After coming home from your day job, you pick up your guitar, close your eyes and play that Eagles song you taught yourself in sixth grade. Then you snack on some chips and homemade salsa from your window box garden. You check to see if your oil painting is dry yet, but it needs more time. An alert comes from your bank that you are overdrawn and you decide it is time to make money with one of these hobbies.
Take on Students
Anything that you know how to do, you can teach others. You can take your skill as a musician and make use of my music staff integration to set up a business teaching music both online and in person. Payments, schedules and more can be handled with this software. Offering both private and group lessons can increase your exposure to your community and your client base. It is important to be flexible with availability so you can accommodate a variety of schedules. You should also have great package deals for customers who sign up for multiple sessions.
Share Your Knowledge
Every industry needs people to write about what is new or interesting in that field, so writing about your hobby is another way to make money. You could either start a blog about window box gardening, for example, or you could reach out to established companies to provide content for their online services. Both of these methods can be accomplished on your schedule in your off time and don’t require any kind of monetary investment. They also can be a form of marketing for your business and not just for educational purposes.
Produce a Product
A hobby like photography, painting or wood carving produces a product that you can sell either online, in stores or at craft shows. You can start on a small scale first and test out the markets you are most comfortable with, and then expand your inventory and your prices. Although you will have to spend money on supplies, you probably already are doing this, and by turning your passion into a revenue source you have the opportunity to make more than you spend. By turning your hobby into an income, you might be able to produce larger or more intricate pieces than you could have without the extra money.
Create a Partnership
You can seek out artists or business groups that are centered on your interest and become an active participant. Many of these are on social media so you can interact with people on it daily. Use these platforms to create partnerships, market your skills and build relationships that lead to clients. These groups are great resources for information, further training and trends in the industry. They can also be a powerful source of inspiration and brainstorming.
Look for Contests
Another way to make money with your hobby is to look for contests involving your interest that offer prizes. They can be monetary or otherwise. The prizes that are not cash are sometimes more useful for furthering your new side hustle. Also, you can use the fact that you won or placed in these contests as plugs for yourself in your marketing. You can also network with the companies holding the promotions and contests with the hope of building your client base. If you place first in a photo contest, then you can add that to your bio the next time you are in a craft show.
Your hobby could be sewing, weightlifting, surfing or origami, and all of these can be used as an income source. You can teach others how to do what you do, write about what you have done and what ideas you have for the future or sell what you produce. Networking with others in the community of your interests, whether online, in person or both, increases your exposure, your clients and your experience. You can share your passion with like-minded people who might become life-long friends.
