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Your Hobby as Your Business
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Retirees are looking for interesting businesses to start. Is a hobby business right for you? Author Stan Spector explores the opportunity of starting a business from your hobby.
By Stan Spector
Most people think that working at their hobby would make the best retirement business that they might consider. While I concur with this thinking, there are a few warnings that come with this option.
Think about your hobby. Are there supplies that you regularly have to buy? Are these supplies easy to find locally? Can the resulting products be cheaply shipped by parcel delivery services, which would allow you to sell the items on-line and not require you to open a storefront with the associated rents, utilities and staff? This will also allow you to run your business during different times of day, at your convenience. If you need storage space, you could rent inexpensive storage areas. If there is a lot of competition for selling supplies, look at carrying specialty items that local stores do not carry. Are there customer-made products available for you to sell? The large chain hobby shops do not like to carry a lot of these specialty items; they go after the mass-produced items and the items that sell the most.
Is the product you make from your hobby a salable product? Everyone thinks they are, but I recommend that you first buy a booth at a festival and try to sell some of your products. This will give you a chance to meet and talk with some of your potential customers. You’d be surprised how frank they can be to you about your quality, pricing and design. If you are able to sell large amounts at a festival, you have a chance of having a good supplemental business. But don’t go too far until you have proven you can sell enough to make a business from this.
Now for the warnings:
The market frequently is not prepared to spend what it costs you to make your product if there is a (lower quality but functional) product that is less than half of the price of yours, made in a low cost production company. If the market is there they will probably demand the highest level of quality and may not consider your work of that level. Remember you are competing against others who have probably been doing this full-time for many years.
Don’t even think of renting large amounts of space with all the costs involved, unless you know you will have the sales. That is the quickest way to take a very big risk with your money.
Don’t assume that your hobby equipment will hold up under high demand put on it by your using it for a business. It is probably fine to test the market with it but you will have to buy heavy-duty commercial equipment for it to last long and to turn out the highest quality work.
And remember that you have started a business. You are no longer doing this just for fun.
But good luck! This can be the happiest way to make supplemental income during your retirement.
Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income- Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree” The book web site is www.StanSpector.com
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