Turn Your Hobbies into Profit!

Everyobdy has a hobby.  Some people may even have several.  Be it scrapbooking, making greeting cards, making soaps, or even making model trains.  Now what is fascinating is, most people don't mind spending money to do their hobbies; but very few of them actually think of making money out of them.

Now granted, many have very little idea on how to market their wonderful products.  Perhaps they've never sold a thing in their lives.  Or maybe they don't know how to get customers, or even how much to charge for a product.  Lack of understanding on legal issues may also deter people.  But come on!  In this age of information, anyone can get their hands on the valuable knowledge needed to start up their own small business.  So stop making excuses and find them!

By the way, how small can this hobby-based "small business" be?

Well, let's not forget that Martha Stewart and Debbie Fields (of the famed Ms. Fields Cookies) started their multibillion dollar businesses from turning their hobbies into profit.  But if you want a more recent and "down to earth" example, you can look at Kim Waltee, the proprietor of the Montana Mountain Smoked, who started out her business 1993, making smoked fish--yup, that's her hobby.  Today, she owns a shop that brings her millions of dollars in profit.  And her story is not unique.  If you want to find more examples, just google the words hobbies, entrepreneurs, and profit, and you'll get stories upon stories of succesfful individuals who turn their hobbies into a money-making machine!

So are you set to do something about those hobbies?  Good!  This website will provide you with some valuable information and resources to help you turn your hobbies into profit.  If you go to the "Start Your Business" page, you'll get some ideas--and hopefully the motivation--to start your own business.  If your hobby is scrapbooking, soap making or collecting, we provide some more tailored resources for you.  Our main goal is to help you set up your business and make money from your hobby.

All you need to do now is make up your mind.  It's time that you earn something from what you love doing!

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Of all the resources out there, "ScrapbookingProfits" by Brent McFall is by far the best guide you can get to help you start--or expand--your business.  The other major book on scrapbooking business that I could get my hands on was Rebecca Pittman's "Scrapbooking for Profit: Cashing in on Retail, Home-Based and Internet Opportunities." This book was informative for basic info, like direct selling companies and marketing. However, it lacked more updated info for websites and selling directly on the internet which is so important in this day. It also did not give info on how to charge appropriately for you work. McFall's "ScrapbookingProfits" on the other hand, answered every question I had. How much should I charge? How do I find customers? How do I retain them? How to market my product? How to use the internet? It even gives suggestion for seemingly trivial aspects of the business, like how to pick the best place to meet your clients (which, to my surprise, increased signficantly their satisfaction as well as my fee). This is THE resource every scrapbook artists and business people need to have.