Should You Monetize Your Hobby or Will it Burn You Out?

March 28, 2020

There comes a time in every crafter’s life when you consider whether you should monetize your hobby. When you get deep into a hobby, especially a craft, you’ll start getting a lot of feedback about turning it into a business venture.

Usually, it’s a compliment, as writer Molly Conway illustrated in her excellent essay on the subject. It means, “hey, I love your stuff so much I think people would pay for it.” On a deeper level, however, it speaks to how our society values creativity; in a money-driven world, can you justify taking the time to delve into a passion without a monetary return?

Planning to monetize your hobby should bring you pause. On one hand, you might really be cut out for turning a passion project into a business. On the other, you might be misidentifying what it is about crafting or creating that actually brings you joy. I don’t have any answers, but I do have an honest take about my experience with the ups and down of selling on Etsy — or anywhere else, for that matter.

Why I Haven’t Updated My Shop in 3 Months

Years ago, I started out gifting knit scarves and hats to my family. I was a broke college student who couldn’t afford Christmas shopping, and knitting custom goods for my loved ones was motivating my creativity. From there, I thought, “If I’m good enough, why not make some extra money?”

Later on, a friend told me about Etsy and said I should start up a shop. And don’t get me wrong — I love how much my business has grown since then. It’s led me to make some great patterns, send hats all over the country and try new experiences like craft fairs. Plus, the extra money has been a boon, even if it’s not technically even close to fair wages for the amount of time I put into the shop.

Yet after a particularly busy holiday season this year, I’ve been completely burned out. For the first time, business demand took precedence over all else. I couldn’t pursue any hobby but knitting for about two months. Even reading a book would take away from precious hours I needed to send orders out in time. I closed down orders early, but I was terrified of disappointing a long queue of customers who were wonderful enough to consider my hats a great gift for their loved ones.

Only now, three months after Christmas, am I feeling excited about knitting (and writing about knitting) again. It’s led me to reflect heavily on the great things monetization has brought me, but also on what it’s led me to sacrifice.

1. Less Freedom to Pursue New Ideas

I knit patterned hats exclusively. As I’ve written about before, this has helped me create a profitable and unique niche in the world of fiber arts. It’s helped me become quite good at one specific skill, and every time I develop a new pattern, I’m genuinely proud of this experience.

But it’s not always enough to stay focused on one specific project. I’ve never been able to take the time to learn a new knitting skill, whether it be cable knitting, sweaters or socks. It’s just hard to justify when I should be using spare crafting time to prepare for the next holiday season or put out a new hat pattern on Ravelry. Therefore, I’m jealous every time I see someone post a new sweater, shawl or other project I’d love to pursue.

Fortunately, I don’t rely on my business for income, so I’m looking forward to setting limits on the pressure I place on myself — I’m hoping to make my first sweater this spring, even if I have to dip out of the Christmas season early because of it.

2. Managing Business Logistics Isn’t Always Fun

Monetizing your hobby brings a whole lot of business woes your way. Collecting and reporting taxes? Not fun. Going into the red because you signed up for a craft fair and earned nothing? Pretty depressing. Side hustles are still hustles. If your favorite thing about crafting is the relaxation it brings you, then you might not love jumping into the business side of things.

Fortunately, this is one aspect of my business that I don’t mind. I don’t take much joy in tax season, but I’ve got a color-coded budget spreadsheet and like calculating my profits and growth every month. I also generally find satisfaction in updating my Etsy SEO or working on the backend of this website, but that’s largely because it involves my professional skills and experience.

However, it can get overwhelming when your time is already at a premium. Plus, if you’re planning on turning your hobby into a full-time gig, chances are you need to spend much more time on management than you do on creating. It’s important to have a clear expectation of what you’re getting into, because you can’t just bail on tax reporting if it’s burning you out.

3. Your Time Doesn’t Belong to You

Monetization means my time belongs to my customers and my business more than it belongs to my own whims. This December, I came home from work every day, made dinner and sat down for a few solid hours of knitting holiday orders. I dreamed of the day it was all over and I could start working through my growing pile of books or take a day trip without feeling guilty.

Your hobby-turned-business also means you need to be a customer service representative 24/7. People are generous enough to buy my patterns or my hats, so I need to be available to answer questions, make fixes to errors or create custom charts by request. While this can be fun and engaging throughout the year, I found it challenging to organize my time with many Etsy conversations landing in my inbox every day.

I don’t blame my customers for this at all — my time management is my responsibility, and I’m delighted every time someone takes interest in my hats. Yet when you’re feeling a little burned out, you don’t have a choice. You’re offering a service to other people, and it’s unfair to detach just because you’re not feeling like working on your hobby on any given day.

Monetizing your hobby means you need to dedicate structured time to managing it. When you already have a part-time or full-time job, you need to be prepared for a large portion of your week to be spent meeting responsibilities and satisfying other people. It can be extremely fun, but it’s also placing a limit on your free time.

Yes, Monetizing My Hobby is Still Worth it

I know that all sounded very dour. Part of the reason I wrote this post in the first place is to process some of the negative feelings I’ve been struggling with over the past few months — wondering why my favorite hobby wasn’t giving me joy and whether I could handle the business growth I’d generated over the past couple of years.

What I’ve learned is that I need time to detach from money-making rather than forcing myself to move full-steam ahead into every new business idea I have. It’s okay to take breaks, to close down an Etsy shop and put down the knitting needles for a while, because my mental health is more important.

It’s hard to take this perspective when there’s a concrete opportunity cost, and that’s the risk of monetizing something that makes you happy. You have to start weighing something intangible — joy — against a dollar value. Humans are notoriously bad at doing this.

Taking a break showed me that knitting isn’t ruined for me. When I’m ready to get back into it, it can bring me happiness again. I just sent out my first customer order since January and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. And now, I know how to set limits on the business side of affairs before I push myself to the limit with logistics, emails and undue stress.