It Ain't All About PEZ Dispensers Or...??? By Dan ReinholdOh joy, oh rapture, oh happy day!! You've discovered
Internet, where you can make oodles of moolah with your hobby!!!
Well...no.
"But", you frantically implore, "I've been making/building/creating/counterfeiting [Insert Your Favorite Here] for years and years, and people say I'm really really good!"
OK...Happy for you!
"But", you implore ever more insistantly, "all my friends, co-workers and family say how I always drone on about my hobby to exclusion of all other topics of conversation, even going so far as to change subject of any conversation I encounter to being about my hobby!!"
That's fine...Right after you realize that your friends all moved without leaving forwarding addresses and majority of your family is embroiled in a class action lawsuit for special waivers to enter Witness Protection program, there's a little something you need to know.
You can't make money with your hobby.
That is, not as long as it's your hobby.
Sorry. Now you really have a headache!
What I mean is you need to stop thinking of your hobby as a hobby.
If you intend to make money with it, it becomes a business.
Let's make that stand out just a little more: It becomes a business.
This is part where someone always says, "I don't WANT a business. I just want to make some money with my hobby".
Alrighty, once more, and this this I'll write veeeerrry slooooowwwly...
A hobby is something you do for fun, relaxation, self-fulfillment and that kind of stuff. A business is something you do for money - regardless of whether you also get fun, relaxation, self-fulfillment or whatever from it.
Rule No. 1: You must change your hobby into your business.
That's a totally different mindset. No longer are you performing these tasks for sheer enjoyment of doing so. It's become that horrible four-letter word - WORK. That's only in very strictest sense, because you'll have to do whatever you do to do what you need to do for money.
Now I've got a headache...
It's like being a professional musician. Music isn't a mere job for them. It's a passion, something they need to do almost as desperately as breathing or watching latest episode of Survivor.
