Halifax Courier

Starting up? What’s your passion?

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This week I thought I’d focus on those of you who are maybe just thinking of starting out online. Which business to choose? One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when choosing an online business is they choose a business because of the size of the market. Now, you need a certain mass of people who may want to buy from you but heading straight for weight loss or fashion is a fast way to failure for most people unless they have the passion for their product. Simply choosing something because it could make lots of money is usually doomed to failure. Passion versus enthusiasm Most people starting out online have enthusiasm, not passion. Enthusiasm runs out pretty quickly and doubt can creep in when you’ve cho- sen a business for the wrong reasons. When I ran The Golf Channel on Sky the amount of people who chose to sell golf related products because “golfers buy anything and are loaded” was incredible. Sadly their products often weren’t great and they disappeare­d pretty quickly. Passion is the thing that keeps you up until 2am, working on weekends and drives your friends barmy. When things get tough, as they can do online, its passion that keeps you going. Do your research Does anyone else think it’s a good idea? Talk to people who are your ideal buyers and see if you can sell the product to them before you’ve actually committed to large quantities of stock. Protect your brand early Now it’s time to choose and protect your name. Years ago, you would go to CompaniesH­ouse.Gov.UK check your desired trading name was available, then go to a domain provider and buy your chosen website address. These days you also need to go to Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Instagram & Pinterest and register your business there too, on day one. This makes life a lot easier in the long run. What’s your passion, what are you prepared to give up to make this a reality? TV? Golf? Holidays? Have a great weekend!

Lee Kenny is Managing Director at Halifax-based Snowflake Media

Facebook.com/ SocialSnow­flake

Twitter.com/ SocialSnow­flake SnowflakeM­edia.co.uk

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