They say all you need is passion to start a business. I don't buy it.
People who are too passionate about their company create a job, not a business.
Take, for example, a young person finishing school who is encouraged to start a business around “something they are passionate about.” Having enjoyed photography as a hobby, they might open a photo studio and offer to shoot everything from weddings to food ads to T-ball teams. They are good at what they do because they are passionate. Customers like them because they are passionate. Subjects give them their best smile because they are passionate.
Pretty soon, all of that passion starts to define the business, and the studio becomes synonymous with the owner's passion.
Then the owner decides to take a vacation, and like air being sucked out of a room, the business dies off without that passion to keep it going.
The photographer starts to tire of the emotional swings of nervous brides and the constant wailing of newborn babies. Pretty soon, the love of photography ends and it's replaced by a desire to get out, but there's nothing to sell because the business is the owner's passion for photography. Plus, a favourite hobby has been spoiled.
Compare the passionate photographer to the owner of School Photo Co. in Banbury, England. Also a photo studio, School Photo is a real business, not a job masquerading as a business. It specializes in taking school pictures. Parents want them every year, so the company has a repeatable model. It has a formula for getting a classroom of students to sit down and smile within eight minutes, which it teaches to all of its young photographers.
All the company does is school photography. It doesn't dabble in weddings or babies or magazine covers. Given its focus, head masters talk and recommend the company to one another. School Photo grows by word of mouth and it is not dependent on any one person.
You might argue that sounds like a boring place for a new photographer to work. Fair enough, but don't confuse having a passion with having a sellable business.
If you really love something, keep it a hobby.
Special to the Globe and Mail
John Warrillow is the author of Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell. Throughout his career as an entrepreneur, Mr. Warrillow has started and exited four companies. Most recently he transformed Warrillow & Co. from a boutique consultancy into a recurring revenue model subscription business, which he sold to The Corporate Executive Board in 2008. He is the author of Drilling for Gold and in 2008 was recognized by BtoB Magazine's “Who's Who” list as one of America's most influential business-to-business marketers.
