subject: Can you develop your passion and keep your day job too? [print this page] Author: Shanda Barrett Author: Shanda Barrett
The answer is yes. If you are not ready for the rigors of full time entrepreneurship, then take a cue from University of Southern Mississippi Graduate Student Sara Montague. She is devoted to studying Psychology full time but sells the photographs that she takes in her spare time.
There is no doubt that her future professional goals are an influence on her decision not to pursue her "hobby" on a full time basis. The future therapist has set clear goals that will help her avoid some potentially costly detours.
Business coaches routinely encourage new entrepreneurs to envision their personal and professional lives five to ten years in the future. Some entrepreneurs such as faculty members at universities desire to commercialize a technology, leave the university, and start a fast growth business. While others want to meet their own personal and financial objectives.
If you are asking yourself "what's the difference?" I'm glad you asked. In the first instance, having the goal of creating a fast growth enterprise can attract potential investors and also requires that the entrepreneur work rigorously towards the financial goals of his investors. On the other hand, while lifestyle businesses like Sara's can be lucrative, investors are rarely interested in businesses that only meet the financial objectives of the entrepreneur.
Sara, like other art enthusiasts, sells her photographs on Etsy, the fast-growing Web site that serves as a marketplace for crafts and vintage goods.
She started taking pictures as a kid, and says people told her she had a "good eye." "These comments motivated me to exercise creativity even more, and I continued to find beauty in my surroundings and to enjoy trying to capture it."
Sara recognized the idea for her Etsy shop after stumbling upon a blog that featured other Etsy artists. "I was inspired to set up my own shop," says Sara, "after making purchases from other artists." This self proclaimed amateur photographer loves what she does and she feels a great deal of validation when people purchase photographs from her site.
More importantly, she can't imagine being anything else other than a therapist. Sara doesn't have big plans for her Etsy shop, over the next six months though. Her next major milestones are graduation, getting a full time job, and getting married.
Entrepreneurship can change your lifestyle dramatically. Like Sara, new entrepreneurs should determine what type of lifestyle they desire and then pursue those objectives accordingly.
Sara's story is compelling to me because it underscores three recurring themes of my New Biz Buzz Blog:
1. It's easy to start a business (What can be better than free.)
2. There's always room to innovate (I'd like to port King Solomon to the 21st Century for an interview. Surely he would dial back his stance on the "newness of things under the sun."
3. There's always a Mississippi Connection (Sara, a graduate student at the
University of Southern Mississippi, is one of the nearly 4 million registered members of Etsy.)
