Should you turn a hobby into a business?

There is one advantage, but two disadvantages, with this plan….

The advantage: you get to do something you love all day every day, in exchange for pay.  How great is that??

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I love dogs – but could I earn a loving working with them??

Disadvantage 1: it may spoil it.  Too much of something, even chocolate cake, or dogs, or the saxophone, can make you sick of it.  And if you have to do it for people who don’t appreciate it, or who make you have to dumb it down, then it can be quite frustrating.  Try playing in a band every night, having to play covers, or having to make endless numbers of the same piece of ‘art’ because that’s what people want to buy….

Disadvantage 2: it may not be very well paid.  The things that people like doing, and choose to do for fun, tend to have lots of other people all wanting to do them as well, so the price gets driven down.  The buy who played Sax on A Million Love Songs (by Take That) only got £50 for it, because there is a QUEUE of people who’d love to play sax on a Take That song.  The same goes for gardening, working with animals, surf lessons, photography etc – because they are fun, they aren’t very well paid.  Although they do require talent, there are unfortunately lots of talented people out there….

So what’s the conclusion?

My opinion is:  find something to do with business that you like, and do that.  It’s vital to enjoy your work, but find a ‘work thing’ that you enjoy rather than starting with one of your hobbies.   And ideally BtoB rather than BtoC, because selling to the public is HARD work and never very lucrative!

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PS – Are you considering getting into training? Would being a freelance trainer suit you? Get more information here: www.becometrainers.com

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