Turn Your Hobby Into a Jobby

Side hustles are getting more play in the finance space as of late, and for good reason. With a side hustle, you can supplement your paycheck while also developing the talents that don’t get a lot of play in your nine-to-five. Committing to a side hustle could be the kick in the butt you need to develop a skill that you’re passionate about.

Maybe deciding to start your business pushes you to take an expert-level class on graphic design, or maybe gives you the vote of confidence you need to make a little space in your garage for a woodshop. But before you get too excited about the potential of more cash, remember: it’s money you have to hustle for, hence the name. You want to make sure you are leveraging a skill that’s really marketable, because if it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.

So, let’s get started! Whoever said “Good things happen to people who wait” did not have a side hustle, or at least not a successful one. The best way to get started is to quit talking and start doing. Let your hustle be louder than your doubts and your success will speak for itself. Here are the three steps you need to take in order to decide whether your hobby can turn into a jobby:

Step #1, list the possibilities.

You might have more than one hobby that gets your hustle juices flowing. To help decide which path to take, focus on the hobbies that fit the following criteria: you are really good at it, it’s a service or product that fills a void in the market and you can realistically make money at it. You want your jobby contenders to meet those three criteria, but list everything that meets that criteria.

Do you like dancing? Put it on the list. Talking on the phone? Put it on the list. Are you a beer connoisseur? Put it on the list. Don’t hold back!

Now that you have your list of hobbies, we can move onto Step #2: Is it worth your time?

Ask yourself: how much time do you have for your side hustle? Can you realistically stick to a self-imposed schedule while also having a full-time hustle?

Tackling your side hustle after a busy workday is going to require a lot of discipline. Look at the list of hobbies you made and now analyze the time you can devote to that hustle. Remember, your availability may be different for different hobbies, because some jobs you can do on your own at night, while others will be “client facing” and need to happen during traditional work hours, or require transportation that will eat into your available time/week.

Step #3: What’s the ROI?

The ROI, or return on investment, is the measurement of how much money you get back from the resources (money, time, energy) you put down. So, as you look over your list of hobbies and the amount of time you can put in, also think about what your initial investment will be in order to kick-start your business. Will you need equipment? A training course? Money to establish your LLC or whatever entity you choose? And, of course, how much do you project that you will make from your gig?

I’ll give you an example of these steps in context. I had a client once who was deciding between pursuing a side hustle as a copyeditor or as a makeup artist. She had six hours a week for her side hustle, and with copy editing could make $50/hour and as a makeup artist she could make $80/hour. Based on this fact alone, it looked like the makeup artist hustle would be the more lucrative hustle.

But, as a makeup artist, she would have to see clients in-person, so of the six hours she had for her side hustle, she had to shave off some of that time to account for travel and set-up time. In other words, she lost some earning potential. Plus, to be a makeup artist, she would need to put down $500 for makeup, brushes and a new carrying case. She had just gotten a new computer so she was all set-up for copyediting. She was looking to start making a profit quickly, so based on her analysis, copyediting had better earning potential.

Remember, you are looking for the options with the lowest initial investment that can yield good money for the hours put in, and, maybe, could turn into a career.

While the hustle of the hustle is real, so is the upside, and will potentially lead to more reward than you ever imagined.

I’m speaking from personal experience here. When I was working as an anchor, I started a production company as my side-hustle. While I was doing both jobs, I had to put a lot of other things on the back burner. But if I could go back, I would do it all over again. Working for myself was more rewarding than any job I had before. In fact, after almost eighteen months of juggling both jobs, I made my production side hustle, my full-time career, and never looked back.

xo,