For Love or Money, or Both: Turning Passion into Profits

The thing that intrigued me about flying trapeze was that participants were going up with a lot of fear and trepidation and coming down feeling triumphant about what they accomplished.  What I realized was that trapeze was a great facilitator for people rediscovering what they were capable of.  I sold my house and a business when I fell in love with flying trapeze. I bought a rig and after a couple years when I felt we had it together, we started having some classes. I switched my entire (life) around. -Jonathon Conant, president and co-founder of NY Trapeze School

I started my business [6 years ago] because people asked me to teach. I loved collaborating with other performers as performers, so I invited them to teach as well. Fortunately they were willing, and that eventually grew into them teaching their own classes. -Jo Weldon, headmistress and founder of the award-winning New York School of Burlesque (Her upcoming book, “The Burlesque Handbook” comes out June 1st .)

I was studying dance in college, and I was working in the custom shop at Berkeley. I started making these flowy costumes for dancers, and [then] I started making clothes for myself and my friends. … I wore a dress I had made into a store in Chinatown in LA. I had just been home for the holidays and had a bunch of other clothes I designed in my car. [The owner] loved the dress I was wearing. I went to the car and pulled out a bunch of [pieces]. I started to send her pieces regularly and she would sell them and she encouraged me to give it a try [when I graduated]. It snowballed from there. -Rachel Pally- owner and designer of Rachel Pally

I moved to LA in 1992 as a ballet dancer. I was doing jewelry as a hobby, and I got contacted to choreograph a play. They asked me to make them some leather things [to be] incorporated into the play. I had some extra leather [left over] so I made a watch band … and it was horrible …[but] I thought I might be on to something. It took two years to convince everyone else … -Torry Pendergrass, creator and owner of Red Monkey

I got the idea for the business when I moved down to the West Village [New York] many years ago. I moved around the corner from [the famous] Magnolia bakery, and I would observe it and see what I could do differently. Frankly, [I had just been] screwed out of a promotion, and I decided I was going to get my “sweet revenge” on the place and decided I was going to open a cupcake bakery in 2005. I decided I would do whatever it took to set myself apart from my unhappy experience in the corporate world ... so it was my passport to happiness. -Marlo Scott,  owner of Sweet Revenge