Turning your hobby into a side hustle can be a challenge. In the past, I found hobbies I liked to do, Do It Yourself projects around the house, lost their flavor when I turned them into actual side hustles and jobs, becoming an electrician.
As I posted, side hustles aren’t passive but can create additional income to feed your Passive Income Generators (PIGs). Therefore, I like side hustles, and something I’m willing to do as a hobby; I’m interested in turning into a real income generator.
So if you are interested in turning your hobby into a side or even a main hustle, here is some advice based on my experiences.
Hobby Into Side Hustle Evaluation Test
1.- What Is Your Drive Making Your Hobby Into A Side Hustle?
Example:
If you lost your job and have yet to get a replacement job without a significant career change, developing a new skill set from scratch can be challenging.
However, you had a hobby that had marketable potential. In that case, you may have years of experience making your hobby into a side or main hustle.
In this case, hunger, a great motivator, is your drive. Having a solid drive like this will help you follow through with your making your hobby financially rewarding.
If you are just curious about how to earn extra income, your hobby is just a hobby.
So, Do You Have The Drive To Make Your Hobby A Side-Hustle?
Yes or No? And Why?
2.- Do You Have Free Time?
A hobby is often used to fill spare time.
A side hustle is used to grow income, often not in spare time but time away from your primary job.
If you have a hobby, by definition, you have spare time. Do you have enough spare time to take on additional responsibilities associated with turning your hobby into a side hustle?
Some Normal Side-Hustle Business Time Consumers:
- Customer Service
- Marketing
- Delivery
- Idea Creation
Whatever you do with your hobby, as a product or service, you now have to deal with either customers or a boss.
Do You Have Time To Manage A Side Hustle Instead Of A Hobby?
Yes or No? And, Why?
3.- Is There A Market For Your Hobby or Hobby Skills?
Can you sell products or services from your Hobby?
Do you create tangible items, like dolls, crafts, or candles, that you can sell directly in retail or wholesale? If so, this might be an excellent conversion of turning your hobby into a side hustle.
Does your hobby have skills you can market to others as a service?
Example #1: If you make metal sculptures by welding, your welding skills are marketable as a side hustle service. Either directly to people contracting jobs or as a part-time job for a welding service.
Example #2: If you make flower arrangements as a hobby, this could lead to working in a florist shop. Or, if your ability to mix and match colors so well with flowers is keen, you can get into interior decorating and act as a consultant for others.
Real Life Story: I worked as a groupware developer on this large project management system. I worked directly with the client’s project manager. It was the first time a software version release would be done early. With so many requirements covered during development, it should fly through quality control.
I have a knack for finding solutions, I was told.
One problem, my mental color palette is an old box of crayons, most lost and broken and a couple eaten. So I can’t pick colors and use the default colors the browser came with.
Multi-million dollar project, coded miracles in the software package to meet the client’s custom workflow, but couldn’t pick a button color to save my life or the contract.
A young lady who loved media arts and even went to school for her hobby was hired to pick colors and create reusable GIFs for my website projects.
Her hobby of digital art was turned into an occupation for visually challenged software developers like myself.
Sorry for the war story, but I’m sure she never figured her art skills could make her a paycheck working with some fundamentally challenged team member on a high-priced corporate contract.
Does Your Hobby Have Direct Sales Or Services Potential?
Yes or No? And, Why?
4.- Can You Side Step Your Hobby Into A Marketable Side Hustle?
If you can’t directly apply your hobby to a commercial venture, question #3, you can side shuffle into one.
When I was ‘OK’ with DIY projects around the house, I had the drive to fix items that scared me. I worked on electrical items, but only after much research did I find electricians make good money. I started taking courses to transition my DIY home repair skills into becoming a licensed electrician.
I worked as an electrician for a while before I realized I wanted not to specialize. I created a home inspection company to help guide home buyers into safe homes.
My hobby transitioned into a licensed skill which then transitioned into a company.
So, Can You Side Step Your Hobby Into A Marketable Side Hustle?
Yes or No? And, Why?
My Conclusion:
My goal here was to help guide you as I would have wanted to be guided into understanding the challenges associated with turning your hobby into a side hustle.
I’ve made many attempts over life and wished I had more successes than failures, but overall, in the end, I’m succeeding. I want you to do so too.
So look at your answers to the above questions, and formulate a plan.
One last tip: to prevent ‘shiny object syndrome,’ my wife and I agreed. I would do a complete business plan for any new business I wanted to create(side hustle or main hustle).
With this business plan, I would then explain it fully to my wife. My wife was not an expert at everything. Still, the work involved with a business plan, research, and presenting it was involved enough work that it was a measure of how much I wanted the new side hustle to work.
This business plan idea prevented me from running down alleys and being unable to turn around.
My Side Hustle Goal.
Anytime I was adding additional work/income to my plate, the ultimate goal was to either create some passive income business, which I never did or feed money into my Passive Income Generators (PIGs), which I did.
Your Side Please:
Comment on what works for you when considering turning your hobby into a side hustle.
Still side hustling? Tell me how it’s going, and share your experience with us your advice.
Thank you.
Related Side Hustle Reads:
- Side Hustles Are Not Passive Income Generators (PIGs)?
- Side Hustles For Feeding Passive Income Generators(PIGs)?
- Side Hustle Stacking Worth It?
 Myself with an interesting Bull Sculpture. Notice: No Lambo’s. :/ | Hi I’m Tom, A Blogger And A PIG Farmer. PIG Farmer as in I grow Passive Income Generators(PIG’s). I’ve been playing with stocks, mutual funds, and options for decades, as well as always working on my side hustle stacks. Unlike what you read online, I’ve yet to find a way to get rich quickly. Get Rich Quick isn’t happening for me. My journey has been long and continues. I hope to have so many PIGs I can stop working at my current job and volunteer as a medical worker overseas. Still waiting, but getting there. I still am a family man, and while on this Journey of Growing PIGs. I wanted to share my adventures(ups and downs), hoping you will contribute with your feedback and comments. Fun Fact: In my spare time, I am a Band-Dad! |