In my previous previous few posts, I have touched on Turning Your Passion Into Income & also Why Should You Invest In Your Passion. In both posts, what was lacking was the actual process on “How To Fund Your Passion?”. Over the years, the investment of my passion was particularly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where I have spent money to co-build my gym Kombative Fitness & later on where I co-founded a finger tape business called Black Belt Tape. Both businesses started over a need of wanting to train in a proper environment & also the need of wanting to have a reasonably priced yet high quality finger tape to protect my fingers. Just by starting both businesses, I have lifetime access to training for free at my gym & a lifetime supply of finger tapes.
Starting a business is definitely not easy especially when you are entering a niche market where the demand is limited. Not many people are open to the idea of wanting to learn martial arts as self-defense as it has always been linked to being dangerous & violent. There is also not much demand for finger tape especially since it can be only used for limited sports & not all athletes want to use it since it can be costly. There is a risk of the business not taking off if you don’t have a proper plan or understanding of the business. This is exactly what happened to my gym at the beginning where it took us more than 3 years to break even & we finally made some profit years later. Similarly, my finger tape business was launched months before the pandemic in 2019 & sales only started to kick off in the mid of 2021. Between 2020 to early 2021, the demand was not high enough to even cover any cost. Those are all the risks that I have taken to start my business. Thankfully, these risks have paid off & aside from getting free supplies from my own business, I am also able to earn some profit from just running those businesses.
Aside from starting my own business to fund my passion for BJJ, I spend most of my years building a solid profile for myself which can be useful when it comes to sponsorship. Over the years, I have partnered with multiple sponsors from the famous fitness instructor Funk Roberts to recently my biggest sponsor yet- Hyperfly Asia. Partnering with Funk Roberts has allowed me to gain access to his fitness instructional which is quite helpful when I fought MMA previously. With my current sponsor Hyperfly Asia, I am getting the perks of having sponsored training gear which I am getting every few months from them.
How Did All That Benefit Myself & Others?
As for myself, I get to spend the bare minimum on my passion since most of it is funded and sponsored. All the money that I earned from it will be either spend to upgrade my own skills in terms of investing in online BJJ instructional, seminars, funding my competition cost, my supplement cost & also my physiotherapy session.
As for others, I’ve been giving back a lot to many of my teammates over the years. We have a number of sponsored athletes that my gym has sponsored to support their martial arts journey. We are very picky in terms of choosing our sponsored athletes & we aim to help those who are truly passionate but have some challenges paying the fees. Another one more thing that my gym partner & I have been trying to work on is maintaining our gym fees. Since we launched in September 2012, we have only increased our fees ONCE & the last round the increment happened was more than 5 years ago. We are definitely the most affordable martial arts gym in Penang with experienced coaches & fully equipped facilities. I have also been giving out many gears back to some of my teammates, especially for those who have budget issues with purchasing new gears. I have also never charged any of our students for a private lesson as we truly want to help with their growth. As long as our time permits, we will be there for them. My finger tape company Black Belt Tape has also recently been announced as one of the sponsors for the Malaysian 2022 SEA Games Athlete where we are funding & supplying finger tape for their training.
How Long Did It Take For Me To Fund My Passion?
It took me at least 5 years to hustle to fully fund my passion. It truly requires hard work & the amount of stress running a business is definitely high. The truth is, that hard work is truly worth it for me even though I have to endure so many challenges in terms of monetary & stress.
If You Are Game To Fund Your Passion For Free, What Are The Dos & Don’ts?
Do’s
Build A Portfolio Around Your Passion
Social media is a good platform to start building your portfolio. Depending on your passion, you can always post regularly on those platforms regarding your passion. Your creativity & post frequency will help you to build a solid portfolio. Those portfolios will open doors for potential sponsors or even business opportunities.
Find Ways To Earn From It
There will be many gaps or problems within your passion that you can capitalize on & turn into a business. You definitely know what it is & you can immediately start working on the solution to those problems. Don’t think of ways to earn a fortune out of it but start small by thinking about how to earn hundreds out of it. Your income will slowly build up over time & you may earn from hundreds to thousands in years to come.
Have A Proper Plan
My mistake when I started my gym was being too optimistic with limited planning. That led us to have many mistakes in our first few years of operating it. For Black Belt Tape, I took the lesson that I learned from my first mistakes & apply it well to my second business.
Don’ts
Do Not Put All Your Eggs Into One Basket
One of my earlier mistakes, when I started my gym, was putting all my eggs into one basket which eventually led me into financial debt. I thought that the gym could be profitable overnight but how wrong I was. It took me more than 5 years to break even & to be profitable.
Conclusion:
Since funding my passion is a long-term process, I personally do look for more ways to earn extra income to fund it. The more I earn, the more I can use it to fund it on a bigger scale. I plan to retire at 40 and share my BJJ knowledge full-time. To achieve that, I need to earn more so that I can retire, travel & spread BJJ, especially to smaller regions or countries that have limited access to BJJ. Even for Penang, this sport is growing from where it was 10 years ago. Up until today, we do not have any Black Belt instructors to teach on the island due to lack of demand & high cost. Similarly, there are many areas across the country that is facing such issue & I hope I can do my part to develop the sports at a minimum or at free to give back to the society. It is not easy but I am willing to work hard to ensure that my goal is possible.
OSS!
You can also check out my latest YouTube video on How To Invest Like Warren Buffett:
