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Seven steps to make money doing something you love! The first 1000 people to use this link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: https://skl.sh/emilybritishgirlbakes03211 to explore and develop your hobbies, which you can then turn into a job and career using these 7 steps! In this video I share my journey from lawyer to teacher to cake decorator and content creator to show you that whatever path you start on, it’s possible to turn a hobby into a career and earn money doing something you love.
This video was sponsored by Skillshare.
To read a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) click here: http://www.britishgirlbakes.com/how-to-turn-a-hobby-into-a-career
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I'm going to share my journey from lawyer to teacher, to cake decorator, to content creator
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to show you that whatever path you start on, it's possible to turn a hobby into a career
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and generation income doing something you love. I'll share seven steps to take you to your dream career
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even if you don't know what that is yet. I should mention that creating cake videos was never
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part of my plan. Until a few years ago, I don't think I'd ever even watched a YouTube video
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but here we are. So if you're not sure which hobby you'd like to turn into a job or what that job could be
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Don't worry, we're going to cover that too. So let's dive into the seven steps to turn your
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hobby into a career. When I was 16, I told my parents I wanted to start a stud farm and breed
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horses, and they didn't let me do it, and I'm really glad they didn't because I had no idea what
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I was talking about. If you've had experience in something, and you make an educated decision to
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pursue it, great, but it's always good to have a backup plan, just in case things don't
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turn out the way that you'd expect. For me, this meant going to university and getting a degree
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that I could fall back on if I changed my mind later, which I did, about five minutes later
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Don't be afraid to experiment and try different things. Some people have always had a dream. If you
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play the guitar, maybe you've always wanted to play in a band. Or if you like ice skating
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maybe you want to become an Olympic ice skater. But if you're not sure, don't be afraid to
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branch out and try different things. If you don't know where to start, think about hobbies you've enjoyed
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in the past. Maybe one of the that you had to give up for whatever reason, or something you've always wanted to do but never
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had the time to actually get into. I thought I wanted to teach, so I taught English in Costa Rica
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and I loved teaching, but I wasn't passionate about language. I enjoyed cooking, so I branched out
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to try baking, and that's where I found my passion. Don't be afraid to be different. When I graduated
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from university, all of my friends moved to London and started corporate careers, and I moved to
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Costa Rica and opened a cake shop, and I've never looked back. I'm not saying you should be
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reckless or do something just to be different but if the thing that you want to do isn't
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the same that everyone else is doing don't let that be the reason why you don't pursue it
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Next is time to brainstorm job options Yes you want to spend your time doing whatever your hobby is So guitar ice skating baking But there are lots of ways that you can use your hobby to make money
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So, for example, say you play the guitar, you could perform live concerts, you could teach other people how to play the guitar, you could write music, you could record music, you could produce music
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There are lots of different options. And you could find employment doing one of these things, or you might choose to start your own business
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In my case, I started a small at-home business, taking custom cake orders, and then I opened a
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cake shop and cafe. I moved to Los Angeles and managed another company's bakeries and opened new
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locations for them, and then I started teaching how to decorate cakes, and that was where I found my passion
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In my case, I tried lots of ways to turn my hobby into a career, but you can save a lot of time
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if you brainstorm your options first. I took a course on Skillshare on creating your dream career
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Uncover and Apply Your Creative Strengths by Holly M. Collie Merchinson. And if you're not sure which hobby would be the most fulfilling, or what strengths and skills
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you have to make that job a success, then I really recommend taking that class
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Yes, this video is sponsored by Skillshare, but I have a lot of my classes up on the platform
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and I've taken a lot of classes there, so this is a natural partnership. If you haven't heard of Skillshare, it's an online learning community with thousands of inspiring
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classes for creative and curious people. Explore new skills, deepen existing passions and get lost in creativity
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There are classes on entrepreneurship to help you get started setting up your business
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Or if you're not quite there yet, develop your hobbies with classes on watercolour painting, portrait photography, singing
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There are so many hobbies and skills out there. You can explore and get inspired, create projects, and there's a whole community of creative people to support you on your journey as you discover and learn and grow
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Skillshare is curated specifically for learning, so there are no ads. Now this is exciting. It's less than $10 a month for an annual subscription and the first thousand of my subscribers to click the link in the description will get a free trial of premium membership so you can explore your creativity
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I hope that helps you choose a hobby and a job. And now we move on to the next steps for that Once you brainstormed ideas and chosen which job you want to do with your hobby it time for a second opinion You enjoy your hobby and you want to turn it into a job
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so you're looking at your web of ideas through rose-tinted glasses. Is there a market for whatever
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it is you want to do? You don't need specific numbers or in-depth market research, but you do need
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to know if there are people out there who are going to pay for your product or service. So if you love
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sewing and you're thinking about turning doll clothes into tiny pet clothes, is there a market for it
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it. Are there people who are interested in that? You can search on Facebook groups or discussion
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forums, or you can find competitors who do something similar and see if there is an interest
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and people who are going to pay for it. Equally important, and this is really difficult to judge
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for yourself, are you good at whatever it is you're planning on doing? Yes, you might need
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practice. These are some of my first cakes and cupcakes, and I've come a long way since then
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You'll gain experience and skills along the way, but do you have the skill set necessary to
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start making money in whatever it is you want to do, or at least the potential to be good at it
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Take a realistic look at that and ask someone whose opinion you trust and who you know will be
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honest with you. Now it's time for a triple check. After choosing exactly what it is that you want to do
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and getting a second opinion, but before you commit to turning your hobby into a job and moving
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on to the next step, it's a good idea to pause and really think about three things. The first is
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do you really want this? It's going to be a good idea to pause. It's going to be a good idea to pause and really think about three things. It's
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a lot of work. Long days and maybe nights, and it will probably be an emotional roller coaster
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So before you start the marathon, you need to be confident that when you get to the finish line
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you're going to be satisfied. For me, when I was living in Costa Rica and I was teaching and baking
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cakes for friends and students on the side, I played with the idea of starting a cake business
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I kept teaching and baking on the side, and after a year of doing it when I still enjoyed it
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that's when I seriously considered turning my hobby into a job. The second thing to think about is
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can this hobby make money? So does it have the potential to be profitable? If you've been
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knowing it for a while, you've probably already built up a network of contacts, or you might
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even have people who are already paying you to perform whether that playing your guitar in a cafe or assisting coaching kids at an ice skating rink This will give you an idea of how much you can charge for what you do and how many customers or clients you need to be able to generate the income that you need
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Of course, it will take a while to get there, and your income will grow over time, but before
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you pour your heart and soul into it, make sure it's feasible. The third thing to think about
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is how are you going to do this? I started taking orders while working a full-time job to test things
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out. When I stopped teaching, I took cake orders from home, and after another year, only when I
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had enough customers and orders that I couldn't physically fit the orders into my house, then I opened a
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cake shop. If you already have a full-time job, do you have time to start your hobby job on the side
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Or if you've already started to build up a client base, maybe you have a few regular gigs
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can you afford to work part-time so that you can dedicate more time to your new venture? Can you take
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some time off work to get yourself set up? Do you have savings to invest, or will you need to
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to take out a loan, figure out all of the practical details and use your passion to motivate you
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to turn your hobby into a job. The final step is to become successful. There are endless
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ways to be successful with a hobby, and ideally, you'll be able to turn it into a full-time job
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and then into a fulfilling and profitable career. Find ways to stand out by being different
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Offer something that no one else offers, or include something that no one else includes in the
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same product or service. Target a group of customers with something tailored to their needs, so
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offer guitar lessons to people who have anxiety, or ice skating lessons to kids who have a lot of energy
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As an example, the cake tutorials that I found online that were supposed to be for beginners
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were often so difficult to follow that even with five or ten years of experience I couldn't follow them myself
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Or they skipped steps because they were assumed to be obvious steps
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So I started creating videos that anyone could follow, even with no cake decorating experience
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And I think that's what makes my tutorials and courses popular. So here are the seven steps to do you
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to follow to turn your hobby into a career. And I hope you'll share in the comments
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what it is that you decided to do and come back and tell me how it went. Thank you for watching
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