Money Making Monday: Turn Your Hobby Into Cash
Taking something you love to do as a hobby and turning it into something you can make a little cash out of is something that many people talk about, but how does that translate to YOUR life? Well, with a little work, you can do it. This is something I'm still learning about myself, so if you have tips, as always, please leave them in the comments!
The first step is to look at your talents-are you a good seamstress or do you love to sew? How about baking or jam making? Cutting hair? Woodworking? Any of these-and many more-are valuable skills, and there are multiple ways to go about using them to your families advantage. There are small scale and larger scale options, so I'm just going to focus on a couple.
Small scale-using your skills within your neighborhood and local area. You can create some flyers advertising your services and put them up in local grocery stores, on bulletin boards, etc. with your phone number listed for people to call you. Also, spread the word to friends and family that you are available to make their next pie for dinner, for a small fee of course! Going to a larger scale, say you make gorgeous wooden shelves, or beautiful quilts and you want to access a bigger audience for your wares. Go global and start poking around the Internet! Etsy is a website devoted to the small artist, open a shop up there and your products will be out there for all to see. I've read many, many, positive things about Etsy, and my own store has been open for a few months. I'm just starting to stock it more, and promote it a bit as I get serious about my business, but so far I'm happy with it!
Going to craft fairs and the like is another way to attract a larger audience. They are alot of work, but if you want to make a little more money, and don't mind the time outside of the house it may be worth it to you. You could even approach local small store owners about selling your items in their shops. The worst they can say is no, but one yes is all it takes! That can be applied to anything you make-how many stores can you think of off the top of your head that sell everything from jelly to handmade clay figurines to wooden items to quilts? It may be that I live in a relatively "artsy fartsy" area, but there are two towns within an hours drive that have at least 100 of those little shops in them that I will be approaching in the next few months with my products, and I bet if you think about it you have at least one locally (or semi-locally) that you can check out.
This is just a starting point to get you thinking outside of the box on ways to get your services and products out there to bring in a little extra cash for your family. What ways have you used to get a little cash for your favorite hobby?
The first step is to look at your talents-are you a good seamstress or do you love to sew? How about baking or jam making? Cutting hair? Woodworking? Any of these-and many more-are valuable skills, and there are multiple ways to go about using them to your families advantage. There are small scale and larger scale options, so I'm just going to focus on a couple.
Small scale-using your skills within your neighborhood and local area. You can create some flyers advertising your services and put them up in local grocery stores, on bulletin boards, etc. with your phone number listed for people to call you. Also, spread the word to friends and family that you are available to make their next pie for dinner, for a small fee of course! Going to a larger scale, say you make gorgeous wooden shelves, or beautiful quilts and you want to access a bigger audience for your wares. Go global and start poking around the Internet! Etsy is a website devoted to the small artist, open a shop up there and your products will be out there for all to see. I've read many, many, positive things about Etsy, and my own store has been open for a few months. I'm just starting to stock it more, and promote it a bit as I get serious about my business, but so far I'm happy with it!
Going to craft fairs and the like is another way to attract a larger audience. They are alot of work, but if you want to make a little more money, and don't mind the time outside of the house it may be worth it to you. You could even approach local small store owners about selling your items in their shops. The worst they can say is no, but one yes is all it takes! That can be applied to anything you make-how many stores can you think of off the top of your head that sell everything from jelly to handmade clay figurines to wooden items to quilts? It may be that I live in a relatively "artsy fartsy" area, but there are two towns within an hours drive that have at least 100 of those little shops in them that I will be approaching in the next few months with my products, and I bet if you think about it you have at least one locally (or semi-locally) that you can check out.
This is just a starting point to get you thinking outside of the box on ways to get your services and products out there to bring in a little extra cash for your family. What ways have you used to get a little cash for your favorite hobby?
Labels: Money Making Monday
posted by Mika @ 7:39 AM
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