Each person has a hobby. Maybe you write poems, grow flowers, design infographics, or build drones. But have you ever thought of turning your hobby into a profitable startup?
Think of Rosanna Pansino, whose baking brings her $2.5 million per year. Or Nick Palmisciano, whose hobby of putting funny words on T-shirts turned into a $20 million media company. It sounds promising, but here’s the problem: Starting a business is not as rosy as it seems. So before you decide to dive into your hobby monetization, make sure the below information is not about you.
Don’t turn your hobby into a business if any of these five points applies:
You Don’t See Any Business Promise In It
Your hobby is great, but this mere fact is not enough for making it a business. You will need to dig into the marketplace, scope out the competition, and discover if is there a place for another player (you) in the field and if the market is saturated. You’ll also need to evaluate if something within your hobby will fill a need or solve a problem and you’re able to reach a target audience.
To check if it’s promising, start a focus group or create a survey to gather feedback outside of our family and friends and decide if the game’s worth the gamble.
You Don’t Want to Start at the Bottom
Your hobby is what you enjoy as a distraction from problems and work. But what will happen when it becomes a job? Before turning it into a business, be honest with yourself: are you sure you won’t lose interest in this hobby and are you ready to spend time on it even when inspiration doesn’t strike you.
Another issue is your skill set. You might be good at a hobby but good is not enough when people start paying for it. Figure out if you are ready to start at the bottom and the road may be long. To make your passion a success story, you need to sweat guts out.
You Don’t Have Time to Run a Website
Running an ecommerce business means that you’ll need to keep your site up-to-date and constantly iterating. And then there’s the blog, social media and content development. While there are plenty of tips on SEO optimization to help you do it right, and writing compelling articles will help attract people and convert them into customers.
Oh did I mention video? Research says that 80 percent of all traffic will be video by 2019, so it would be realistic to expect that you’ll be developing video content as a part of your marketing strategy.
You Don’t Have Business Resources
Turning your hobby into a profitable startup, a mere desire is not enough. You’re going to need a startup budget to get you off the ground. Another option is to turn to crowdfunding and raise money from strangers for ideas with market potential from Indiegogo, GoFundMe or Kickstarter. If you get enough funds, you’ll know that it’s worth pursuing.
You Don’t Want to Meet Deadlines
Another question to answer for those willing to monetize a hobby: Are you ready to build on this hobby all the time, meet deadlines, and deal with moody clients? You need to be honest with yourself and decide if this hobby will continue to be inspiring and relaxing you when turns into a business.
Once you decide to make your hobby a full-time job, you will need another one for enjoyment or relaxation. Ask yourself if you have any, and go for it!
Read more about tips about being a healthy entrepreneur at TechCo