Do You Have A Hobby or a Real Business: 6 Key Indicators To Know the Difference
Do You Have A Hobby or a Real Business: 6 Key Indicators To Know the Difference
Most of us start our business with a very idealistic vision of what’s possible, pour hundreds of hours with very little financial return for the first few years only to realize we’ve taken a very hard road to success.
Take my client Michele PW for example. She started as a “freelancer.” She would work tirelessly, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, writing copy until she had enough money to pay her bills. Then, exhausted and burned out, she wouldn’t work again until she needed more money. Frustrated that she couldn’t break the $50k mark, she realized one day that her freelancer mindset was getting in the way of creating the level of success she really desired.
It’s at this point in the game that an opportunity surfaces. The entrepreneur must make a decision. Most of us up to this point have been playing with a hobby, thinking more like a free-lancer than someone who expects to be quite successful in business. The excitement of our craft is more interesting than all that stuff that it takes to run a business (like bookkeeping, marketing, sales, etc.) The future is unknown so we just focus on today. Profit is a mystery…so we don’t really even look at planning and revenue.
But the problem is there are certain things you MUST DO to truly create a business. The IRS considers you a hobby, and taxes you appropriately, if certain success indicators are not in place. If you don’t have these indicators in place in YOUR BUSINESS, you really don’t have a business at all…you just have a hobby.
Now it’s OK to have a hobby that you love. But if you have a hobby you must be realistic about your income potential and goals. If you have a hobby, you just won’t have the time, resources or financial capital to get past a certain point of success.
Here are a Six Successful Business Owner Indicators:
1. You operate in a business-like manner. You have an LLC or Corporation status, not a self-employed status with your bank accounts intermingled. You also have a business identify with a recognizable brand, marketing collateral and a presence in your industry.
2. Cocktail napkin drawings and random post-it notes don’t count. You take the time to create and follow a written business plan.
3. You are making a profit (or are working towards it.) This is crucial. Viability is a major distinction between a hobby and a business. Hobbies don’t have to make money. Businesses do.
4. You continue to focus on improving your business operations. A hobby is there for the sheer passion factor. A business requires you to continually assess what’s working and what’s not – and fix it.
5. You have a team. You can’t have a successful business without help. It’s impossible. If you are doing it alone, you are missing a key ingredient for profitability and long-term success.
6. You and your team continue to educate yourself on how to run a successful business. Do you have a budget set aside for education and training? Do you consciously plan not just for marketing training but real for leadership, management and fundamental business mentoring?
These are just a few of the indicators to consider if you desire a business that is positioned for consistent six and seven figure revenue. If you are someone who wants to have meaning in your life, make a difference in your community and have passion for your work, creating a business with the proper systems and infrastructure is an important investment.
Remember Michele PW? Michele joined our Platinum Mastermind group when she realized she wasn’t’ running her business properly. She realized with the right training and support, she could develop a “business owner” mindset. She’s been consistently generating high six figures ever since.
Do you see yourself ready to make this leap? Make a list of one or two Success Indicators that you commit to putting in place this year. If you need help, you know where to find it! Right here! Check out our Resources Section for proven tools and resources.
About the Coach:
Melanie Benson Strick, The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.
If you’re ready to stop working in your business and start working on your business, go to www.virtualteambuildingsecrets.com to learn the secret to growing your company to a six and seven-figure success without employees or a 90-hour work week!
Do You Have A Hobby or a Real Business 6 Key Indicators To Know the Difference - To learn more about this author, visit Melanie Benson Strick's Website.
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As every business owner knows, almost every business is born from a passion for “some thing” that we think we can do better on our own. The need for freedom, independence and unlimited earning potential gets the better of us and the next thing you know, you are in business for yourself.
Most of us start our business with a very idealistic vision of what’s possible, pour hundreds of hours with very little financial return for the first few years only to realize we’ve taken a very hard road to success.
Take my client Michele PW for example. She started as a “freelancer.” She would work tirelessly, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, writing copy until she had enough money to pay her bills. Then, exhausted and burned out, she wouldn’t work again until she needed more money. Frustrated that she couldn’t break the $50k mark, she realized one day that her freelancer mindset was getting in the way of creating the level of success she really desired.
It’s at this point in the game that an opportunity surfaces. The entrepreneur must make a decision. Most of us up to this point have been playing with a hobby, thinking more like a free-lancer than someone who expects to be quite successful in business. The excitement of our craft is more interesting than all that stuff that it takes to run a business (like bookkeeping, marketing, sales, etc.) The future is unknown so we just focus on today. Profit is a mystery…so we don’t really even look at planning and revenue.
But the problem is there are certain things you MUST DO to truly create a business. The IRS considers you a hobby, and taxes you appropriately, if certain success indicators are not in place. If you don’t have these indicators in place in YOUR BUSINESS, you really don’t have a business at all…you just have a hobby.
Now it’s OK to have a hobby that you love. But if you have a hobby you must be realistic about your income potential and goals. If you have a hobby, you just won’t have the time, resources or financial capital to get past a certain point of success.
Here are a Six Successful Business Owner Indicators:
1. You operate in a business-like manner. You have an LLC or Corporation status, not a self-employed status with your bank accounts intermingled. You also have a business identify with a recognizable brand, marketing collateral and a presence in your industry.
2. Cocktail napkin drawings and random post-it notes don’t count. You take the time to create and follow a written business plan.
3. You are making a profit (or are working towards it.) This is crucial. Viability is a major distinction between a hobby and a business. Hobbies don’t have to make money. Businesses do.
4. You continue to focus on improving your business operations. A hobby is there for the sheer passion factor. A business requires you to continually assess what’s working and what’s not – and fix it.
5. You have a team. You can’t have a successful business without help. It’s impossible. If you are doing it alone, you are missing a key ingredient for profitability and long-term success.
6. You and your team continue to educate yourself on how to run a successful business. Do you have a budget set aside for education and training? Do you consciously plan not just for marketing training but real for leadership, management and fundamental business mentoring?
These are just a few of the indicators to consider if you desire a business that is positioned for consistent six and seven figure revenue. If you are someone who wants to have meaning in your life, make a difference in your community and have passion for your work, creating a business with the proper systems and infrastructure is an important investment.
Remember Michele PW? Michele joined our Platinum Mastermind group when she realized she wasn’t’ running her business properly. She realized with the right training and support, she could develop a “business owner” mindset. She’s been consistently generating high six figures ever since.
Do you see yourself ready to make this leap? Make a list of one or two Success Indicators that you commit to putting in place this year. If you need help, you know where to find it! Right here! Check out our Resources Section for proven tools and resources.
About the Coach:
Melanie Benson Strick, The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.
If you’re ready to stop working in your business and start working on your business, go to www.virtualteambuildingsecrets.com to learn the secret to growing your company to a six and seven-figure success without employees or a 90-hour work week!
Do You Have A Hobby or a Real Business 6 Key Indicators To Know the Difference - To learn more about this author, visit Melanie Benson Strick's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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