Are you the kind of person who has ever called in sick to work because you hate working for the man?

If you are a creative person who would like to turn a hobby into a business, this guide to strategically make a list of business ideas is for you!

Creative people like you often find it difficult to find meaning or purpose in doing work that doesn’t allow them to use their creativity. No matter how good the pay is, inevitably you will start to feel trapped and restless. 

Inevitably, you will begin to feel like your job is sucking out your soul!

And, although it can be difficult to continue to work at a job devoid of at least creative problem-solving, quitting is often neither an option nor a long-term solution to the big issue.

You must strategically find the right kind of work that is going to be meaningful to you and gives you ample opportunity to use your creativity.

And, most importantly, you need to find the right work that will nourish your soul.

A random list of business ideas is not going to help you if you don’t first do a little soul-digging to find out what drives you–because you’re going to need a LOT of drive to make your new business work!

Just as throwing the wrong kind of fertilizer on a plant won’t help it grow, coming up with a list of business ideas not suited to who you are will not help you find the work you’ll love to do.

Instead, you need to strategically nail down a few qualities about yourself so that you can start a creative business that aligns with who you are, what you need, and how you like to work in the world. Starting a business can be extremely challenging, but if the fit feels right for you from the start, you’ll be able to propel yourself over the upcoming mental hurdles much more confidently!

To help you dive deep and quickly grab those pearls of self-wisdom, I have three pivotal questions you can use as a guide. I picked these questions out from the best, most profoundly helpful career and business books I’ve ever read.

I believe these questions are SO powerful that I’ve called them ‘sorting hat’ questions, like the magical hats used to sort the schoolchildren in the Harry Potter series! (btw – I am not a fan of the author anymore, but I did love the books!) 

Sorting Hat #1: What is your Myers-Briggs personality type?

There are basically only 16 personality types, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. If you’ve ever been on Tinder, and you’ve wondered why some people have four capital letters to describe themselves, that’s a Myers-Briggs personality type acronym! 😉

Knowing your personality type will massively help you not only find the work that will suit your soul, it can also help you with your relationships and love, too! I am an INFP type, which is less than 4% of the population (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive).

When I met my partner–also an INFP, I could not believe the similarities in the way we think and act. I had always struggled to find a partner who understood my quirky combo of spirituality, idealism, creativity, and intellectualism, but those are typical of the INFP type. Though I didn’t meet him on Tinder, if you know your type you could certainly find it a lot easier to meet suitable partners on there if you wanted to! But in any case, it will make it a lot easier to get a long list of business ideas that will suit you.

To find out what type you are and what types of work would suit you best, I recommend this classic book:

Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type. 

I found this amazing book in a thrift shop many years ago and was astonished at how accurately it described me and my friends! It devotes an entire chapter to each personality type and lists many types of work that would suit that personality type best.

If you want to know what work will suit you best, start with finding out your personality type.

Sorting Hat #2: What do you like to work with the most: people, ideas, or things?

All work is primarily based around people, ideas, or things. If you number the three in the order you like most, you can filter out many types of work that just aren’t going to suit you. Ideally, you want to find something that is primarily about working for the first thing but has a bit of the second as well.

For example, if you love working with people then things, a service-based business providing physical products or results would suit you well. An example of this would be a birthday party planning business, where the business owner works closely with the customer and other service providers to deliver a beautiful event from the wine list to the color and placement of the serviettes.

I like working with ideas, then things, then people, which is why being a social media consultant is ideal for me. I first devise strategies (ideas), then I implement them with creative software and digital tools on a laptop to produce tangible things, to serve my clients, and engage with people online.

This idea of the three types of work is from one of the most useful career books I ever read. I highly recommend this book if you are considering turning a creative hobby or passion into a business. It will help you see if the hobby could become a profitable business, or if you should perhaps simply look for employment that is closer to the hobby interest, and how to make that work for you:

The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People .

Sorting Hat #3: What do you want to help people with the most: health, wealth, or relationships?

If you look at every single business on the planet, you’ll see that they help people in primarily one of three areas: health, wealth, or relationships. A creative hobby or interest can only become a profitable business if it is providing value to a market in which there is a demand for that product or service, and these are the three overall markets.

If you design wedding rings, for example, you are helping people with their relationships. If you design costume jewelry, you’re selling something that makes people feel good about themselves, so it’s health. And if you collect and sell precious antique jewelry that is too precious to ever be worn, you’re working within wealth. 

Your business marketing plan will start from one of these three groups, then it will divide down into a popular sub-group.

From there, you must create an original niche for your business from out of the sub-group.

For example, say you design wedding rings (relationships) specifically for the LGBTQ community (sub-group), and you’ve created a niche in that market by designing rings that mix a variety of metals or materials in a  unique way.

This excellent marketing approach comes from one of the best marketing books I have ever read. I strongly believe that any creative business owner who invests in studying digital marketing can make money from their creativity, and this is one of the best books on digital marketing that I can recommend at this point.

Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Creating a Mass Movement of People Who Will Pay for Your Advice by Russel Brunson.

Once you nail down the answers to these three questions, you’ll be well on your way to cornering a business idea that will suit you perfectly!

Don’t guess what you think you’ll like when it comes to starting a new business. You need to know what you like now, and start the right business!

Once you have made a nice, long list of business ideas that excite you, other factors will weigh in and make it easy to narrow in on the right one. Factors such as start-up costs, location and logistics, market demand, and competition.

Within a few months, you’ll be well on your way as a new business owner!

Don’t let your creativity go to waste! It’s NEVER too late to start a creative business. 

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