Introduction
Why is now the best time to monetize your talent? Imagine this scenario.
Ben and Dave go to the same high school. Ben is a good cook. His mom used to say that Ben would always rush home from elementary school just to cook with her in the kitchen. Ben’s love for cooking grew as he went to culinary school after high school. After culinary school, he opened a restaurant in the city and his food was loved by many as it always was.
Dave, on the other hand, loves to sing. He was a chorister at the local church throughout his childhood. As he grew, he also went to music school. After graduation, Dave tried to set up a music band, but it was hard getting shows or making money from music.
Is it a talent or a service? Can all talents be monetized? You might have asked yourself these questions. There are people like Ben and Dave today who grew up with talent. Like Ben, some were fortunate to find a way to monetize their talent. They furthered their education and offered it as a service. While some might face a similar fate to Dave. Does that mean you can’t successfully monetize your talents?
In this article, we will discuss different ways to monetize your talents and how to brand your talent as a small business.
Key Takeaways
- We all have our unique talents. You just have to discover them and make your talent become a successful venture.
- If you want to attract new customers and get people to invest in your small business, you need to offer something creative in your niche market.
- Branding is important when monetizing your talent. It is what makes your talent stand out.
The following are some ways or steps to take to monetize your talents:
- Identify your talents
- Identify which ones can be monetized
- Improve and polish your talent
- Prepare to present it to others
- Create a good work environment
- Understand legal steps
- Never give up
Identify Your Talents
One of the first ways to monetize your talent is to identify all your natural talents. This can be difficult since no one is special or has any unique abilities. Some of our talents can make us wealthy and successful. You just have to discover them and make your talent become a successful venture.
To identify your talent, it is wise to ask yourself some thought-searching questions:
- What do I love to do most during my free time?
- Do I have any activity (or activities) I could do for hours without issues?
- What are my favorite hobbies and interests?
- What do I help others to do the most?
Your answers to these questions are your talents.
Identify Which Ones can be Monetized
Now, you have a list of your talents. The next step to take is to choose the ones you can monetize. You do this by accessing the market demand for these talents. Start by asking yourself these questions:
- Do I have a talent that provides solutions to people’s problems?
- Would people be interested in getting training on how to be skilled in my talent?
- Do I have a unique talent?
Have a list of your top talents, then focus on the one you can easily transform into a business.
Create a list of the actions you should take. With the inventory you wrote of your skills, it is possible to discover the areas you have more aptitude. And then, you can think of a strategy to make money from your talents.
This list should contain the actions you can take considering your talents to help other people. It is important to imagine who your potential customers may be, and then guide your actions.
Improve and Polish Your Talent
After choosing the talent to monetize, it is time to improve and polish your talent to succeed in its niche market. Since this is the first time you are trying to earn from your talent or starting a small business, you need to know where you stand in the niche market.
Conduct market research on who your competitors are and how popular they are to customers. Also, check for their strengths and weaknesses. How can you stand out in an overly saturated market? How can you give customers more interest than your competitors already do? You want to be the best new thing, so ensure that you identify your weakness and improve your talents.
Do you need to take a course or more training to improve your skills? If you need to do so, take your time and give yourself the proper training.
Prepare to Present it to Others
This is one of the important steps to take when monetizing your talent. After all, there is no way you can make money without the help of others. You need to present your talent to the world as a product or service. Before you create a website and start online marketing campaigns, you need to understand how people will take your product or service. You can conduct audience research to understand your target market more.
Branding is also very important. How professional should your website look? What colors are in your logo? What does it represent? The more time you spend on branding, the better the chances of having a successful small business. We will discuss what branding is later on in this article.
Create a Good Work Environment
Another important step to take when monetizing your talent is to ensure that your work environment is uplifting and distraction-proof. If you want to achieve any milestone in your new business, you need to make yourself feel good about what you do. Make recurring tasks easy by scheduling them to a fixed time. Learn to prioritize important things like meeting project deadlines, marketing your brand, and growing your skills over time killers like procrastination and multitasking.
Understand Legal Steps
In our guide on how to register a small business, we spoke about the benefits of registering your business. Legalizing your business offers you the opportunity to get business loans, get tax benefits, improve your reputation, and hire good talents. You can register with the federal, state, or local authorities. If possible, apply for insurance as soon as you start your business.
Never Give Up
It won’t be easy for you to follow all the steps above. Your progress can be likened to when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, discovering your talents and successfully monetizing them takes time. But always remember, there are people out there who will love your skills and pay for them, so never give up.
How to Brand Your Small Business
Branding is one of the important things that makes your talent stand out. Here are some important steps you should follow when branding your small business:
- Be creative
- Choose a catchy and professional logo
- Know your target audience
- Offer quality
- Remain consistent
- Promote your business online
- Have branded apparel and other materials
- Be original
Be Creative
How creative should you be? If you want to attract new customers and get people to invest in your small business, you need to offer something creative in your niche market. Your service or product must be unique enough to bring in more customers. One of the most important things about branding is that you make people love what you offer. Your uniqueness must attract, not repel others.
Choose a Catchy and Professional Logo
Once you choose your main service or product, it is time to create an excellent name and design a befitting logo. Choose colors that are appealing to your brand and niche market. You cannot open a restaurant and have a gun design in your logo. This might not appeal to customers.
Visual aids are powerful. You need to choose a professional logo designer to assist you with this or you can use some free professional logo designing tools for this. Whichever option you go for, make sure your logo is professional and neat.
Know Your Target Audience
Once you have a branded logo, it’s time to know your target audience and how to reach them. You should keep this question in mind: Who will buy my product or hire my services? The nature of your prospects determines how you market yourself to them. For instance, Gen Z and Millenials are both digital natives, however, they both use the internet differently and have different buyer behaviors.
Erifili Gounari, the founder of Z Link, a marketing software noted that the best way to reach Gen Z is through TikTok. Lately, Gen Zs are more likely to use TikTok, a popular video social media platform to search for things than using Google. If you want to reach Zoomers, TikTok is the best social media platform to use.
In contrast, Millennials are more into YouTube than TikTok. A study has shown that about 54% of millennials use YouTube every day. Millennials love long-form content and if they make up your target audience, then posting long-form content on YouTube will help.
Offer Quality
If you want to maintain an outstanding brand, you must continually offer quality. Whether you provide a service or sell a product, ensure people know you for quality. When people do this, they will turn into loyal customers.
Keep Your Branding Consistent
If you want to monetize your talent, it is necessary that your branding remains consistent. When you first started your business, it might take a lot of work to make sales. After implementing a branding strategy, you may not see any significant changes at first. But if you remain consistent, your progress will be glaring.
Promote Your Business Online
The best way to sell today is to sell online. Regardless of how you choose to monetize your talents, you need to attract clients. After all, what is a great product without having customers? So, how can you promote your new business online? Here are some of the best ways to do so:
- Social media
- Blog writing
- Paid advertising
- Email marketing
Social Media
Your small business needs to have a social media strategy. You need to use these social media platforms to promote brand awareness and market your product or service. Choose the ones that your target audience uses the most and remain consistent in providing content on your social media page. Hire a social media marketing specialist for help, if possible.
Blog Writing
You can write about anything in blogs. Blog writing is a great way to show people who you are and what your business is about. The main idea is to create interesting articles that attract your target audience without forcing your business down their throats.
For example, if you sell a course on diet and weight loss, do not let your blog articles focus on your course alone. Write more about how people can eat healthily and improve their life quality. Then, you can add links to your course naturally in the blogs.
Paid Advertising
Google and social media platforms have provided opportunities for business owners to advertise their services and products. This type of advertising is also called sponsored ads. The ads are placed based on your target market and the highest-ranking keywords that relate to your service or products.
Email Marketing
This is a very powerful tool as it allows you to talk to your target audience directly in their mail inboxes. If you own a site, you can create forms for visitors to provide you with their email addresses. You can ask them to register for your newsletter or any other offer, then create an email marketing strategy and start sending informative and sales-driven emails to your target audience.
Have a Branded Apparel and Other Materials
Some might call it old-fashioned for wanting to have branded apparel, but print advertising is still very effective in branding. Everyone loves to receive branded clothing items, caps, pens, and notebooks. You can also give a branded calendar!
Imagine someone walking into the home or office of one of your customers and seeing your branded calendar. This way, you indirectly market your products or services to them.
Be Original
You need to be original. Do not copy others; instead, let your brand be unique. Make sure you conduct a competitor analysis to determine the flaws or weaknesses of your competitors. Doing this will help you find a way to stand out among them.
Conclusion
Can your talent become a service? The answer to that question is, yes. Do not shy away from the possibility of starting an online business with no money. Also, make sure you brand your small business if you want to succeed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I monetize my talent?
Yes, you can. You need to understand how to make profits from it, improve it and market yourself to others. Also, never forget to have a branding strategy.
Is it compulsory to have a logo for my business?
If you want to stand out and have a professional business, it is wise to have a logo. Let people associate you with a symbol or group of colors.