Turning a hobby, you love into a revenue-generating tool can be one of the most gratifying experiences you ever have. To love doing what you do for work makes it play and makes every day a joyous occasion.
The exciting thing is that you can transform a hobby into a business and it’s just about finding the right hobby and following some important steps along the way.
Does the market exist
In any business, you need first to decide whether there is a market for a product or service. If your hobby is writing a blog, will people read the kinds of things that you want to write? If you are a fitness fanatic, can you do the qualifications and get a job or become a personal trainer? If you love making cakes, can you reach your target market on Facebook and make good sales sell on a fairly regular basis?
You need to establish the size of the market and how much revenue you are likely to be able to generate and whether it will sustain you for a part-time or full-time income.
Develop a plan
The next step is to devise a plan that will help you move from hobby to business. This may involve seeking out some initial sales, building some prototypes, reaching out to some influencers or attending some trade shows.
Your first steps will help you to understand how to market and how to plan your adventure. You need to find out whether you need finance or when you can build a sustainable business on your own without outside help. You should also consider investing in public liability insurance to protect your new business against financial loss.
Learn how to market your products
Learning how to market your products or services involves first understanding who your potential customers are. Read about the way top businesses market their brand and products, particularly in your product or service niche.
You should also think about owning a responsive website that details your unique offerings, along with a few exciting and interactive social media accounts. Your business should at least have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Note also that Instagram is particularly good for certain visual products. So, go ahead and start connecting with people and begin the process of marketing.
Do some tests
It’s really exciting when you’ve got a product ready to go, and you want to start marketing it. The best way to start is to reach out to a certain number of people and get their opinions. This could be at a local event or could be friends, family and your wide network. It could well be that your long-term client base comes from referrals from these initial customers, especially if your product is very shareable.
Build your online presence
Whatever marketing strategy you decide to adopt with your website and social media platforms, make sure you are working on your online presence through developing new connections, developing both visual and text content, and generally enhancing your online presence. You may also want to consider paid adverts on Facebook, Google or other platforms as a quick way to gain access to new markets.
Continuously grow your network
If you’ve been doing your hobby for a while, you probably have some contacts in your niche. Build upon those, network with them, ask for word-of-mouth referrals, become a socialite in your niche. You may want to attend conferences or local groups to expand your networking further.
Consider your business a hobby
Without losing the fun of your hobby, you should consider that you’re running a business. It is only when you switch to the mindset of revenue-generation that you will take things seriously and do things the right way. You will need to keep records and have plans of action, as well as having a bank account, and potentially a limited company. Go about things the right way, and you will more likely achieve success.
Conclusion
Building a business out of a hobby is not easy. The major advantage you will have is that if you love what you’re doing, you will have the potential to be excellent at it. Serving customers with excellence gets noticed in today’s world, and so if you have something with some market potential, then your passion could well drive that potential to long term success.
