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Using a Practical Roadmap for Turning Your Hobby Into a Business

Posted on 9/29/2016 by EDTP Coordinator in LAEDA News
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Dedicated entrepreneurs came together at LAEDA Headquarters to learn how to apply the basic concepts of traditional business to a micro business. The seminar served as an overview on how to take a hobby and turn it into a business. Raymond L. Lamboy, President & CEO of LAEDA, shared his expertise on the fundamentals of business: marketing and sales, administration, product development and production process and the process of going from a hobby into a business.

When it comes to starting a business, it is important to know that you will need to invest a lot of time to start your business and assessing your starting point is essential before launching a business. “Layout a practical road map to get started on your journey and remember to utilize best practices from the beginning in a professional way and access capital as you go,” explained Raymond L. Lamboy.

So how do you transition from having a hobby into a business? As the seminar covered, having a quality and a clean product to sell is an important part of the transitioning process. As Raymond L. Lamboy emphasized, having a network of potential clients is significant because getting your product in the hands of many people will bring interest and direct people toward your business. “Is there a need for what you are producing?” Ray L. Lamboy stated, “Improvement and refinement is a journey that never ends.” When marketing your product, you must be able to answer the questions, ‘Is there demand for your product and can you produce for the demand?’ Whether you are in a public market, internet-based or both it is crucial to research your market, your potential customers, and how you can differentiate between others when putting your product out into the hands of potential clients.

What you are using in your advertising or marketing are benefits. Raymond L. Lamboy explained that “It is crucial to pay attention where you sell your product because in other to have success with selling your product will matter be depent on getting the right location to meet your customer profile." As the seminar pointed out: benefits drive demand for your products and services. Use the markets and online presence to create interest and drive traffic for what you are selling. “You want to be the music that leads the clients to your products,” Raymond L. Lamboy stated. When determining the location and potential clients, it is important to do research by using demographic data; having the right data will make that selling decision and having flexible options that get your product in the view of potential clients.

How can you distinguish between a hobby and a business? As Raymond L. Lamboy mentioned, “Laying out the foundation of your business is the whole idea of transitioning your hobby into a business; if you don’t do the following: having an effective and accurate record keeping system and knowing and doing simple financial statements, then you are setting yourself for failure.” It is important to maintain and record all sales because proper record keeping is the difference between a hobby and a business. Mr. Lamboy emphasized to that having good systems in place allow to see how sales are doing, as well as prevents future problems with money missing and reporting your profits at time of presenting your tax documents.. Doing your research and keeping accurate record keeping along with having the proper statements are some of the essential ingredients you need to transition your business into a hobby.

LAEDA hosts numerous seminars on a wide range of topics. Our next seminar, Reputation Management in the Internet Age is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:00 PM at LAEDA's Offices (433 Market St, Camden, NJ). Click here to join our mailing list to learn about all of our upcoming seminars and events.

  


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