There are two ways I see people commonly fail in the area of spiritual business.

1. They start a social media account and try to turn it into a business

For example, posting Tarot card readings or inspirational quotes, and trying to monetise that.

2. They start a more general site about spirituality…

…Often involving general written and video content about spirituality.

Most people can’t make either of those scenarios profitable

I’ve been in business for many years now and I’ve had time to see the ventures that succeed and those that fail.

I’ve seen plenty of people with thousands of Instagram or Facebook followers shut their account down and go back to a day job, because they didn’t make enough money from their social media page.

And I’ve seen so many people start a more general site or blog and then give up after a few years because it didn’t gain any traction (this is a very common outcome!)

Instead of either of those options, here’s what I recommend instead for aspiring spiritual business owners:

Work out what problem you’re going to solve for spiritually-oriented people, train in solving that, and then go offer it.

What kinds of problems do spiritually-oriented people have?

(In brackets after each problem, I’m going to suggest a solution that you can train in)

• Bad relationships they want to move on from, but feel unable to (Cord cutting)
• A traumatic past (past life regression, Craniosacral therapy, tons of other modalities – some spiritual, some psychological)
• Not knowing why they are here; feeling off track with their soul’s purpose (Akashic Record Readings)
• At a choice point in life, and unsure how to proceed (Tarot readings)
• Living in a home that has bad energy (space clearing)
• Can’t get what they want out of life (manifesting or Law of Assumption/Attraction coach)
• General curiosity about past lives or Spirit Guides (my Intuitive Reading Program is unavailable at the moment as it is being updated, but will teach people how to do these types of reading)
• Needing guidance on the topic of relationships (Tarot reading or relationship readings based on Akashic Records info)

So, train in something – ideally something that you have benefited from yourself.

Offer it low cost or free initially to get some practice.

Build your client base.

Do a great job.

Aim to be of service.

Market yourself based on the problem you’re solving for people.

As you attract more people and get better at what you’re doing, put your prices up.

As you learn things through working with people, create content (articles or videos) to answer common questions, and educate people about what you do.

Then add the social media accounts at this point, if you want to.

Perhaps train in something else, to add a new service to your business (many spiritual business owners have trained in multiple modalities or more than one, at the very least.)

Keep it all about what other people want.

Don’t focus on what you want.

All of us want to earn a good living and be successful, but to succeed, we need to take the focus off what we want. It’s about helping other people get what they want, and doing a really good job.

This is the most direct route to building a good spiritual business.

Focus on delivering services initially, not on creating content.

It can take 1-3 years to train in something, and get going with your business.

Anyone who says you can do it all in 6 months isn’t being realistic.

Many people will need to pursue training while working in their job.

The value of client work

My client work has been a rich source of knowledge and learning. I created my online courses to give my clients what they were already asking for. Some of the content that went into those courses came from my client work, too. The articles I write are often inspired by what my students and clients ask me, or want to know about. Relationships feed into my business (and show me where people need help or clarity). I can’t see a time when I will ever stop working with clients.

So, if you are trying to create a spiritual business without a group of people that you are working with, it is much harder and it can get stale quite quickly.

The myth of passive income

A past student of mine recently asked me how she can create a passive income with her spiritual business.

There was a passive income craze maybe 10-15 years ago, where everyone was pursuing passive income.

I’m sorry to burst anyone’s bubble but ‘passive income’ isn’t ever completely passive. There is nothing you can do in a spiritual business where you just set something up, put no work in and it generates a profit, month after month. The only way you can make that work is by hiring someone to work for you and running ads, but you need capital to invest for that kind of situation.

I was ill in 2022 and worked an average of about 2 hours per week, and still made a full-time income. That’s about as passive as it gets, but bear in mind I worked for 15 years to develop my website before I took that time off, and it’s not something I would want to repeat year after year, otherwise the business would eventually stop making an income.

My online courses seem like passive income for me, but they are not. I have to update them (I am doing this at the moment) and it can be a lot of work. I am constantly adding to them and gleaning new insights which need to be integrated into the course. People need tech support accessing their content at times. People sometimes have queries that need answering before they sign up. Students have questions. I write articles and send out newsletters reminding people that these courses exist. There is a fair amount of work that goes into these so-called sources of ‘passive income’. It’s really quite active, actually.

Don’t follow get-rich-quick schemes. Focus instead on helping others, and good old-fashioned service. If you keep building that year after year, you may eventually have something that can make you an income while you take a break.

You might also want to check out my Spiritual Business Workshop if you’re interested in learning more about the marketing side of a spiritual business.

In summary…

It is possible to create a successful and profitable full-time or part-time spiritual business by offering services. Many of my students have done it. Some of my students used my trainings to augment their existing offerings in the intuitive and healing arts, and become even more successful.

I believe that offering services is the best way to go about creating a successful spiritual business.

By contrast, I don’t know anyone who created a successful spiritual blog without working with clients. I also don’t know anyone who was able to quit their day job to run a spiritual Instagram account. I only know people who have failed at those things.

Energetic Principles

Don’t forget that you can do all of the above and still fail at spiritual business. In order to be successful, you may need to work on consciously creating a successful business and a healthy income. For this, I recommend ‘The Abundance Book’ by John Randolph Price.