How I Turned a Hobby into a Million Dollar Online Business

I am living the dream and I am not saying this to brag. Many people are in the same situation, all because they too were able to turn a hobby into a million dollar business.

Yes, that is right. My business does more than one million dollars a year. What is it you ask? I own a content creating agency. I loved to write from an early age and then started blogging in the early days of the internet.

That led to many freelance and journalist gigs, which made me realize that I could turn my love of writing into a full-time career. I started slow as a side hustle, and I remember the first year I cracked six-figured I felt like I made it. Total financial freedom!

From there I opened an agency, hired a bunch of writers and today we ghost write for some of the largest companies in the world. If you are interested in turning a hobby into a business here is my advice.

First, determine if there is even a business to be had.

There is no use going through the troubles and ups and downs if your hobby simply cannot be turned into a business. Not all will convert to a business model, so you need to be realistic.

You have to be certain there is a large enough audience and a high enough demand to warrant a business. If not, no harm – you just need to keep it as a hobby and if you really want to start a business look into other potential ideas that have more merit.

Second, see if there is an opportunity to position yourself as a thought-leader.

Once of the reasons I was able to achieve success was because I started blogging online so early. I made great connections, established myself as one of the first and was able to capitalize.

Today it would be much harder to build a million dollar business blogging and writing content. It could be done, yes, but there would be a lot of challenges. This is mainly due to competition and starting from the bottom floor.

Are you an expert on the subject? Can you position yourself as a thought leader and leverage that for exposure and PR? If so it will help your chances greatly.

position yourself as a thought leader

Third, explore whether or not the business can thrive online.

The days of brick and mortars is coming to an end. If you really want to build a big business you need to be certain it will perform well online. That is where the attention is. That is where the rapid scale is available.

Look at a company like Aucto auctions, an online business for commercial equipment auctions. Years ago that kind of business was in person only. Now because of the internet it’s possible and being one of the first to market has helped them gain a lot of traction and growth.

If you don’t see your idea as one that will do well and have unlimited potential online then it might not be worth pursuing at all.

Lastly, make sure the business model is scalable and will operate without you.

Here is the tricky part. The business needs to be able to operate without you. Why? Because that is how real businesses operate. When I decided to build my agency I put processes and steps in place that were teachable.

This allowed me to train people to do every part of the business. I could take a week vacation and never check my emails and know my company was operating fine. That should be your goal. It also helps in the event you ever want to sell the business or be acquired.

Simonne Hembre

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *