3 Steps Towards Making Your Hobby Into A Business

Last updated on December 13, 2015

IvanWalsh via Compfight

Lots of people dream about turning their favourite pass time into a business. Whether it’s knitting, sewing or woodwork, if people enjoy doing something they often feel like they would enjoy it even more if they were doing it for money. Fortunately, in this day and age it’s actually surprisingly easy to put in the groundwork to turn the crafts and creations you do in your spare time into a business. Of course, once that groundwork is in place, things get a lot more difficult. With that in mind, here are the five steps you’ll need to go through to turn your hobby into a business.

Step One: Ask Why You Want To Do It?

This is the most important step. You need to know what you want to get out of doing this if you’re ever going to stand a chance of actually getting it. Are you looking for a second income? Do you simply think it might be fun? Have you been making so much miniature doll house furniture that it now covers every available surface but your family have stopped accepting them as gifts and you can’t bear to throw them out.

Once you know what you want out of this, it’ll be easier to work out how to get it.

Step Two: Ask Why Anybody Would Want Your Product

Once you know why you want people to buy your products, you need to ask why anybody else would want to buy your products. Among people who use phrases like “Unique Selling Point” this is known as your “Unique Selling Point”. Let’s stick with the miniature doll house furniture as an example. There are lots and lots of places in the world that sell doll house furniture. Many of them will do it more cheaply than you can afford to, and no matter how good you are, there are going to be people out there who can do it better. So why would anyone want to buy your stuff?

You need to find a niche. For instance, with our doll house furniture business, a quick google finds that a lot of the products that are already available are in Victorian or Georgian style. There’s a definite market for doll house furniture that’s more contemporary, or covers other periods such as the swinging 60s, or the eighties. You could even go for a sci-fi, futuristic set of doll house furniture. Find the thing you can do that nobody else can. That is your Unique Selling Point.

Step Three: Find Your Audience

Once you know why people would buy your products, you need to find those people. Set up social media accounts, follow blogs and experts that regularly talk about products in your area, and start discussions with them. Set up profile pages on Etsy, Ebay and Pinterest. Don’t just go out there asking people to buy your products. Share your ideas, other people’s products, the things that get you excited. And as more and more people are drawn to your opinions, more and more people will see the work you’re offering to sell.

So, with our doll house furniture website, we’ll be talking to other craft and hobby sites, other companies that sell miniatures, and blogs and Twitter accounts that cover that whole area. That audience will be snapping up your products in no time.

By Sam Wright

Sam Wright is a freelance writer who made a business out of his hobby. Blog writing is an odd hobby. He currently works with online doll house miniatures store, Hobbies.