Rules of money
Rules of money
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CHASHA FARMING
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 4, 2011
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NJIA ZA KUPATA PESA NI HIZI HAPA CHINI
You can make money from your hobby.Whether you knit, or write, or make photographs, or grow a vegetable garden, or tinker with cars, or build web sites, or collect ancient coins - you can make money from your hobby.I'm not saying it's possible to get rich by playing your violin at weddings, or by weaving baskets from pine needles, but earning money from a hobby is a nice way to get paid for doing something you would do anyhow.
This article is the first in a series that will explore how to turn a hobby into a source of side income. In the weeks and months ahead, I'll describe general best practices, discuss potential pitfalls, and provide case studies culled from my friends, and from the stories of readers like you. (If you'd like to share your experience, please drop me a line.)First, by way of introduction, here are some ground-rules for making money from hobbies
.Focus on something you love
Pursue something you're passionate about. Choose a hobby that you enjoy, and find a way to make money from it. Don't choose a hobby simply because it might make money and then dive into it with that aim in mind. You should be doing this hobby because you love it; any side-income should be secondary.I love to write. I was struggling with debt. I began to read personal finance books, and then to summarize what I'd learned for my personal web site. From this, Get Rich Slowly was born. Now I make over a thousand dollars a month writing about personal finance. But I didn't start this for the money - I started this because I was passionate about the subject.Keep it fun. Don't let it become a chore.
Be creative
If you're interested in making money from a hobby but don't know where to start, think outside the box. What skills do you have that others don't? Define the term "hobby" broadly. Find something that you can do that most others cannot, something for which other people might be willing to pay.At my day job, I have a customer whose wife loves to cook. She turned this hobby into a part-time job as a personal chef. She prepares meals in advance for wealthy clients. She spends a few hours a day preparing a week-long menu for people who pay her handsomely for her time.I have a friend who likes to travel. One day he discovered that he could subsidize his journeys by writing about the places he visited, and by taking photographs. Now every couple of years he takes an all expense paid vacation. He's doing something he'd do anyhow, and it doesn't cost him a dime
.Don't force it
Your hobby will not make you rich. In most cases, it won't even net you enough to allow you to quit your day job. It's quite possible, however, to earn enough money to make the hobby self-sustaining, to keep yourself in new tools and equipment.My brother builds speakers and works with audio equipment as a hobby. He makes some money at it. ("Spending money," he says.) Jeff notes, "It's not hard to make money from a hobby. What's difficult is trying to turn it into an actual business. Moving from a hobby to a business is a pain-in-the-ass."Often when you try to take your hobby to the next level, the joy goes out of it. Suddenly the extra income just isn't worth it. When I tried to turn my computer-building hobby into a business, I hated it. There's a balance to be achieved, and if you can find it, you can have a fun while earning extra income.
Don't underestimate your ability
It's easy to discount your abilities. When you truly love something, your prolonged experience can give you skills and knowledge that you don't appreciate.For example, I have a love for early 20th-century American pop culture. My brain is filled with facts and anecdotes about once-famous recording artists. I sometimes find myself under the impression that everybody knows who Billy Murray was, or is familiar with the song "Ukulele Lady". But this isn't common knowledge - it's specialized.The same concept holds true for you and your hobby. Know a lot about Napoleonic warfare? Start a blog about Admiral Nelson. Spend time tinkering with bicycles? Open a small-scale bike repair service. Not everybody knows what you know. Don't sell yourself short.
Market yourself
This can be difficult. In order to actually earn income, you need customers. But just as most people have a tendency to underestimate their abilities, they also tend be uncomfortable with self-promotion.There's no shame in mentioning your money-making hobby to friends, family, and neighbors. You needn't be pushy. Just mention it at natural points in the conversation. If you've decided to do some woodworking for cash, mention this when your uncle mentions he wants to buy a new bookshelf.Marketing can be subtle, but it's an absolute necessity if you hope to earn money from your hobby. People need to know you're available before they can hire you.
Hone your skill
Practice, practice, practice. The more time and energy you're willing to devote to your hobby, the better you will become. The better you become, the more likely that you'll be able to earn money from it.Photography is a terrific example. If you're willing to make a hundred images a day, you can improve your skills quickly, especially if you teach yourself about composition. You may never become a professional photographer this way, but you can develop your skill to the point where you can sell images to stock photo agencies, or enter (and win) photography contests.Some people are born with natural talent. Most of us have to work at it.
Conclusion
Why should you care about making money from hobbies? Remember: the wealth equation has two sides. You accumulate wealth by reducing expenses and by increasing income. Often we only focus only on our careers when it comes to "increasing income". But there are other ways to make money. One of the best is to harness a hobby.
HAPA KUNA WEALTH EQUATION
Personal finance is easy. It's simple. There is one fundamental law that governs your money. If you master this, you have mastered the entire game: To gain wealth, you must spend less than you earn.In David Copperfield - one of my favorite books - Charles Dickens wrote:
This article is the first in a series that will explore how to turn a hobby into a source of side income. In the weeks and months ahead, I'll describe general best practices, discuss potential pitfalls, and provide case studies culled from my friends, and from the stories of readers like you. (If you'd like to share your experience, please drop me a line.)First, by way of introduction, here are some ground-rules for making money from hobbies
.Focus on something you love
Pursue something you're passionate about. Choose a hobby that you enjoy, and find a way to make money from it. Don't choose a hobby simply because it might make money and then dive into it with that aim in mind. You should be doing this hobby because you love it; any side-income should be secondary.I love to write. I was struggling with debt. I began to read personal finance books, and then to summarize what I'd learned for my personal web site. From this, Get Rich Slowly was born. Now I make over a thousand dollars a month writing about personal finance. But I didn't start this for the money - I started this because I was passionate about the subject.Keep it fun. Don't let it become a chore.
Be creative
If you're interested in making money from a hobby but don't know where to start, think outside the box. What skills do you have that others don't? Define the term "hobby" broadly. Find something that you can do that most others cannot, something for which other people might be willing to pay.At my day job, I have a customer whose wife loves to cook. She turned this hobby into a part-time job as a personal chef. She prepares meals in advance for wealthy clients. She spends a few hours a day preparing a week-long menu for people who pay her handsomely for her time.I have a friend who likes to travel. One day he discovered that he could subsidize his journeys by writing about the places he visited, and by taking photographs. Now every couple of years he takes an all expense paid vacation. He's doing something he'd do anyhow, and it doesn't cost him a dime
.Don't force it
Your hobby will not make you rich. In most cases, it won't even net you enough to allow you to quit your day job. It's quite possible, however, to earn enough money to make the hobby self-sustaining, to keep yourself in new tools and equipment.My brother builds speakers and works with audio equipment as a hobby. He makes some money at it. ("Spending money," he says.) Jeff notes, "It's not hard to make money from a hobby. What's difficult is trying to turn it into an actual business. Moving from a hobby to a business is a pain-in-the-ass."Often when you try to take your hobby to the next level, the joy goes out of it. Suddenly the extra income just isn't worth it. When I tried to turn my computer-building hobby into a business, I hated it. There's a balance to be achieved, and if you can find it, you can have a fun while earning extra income.
Don't underestimate your ability
It's easy to discount your abilities. When you truly love something, your prolonged experience can give you skills and knowledge that you don't appreciate.For example, I have a love for early 20th-century American pop culture. My brain is filled with facts and anecdotes about once-famous recording artists. I sometimes find myself under the impression that everybody knows who Billy Murray was, or is familiar with the song "Ukulele Lady". But this isn't common knowledge - it's specialized.The same concept holds true for you and your hobby. Know a lot about Napoleonic warfare? Start a blog about Admiral Nelson. Spend time tinkering with bicycles? Open a small-scale bike repair service. Not everybody knows what you know. Don't sell yourself short.
Market yourself
This can be difficult. In order to actually earn income, you need customers. But just as most people have a tendency to underestimate their abilities, they also tend be uncomfortable with self-promotion.There's no shame in mentioning your money-making hobby to friends, family, and neighbors. You needn't be pushy. Just mention it at natural points in the conversation. If you've decided to do some woodworking for cash, mention this when your uncle mentions he wants to buy a new bookshelf.Marketing can be subtle, but it's an absolute necessity if you hope to earn money from your hobby. People need to know you're available before they can hire you.
Hone your skill
Practice, practice, practice. The more time and energy you're willing to devote to your hobby, the better you will become. The better you become, the more likely that you'll be able to earn money from it.Photography is a terrific example. If you're willing to make a hundred images a day, you can improve your skills quickly, especially if you teach yourself about composition. You may never become a professional photographer this way, but you can develop your skill to the point where you can sell images to stock photo agencies, or enter (and win) photography contests.Some people are born with natural talent. Most of us have to work at it.
Conclusion
Why should you care about making money from hobbies? Remember: the wealth equation has two sides. You accumulate wealth by reducing expenses and by increasing income. Often we only focus only on our careers when it comes to "increasing income". But there are other ways to make money. One of the best is to harness a hobby.
HAPA KUNA WEALTH EQUATION
Personal finance is easy. It's simple. There is one fundamental law that governs your money. If you master this, you have mastered the entire game: To gain wealth, you must spend less than you earn.In David Copperfield - one of my favorite books - Charles Dickens wrote:
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.
That's all it takes. Think of it another way. Think of it like an arithmetic equation:
[WEALTH] = [WHAT YOU EARN] – [WHAT YOU SPEND]
If you spend more than you earn, you are losing wealth. You are accumulating debt. You are heading in the wrong direction. However, if you are earning more than you spend, you are accumulating wealth. The greater the gap you can create between earning and spending, the faster you will accumulate wealth. There are only two things you can do to gain more wealth: spend less and earn more.Spending less is something that you can do right now with little or no effort. Just stop spending money. Seriously. That's it. Don't buy things. Sure, you need to buy some things, but if you learn to pay less for the essentials (food, shelter, clothing), and if you can learn to reduce your wants, you can trim spending by a shocking amount. Learn how to shop for groceries and to make your own food. Develop a frugal mindset. Live simply.
Earning money is the other half of the wealth equation. If you can increase the amount you earn, you will accumulate wealth more quickly. Because earning money is so important, many personal finance books stress that your career is your most important asset. Your most important asset is not your house; it's not your investment account; it is not - heaven forbid - your car. It's your career. This is why a college education is so important:
it can help you land a better job, can increase your earning power. This is why your professional reputation is so important: what your employer thinks of you, what your co-workers think of you, what your customers think of you allplay a role in your success. If you treat your career like a prized possession, you'll have greater success at finding better paying, more-fulfilling jobs.This may seem petty or obvious.
But smart personal finance really is this simple: spend less than you earn. Everything else - the paying yourself first, the investing ten percent of what you make, the emergency fund, the debt snowball - everything else is simply done in support of this fundamental law. When you grasp this concept, most financial decisions become obvious.
[WEALTH] = [WHAT YOU EARN] – [WHAT YOU SPEND]
If you spend more than you earn, you are losing wealth. You are accumulating debt. You are heading in the wrong direction. However, if you are earning more than you spend, you are accumulating wealth. The greater the gap you can create between earning and spending, the faster you will accumulate wealth. There are only two things you can do to gain more wealth: spend less and earn more.Spending less is something that you can do right now with little or no effort. Just stop spending money. Seriously. That's it. Don't buy things. Sure, you need to buy some things, but if you learn to pay less for the essentials (food, shelter, clothing), and if you can learn to reduce your wants, you can trim spending by a shocking amount. Learn how to shop for groceries and to make your own food. Develop a frugal mindset. Live simply.
Earning money is the other half of the wealth equation. If you can increase the amount you earn, you will accumulate wealth more quickly. Because earning money is so important, many personal finance books stress that your career is your most important asset. Your most important asset is not your house; it's not your investment account; it is not - heaven forbid - your car. It's your career. This is why a college education is so important:
it can help you land a better job, can increase your earning power. This is why your professional reputation is so important: what your employer thinks of you, what your co-workers think of you, what your customers think of you allplay a role in your success. If you treat your career like a prized possession, you'll have greater success at finding better paying, more-fulfilling jobs.This may seem petty or obvious.
But smart personal finance really is this simple: spend less than you earn. Everything else - the paying yourself first, the investing ten percent of what you make, the emergency fund, the debt snowball - everything else is simply done in support of this fundamental law. When you grasp this concept, most financial decisions become obvious.
