Drawing, gardening, home-based baking. These are some of the emerging trends where passion meets profit. To most people, this could be a dream come true. A dream where you are paid for things you enjoy doing. You could even supplement your wealth management journey through your passion.

You might have received an invitation to a limited time entrepreneur webinar or click through a Facebook advertisement asking you to “BE YOUR OWN BOSS”. In any case, I believe that it is definitely possible to profit from your passion.

In my journey to talk to my readers on their experience profiting from passion, I noticed some key trends that emerged. I realised that most people fail because they did not ask themselves these 3 important questions early on. To help you save your time and effort, I have dedicated time to write this so that you will not fail in this journey on profiting from passion. I have also interviewed a few entrepreneurs who are willing to share their valuable experiences at the end of the article.

Identify Your Passion

For most people, this comes intuitively. For others, it may take time.

Personally, it took some time for me to “identify” my passion. Reading good financial articles (like this one.. haha) and sharing about financial knowledge has been a great pleasure for me. Initially, I do it very sub-consciously. I started off sharing about the best credit cards, simple wealth management tips and also the lessons I learnt from books. It was just something that I enjoyed doing. Though, I did not profit from any of them. I enjoyed the process.

This was “invisible” to me until one of my friends pointed it out to me. He asked me why not look for a career in the financial services space where you can make full use of your passion. It took me 4 years just to “identify” my passion. While it certainly took a long time, I enjoy every moment of my career now.

Coming back to the original topic, one of the most popular question that I hear from my readers is this: “How can I profit from my passion?”

After spending some time to discuss with them, I realised most of them cannot identify or admit truthfully that they have a certain passion. Most of the time, it is because the “passion” appears to be profitable. Their minds were thinking about profitability rather than passion. I think this is very normal. We do have real priorities like improving our standard of living, saving for retirement etc.

In the midst of finding our passion, we lost our way.

I believe the first step is to identify your passion. This will take time. I believe that passion are met to be a net positive in life. Even if it is not profitable or not yet profitable, it has to give you an intangible benefit like happiness.

For Vivian from Platter With Love, she “accidentally” discovered her passion. One faithful evening, she designed a platter (out of pure fun) and brought it home. She witnessed how her family was amazed and delighted at the beauty of the platter arrangement, the food, and also the taste. That was the start of her venturing into the platter business.

Step #1: What is your passion?

Does Time Permits?

You will need time. It is very frustrating if your passion now becomes a time burden to indulge in along with the other responsibilities you have in life. I asked a passionate hobbyist Plantssg his biggest challenge. This is what he mentioned.

“One of the biggest challenge is to make sure your assets don’t die. It must grow well and thrive”.

While he did not mention about the amount of time he spend in his garden, I personally believe he would have spend a lot of time there.

Before I scare any of you away, I would like to add another dimension to this. I believe that Time is about Consistency. It is okay not to make any money it your passion yet. It is okay to spend time on it. The most important is to consistently schedule it and commit to your passion. For now, forget about the profit and just doing it consistently will make you better and better. You will hit gold sooner or later.

Even for Liling from Ola.bakess, she had to schedule time outside of her full time job to plan for her business. Her weekends were spend baking while weekday nights were spent in business planning.

Step #2: Schedule your passion

Be Honest

Do you really need this passion to be profitable? Sometimes, your passion will turn to become a frustration. Just imagine while preparing your bread for your next customer, you receive a ridiculous bad review. This will definitely put a damper on your mood for the rest of your day.

Honestly ask yourself if this passion needs to be profitable for it to bring happiness to the lives of yourself and others? I would rather you love the process. Not all passion has to be profitable although it can.

Step #3: Are you mentally prepared?

Final Thoughts

I believe that it is definitely possible to profit from passion. It is a journey of exploring, having fun consistently and if it makes you happy, profit from it! If you have a story when you tried to profit from passion, I would love to connect with you. Do email me or text me. I look forward to some of your stories.

Continue scrolling to read the interviews with fellow entrepreneurs. Wishing you the best in your passion =)

Alternative, find out more on some of the best ways to earn extra income in Singapore.

Chengkok is a licensed Financial Services Consultant since 2012. He is an Investment and Critical Illness Specialist. Wealthdojo was created in 2019 to educate and debunk “free financial advice” that was given without context.  

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Contact: 94316449 (Whatsapp) chengkokoh@gmail.com (Email)
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The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.

Special Interviews

Disclaimer: I’m a great supporter of these businesses. I do not collect any forms of remuneration by featuring them.

Vivien (Platter With Love)

1. What made u decide to venture into selling platter with love ?
   The business is very much an extension of me as a person; my love for gastronomical fare, my love for quality time spent with family and friends, my love for variety and options, and my belief in contributing back to the community. I have worked as a school teacher before this. Despite years of teaching in schools; in primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges, I still feel inadequate. I was missing life lessons. Though I am still a teacher at heart, I had wished to be better myself as a person before heading back to the classroom (possibly in my retirement years). One evening, I designed a platter, out of pure fun and enjoyment, and brought it back to my maiden home. I witnessed how delighted my family was as they marveled at the beauty of the platter arrangement, like that of a piece of valuable art work. After digging in, the platter sparked many conversations, my family was curious as it was not a conventional fare. They enjoyed the liberty to try out different food combinations. Not only that, the platter provided something for the whole family, from my niece who was one to my grandmother who was 91 years old. Everyone huddled around the platter and delighted in the meal, it was a precious sight. That was when I resolved to turn it into a business.
2. Before you started selling your products, how long have you been practicing making platter with love?
   Platters are a relatively new concept, especially in the Singapore market. The concept started in 2016, in Australia/New Zealand, when it was done as a grazing table at a wedding reception. The grazing table offers a variety of food options, primarily cheeses, charcuterie, fruits, and just about anything else you like. Unlike conventional buffet lines where you queue for your food, the concept allows for a freestyle selection, according to your preference. When Covid-19 hit last year, I read about many who have lost their jobs. The job market did not look promising. Instead of viewing that as a crisis, I started to do extensive research and reading up on my passion: gastronomy. I have always enjoyed experimenting and cooking. It was after months of experimentation and research, rounds of feedback from family and close friends, that we arrive at the menu we have today. At the same time, I underwent officially training as a private chef and went for food hygiene certification. I have run this business for over a year now.
3. How much time a week do you put into running this business?
   I do not stipulate hours when it comes to running Platter With Love. As an entrepreneur, I learnt that we not only possess the ability to dream, but we need to be willing to put in the hours to set our dream into motion. Apart from customer service, fulfilling customers’ order, hours need to be put aside into creation of content for the website, maintaining customer relations, inventory checks/replenishment, licensing, etc. At the end of the day, the raving reviews from my customers are an acknowledge of my efforts. It gives my great satisfaction to know that I have done my best in ensuring happiness and bliss, (apart from a delectable food platter) are safety delivered to my customers. More importantly, the true reward comes in how this business is serving as a vehicle to donate meals to the needy in Singapore, and that makes everything is worthwhile.

Liling (Ola.Bakess)

1. What made u decide to venture into selling Ola.Bakess?
   I just like to bake and eat macarons (Hahaha)! Macarons are very delicate almond cookies and require a lot of attention. The recipes are very challenging but I get a sense of excitement and happiness especially when it becomes perfect. It is my dream to make perfect macarons
2. Before you started selling your products, how long have you been practicing making Macarons?
   It took me almost 1 year for my macarons to be at the level of my satisfaction. I took various courses such as macarons class to have a deeper understanding on the basic foundation. There were also a lot of try and error practice to be satisfied with the recipe.
3. How much time a week did you put into running this business?
   This is difficult to quantify. I have a full time job. I usually do business planning during weekday evenings. My weekends are reserved for baking.