I was talking with some friends about how they could make some extra money and was surprised to see that most of them thought it was impossible. They all imagined they didn’t have the time to make extra money. Finding ways to make extra money has always been quite simple for me so I’m always a bit surprised that most people don’t do it. For the vast majority of people, hobbies end up costing them money, but all it takes is a little imagination and effort and you can turn any hobby into something that generates money. I’m not sure why most people don’t realize this. I think part of it is the belief that if you begin to make money at your hobby, it will no longer be “fun” - but I’ve always found this to be the complete opposite.

I picked this tendency up from a friend in college. It was actually quite humorous. Every event we would do, whether it was plan a ski weekend or volunteer to clean up around school, the question he would ask immediately after we committed was, “is there a way to make money at this?” The funny thing is, there always was. He was quite creative and he always managed to find a way to make some money doing the things he was going to be doing anyway whether he was paid or not.

To give an example, he committed to try and run a marathon at school and in doing so he began training. After some thought, he started a dog walking (running) service. He’d basically run from house to house picking up dogs, running with them and bringing them back as his marathon training. When he was finished training, had run the marathon and was no longer interested in doing the dog walking, he sold the business to other students making even more. Pretty impressive.

With your hobbies, it’s even easier. There are several reasons why this works well.

1. It’s something that you like to do so spending time doing it is fun.

2. Because it is something that you are extremely interested in, you know it better than most people which makes you an “expert” in the field.

3. Since you are an expert, you can help those just starting the hobby

4. Since you are an expert, you know what others doing the hobby really want.

By utilizing this knowledge, there is almost always some way to figure out how to generate a bit of income from the hobbies you have. Of the group of friends, three of the four were quite easy to come up with ideas because they were collectors of various items. The last one was a bit more difficult. His hobby was playing golf and in Japan, golf is extremely expensive. We left that evening without having figured out what he could do.

I received a call from him today. While it isn’t actually generating money, it’s a step in the correct direction since it will save him quite a bit over what he was spending. After our conversation, he talked with the manager at the club where he usually golfs. The manager said that his biggest problem was finding people to utilize the course during weekdays at certain times. They struck a deal that if my friend brings 3 others to play during certain time periods during the week, he can golf in that foursome for free.

Take some time to look at your current hobbies and see if there are possibilities of generating a bit of income from them. Once you begin to think like this and get your creative juices flowing, I think you’ll find that there are quite a few no matter what your hobby is.