Passion Power

Do you love your business?

It's hearts and flowers time of year, which gives me an excuse to get all emotional about commercial enterprise.

Business, like romance, comes with tightly wrapped bunches of clichés. If Hallmark made cards for people setting up in self-employment they'd say things like 'the next big thing' or 'failing to plan is planning to fail', or 'leverage the mission critical low hanging fruit and unpack win win out of the box'.

But like all great clichés, there's a grain of truth there. Women really do like to be given flowers (well, most of them do). Or chocolates. Or pretty much anything, because it demonstrates a level of thoughtfulness that the average male appears to find it hard to demonstrate.

One of the big clichés in business is that to succeed you need to be passionate. You need to love what you do.

If you don't love books there's no point setting up a book shop. If you don't love helping people why become a nurse? If you don't love accounting you'll never be a good accountant - believe me, I tried that one.

Maybe if you love money you'd make a success of these get-rich-quick schemes that almost everyone seems to be peddling at the moment. And by 'love money' I mean you're passionate about the stuff. You think about it all day and all night, you skip meals because of it and your heart jumps when you get the chance to be with it.

I don't think most people are truly in love with money. They just want to stop worrying about how to pay the mortgage and they'd like to be able to afford a nice holiday from time to time.

But I think a lot of people do love their business, or should I say, the business they're in (there's a difference). There are people who love the challenge of selling and they make great salesmen. There are people who have a passion for animals and they make great vets or zoo-keepers. There are even people who get a thrill from balancing books and reconciling accounts.

So do you love your business? Because if you do, I'm sure you're making a success of it, whether you're self-employed or on someone's payroll.

But if you don't, perhaps it's time to consider what it is that you'd rather be doing and whether you can earn a living from it. Not necessarily making a fortune, but bringing in enough to keep a roof over your head and food on the table and getting to do something you really enjoy every day.

To find your way to a fairytale ending you need to start by looking for your true love.

The chocolate heart is by Chococo of Swanage. "We're not some big corporation, we are a husband and wife-led team who make chocolates because we love it."