How to monetize your passionate Hobby

“Without a customer, you don’t have a business, all you have is a hobby.” 

– Don Peppers

What would you do if you could do anything full time and for free?

If so, all you need to turn your hobbies into a money-making passion is to find customers who are willing to pay for what your hobby offers, be it a product, or entertainment services. 

If you are not sure what hobby you have that is scalable to business, here is a list of 25 monetizable hobbies.

1. Writing 
2. Reading 
3. Social media presence 
4. Painting 
5. Driving 
6. Swimming 
7. Hiking 
8. Graphics design 
9. Shopping 
10. Knitting 
11. Coding 
12. Travelling 
13. Photography 
14. Film watching and film making  
15. Speaking 
16. Decoration 
17. Event planning 
18. Cooking 
19. Typing 
20. Editing
21. Pet loving 
22. Running/personal trainer 
23. Gardening 
24. Baking 
25. Makeup 

If you look closer you will discover that these are the same services people do for a living, but you have been toying with them for fun. Perhaps the reason you have not considered them a money making venture is that somehow you are telling yourself, ‘ooh damn it I’m not a pro’. It’s just for fun. 

How to go about monetizing your hobby 

My key hobbies are writing and researching new ideas about almost everything, majorly business. You need to find out what your hobby is and get to know how you can turn it into a service people are willing to pay to have. 

5 STEPS TO MONETIZE YOUR HOBBY 

• A Mind-shift from old mindset 
• Be Professional
• Invest and reinvest 
• Learn 
• Start now 

Mindset 

Do you know those friends of yours that always invite you become their event planner without pay? And have you asked yourself why you find it very easy to jump in and help out. Its because it’s a hobby to you. It’s because your mind is already set  that it’s just what you like doing for fun and not for a living. The way to start is to have a 360° mind reset. So you will stop operating in a hobby mentality and switch to a career mode. It means pricing yourself with confidence and not selling yourself short. 

Be Professional 

A good way to start while changing your mindset is to go professional. Tell yourself that this is now a business and start to treat it like one. What does that entail? It means you may consider getting a web Page, a blog, an office, equipment or a business card. Advertise yourself as a professional. 

Invest

As you front yourself as a professional it will be wise to start investing in the development of your passionate business. Explore the various options available in the implementation and upscale it to a level it will be considered a business. You might need to reinvest the early proceeds from the enterprise until it gets stable to give consistent extra income. 

Learn 

Now that you have a business, you will start to have more and more people demand for your services. That could expose your inadequacies and if you want to give people the best then you might have to consider taking a course or a training to upgrade your services. 

Start now

The best time to start is always now. Do not overthink the process. Start small and as you grow you will identify key areas you need to acquire training or invest in to become more proficient. 

Summary 

Who says you can’t make money with your passion? The question you will need to ask yourself is, ‘what would you do if you could do anything full time and for free? The answer to that question is where your hobby lies. Identify it, repackage it, publish it and start selling. It may be a weekend side income or may get blown up and warrant that you leave your main job.