A hobby can be turned into a business but a business can never become a hobby. There are some rich and famous people who have the luxury to conduct business while taking it easy. Any business requires serious investments, be it material such as money and infrastructure or immaterial as time and effort. Here are some of the many reasons why you should treat your business like a business and not a hobby.
We all want to taken seriously right? We want to be seen as a legitimate business owner with a legitimate business. Treating your business as a hobby will make it really hard to for your clients to take you seriously. It will also affect how to think about yourself as a business owner.
A hobby is more of a pastime
A hobby is more of a pastime in which you have substantial passion. A business can never be a pastime. A business will have direct and indirect impacts on the lives of many people. A startup can still be treated as a hobby until there is serious money in it and the potential or actual impacts on others. Beyond that point, a business must be treated like a business.
A hobby has a lot to do with emotion over pragmatism
Most hobbies develop out of sheer love for something. There is little or no aspiration to monetize the skill or whatever you are creating. The purpose is to give form to your feelings or the skills you possess. Essentially, a hobby is about emotions. A business can stem from a passion or strong emotions but it can never be managed or run emotionally. You must always have a pragmatic take on your business and that will not happen if you treat it as a hobby or an emotional endeavor.
A hobby often has to dabble through spells of procrastination
You cannot allow procrastination to seep in when you are running an actual business. There are deadlines in the real world, bottom lines and real money at stake. Treating your business like a hobby will be the recipe for disaster and sooner than later your enterprise will cease to exist or be unsustainable.
