Where in the world am I today?: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
My friend David Duchemin (who’s been popping up on my blog posts a lot recently) asked me to come up with a list of things to consider when making the leap from doing something as an amateur/hobbiest to making it your full time career. As Wednesdays are all about work it seemed in keeping with the them for Wednesdays to share the list of ten things that I came up with when considering making the jump to making your living from your hobby.
10 things to consider when going Pro…
- If you can, start young. It’s way easier to suck when you’re young and you don’t technically need to make a living from what you do because your parents are supporting you. This is a bit tricky for those who find what they love and want to turn into a profession later on in life, but I was lucky and got my start young and it served me really well. You’re going to spend a certain amount of time sucking before you get good. If you’re relying on what you do for a living while you’re in the middle of your suckage stage it’ll make things significantly harder.
- Be a student of the game. What ever it is that you’re trying to be a pro at, make a study of the profession, the people who are successful in the business and what makes them successful. This isn’t to say you should be come like them, but there’s a lot to be learned from people who’ve gone before you.
- Be grateful for the assistance you get in pursuing your love and turning it into a profession and make sure you not only acknowledge the help you’ve been given, but make a practice of helping those who are coming up the ladder after you… It’s just good karma.
- Figure out what your “nut” is and make sure you’re going to be able to make your nut by pursuing your love as a career. This can either mean working at your love part time until the revenue stream warrants making the switch with out much of a lifestyle change or changing your lifestyle so that it doesn’t cost as much, your nut becomes smaller and you can afford to pursue your dream even if it means taking a hit income-wise.
- Whenever possible, love all aspects of the job. This includes practicing the craft, promoting the work, dealing with clients, and ensuring that from start to finish the service you provide goes above and beyond the client’s expectations. This will lead to more work and better work.
- Be as conscientious about the 10th opportunity you get to work with a client as the very first time. The Care and Feeding of a client shouldn’t suffer because they employ you multiple times. If anything you’re degree of care should increase as this one client may well contribute significantly to your income and by keeping them happy you insure that this source of income never dries up.
- Whenever possible make the job a game and fun for everyone involved. If people have fun working with you they’ll want to work with you again and again and again. This doesn’t mean lessening the degree of professionalism, but being well liked and a lot of fun to work with, ‘good on the ice as well as the locker room,’ will often get you more jobs than having the best product combined a sour attitude.
- Make sure you really want to make your love, your passion into your job. Sometimes the shift from hobby to vocation takes some of the excitement out of what you do. If you go from loving what you do to hating it because you ‘have to do it’ to put food on the table that shift can create a certain mental stress that has a negative effect on not only the work you’re doing but also the lifestyle you’re trying to live…
- Spend time crafting celebrity and leveraging it. Being a great at what you’re doing is great, but once you carve out a level of celebrity, you go from being hired as a performer to being hired as “The Performer” because the client wants to work with you and not just any old performer. This is more often than not worth more than what ever skill it is you’re trying to sell.
- Look at the top professionals in the field you’re pursuing. Look at how they live their lives. Look at what it takes for them to do what they do. Carefully have a look at any sacrifices that they’ve made and whether you’d be willing to make the same ones in pursuit of your craft. Look at where you are compared to them. Consider how long it may take for you to get to that level (if ever) and make sure you’ve got enough drive to reach a level that you’re going to be happy with. In other words work towards success, but before you even start, make sure that the success your working towards is actually one you want.
Got any other ideas on things to consider before becoming a professional? Feel free to leave a comment.
