Turn Your Passion Into Profit

You can start your own international business by simply being yourself. Doing what you really want to do. Turning your passion into profit. Getting involved in something that moves you. The pure simplicity of this works, because there are millions of others who are passionate about the same things you are. And when you are involved in something you love, you automatically achieve more.

Whatever it is that motivates and excites you can be turned into a profitable and rewarding business.

Take fishing, for example.

John and Lou – outdoor-adventure types – grew up near me in the Oregon mountains. They moved to Canada and homesteaded 1,200 acres on a trout-filled lake in British Columbia. The fishing camp they built there attracts fisherman from around the world.

Duncan Kinderman loves fishing and castles. So he bought a castle on the River Tay, a great Scottish salmon river, and offered time-shares for fisherman from Britain, Europe, and the U.S.

Another entrepreneur I know is from Montana. His love is fishing and his skills are in marketing – so he sells fishing trips. He attends rod and gun exhibitions, meets the owners of fishing camps, and arranges to sell their fishing trips to fisherman around the world.

Ralph Kylloe loves fishing and photography. So he created a book, Fishing Camps, that allowed him to travel across the country and enjoy both of his hobbies as he photographed and wrote.

Steve Ambrose had family commitments at home, so he set up a bass-fishing business in Florida that served American, German, Canadian, Dutch, and Belgian clients. Later, as his children grew up, he drew on his client base to arrange fishing trips in Argentina.

These people came from different backgrounds and differed in terms of their age, situation, and skills. But their love of fishing led each one of them to develop a global business that surrounded them with fun and like-minded souls.

You can do the same thing – no matter what it is that you are passionate about.

With modern technology, it’s easy to do business globally. You can even start your worldwide enterprise from your bedroom. The Internet, computers, and low-cost communications replace what used to require an entire infrastructure.

For example, technology allows my wife Merri and me to run our worldwide business (helping others start their own global business) from a remote farm in the glorious Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. That’s where we spend our summers. In the winter, we migrate to an even more remote village high in the Ecuadorian Andes. Yet laptop computers and satellite communications allow us to take our business literally into the jungle … and still stay in touch with our clients in 82 countries.

People of all ages are doing this.

A recent USA Today article (“The New Entrepreneurs: Americans Over 50”) explains that older people often start one-person ventures in home offices, using technology that didn’t even exist a few years ago. One example: Franny Martin, who launched a cookie company at age 56. She expected $500,000 in revenue last year – yet her website, which attracts cookie customers from around the world, cost only $3,000 to build.

Even much older entrepreneurs are taking advantage of technology.

One of my clients, Mickey Enright, is a 72-year-old real estate broker in Naples, Florida. She began a small global publishing business with just a computer and a connection to the Internet. Her business helps her attract British real estate buyers. And for her efforts, she has become the top salesperson in a firm that sells over a billion dollars of real estate per year.

Two other clients, a couple who are devout Christians, were in their 80s when they bought a 250-acre dairy farm near Mindo, Ecuador. They used their profits to create a ministerial training center at the farm.

Like these people, you can use modern technology to turn your passion into a profitable global business. Here’s the 3-step formula:

Step #1: Focus your dream by putting a detailed description of it in writing.

Step #2: Find a path to your customers by looking at yourself. If, for example, golf is your passion, where do you shop for golfing supplies? What golfing magazines and publications do you read? Where are your sources of information about golf?

Step #3: Start, but start small. The ideas you have about starting a business that you love will create enthusiasm. Enthusiasm leads to education. Education leads to action. Action leads to profit – or loss (which is why you start small) – and even more ideas.

Kelly Shannon was only 23 when she started baking granola in her parents’ kitchen and selling it at sidewalk sales and a few local markets. As the business grew, she began selling granola full-time, without having any formal food-industry experience. Kelly’s enthusiasm inspired a lifelong friend to join her. They invested $3,500 to fund the Bare Naked Cereal Company. By the end of 2002, they were in 25 stores. Now their sales are over $20 million a year.

“Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.”– Norman Vincent Peale

[Ed. Note: Gary Scott is an economist, entrepreneur, and author with a worldwide reputation. 30 years ago, Gary was one of the first advisors to recommend international diversification for the small investor. Since then, he – and his readers – have earned millions.

With his wife Merri, Gary has dedicated his life to providing others with useful resources to help them live a healthier, more affluent, and fulfilling life. One of these resources – a practical, hands-on course titled International Business Made EZ – is drawn from Gary’s wealth of experience building his own multi-million-dollar international business.]