How Do You Turn Your Passion into a Business?
I don’t know.
I’m still learning, so any tips would be greatly appreciated.
I was extremely close to just leaving this blog post there…
Merging your interests and passions and hobbies with making money seems so easy when you think about it; I really enjoy creating art, so I’ll make some, post it and someone will enjoy my work and purchase it. But it isn’t that easy. There’s so many steps. Between all of the legal things you gotta figure out and the marketing, you also have to come to terms with being in the public eye at least a little bit. Which, for some people, like myself, that’s so hard to do. To put yourself out there on social media or at art shows or on the internet, is to invite criticism, judgment, and the opinions of others. So, basically, you just gotta get nice and comfy with letting the opinions of strangers roll right off of you. And, like we’ve established in earlier posts, I’m an emotional human being, so this is, by far, my biggest obstacle.
But aside from my scared, little brain getting over that, there are practical steps that need to be taken if you want to turn your pottery hobby into a pottery business. Here, I shall share with you how I am doing that.
What I did to get to where I am:
Came up with a name for my business and made sure no other businesses had already taken it.
Registered my business in my state and federally. I just googled how to do this and followed the steps. I’m not going to claim to be an expert here, so just search those interwebs and find the actual experts to help you. I live in Washington State, so I went to this website and it pointed me in all of the directions. Note that there will be fees. I think I spent around $200 to register my business.
After registering your business, filing all of the correct paperwork, and receiving your EIN (Employer Identification Number), you’ll need to set up a bank account.
I did a business account through my local bank. I’m still unsure if this is the right move because if I don’t have a minimum of $1,500 in it, I am charged $10 per month. Which, I’m absolutely not living up to that standard yet, soooo. My mom’s husband is an accountant and is going to go through all of this with me to fix my mistakes, so I’ll make a more detailed post about that when we get to that point.
Purchase insurance. Now, this completely depends on your business type. As someone who will be going to art shows, insurance is usually required by those who run these events. Insurance is probably a good way to go, regardless, though because you never know what can happen or what accidents your costumers may have in your business or with your products.
After these steps, your business will be legal and you can take your next actions based on how you wanna run it. Social media, websites, etc. The Internet is your oyster!
Now, I have not truly turned my passion into a money-making machine, so ya’ll can grow with me in real time to see how this advice, and future advice, I give you plays out…I’m currently in the ‘I have a legally registered business, but have not made the jump to actually selling my wares’ stage of turning my pottery hobby into a pottery business. But, uh, I think it’s going pretty good. You’ll have to stick around to see if I make it. **Hope this is a foreshadowing of me being a great success (Borat voice) and not a foreshadowing of me being a great failure. Either way, I’m sure it’s gonna be a great learning experience that you can learn from.
