From crafting to baking, to make money doing what you love you’ve got to turn that hobby into a small business and we have the tips for it.
Turning your hobby into a business with a decent profit isn’t easy. However, during the lockdown, many people took advantage of the extra free time, and the sudden influx to small, local retailers, and did exactly that.
To be transparent: post-lockdown, and during the cost-of-living crisis, small businesses are even more difficult to create and maintain, but it can be done.
Hobby to Small Business tips:
You must be passionate
This one should go without saying. Creating a spur-of-the-moment ‘business’ to make quick money isn’t the way. It can be expensive, demanding and, when it comes to the organisational part, boring. Make sure you enjoy your hobby enough before you make it a business, or it could fall through very quickly.
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Write everything down
If you want any kind of profit, have an excel spreadsheet or a notebook to keep track of what you are spending on materials. When I began to write my outgoings down, I was stunned to find out how little profit I was actually made from my business. A key thing to remember with this is to try and factor in payment for your time – you’ll rarely cover your time spent, but don’t forget about it entirely.
Recognise who your target market is
By recognising your target market, you will be able to adapt many things: the style of your business; the social media platforms you advertise on (Instagram if you have a younger audience, Facebook if your audience is older) and your price range.
Research different selling platforms
Between insurance fees, selling fees, different kinds of taxes and other charges, selling platforms have you all ways. They are constantly looking for ways to charge you extra for each item. Research where your business is likely to have the lowest selling fees. If you sell any kind of clothing, Vinted has no seller fees and is an excellent platform. However, Etsy would be a better site for homeware, prints etc, although they are always, irritatingly, increasing their seller fees.
Advertise, advertise, advertise
Use social media to build a consistent online presence. You will never beat the algorithms, but by posting often, you are increasing the likelihood of your posts being seen. Daily posts and stories are great, but to make them worthwhile, make sure they are interactive. Ask your audience questions, directing them to the comment box for their answers. Quick polls are also incredibly effective, and Reels/short videos seem to be the way forward in social media marketing at the moment.
Trust the process
Selling to only friends and family for a few months may feel like a failure like they are making pity purchases, but that’s certainly not the case. Any profit is good profit for your business. Persevere and you will see results eventually, even if it takes time.