Take Your Hobby to A Real Business

In June of 2011 my business life underwent a radical transformation. I sold a major business that was responsible for a majority of my income and my attention.

After the sale of that business, I began to rethink my consulting business. I began consulting as a hobby or side business.

Essentially, I helped friends and colleagues by advising them on how to create the types of systems and structures that I used to make my other businesses successful.

I realized that I had the same problem that many of my peers had when I made the decision to take my consulting business from a hobby to a more serious and structured business. Because I had begun consulting as a side venture, I had not given it the attention it deserved.

I had procrastinated on creating a strategic plan for more than three years because I had a good enough idea of who I wanted to help, but I had never managed to muster up enough focus to make it a full-time commitment.

With the changes in my business life, I began to focus my attention on building my consulting business and I found myself going through many of the same processes that I assign my clients:

A three and a five-year comprehensive strategic plan
A vision that could inspire the people that worked for me
A decision of how big the business needed to be so that I could focus on my unique ability
Financial goals and an entire financial model for the business
A list of who I would have to engage to operate the business effectively with scalability
Product development and intellectual capital creation

This was not an overnight process; it has taken many months and intense communication with my team to get them clear as to exactly how we get to build this empire together.

It has been an interesting journey. The lesson learned is that even if you have gone through this process before, resist the urge to take shortcuts. It is critical to go through the strategic planning process. Take the opportunity and time to focus on the plan. You will learn more about yourself and this new business, even if you have been in the business for years.

For me, I was able to come to some of the best and most creative ideas that I’ve ever had. I know that I am crafting a business that fits my lifestyle, have me do the best work of my life, and focus on doing the things that I was put on the planet to do.