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Turn Your Passion Into Profit

start treating your passion like a high-value product, you can find paying customers who also see the value.

Learn To Make Money With A Hobby

• Follow your unique business roadmap to turn a side hustle or hobby into a profitable business.
• Determine your starting point and take action to break through indecision, fear, or whatever else is holding you back.
• Complete exercises that help you overcome imposter syndrome.
• Identify your ideal customer and value proposition, and then start thinking of yourself as a brand.
• Discover marketing strategies to reach clients who need your services or products.
• Learn how to handle the financial side of a small business.

Featured In This Review

Mind Your Business

$10

A workbook for those who have a passion, but aren’t sure how to monetize it. Create your plan to launch a business & make money.

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Mind Your Business Book Summary

Mind Your Business is a workbook that walks you through the process of turning your passion into a profitable business. It touches on everything from branding and market positioning to budgeting and marketing. If you, you can find paying customers who also see the value.

Mind Your Business is in workbook format. If you don’t normally write in books, you may give yourself permission to break out the ink pens, colored pencils, highlighters, or whatever writing utensils will make the process more productive and rewarding for you. This is a business book designed for deep thinking and creativity. Marking up the pages is encouraged.

If you have a part-time gig, this book will help you identify opportunities to make it a full-time gig. You may use the exercises to turn your hobby into a business that pays your bills. It’s full of questions, charts, forms, and blank spaces that you will fill with exciting ideas and plans focused on what you love: your passion.

Ilana Griffo delivers high-value information on one aspect of building a profitable brand and then offers space for you to work out your own ideas based on that information. You will spend more time writing and thinking than reading, so don’t expect pages of in-depth text.

There are plenty of other books that will help including Ready Fire Aim, How to Blog for Profit, and The Million Dollar One Person Business, but this book is a highly recommended book as well. It is all about implementing strategies that lead to business growth, much like E-Myth.

By the time you reach the end of the book, you will have an actionable business plan that can take you from low pay or no pay to a growing business with customers willing to pay what you deserve. No book can guarantee success for any business you create, but this workbook comes close by stimulating deep thought on issues that are known to cause business failure when neglected, including:

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Branding – If you don’t understand what you have to offer and what makes you different from your competitors, your ideal customer won’t know either.

Marketing – Establishing a business is great, but you’ll go nowhere if you don’t have an effective plan to reach your target market. It all starts with identifying that market.

Mindset – From imposter syndrome to obstacles that feel insurmountable, your mindset will make or break your ability to create and grow a business.

Budgeting – Do you know how much money you need to get started in business? Do you have solid budgeting skills to stretch the money available? This book walks you through the process of figuring it all out.

– If you don’t understand what you have to offer and what makes you different from your competitors, your ideal customer won’t know either.– Establishing a business is great, but you’ll go nowhere if you don’t have an effective plan to reach your target market. It all starts with identifying that market.– From imposter syndrome to obstacles that feel insurmountable, your mindset will make or break your ability to create and grow a business.– Do you know how much money you need to get started in business? Do you have solid budgeting skills to stretch the money available? This book walks you through the process of figuring it all out.

Mind Your Business was created for people with little to no business sense. It assumes that you have never created or operated a business in the past and don’t have access to business coaches and other resources that might make the process easy. If you have a lot of business experience or your business is already established, you will probably find the exercises irrelevant or too basic.

If you don’t have business experience, you may find the amount of information in the workbook overwhelming at times. The process will take you through every aspect of building a business, and you may need to spend weeks or even months putting some chapters into action. You have two options to make the process less overwhelming:

Read through the workbook and complete the exercises that you feel ready to tackle right now. Create your business roadmap as you go. Come back to the workbook to complete the remaining exercises when you’re ready to tackle that aspect of your new business.

Work through the book slowly. Once you act on a chapter, go back to the book to see what’s next. This is very similar to the book Tractionand it is very effective.

You don’t have to complete all chapters in order. In fact, you may find it easier to skip around, depending on what actions you’re taking to create your new business at any given time. The only rule is that you take action because workbooks are designed to spark momentum. Once started, that momentum will carry you forward until you have a business that makes you proud.

This workbook may help you identify potential stumbling points for your business concept before you even get started. It can also serve as the push into action that you need to start taking your side hustle or hobby more seriously.

It works well with other business books that may provide more in-depth discussion on the points covered, but it’s valuable on its own if you’re ready to create a business based on your passion. We cannot finish this review without recommending the book The 4 Hour Workweek.

About The Author 

Ilana Griffo 

Ilana Griffo is a talented designer and illustrator turned adjunct professor who has worked with big-name clients like American Greetings, Pier 1, Lululemon, Hobby Lobby, and Mixbook. Her designs have appeared in the Happy Planner, on paper cups at Party City, and on socks designed for babies. She used her artistic skills to create a successful business that pays her bills, and she designed Mind Your Business to help other creative people do the same.

Ilana has appeared in some online websites, providing advice and guidance for entrepreneurs and others interested in turning their hobbies and side gigs into profitable businesses. That includes an interview with the Creative Lady Collective. Her designs have been featured in Buzzfeed and Real Simple, among other online venues.

Online courses and workshops are among Ilana’s most recent business offerings. Her courses focus on art licensing, in which she has firsthand experience. She also offers one-on-one coaching for artists who want more personalized help developing a passion-based business.

Ilana has experienced the ups and downs of starting a creative business firsthand. Her mission is to continue growing her own brand while helping creatives find their voices and develop their own successful brands.

Ilana discusses business management on the Create! Magazine podcast
Ilana tells the Brava Podcast how to turn passions into businesses
Ilana discusses her personal story on the Art & Cocktails podcast.

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Ilana Griffo is a talented designer and illustrator turned adjunct professor who has worked with big-name clients like American Greetings, Pier 1, Lululemon, Hobby Lobby, and Mixbook. Her designs have appeared in the Happy Planner, on paper cups at Party City, and on socks designed for babies.Ilana has appeared in some online websites, providing advice and guidance for entrepreneurs and others interested in turning their hobbies and side gigs into profitable businesses. That includes an interview with the Creative Lady Collective.Online courses and workshops are among Ilana’s most recent business offerings. Her courses focus on art licensing, in which she has firsthand experience. She also offers one-on-one coaching for artists who want more personalized help developing a passion-based business.Ilana has experienced the ups and downs of starting a creative business firsthand. Her mission is to continue growing her own brand while helping creatives find their voices and develop their own successful brands.Ilana discusses business management on the Create! Magazine podcastIlana tells the Brava Podcast how to turn passions into businessesIlana discusses her personal story on the Art & Cocktails podcast.