Guest Contributor Eleanor Wyatt from Remoteworkwellness.net
Maybe you spend lots of time outside of work focused on a particular hobby, and you’re wondering if you could take your passion and turn it into a profitable side hustle. Whether you’re a writer, artist, or web designer, you can transform your hobby into a new income stream.
If you’re an aspiring author, working with a publisher like Hadassah’s Crown Publishing can help you get your words out into the world! Plus, here’s how to start an online business based around your hobby, from picking the right ecommerce platform to practicing a smart time management strategy.
Explore Online Business Ideas
Think about how your specific talents and hobbies could lend themselves to specific business models. For instance, if you love to draw, you could become a graphic designer, and if you enjoy filming and editing videos in your spare time, you could work as a freelance videographer.
Do you love to write? Your side hustle options are practically endless! You could write ebooks for thought leaders, provide blog posts to businesses, work as an editor or proofreader, or write whitepapers, grant applications, and other forms of business copy for organizations across industries.
Sell Handmade Goods With an Ecommerce Platform
What if you’ve always loved arts and crafts, and you love giving out handmade goods as gifts? Whether you enjoy knitting, pottery, jewelry-making, designing t-shirts or signs, or another creative hobby, you could start up an ecommerce business.
To get your ecommerce business up and running, you’ll need to register with a unified sales platform. This will let you implement customized shopping experiences for your customers across different media channels. As you explore software solutions related to commerce, keep in mind that you’ll want access to features like content creation and publishing tools, inventory management and tracking, data analytics reports, payment processing capability, and visual customization options.
Create a Basic Business Plan
You’re excited about your business idea - but now, it’s time to take things one step further with a clear, concrete plan. Your business plan will serve as an essential tool so that you’re not operating your new company based on guesswork. Bplans recommends including an executive summary, details about your products and services, a market analysis along with a basic marketing and sales strategy, a budget, and preliminary financial projections.
Manage Your Time Wisely
Rather than jumping into full-time entrepreneurship with your new business, it’s a smart idea to build your new company as a side hustle while holding down your full-time job until you’re bringing in enough money to support yourself. To avoid burnout, VirtualVocations recommends creating a schedule with a time to “clock out” each day - otherwise, you could end up pushing yourself to work throughout every waking hour!
Network With Friends and Family
Digital promotion should be part of your marketing strategy - you’ll want to set up a website and use social media to reach potential customers. But although digital marketing is essential for entrepreneurs today, don’t forget about the power of traditional offline marketing methods either! Look into joining a professional organization for business owners in your industry, and share the news about your business with your social circle - they might want to patronize you!
If you’re creatively talented, your hobby might have income-generating potential. Chances are, people will be eager to buy your products or invest in your services! With this guide, you’ll be prepared to lay out your business plan, start an ecommerce site, and connect with your very first customers.
Seeking a publisher for your manuscript? Turn to Hadassah’s Crown Publishing! Fill out our contact form today to learn more about our services for authors.