Should you turn your hobby into your career?

Should your passion pay?

Karmjit, who took the leap and turned a volunteer project into a career talks through how to decide whether to turn a hobby into your career.

What’s the saying? Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life? While turning a passion into a job can sound like the ultimate dream, the reality can be more complicated. And I can speak from experience, having changed careers, from working in public affairs and communications, to retraining as a career coach. Before you take the leap, I found it invaluable working through some honest questions with my own career coach to see if my idea had legs and whether it was the right move for me.

Here are some of the questions I asked myself before making the decision: 

Think about the future

What might not seem important now could matter a lot in five or ten years’ time. Money, location, job security, flexibility: they can all become bigger priorities as life changes. Ask yourself: if my circumstances shift, will this still work for me? Can you build a plan that’s adaptable if your income needs grow, you move elsewhere, or you need more stability? For me, I had to balance the positives of having way more flexibility and choosing my hours with no paid annual leave and no team to support me when things came up. When I was in full time work with an employer and I had a family emergency and simply no headspace for work because of difficult personal circumstances, I could drop everything, still be paid and someone in my team could deliver that presentation for me. If a big life change were to occur tomorrow, this would look very different. 

Do your market research

Loving your hobby is one thing, but is there a paying market for it? Who’s your competition? What are people charging? Is it seasonal or consistent all year round? Can it generate a sustainable income, or will you need to combine it with other work? A bit of research now could save you a lot of stress later on. I made sure I connected with career coaches who were already established and got some great advice and intel from them, researched other coach’s websites and asked my friends and professional connections how coaching worked in their organisation to get an idea of what the market would look like for me. 

Be honest about your motivation

Why do you want to commercialise your hobby? Sometimes we’re tempted because we’re unfulfilled in our current role and our hobby feels like an escape. That’s not a bad thing, but check whether this is about running towards something or simply away from something else. Is this truly a passion you want to build your career around, and do you believe you should and can be paid for it? 

Check your finances

Some hobbies-turned-jobs need very little to get going. Others require equipment, materials, training, marketing, or even renting space. Work out the up-front costs and whether you can realistically cover them without creating financial strain.

Understand the commitment

Will you need to travel? Work evenings or weekends? Take on admin and marketing alongside doing the thing you love? Think about how the time and energy commitment will fit into your lifestyle, and how it might affect your personal life.

Ask if you’ll still love it

When your hobby becomes your job, it’s no longer just for fun. You might have to take on work you’re less excited about, or push through when you’re not in the mood, because it pays the bills. Some people thrive in that environment. Others find it takes the joy out of what they once loved. Which might you be? Similarly, ask yourself, what will your new typical day look like, and are you ok with that? I went from working in an office that was an easy commute, with a pretty clear to-do list, to having to structure my own days and priorities, working from home and balancing that with travelling to clients with no base / office of my own in the main city I am based in. This works for me, but I needed to put some plans in place to make sure that I could make it work for my wellbeing. 

Check the formal requirements

Depending on your hobby, you may need a formal qualification, a licence, or insurance before you can offer your services professionally. Research what’s required in your industry and factor that into your plans. For example, I factored in gaining a professional qualification in coaching before even considering leaving my job, so that I knew I had the knowledge and weight of a qualification behind me to be taken seriously when, in my case, making a significant career change into a totally different industry to what I was known for among my professional network. 

Turning a hobby into a job can be fulfilling and life-changing, and I certainly don’t regret it - but only if it’s backed by clear thinking, realistic expectations, and solid preparation. The more questions you ask yourself now, the better chance you have of making it work for the long term.

I found working through the decision with a career coach a game-changer. If you’re considering transforming your hobby into a career and want to talk it through with a professional with experience of career change, book in a free 30 minute, no obligation chat on my webpage.