Turning a hobby into a side hustle can be highly rewarding (and very tempting for extra money!)
Whilst some hobbies can work quite well as small businesses, others are probably more enjoyable when they remain separate from work and the headaches that go along with it, such as deadlines and high expectations from customers.
The most important thing to ask yourself is whether turning your hobby into a side hustle will suck the joy out of it. Making money sounds great, but you don’t want it to ruin your experience of an activity you love.
Why Turn a Hobby Into a Side Hustle?
A hobby-based side hustle can let you:
- Earn extra money from an existing skill
- Pay for more tools and materials
- Test out a small business idea before you commit
- Reach people who appreciate your work
- Improve your skills by forcing yourself to work regularly
- Build an income stream gradually
You may also enjoy having a practical ‘why’ to motivate you to make more items or develop your skills.
However, you really need to keep in mind that earning money from a hobby goes beyond just the craft.
What Changes When a Hobby Becomes Work?
Once customers are involved, you may need to deal with:
- Deadlines
- Pricing
- Packaging and postage
- Marketing
- Messages and customer service
- Record keeping
- Repeating popular products
- Producing work, even when you don’t want to
- Taxes!
For example, just because you love jewellery making doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll enjoy photographing products, writing listings and posting orders.
The business surrounding the hobby may take as much time (if not more) as the actual creative work.
Will You Still Enjoy the Hobby?
Consider whether you enjoy making things to your own taste or whether you would be happy to adapt your work for customers.
A hobby can feel different when:
- Someone else chooses the design
- You need to complete it by a set date
- You must calculate the cost of your time
- Mistakes affect an order
- You need to make the same item over, and over (and over) again
Some people enjoy this extra structure, but others find that it removes the freedom that made the hobby relaxing and may therefore start to resent and dread what they’ve gotten themselves into.
Is There Demand for What You Make?
Being good at a hobby doesn’t guarantee that people will pay enough for the finished result.
Before investing in supplies and materials, look at:
- What similar items sell for
- The cost of materials
- Selling and payment fees
- Packaging and postage
- The time required to make each item
- Whether customers are already looking for it
A product may be popular but still difficult to sell profitably if it takes many hours to make (not worth your time), or unexpected platform fees or delivery and packaging fees eat into your margins.
Can You Start Small?
You don’t have to turn your hobby into a full-on business immediately.
You could begin by:
- Selling a few finished items
- Taking part in one craft fair
- Listing surplus creations online
- Accepting only a limited number of orders
- Teaching one beginner workshop
- Selling a simple pattern or digital resource
A small test can show whether you enjoy the process of selling and running a business before you commit more time or money.
Do You Need to Monetise Every Hobby?
No and no. Absolutely not.
A hobby doesn’t need to earn money to justify the time spent on it.
Keeping an activity purely for enjoyment can protect it from financial pressure. If you’re like most people, you probably have enough going on in your life without converting your free time into another source of work.
If you want to, it’s also possible to monetise one hobby whilst keeping another completely private, recreational, and ‘just for you’.
Questions to Ask Before Starting
Before turning your hobby into a side hustle, ask yourself these:
- Do I enjoy making things for other people?
- Would I still like this activity if I had to follow a deadline?
- Am I willing to handle the administrative work?
- Can I charge enough to cover my costs and time?
- Do I have space for materials and stock?
- Would I be disappointed if sales were slow?
- Can I stop or scale it back if it becomes stressful?
Honest answers are more useful than assuming that making money will automatically make the hobby more worthwhile and bearable.
Should You Try It?
A hobby-based side hustle may suit you when you enjoy both the creative work and the process of selling it.
Start yourself off with a small, low-risk experiment rather than buying large quantities of supplies or accepting too many orders. Keep track of your costs, time and enjoyment as well as your sales.
You can continue if the experience is rewarding, change the business model if parts of it are not working, or revert it to being a hobby only.
Turning a hobby into a side hustle is an option you can take if you truly want to. Never do it out of a sense of obligation.