Network marketing, freelancing and, now, selling your art, music, and crafts at fairs and festivals.

I’ve tried each one of these.

When I was in my earth mother stage of life; living in the country, looking after small children and gardening, I took $1000 and started growing and drying flowers to convert into decorative wreaths, potpourri and various other items. The start-up money went for seed, gardening tools and flower arranging supplies as well as setting up a work space.

While I enjoyed working in the garden and creating the product, my sales at the outdoor markets never justified the time and effort I put into the business.  And, in the start-up phase, as is typical, I never made a profit.

Not long after I began, my husband lost his job and we moved to another state leaving behind the garden and the workshop I’d created.  Perhaps, given more time, I might have built a base of returning customers and streamlined my systems to save time.  I will never know.  Life happens.

Learning Along the Way

You too may find you lose money on your first business venture. Many successful entrepreneurs failed more than once before succeeding.  If you are new to the business world, you probably have a lot to learn.  If this is the case, you can do worse than learning to run a business by monetizing your hobby. If working in your medium to create profitable arts and crafts appeals to you, here are some resources.

• Festival Network Online. This searchable database of 17,000-plus festivals, arts and crafts shows, and other events also offers information on products, services and resources for artists and other vendors. Membership starts at $49 a year. Free demo available.
• The Crafts Fair Online. This website offers links to thousands of crafters’ websites plus listings of craft shows and information about suppliers, publications, newsgroups, classes, software and more.

For a dose of reality, selling your hobby is not an easy way to make a living, see this article by Rosalind Resnick

Of course, you can shorten your learning curve and minimize your risk if you read my book and work with me.

Photo by Remy Baudouin on Unsplash