Episode 14Turning Your Passion into Profit
Being passionate about your business is one of the most important keys to success but what if you’re looking to turn your part-time passion into a full-time business? This episode of Marketing Matters explores how someone with a specific passion can convert that into a profit. The expert panel will discuss how they transformed their passions into full-time careers, revealing the latest tips and tricks for success.
Case study
David Spicer has always had a passion for watching and performing in the theatre and he decided to make something profitable out of it. David and Peter discuss how David has built up a successful theatrical agency that licenses over 200 productions every year in countries all over the world. David is the prime example of someone turning their side passion into a booming career.
Case Study Key Takeouts
- Starting a successful business does take more than just passion, do some testing to ensure your business idea is viable before you begin your journey.
- “Start Small” when you are trying to build a career out of your passion.
- Having a great product is the start to a successful marketing strategy but it doesn’t sell itself. You also need to know how to promote it well e.g. website, electronic direct mail marketing, collecting databases, attending conferences etc.
Marketing Panel
Michael Selby
Director
Australian Muscle Car Sales
David Spicer
Founder
David Spicer Productions
Kim Liddell
Founder and Managing Director
Non Destructive Excavations Australia
Panel Key Takeouts
- Being passionate about business as a whole can make a huge difference in building your career.
- Having too strong of an emotional connection could hurt your business. Be aware not to over-invest or capitalise in what you are doing.
- Firstly you should assess what you have to offer to the global market and how it is competitive to what is already available.
- A long-term commitment to a marketing activity will help customers familiarise themselves with you and you can achieve consistent recognition.
- Be patient and listen to your customers. It takes time to build loyalty.
- Spotting an opportunity in the market and delving into that can push you into the right direction to success.
- When hiring staff, ensure you hire based on your core business values in order to find people who are on the same wavelength as you.
- Pay attention to two key things:
- What is it going to cost?
- How much of your time will it take?
- Loyalty is important when you find good staff. Treat people well and include them in the journey.
Marketing Tech Key Takeouts
How to get ahead of your competitors
- This is a connected world. Your competitors are not just local, they are global.
- In order to grow your business, make more money and keep your customers happy, you need to know who you are up against.
- Use these 4 simple steps to get an advantage on your competitors:
- Use Google, including Google Trends – You can set up alerts about your competitors and their products. You will then get emails sent to you about those topics. Google Trends will help you with a wealth of data to identify trends which are of value to your business.
- Stake out competitors’ websites and monitor their activity.
- Follow your competitors’ social media platforms.
- Alexa.com is a free tool which can provide lots of useful insider information for virtually any website in the world.