Hot Tips on Turning a Hobby Into Side Income

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Turning your hobby into tangible side income may be a thought that has come across your mind. Fortunately, it is not as difficult of a task as you may have thought, or have been told.

Personally, I feel the best way to make money is to find something you are really passionate about, then find someone who wants to pay you to do it. Making money can’t get any better than this 😉

A majority of successful working individuals take evenings and weekends to engage in activities they are interested in and passionate about. Many have interesting hobbies that they are good at or know a lot about and can turn them into side income.

If you are someone who fits this boat, and are also enterprising, you may have contemplated turning your hobby into a stream of side income. If so, below are some tips that can help you get going.

This post is also relevant for you if you have been affected by the unfortunate economic conditions we are currently going through. These tips will help you convert your new-found time off to pursue your passion and turn it into a profitable business, hopefully one that you can keep even if and when you decide to join the work force again.

So here is a quick list of tips to make some side income from your passion.

Narrowing In

If you are like me and have a Gazillion interests and hobbies in life, it is important to focus on making a list of those that you would like to pursue for side income. When engaging in this exercise, it is important to first list those that you know most about and / or are best at. If you can’t think of anything you are really good at and know a lot about, then list the ones you have the most interest in.

The goal of this exercise is to narrow in on that ONE passion or hobby of yours that has the most overlap between your skills (how good you are at it), your experience (how much you know about it) and your passion (how interested you are in the topic). Passion is critical because it is what will help you keep pushing through initially as your venture goes through its developmental stages.

I also stressed on just ONE initially when starting out so that you don’t end up spreading yourself too thin and not see results with anything that you do.

Take a Peak at What Others are Doing to Generate Side Income

You are not the only one in this boat. There are many others who share your passion who are monetizing (making money from) their hobbies. Take a look at what they are doing and how they are monetizing or generating side income from their hobbies.

You can replicate what they are doing, or tweak it to fit your preferences. Even if they do not have the exact same interest as you, it helps to see what is working for them because you can mimic a similar monetization model. Yup, start taking some notes.

Leverage the Internet

Time is likely scarce if you are a busy professional like many of this blog’s readers. Leverage the Internet as much as you can to research what others are doing, as well as for potential avenues to distribute your products and services.

If your hobby is to make a tangible good of some sort, you might want to consider auction websites such as eBay. There are more niche auction sites today that may be catering specifically to your product. Make sure you find them.

If you are offering services instead, consider websites like Craigslist, Elance and Guru to post your services and find others who have service needs for their projects.

If you have the time, also consider local avenues like the local fair or farmers market if that fits your boat. Networking within your community is a great way to break into distribution channels for your products and services quickly and with less competition.

Contemplate your USP

If your hobby is relatively common (like basket weaving) and one that many others share with you, think of ways to make your offer unique. What is your unique selling proposition (USP) that sets you apart from the competition? Why should the customer buy from you instead of your competitor?

Your unique spin will be much easier to formulate if you have a hobby that is not as commonly shared such as . . . Dinosaur digging I guess?

Think Marketing & Branding

Once you know what your unique offering is, start contemplating how you will position yourself as a brand in the marketplace. How do you want others to perceive you and your offering? What do you want your brand to mean and stand for?

Many times it is the brand that sells the product. In other words, the product may not have anything unique compared to its competitors, but creative marketing and brand establishment drives the customers to it over its competition.

While contemplating your brand, think about the marketing channels you want to leverage to distribute your offer. Is your product the next big “As Seen on TV” thing? If so you might want to consider QVC. Are you selling an ebook? If so you might want to consider Clickbank, an online digital product distribution tool.

Keep Expectations Realistic and Manageable

Emotions run at all time highs when delving into a side business of your own, especially if you have always been enterprising and dreamt of starting one. Dreams tend to run wild and crazy when people first learn about the possibilities of making money from their hobbies.

Do not quit your day job like many people do immediately! Instead, keep your day job as positive reinforcement and a security blanket while you toy around with your ideas and before they generate serious side income. Remember, this is just something you are doing on the side. Use your positive energy on growing your side gig without any financial expectation. Remember, your side business does not have to make or break you. You have your day job to feed you.

When your efforts start showing solid side income, you can then contemplate whether you want to keep your side gig as a hobby that makes you some extra money on the side, or turn it into a full fledge business that can make you a lot more money. If you choose the later, understand that you will need to take some additional risk and put in more effort.

Many successful working individuals who turn entrepreneurs do so by experimenting with side businesses in their spare time first. Because I have walked the same path in my life successfully, in my opinion, this is the safest and most prudent approach to entrepreneurship. That is exactly what I advocate on this blog. However, regardless of whether you decide to pursue entrepreneurship full time or on the side, the information on this blog will help you achieve both.

This post is not the start-all end-all of your entrepreneurial venture. My intent was to get your juices flowing and mind churning. If any part of this post clicked with you and got you thinking, you will love the rest of my blog, which is dedicated to helping hard working and successful individuals get more out of life either financially, or from the perspective of having more freedom and flexibility in life.

It takes some time for any venture to come to fruition, especially something really worthwhile. If you truly enjoy an activity, your passion for it will help you carry through slower times and persevere. With the passage of time, you will see your hobby materialize into a profitable business and get paid for doing something you really truly enjoy!

Here are some additional thoughts on generating side income through passive income streams.

Sunil
Enjoying 🙂