Turn Your Writing from an Interesting Hobby to a Dream Business

Your fear is keeping you from earning more on Medium

It’s true. You’re afraid to go all in.

Have you decided yet? Are you writing for fun, or are you wanting to throw in all the chips?

Is your writing a Hobby…or a Business?

If you’re writing for fun, it’s fine! I love writing and I wrote in journals for 15 years before I decided to try out a business model.

If you want to take it to the next level, though, keep reading.

The process isn’t as big and scary as you may think.

First, you need a business plan.

Aaaaaaah! (Most of you are screaming and running in fright about now.)

Hear me out!

At this beginning stage, a business plan is really just a bunch of notes listing where you want to take your writing.

You’ll list some goals, figure out some solutions to a few practical problems, and define everything a little more clearly.

Then you will be able to figure out where to go from there.

Now, stay with me and don’t get scared.

I know that non-business people (like me!) get all freaked out whenever the word “business plan” comes up.

It sounds like this big, scary, technical thing, but really, it’s not.

It’s like writing an outline for an article. Let’s go one step at a time

Start Here!

(This is a nice little Table of Contents where you can click on each one and it will take you to that spot in the article.

Why yes, it is a Google Chrome extension and you can get it for your laptop, too!)

· Sweet Spot · Practical Thingies · Mission Statement · Goals · Target Audience · Growth Plan · Money!!

Sweet Spot

What is this and why is it first?

You must, must, must start off by listing your talents and passions before you even consider writing a business plan.

Ok, so here’s an example:

I wrote a business plan a couple of years ago. It was a sample one that I did for fun. Then, I read the article below and figured out my sweet spot.

I then made another business plan. Like, within a week of each other.

Were they the same?

No way! The first one was good, but it just didn’t feel right.

The second one was 100% me. It narrowed everything down to a laser focus that I never would have been able to do by myself.

Now, be a good little reader and go through that article.

Complete every step. It’s mandatory. Not optional.

Practical Thingies

Answer all of these questions based on your current season of life.

Now, I know what you creatives are like.

How? Because I’m a creative myself.

I tend to think of myself as in the future.

As in, if I’m answering the question “How many minutes per day will I write?” sometimes I will answer as if it’s 10 years from now and all my kids are in school.

I’ll say, “Oh, I’ll be able to write for 4 hours while the kids are at school.”

Then I’ll force myself to come back down to earth and remind my tired brain that I only have a one-year-old and school is not an option yet!

1. What time during the day will you write?

Set aside blocks of time where you will NOT write.

Example: I don’t write from 3–6 pm because I’m cooking and having family time. I also don’t write from 9–10 am because it’s outside time with the toddler.

2. How much will you be able to write daily? Be practical!

Do you have schedule conflicts or health issues that need to be considered? For example, when I was pregnant I had to switch my writing time to the AM because I had to start taking power naps in the afternoon.

Are you prioritizing your spouse and kids as #1 over your writing?

It’s no use doubling down on your side hustle and losing ground in your relationships in the process.

3. Will I work another job while doing this writing gig?

It will take 1–2 years to get your writing to a point where you may be able to replace your full-time income. Keep your job.

Mission Statement

About half of you are going,

“What’s a mission statement?”

The other half is going,

“Ugh, I hate writing these things. They’re useless!”

Let me describe a little scenario for you.

I’ve always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. When I was in college, I tried to start a side business on Etsy.

I had no mission statement, although I did write a short business plan.

I ended up going in a million different directions.

Oh, this looks fun! I’ll make and sell this!

Oh, this looks cool, too. I’ll add this to the list!

Yeah, you can start to see where this is going.

In order to protect yourself from yourself, you need a mission statement.

Here are a few situations that may come up:

1. There’s a great opportunity to invest in…
2. There’s a big market for ___ and I can expand…
3. I’m trying to choose which ways to diversify — do ebooks or courses?

If you have a clear mission statement that tells you exactly where you want your business is going, you won’t get sucked into random stuff that costs you money or wastes your time.

Goals

Goals must be measurable, observable, and bound by a time limit.

Some sample goals for writers

• Make at least $300/mo from writing after 12 months
• Make at least $3k/mo from writing and my five other income streams
• Grow my following to at least 500 within 6 months

Target Audience

This will be fun! I like developing characters in order to see a target audience.

We need to decide what kind of person we are writing for. What problem are we solving for them?

Describe everything about your character’s life.

What is their education history? Where do they work?

What are their likes or dislikes?

What is their family like? What frustrations do they have at home?

What are their fears, pains, hopes, and dreams?

We’re going to analyze a Loony Tune character first. It’s going to be…Wile E. Coyote. You know, the coyote who keeps trying to kill the roadrunner and keeps dying in spectacularly awesome ways.

Wile E. Coyote character

1. He is a coyote who shops at the Acme corporation (the place that sells him all the explosives). He does not have a favorite clothing store because he does not wear clothing. He does not buy groceries so he has no favorite grocery store.
2. He has a degree in some kind of detonation or explosion engineering because he knows how to set off all kinds of bombs.
3. He likes listening to classical music and he enjoys chemistry experiments in his spare time. He is not on Pinterest or Facebook, but occasionally he gets on Twitter to send mean tweets to the roadrunner.
4. He is not married and has no children.

Here’s an example of a real person character

1. Kim is a Mom who works at a local school as a part-time secretary. She shops mostly in Kohl’s or JCPenneys sales (the Missy section).
2. She has hours where she can mostly be home when her three school-aged kids are home. She has an Associate’s degree in office management. Her husband is an electrician with a trade school certificate.
3. She likes to order Hello Fresh, spends her weekends going to the Children’s Museum or bike riding with her family, and has a girls-only night out once a month at Painting with a Twist. She spends time on Pinterest looking for healthy snacks and kids' activities. She listens to John Denver (music) and likes to volunteer with kids' programs in her spare time.

Kim’s Pain points

“I’m too tired when I get home to make supper.”

Possible solutions:

• Buy easy meal plan binders from Etsy with lots of “5 ingredients or less” crockpot recipes
• Buy Hello Fresh subscription

“Keeping the house clean is tough and the kids hate chores.”

Possible solutions:

• Quick routines with easy cleaning hacks (again, Pinterest).

Your target character will have different pain points. List a bunch of possibilities, then a problem to solve that matches your mission statement, skills, and passions (sweet spot).

Growth Plan — How to blow this gig out of the water.

Plan to gain followers (create your own)

• Comment on 5 posts every day
• Publish at least 3x weekly in different publications
• Respond to all comments (except haters and trolls)
• Utilize a social media platform (your choice) to advertise and share free products, quotes, etc.

Diversifying

• Guest blogging (paid)
• Affiliate posts
• E-books
• Digital products
• E-courses
• Coaching or consulting services
• Start an author blog on your own website
• Offer freelance services
• Other writing platforms (Newsbreak, Vocal Media…)
• Email newsletter (ConvertKit, substack…)

Money!

Writing financial goals will be hard to do as a new writer. You’ll have to wait until you’ve been writing for six months or so before you begin to notice patterns in your writing and how it affects your earnings.

Then you can take educated guesses on your future earnings and set some financial goals!

Financial projections

• Months 1–4: $30 or less
• Month 5: Income starts to double each month
• Month 12: Start to make consistent, significant side hustle income (not enough to replace a full-time job yet)

This article I wrote (below) goes into all the ins and outs of income reports and what you’re likely to make during your first year on Medium.

Now that you’ve seen how writing a business plan isn’t that scary, here are some take-home tips for you.

• Don’t expect your income to double until you’ve been writing for about 5 months
• Find your sweet spot (where your talents and passions meet) — it will show you that you actually want something totally different than you though
• Create a cartoon character that represents a person in your target audience. What are their pain points?
• Don’t get overwhelmed or frustrated. If you can’t do this right now, just wait. You have time to make a business plan.
• Once you’ve started earning money and gaining ground with your business, then go make a real business plan.

Take it slow and enjoy your writing.

It won’t be worth it if you burn out and start to hate it!

Are you tired of only getting to read three articles per month?

Join the Medium community today! For the price of a small latte, you can have unlimited access to all your favorite authors (including myself)!

And while you’re at it…check out my profile on Gumroad! It has a bunch of stuff to help new writers.

(And most of them are free.)