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12 Entrepreneurs Share Tips on How to Turn Your Hobby Into a Business

If your hobby has the potential to become a lucrative business opportunity, take note of these twelve tips on how to turn your passion into profit.

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Last Update: April 21, 2015

A hobby is generally defined as a an activity you engage in regularly during your leisure time. Often many would-be entrepreneurs would like to turn their hobby — something their passionate about — into a for-profit venture.

If your hobby has the potential to become a lucrative business opportunity, take note of these twelve tips on how to turn your passion into profit.

 

1. Choose passionately and viably.

“Be very passionate about your hobby. Not just enjoy it, but live it and breath it. You have to have an idea that is financially viable in some way.”

Carolyn Wilman, Owner of contestqueen.com @ContestQueen

 

2. Provide a valuable product or service.

“Provide something that others want to buy. It’s really as simple as that. As soon as you can offer a product or service to sell, you’ll see if you have a viable business. I think too many people waste time “building a platform” around an idea only to discover it isn’t actually a viable business. First, find out if you have something to offer that people want to buy. Then go to work building your business.”

Laura Roeder, Founder of LKR Social Media @lkr

 

3. Network and establish yourself.

“Start by networking and establishing yourself as an authority on the subject. This is simple to do when you are already familiar with the subject matter and enjoy talking about it. Focus on sharing your knowledge on the major social networking websites and on blogs and forums as well. Once you have a strong reach and have established yourself as authority, all sorts of possibilities will open up for you – both online and offline!”

David Hermansen, Co-Founder of Store Coach: @StoreCoach

 

4. Love to do it for free.

“Businesses that start as hobbies are best because you already love what you do enough to do it for free!  You have the luxury of slowly developing your plans and customer base and transitioning into a full-fledged business without spending too much capital.  After all, you can’t really “be your own boss” if mounds of debt only allow you to choose the most profitable short-term options.  That ruins the whole point of making [sic] your hobby into an business.”

Melanie Angelis, Holistic Health Practitioner at The Grecian Garden @GrecianGarden

 

5. Don’t quit your day job … yet.

“Until your market is defined, concept proven [sic] and cash-flow [is] flowing, you need the security of a paycheck. When you start worrying about money your creativity is fettered and decisions are made based on the bottom line rather than unbridled potential. Contrary to popular opinion, most entrepreneurs are actually risk averse so we plan ahead and keep cash flow top of mind.”

Michael Peggs, CBO of Michael Peggs @MichaelPeggs

 

6. Dive in.

“You should always do something you love or are passionate about. You can make money doing almost anything, from selling stamps on EBay to starting a tech company. The first step is just diving in. If you think about it like a business and figure out how to scale and grow, you’ll be surprised how fast it evolves.”

Max Teitelbaum, COO and Co-Founder of WhatRunsWhere @MaxTeitelbaum

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