Passions That Pay

If you followed through with all the lists in the first steps post then you should have some idea about what your passion is and what opportunities may be afforded to you. Now comes the indepth part. Research! I hope that word doesn’t fill you with horror - if it does than replace it with dream details or another phrase that you find more user-friendly.

If you are thinking more in terms of a career change, then the first places to hit are job boards such as www.monster.com or www.careerbuilder.com and find your dream job. Take note of location, skills needed and experience. Do not feel disheartened at this point if you are not a great fit - thats what the plan is all about - either you can change to fit your dream job or your dream job can change to fit you. Look at your list where you went wide and start looking for those kind of jobs too. Start getting an idea about what you will need to do to make this career change. Do you know of anyone who is already doing your dream job? Try to find them on one of the networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn and see if they are willing to be interviewed by you so that you can learn how they landed their job.

If you want to run a small business then first steps is to identify your target market - who will buy your products or services? Are you going to have an offline or online presence? Where does your target market hang out? If it is online, visit forums, blogs and message boards and start getting to know your future community. Notice the problems that they are facing, what gets them excited and the language they use. Start thinking of all the ways you can serve this community. Start involving yourself with your target market by being helpful wherever you can. Start to build up a reputation of being liked and trusted.

Keep a notebook handy for the next few weeks to write down all your observations so that you can start to get together a plan that will take you into your passion.

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