you still haven't started your business, because you're unsure of what to do, it's okay to ask for help.
Educating yourself and seeking resources is a good start when researching your business idea, especially if you want to learn how to make money online by selling physical products. That’s why we’ve created a FREE guide to help you pick your first product so that you can get your business up and running.
