Can (and Should) You Turn Your Hobby into Your Job?

If you start your own business, you can follow your passion, and only do work you like, right? It’d be like getting paid to do your hobby!, right?

Well… maybe.

On the surface, you’d think that turning your hobby into your business would be a great way to do work you love for the rest of your life. It doesn’t always work out that way, though.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

There are two reasons why you might not want to try to turn your hobby into your job:

1
It might not be all that practical.
2
It might not be as much fun as you think

Let’s take a look…

Is it practical?

Can you really make a living from your hobby?

You may have heard that to run a successful business, you need to find something that fulfills three things:

1
Something you're great at doing
2
Something you enjoy doing
3
Something people will pay you to do

There’s a lot of truth in that. And note that it takes all three things:

If you’re not great at it, you won’t be able to fully meet your clients’ needs. The result is likely to be frustration—for you and your clients!
If you don’t love doing it, you’ll likely get bored and frustrated. Doing work you don’t love is a recipe for burnout.
And even if you have something you’re great at doing and you love doing, but people won’t pay you to do it, then you have a hobby, not a business!

All too often, hobbies are exactly that: hobbies. They may produce some income, but they may not produce enough income to support you.

That’s why when I work with clients, I help them validate their business idea. If your idea isn’t likely to produce enough income to meet your financial goals, then we want to find that out sooner instead of later.

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Where did the fun go?

I know several photographers and artists who have tried to make a business out of their hobby, only to discover that working at it day in and day out in order to get paid stops the fun.

My friend Dan intuitively knows this. He enjoys woodworking and creating beautiful pieces of furniture. I once asked him if he’d make a piece for me, and he flatly refused, saying that it wouldn’t be fun if he had to create on a schedule. When I offered not to give him a deadline, he replied, “Don, last night I spent 2 hours sitting in my workshop, just looking at a piece of wood, waiting for it to tell me what it wants to become. I couldn’t do that if I had to create something for someone else.”

So while you absolutely want to find work you’re great at doing and that you love doing, you’ll probably still want to have a hobby that you can do “just for fun.” Having a business involves developing systems, pricing your work, adhering to deadlines, and communication, to name a few. If any of these turn you off from making the transition, then maybe your hobby is meant to stay as one.

Is your hobby fun, even with the business factor?

Creating a successful business requires a blend of several factors: you need to find a problem that you can solve for others. You need to be great at doing that work, and you need to love the work itself. You also need to be passionate about the market you serve.

When you find a service that is in demand, and you love it so much you can do it and talk about it all day without ever tiring, then you’ve found the keys to a successful business.

The good news is that we all have this capability inside of us. Need help finding the business that’s tucked away inside of you? Schedule a time with me to talk!

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