As kids, we are told that if we like something, we can make it into a career. Do you enjoy reading? Become a book critic. Do you like dancing? Become a professional choreographer. Do you love playing the game “Operation”? Become a doctor.
When we are younger, this is a way of encouraging us to continue with our passions and learn about what the future could hold. We spent many elementary school years coloring “what I want to be when I grow up” worksheets, dreaming about how to make our favorite activities our careers. As we grow up and take on careers, the ones we thought we’d be at 5 years old or not, there can still be that rhetoric around monetizing our favorite activities by starting a side hustle.
- Do you love to plan trips? Do it for others and make some quick cash.
- Are you great at knitting? Open up an online store to sell your items.
- Do you enjoy baking? Open a pop-up bakery on the weekends.
It seems like anytime you have a talent, a skill, or a hobby, you get comments about how you could make something you enjoy for the fun of it into a new business opportunity.
If you get comments like this often around your favorite hobbies and activities, you might be unsure if you want to turn them into your new side hustle. Before you decide, take a moment to look at your option from multiple perspectives.
Here are some pros and cons of monetizing your hobbies via a side hustle:
Increase in income
If you decide to monetize your passions, you get to decide how much to charge, how often you create, and how you connect with your audience. Some people decide they want to make a profit from their endeavors, while others want to get some return on their investment into their hobby so they can continue to do it. Either way, extra cash flow can be a big help.
Larger community
Hobbies have great communities of their own. There are clubs for so many hobbies that allow for new friendships to blossom and old friendships to grow. Monetizing can help expand your community to those on the business side as well. Additionally, by selling your product, you reach more people than you might have if you hadn’t.
Changing the purpose of your favorite activity
A hobby is defined as “an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure”. If you begin to do this activity as a side hustle, by definition it is no longer a hobby. You have changed the purpose of the lime spent which takes away from your autonomy over the activity itself. Now, instead of a hobby, you have another job.
Creating pressure where there wasn’t before
When you monetize something, there is an increased pressure. The customer needs the product by a certain time. The client is checking that there are not any imperfections or mistakes. You have to put a price on your time and effort instead of just enjoying the process.
Decreasing creative ability
If you increase the pressure to do something “right” for the benefit of the consumer, inevitably some creativity will be lost. Hobbies allow us to engage a part of our brain that is less critical of our mistakes, more willing to make new connections across domains and try new ways of going about a challenge. When the pressure is increased, many of us will struggle to continue with the same level of creativity with other measures taking precedence.
Having a side hustle is great, there’s a reason so many people have one, but remind yourself that keeping your hobby as a hobby and not a business opportunity is just as valid.
Some people enjoy entrepreneurship and creating businesses out of their other favorite activities. Others want to keep a sense of separation between their hobbies and their work. Those who engage in activities they enjoy have been shown to have higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction, so you’ll be doing something good for your brain either way.
Whether you decide to keep something as a hobby or pursue a side hustle, remember to make the decision based on what is best for you and your goals! And remember, you can always change your mind later and there is no “right” decision.
