How to Transform Your Passion into a Successful Business

Starting your own business is like jumping on an emotional rollercoaster with the highest of highs and lowest of lows -- all the while, wondering if the ride will come to a screeching halt. Anyone can start a business but it’s infinitely harder to grow and sustain it. When a company faces challenges and falls on hard times (and it always does), it’s your passion and commitment that ultimately get the business through to the other side. If you don’t have a true passion for your business, everyone can sense it: your customers, team, advisors and investors.
That's why focusing on your mission is of the utmost importance. This will enable you to make faster decisions and help you manage through the rollercoaster ride.
Here are three steps to help transform your passion into a successful business:
Do you know enough? If not, start asking. You have a passion and want to start a business! Do you know enough about the industry? With industry background and know-how, you’ll be ahead of the curve and can hit the ground running -- producing products, building a customer base and forging your company vision.
If you have a great idea, but aren’t familiar enough with the field to get started, use your network, speak with people who’ve started businesses in your industry to help you get up to speed quickly. This is like building an informal advisory board of people who’ve gone through a journey similar to the one you’re embarking upon.
When I started NatureBox with my college buddy, Ken Chen, food was a passion of ours, but we honestly didn’t know much about running a food business. We began networking and discussing our idea with seasoned industry innovators to glean insights and learn strategies, tips and tricks for successfully running a food company. Our big breakthrough came when we attended a food tradeshow and met a few suppliers who were willing to work with us. Until then, we didn’t know how to find manufacturing partners.
Jump in. There’s really no better way to start than diving in head-first. In the beginning, you may not have your exact plan mapped out, and you’ll likely make significant changes to your model. But the benefit of starting a business around a passion is that you know why you’re doing it and can more easily overcome barriers that come up along the way. It’s this deep-rooted drive and enthusiasm that will keep you motivated and engaged with the product you’re selling.
Ken and I held other full-time jobs when we built the first NatureBox website. We used product photos taken on our cell phones. We were testing whether there was a market for people who wanted nutritious snacks delivered to their door and immediately saw opportunity -- more than 100 people signed up in a weekend. Now we had to decide if we were going to send our first orders or simply refund the customers, writing this off as a successful first-run test. This is where taking the plunge, is so important. There really is no better time than now to just go for it.
Surround yourself with others who share your vision. It’s no coincidence that everyone at NatureBox has an interesting story about how food shaped their lives -- whether it’s a personal weight loss journey like myself, food experience from a previous professional career, or a background growing up in an agricultural environment. We hire based on these shared experiences because they help shape the business.
Because you can expect long work hours and hard days in the beginning, personal drive and shared similar values with your colleagues will see you through this time. This enthusiasm translates to a positive customer experience. And that's what will build your business.
Turning your passion into a successful business not only allows you to be profitable while doing something you love, it helps set you up for lasting success. Most importantly, passion is central to making decisions that are in the long-term interest of the customer and the company, which will help you establish sustainability and longevity for your brand.

if you're social entrepreneur, you care about your mission as much as your financial viability. So why participate in an accelerator that doesn't cater to both? Luckily, you don't have to.
These days, social entrepreneurs are increasingly turning so-called impact accelerators, which like their counter parts in the for-profit world, offer key mentorship and resources to growing companies. They differ in that impact accelerators also care about scaling a company's social impact on the world.
While the goals may be similar, not all impact accelerators are created alike. More than 40 programs have popped up in the last half decade offering services such as mentorship, networks of partners, access to investors and business skills development, according to a recent report by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and Village Capital, which surveyed 52 programs. Also, about 54 percent of programs offer direct funding.
To help you navigate the increasingly complex world of impact accelerators, here's a closer look at the main elements in the impact accelerator ecosystem:
Development stage
Whether your business is written on a napkin or seeking second-round investment, there's a program to help it grow. The report found that impact accelerators cater to one or more of the following development stages: "idea," "prototype," "post-revenue" and "growth." Some entrepreneurs even take advantage of the full lifecycle, says Lily Bowles, co-author of the report and associate at Village Capital, an Atlanta-based accelerator operator for social enterprises. "We're seeing a good amount of enterprises going through multiple accelerators and benefitting differently from each."
Geographic location
While we might live in an increasingly global economy, two-thirds of impact accelerators target participants geographically by region, country or city. Given the importance of business regulation and compliance, the narrowed geographical focus makes sense.
New Orleans accelerator, Propeller, for example, leverages its local and national policy expertise to help entrepreneurs make an impact on their local community. "Every one of our fellows hits a policy challenge at some point, and we have the resources to support them," explains Andrea Chen, Propeller's executive director. "We believe that for social change to happen, grassroots entrepreneurs and policy need to align."

Since launching its first accelerator program in 2011, Propeller's fellows have created 72 full- and part-time jobs in New Orleans and generated $5.4 million in financing, revenues and grants.
Industry focus
Sixty percent of accelerators focus on entrepreneurs from one or more specific sectors -- with tech being the most popular.
When Zak Ringelstein, 27, explored accelerators for his tech venture UClass, an e-learning platform, he wanted a program that would care as much about his social mission as his value proposition. He found the perfect match with San Francisco-based Hub Ventures, which supports what the accelerator calls "technology for good" enterprises.
"We were looking at Y Combinator and Techstars, but when we met [Hub Ventures'] co-founders, we knew their values would align most with ours," explains Ringelstein. "They asked us the right questions about our mission and it was evident that they cared."

Motivated to find your perfect accelerator match? No matter what characteristics you're looking for, Bowles advises to keep the following in mind:

Connect with alums
You can learn a lot about an accelerator through the experience of a past participant. Look through the accelerator's portfolio of entrepreneurs and reach out.
Mind their metrics
Collecting metrics on social impact isn't a perfect science, and nearly one-third of accelerators don't even bother. But there are resources like the Global Impact Investing Rating System. So, find out how the accelerator will measure your impact.
Size them up
It's important to be as scrutinizing of accelerators as they are of you. Don't let their application process intimidate you from asking important questions about their services, resources and culture.

In fact, Hub Ventures sees the tech sector as a vehicle for social impact. "We focus on tech startups because they often have the most commercially viable and scalable business models, which, in turn, means you're able to do the most good in the world," explains Hub Ventures' founding Director Rick Moss.
Impact objectives
Given the diverse missions that drive the social entrepreneur community, it's no surprise that accelerators offer the most specialties when it comes to impact objectives. Amongst the 52 accelerators surveyed by the Aspen Network, there are 15 different impact focuses like employment generation, health improvement and community development.
Patrick Cushing's passion for urban impact led him to Tumml, an urban impact accelerator in San Francisco. There, he worked on growing his venture WorkHands, a professional networking platform for skilled trade workers.
"Tumml was uniquely suited to our needs," Cushing, 29, says. "They connected us to government agencies, apprenticeship program and unions in a way that your typical tech accelerator couldn't."
Since completing Tumml in September, WorkHands grew to a full-time team of four employees, based in San Francisco, from a remotely located part-time staff.