Turning your passion into a career may seem like a great way to ensure you love what you do every day, but sometimes your vision and reality do not align. It takes more than passion to know how to capitalize on the things you enjoy and create a profitable business. Recognizing that starting your own business will be a challenge is the first step.

Sometime around the year 1906, the Italian engineer and economist Vilfredo Pareto is rumored to have been tending his garden, where he had the realization that 80% of the peas he harvested, came from only 20% of the pea pods. Curious to see if this pattern repeated itself in other systems, he went on to discover that 80% of the farmland in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

It can be very easy to get “busy” at work. Every day, we’re inundated with emails, phone calls, messages, meetings—it’s very easy for the day to get away from us. However, being busy doesn’t always equate to being efficient or effective at our jobs. Indeed, sometimes the things that keep us “busiest” are the very things that prevent us from reaching our potential as productive employees. And it’s burning us out.

Your business is unique, and so are your clients. Instead of setting out a wide-reaching net, forget the idea that your product or service can be everything to everyone. Those successful with customer outreach and retention have a focused strategy to understand, track, and please a targeted consumer. By creating an ideal customer profile, your business can begin to build a community of clients that will bring you the most important thing: loyalty.

When you were young, you likely acted as most children do when a parent or a teacher said the word no—you protested, rebelled, or did whatever was forbidden anyway. That is because, according to Psychology Today, we live in a world of yes, in which we think of those who say “no” as negative, imperfect, or weak. However, those who learn how to say and hear no in business correctly are able to open up a new world of both freedom and opportunity.

Some people just seem to be able to get along with anyone and can find common ground easily. But you don’t have to be naturally charming or charismatic to build great rapport. It’s actually possible to develop a positive personal connection in 60 seconds in any type of setting.

How many times have you worked on an important group project for work and found it difficult to complete due to poor communication, tasks that fell through the cracks, or inexperienced personnel? Or maybe things weren’t that bad but you know your time could have been used more effectively in getting the project to completion? 

Strong project management skills are essential to get projects (big and small) completed not only on time, but at the highest level of quality. Having the right skills, systems, and processes in place can help you effectively and efficiently manage a project