New to Group! TwT

@AutisticDragon

Hey Dragon, welcome!

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience :(

What are your hobbies if you want to share? 🌻

More than anything else, be ready to work. Because you will do a lot of that. When you're not producing you'll be thinking about how to work more efficiently, or how to increase sales, or what to do about websearch algorithms so more people online can see your stuff, etc. Owning & running a business--any business--is more than a full-time job.

I was a vendor for a few years, in the late 2000's. Sold prints made from my artwork, & for a while I also made bracelets out of hemp (braiding & knotting) & made pendants from polymer clay & other materials. If I had to do it over again I would skip the other stuff & focus on selling the prints. It is smart to specialize in what you do best. Remember that you only have so many hours in the day, so it makes sense to not do anything that doesn't help the business--including making stuff that won't actually sell.

Look on Amaz0n or bookshop.org for books about how to run a hobby-based biz...best thing to do is to learn from people who do it successfully.

@AutisticDragon

Making a hobby into a business, the biggest thing I try find people need to consider is the time cost vs what people are willing to pay for your handmade goods.

For example, knitting a large blanket not only costs a lot for yarn, it also takes a long time. But most people would pay maybe the cost of materials for a blanket. Meanwhile knitting smaller items can work up faster, has lower material cost, and might actually be more profitable. I find a similar thing with sewing, sure people want me to sew them dresses, but the materials and time rapidly make it unprofitable, meanwhile around the holidays I can sew up various simple reusable gift bags quickly at a lower time and financial cost. So overall it's not necessarily which hobby you are trying to monetize but the time cost and material cost that goes into the product you are producing.

Aside from trying to account for the time and material cost, it can also be good to look at your market, see if there are others selling similar items, how they price theirs, and what sort of competition you may face. I know with the above knitting example, many sell their products simply to get the cost of materials back as they knit to fill their time, so people won't want to pay more because they don't have to from other sellers.

One caveat, if you love a hobby, you might not want to monetize it, it might take something you love doing and turn it into something you 'have to do', so I would probably weigh that into my decision as well.

Whatever you do, I hope it will go well for you!
Also, welcome to Hobby Zone!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜