Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life

Sounds familiar right?

Earning some money while doing a hobby sounds really great but here’s the catch; It’s not as easy as it sounds. Your hobby may not even have market value. Starting a business has a lot of challenges, and considering that it’s passion driven, the necessary tasks to be done might drain all the fun out of it.
Another thing may be that there’s already something similar in the market and trying to stand out may not be so much fun. Or you might just find out that when money and customer satisfaction is involved, it’s no longer fun.

For example, I love to read (not my only hobby though). Now I could say, I’d love to read for a living.
Now that work is involved, it takes more energy to read a client’s manuscript or the work of new writers. I don’t get to read for fun again, instead I have to read with critical eyes, searching for mistakes, trying to evaluate the quality and which audience the book can sell to. I’d have to make constant notes where there are issues in the article.
My mind would have to be processing both the story and my reaction to the story.
Not so relaxing.
But these are just few challenges and shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to make money doing what he/she loves. There are some things that can be done about these challenges.

Personal Questions you should ask Yourself:

• Is my hobby something I can do everyday?
• Would it become a burden when it changes from something I want to do to something I must do?
• Is it something you can do for free?
• Is it something I’m naturally curious about and interested in getting better at?
• Is there a demand for it in the market?
• Is there something similar already existing? If so, how can I differentiate?

Monetize Your Obsession:

Hone Your Skill:

When it’s a passion driven start-up, it’s easy to assume that you’re already an expert, but you should remember that businesses and markets change, and you need to adapt to these changes to sustain your business.
You need to be willing to learn to stay on top of the latest developments.
It’s also important to have an open mind and listen to feedback.
So you can create a channel that allows you to find out what your customers think of your products and services, and what can be improved.

Preserve the Fun:

It’s easy to lose interest when things get tough. To avoid this, remind yourself why you started the business. Hire people to do the part you don’t enjoy or you’re not good at.
For example, if you just like to paint, but you don’t enjoy bargaining prices, you can hire someone else to do the marketing.
Hiring people to take on other aspects of the business helps to keep you focused on the tasks you actually love doing.

Offer Your Skill/product:

You can teach your skill to an audience or write about it or offer to perform at an event for free (where applicable) and build your fanbase from there.
If you’re an authority in that area, people would be willng to pay to learn from you. You can also take advantage of technology and teach online.

Don’t Restrict Your Income To One Channel:

I’ve seen people quit their jobs when they’re so enthusiastic with building their business and they regret it along the line when some things don’t go as planned. Doing something else to earn a living while building your business is not wrong at all.

Do a Trial:

Trying out one strategy at a time would help you decide if you really want to continue with turning your hobby into a career.
It will also expose you to some things you didn’t see at first and help you decide a better approach to take in future.

After few months and you still love what you’re doing, then why not?