Get your first customer — even if you have to work for free
Your first customer will give you confidence in yourself. It will make it psychologically easier for you to market yourself in the future.
If necessary, do your first job for free in exchange for a nice review or testimonial.
Listen to what your customers are telling you
Talk less and listen more is the best advice I can give you when starting a hobby business.
There are potentially three outcomes that people will tell you.
(1) People loved what you are offering.
(2) People hate your offering (and they do not respond to your advertisements).
(3) People are lukewarm to your offering and give you mixed signals as to whether this offering is a winner or not. This is the worst place to be.
Human feedback is gold
Whatever the outcome, always talk to a few people in your target market. There is no better way than to speak to a human about yourself and your products and services.
Ask them:
(1) About their needs. Inquire if your service or product could be something they would need and buy.
(2) What they like and don’t like about your service or product offering.
(3) How much they are willing and able to pay for their product and service.
Consider asking them about potential improvements you should consider as you continue developing your service offering.
Asking the right questions
People may not know what they want. But they do know what they don’t want.
So, ask them what they don’t like about their hobby. Learn about their pain points and challenges. Then address these pain points in your marketing and service offerings.
Do you enjoy marketing yourself?
Here’s the kicker.
If you don’t sell, you don’t any money.
You are selling your personal brand (i.e., yourself) and your product or service offering.
Businesses must be able to promote their services and products so that people are aware of and pay for them. Without advertising or promotion, no one will know about it.
You only make money by selling
The reality is that if you don’t sell, you are not going to make any money for yourself.
How much you earn will be determined by how many people know about you. It also depends on how many people will buy from you.
Sell benefits and outcomes, not features
Sell the benefits and outcomes associated with using your products and services.
For example, no one is going to care if you have the largest digital storage ever built into a mobile phone.
What people care about is their ability to listen to their favourite music all day long!
To deliver this benefit, you need very large storage (feature).
The fear of marketing
Marketing is the action of promoting and selling products or services to someone else.
This is one of the key reasons why people do not go into business for themselves. They fear marketing or promoting themselves. It feels cheap to them, like a used car salesperson.
While this is a real fear, there are good ways to promote and there are bad ways to do so as well.
There are many introverts who are in the marketing profession and they are doing well. It’s a matter of perception and how you go about it.
Your personality counts
This is where your personality counts.
Knowing your personality weaknesses and working on them can significantly improve your chances of success in your hobby business.
Use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory test to find out more about yourself. The results will give you clues on how you can improve yourself.
Those who know their personality type can capitalise on their strengths. At the same time, they can take the opportunity to overcome their weaknesses to become better people.
Do consider taking an MBTI test https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test.
Thinking outside the box when monetising your hobby
Now that you know that there is potential demand from your target customer group who are willing and able to pay you, it is time to think about monetising what you know.
Design a sales funnel to up-sell your offerings
The aim here is to provide low priced service or product to entice your target customers to buy from you. By doing so, they get to know you and what you can do for them.
A $20 eBook on the subject could be your first enticement.
When someone purchases from you, you will have their email or contact details.
They will sample your offering.
If they liked it, then they are going to want more of what you can offer them. You can regularly promote your other services and products to your customers.
In marketing terms, this is called up-selling. For example, McDonalds’ staff will ask whether you want fries with your burger.
There is where a well-structured sales funnel comes in.
You offer a more expensive online course at $99 and then a $200 group coaching product and maybe 1-to-1 personal coaching at $1,000.
Roadmap to your future earnings
Always plan your sales funnel early so that you have a solid roadmap to success.
By understanding what you are going to build in the future, you are able to forecast your future earnings.
This product roadmap to success will be the key to sustaining a long term hobby business.
Create a sales funnel that maximises your profit
You must be thinking outside the box when you are thinking about what you are going to sell.
If you love playing the piano, you can potentially monetise your hobby by:
(1) Coaching one-to-one or in a group.
(2) Recording videos on the quickest way for adults to learn the piano.
(3) Writing original piano pieces.
(4) Writing reviews of different pianos.
If you love writing, then you could be earning money from at least seven different income streams:
(1) Online courses.
(2) Paid posts/articles say on Medium.
(3) Coaching packages.
(4) Affiliate links say with Amazon.
(5) 3rd party affiliate links say with email and online course providers.
(6) eBook book sales.
(7) Speaking engagement.
If you love drawing or graphic design, then here are some possible ways to make money:
(1) Designing logos or materials for businesses.
(2) Printing off digital art to sell at local art shows or e-commerce websites.
(3) Selling designs to other companies who might be interested in using your artwork on a t-shirt or skateboard design.
(4) Starting a graphic design website and monetising your blog.
(5) Teaching classes on sites like Udemy.
The possibility to monetise your skills, passion and hobby is endless.
Creating systems to make life easier for you
You must develop systems and processes that would allow you to complete customer orders on time, at the highest possible quality, and at the lowest possible cost.
Whereas as a hobby you were producing one finished product a week, you may need to complete five in a day now that you are operating as a business.
Do similar tasks at the same time. Forget about producing one item at a time particularly if your product requires a lot of preparation or assembly. For example, by pouring wax in the mould one day and painting the candles the next day, you can save a lot of time. It makes the process more systematic.
Expanding your hobby into a business
Being passionate about your hobby and in wanting to teach others about it, you may not be thinking about going beyond your small community. You may be happy where you are.
Ambitions can fuel your hobby business
But if you are ambitious and want to expand beyond your current boundary, you need to be thinking about several things.
Do you have:
(1) Additional energy and stamina to crank out your hobby in large enough volume to take it into a bigger or viable business?
(2) Additional time to do this considering other personal commitments and work-life balance?
(3) Something else to bring your joy?
Are you thinking about retiring from your current job and do this hobby or business full-time?
Meeting customer deadlines to make money
Making money from your hobby will inevitably mean meeting customer deadlines, pleasing unreasonable customers, and pursuing your hobby business even on days when you don’t feel like it.
In addition, you’ll have to do things like marketing and finances. Then there is the boring administration stuff like compliance, reporting, and taxes.
Be sure that you’re willing to juggle all these balls before you turn your hobby into a business.
Don’t add unnecessary pressure on yourself
People generally pursue hobbies to blow off steam or just to relax.
In starting a hobby business, you may be adding a lot more pressure on yourself to make money.
As successful businesses require dedicated work and responsibility, it’s easy to take the fun out of your hobby.
Therefore, plan well.
Don’t be pressured to make things work if you are not ready.
Will I enjoy doing my hobby on a tight deadline?
You may love baking the occasional cupcake for friends and family.
But will you enjoy turning them out day in and day out, under time pressure for months (or even years) on end?
You’re probably going to be making or doing things faster than you previously would have.
Is this right for you?
Will I enjoy doing this with financial pressures to pay my rent?
There’s a huge difference between doing something for fun and doing it because you need the money to pay the rent.
If you want to turn your hobby into a business because you think it’s going to be as much fun as it was when it was only a hobby, you must think deeply about it.
You could be in for a surprise!
Is this hobby my outlet for relaxation?
If it is, then you would need to find something else to do to unwind because your hobby will no longer have that effect.
Am I up for a challenge?
Starting a business based on your hobby may be deeply fulfilling. But it won’t be easy.
Entrepreneurs or CEOs of start-ups usually exchange their 40-hour jobs with a 60-hour work-week. They enjoy working on something exciting. They have the freedom to do so without earning as much.
Starting a business is tough
Starting up a business will be tough especially if this is your first business.
There will be lots of things that you will need to do to support your business. Some of the work you may not enjoy doing.
It’s a good time to think about what it takes to be an entrepreneur or small business owner.
Am I willing to sell myself?
Here’s a myth you need to overcome – If you build it, they will definitely come.
To make money for yourself, you must market yourself and your products and services.
There are lots of people wanting free stuff. They will take advantage of you to get things for free.
Do I know the local laws and regulation?
They may even ask for a refund for whatever reason.
Depending on the local consumer laws, you need to know your customers’ rights and what you need to do to avoid regulatory non-compliance.
Will I get paid?
The reality is that freelancers and small business owners are struggling with collecting their payments on time from customers.
Unfortunately, they are small. People just take advantage of them. It will most likely happen to you if you don’t manage debtors well.
Can I manage my cash flow?
Managing your cash flow, any potential bad debts or even accounts receivable must be your top priority. This is more so when your livelihood depends on it.
If possible, collect the payment before you provide your service or product.
Start your business as a side hustle first, at your own pace
Perhaps you need to first test the waters while you are still working in a 9-to-5 job to make sure that you have a viable revenue model and income streams for your hobby business.
The important thing to note is that you don’t mess around. You don’t want to lose your day job before you are ready to leave it to pursue your hobby business full-time.
This try-before-you-buy approach can fully test your desire and long-term commitment to start a hobby business. It gives you insights into your ability and desire to continue.
Everything is a learning experience
Even if it does not work out, you have learned something about yourself. You have given this a try and it did not work out. That’s OK!
Never beat yourself up for failing this ‘experimentation’. It’s just part of life.
Starting out small, on a part-time basis, is the key to ensuring that you are ready and prepared for what is to come.
Think of your hobby as your second job
Give your hobby business the respect it deserves. It’s not something you can take lightly.
Do start slow but be consistent and committed. You must show up to do the work regularly.
Because it’s a side hustle or hobby, you don’t have to rely on it as your sole source of income yet. You can put as much or little time into as you want, at least for now.
Remember that a hobby is something you do at your leisure. When you make it a business, you must show up to work. You need to meet customer deadlines.
Think of your hobby as your second job if you are serious about it. Make it a priority in your life.
Make serious money first
Take baby steps. Constantly set goals and milestones to ensure traction.
Take your time to grow your side hustle. Focus on making serious money first. Then think about quitting your job or scaling your business.