The Value of Creating a Product You Aren’t Passionate About
Don’t turn your hobbies into a business; turn your SKILLS into a business. Hear me out…
So many makers think to themselves, “I LOVE doing this. I could make money doing this.” And then they try to create a business based on that feeling. I am here to say that MAY not be the best idea, for a few reasons. I am sure you’ve heard the old adage, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Apologies to whomever coined that, but it’s woefully untrue. If you’re going to make it as an entrepreneur, it is going to be HARD WORK, regardless of how much you love what you’re doing. I would actually go so far as to suggest that for a handmade, product based business, you should choose an item to sell that you are actually NOT passionate about!
What do I mean by that? Surely, you should be passionate about what you’re doing! And to an extent, yes. Here’s what I am suggesting: if there is something you enjoy a lot, it’s a nice escape from stress for you, you like making it as a gift, you don’t care how long a project takes because this is something you’re enjoying- THIS thing probably isn’t your business idea. In fact, turning it into a business may take something you love and turn into a source of stress and resentment. Keep some things for yourself- for your enjoyment and stress relief, no pressure or deadlines or profit margins involved.
BUT, you would still like to have a creative business, even if you don’t turn your HOBBY into a business. Don’t get me wrong, that does work for some people. But I would argue that those people are also enjoying the business aspect. That’s far different than just enjoying creating something.
Here are three tips to focus on turning your SKILL into a creative business, rather than your HOBBY:
Ask yourself if you actually like business. This will take hard work- and not all of it will be creative. You probably won’t have the funds right away to hire out the parts of this that you don’t like to do, and you’ll need to have at least the basic skills of finance to make sure that your record keeping and pricing is where it should be to save yourself a lot of trouble down the road.
Look at ways that your creative skills translate to something you are not AS emotionally attached to as you are to your hobbies, personal art, or outlets for stress. For example, if you draw, you don’t necessarily need to create custom, expensive works of art for every customer. You could use that skill to create a line of cards or stickers- something that can be easily reproduced and scaled to bring you an income that you can feel a little more objective about, while still tapping into that creative skill, and saving your “heart and soul” work.
Be pragmatic about profit margins. The truth is, art and other handmade items can take a long time to craft, EVEN when you aren’t spending a ton on supplies, though that can get pricey too! And there is nothing wrong with this at all…..when it’s a hobby. When you are considering turning your handmade work into a business, you have to think about money. You MUST consider, before you ever get started, how much something will cost you to make both in materials AND time, and then figure how how much you need to charge to make a profit. And not just turn a profit, but be able to put money back into your business, pay taxes, and pay yourself.
There is more that I could say on this, and I will again in the future, because I am SO adamant about it! This isn’t meant to discourage you, but to encourage you to find an avenue that you can reasonably make income with. I want to see people succeed, and not sell themselves short. I also want to see folks be able to sell their art to more than just a few people with a high amount of disposable income! I think most handmade artists would like to find the balance of being accessible in price, while still paying themselves fairly for their hard work. And that’s the spot that I would really love to help makers find. Is this something you struggle with? Let me know in the comments or on socials- let’s brainstorm your work and help you make a profit.
