Once you've found your passion and turned your favorite
hobby into a profitable business, you're home free, right? Not
quite. As many a hobbyist-turned-entrepreneur has experienced,
burnout tends to set in. Think about it: Once you get your
hobby-based business off the ground, you start to live and breathe
that hobby 24/7. "You're no longer doing [the hobby] for
your enjoyment," O'Berry explains. "You're doing
it for your livelihood."
Before you make the leap, you should think long and hard about
whether doing your hobby as a business will ultimately drain your
enthusiasm for it. According to Jain, you'll have to ask
yourself "If I never did this for fun ever again, how much
would I miss it? Is it replaceable by something else?"
One way to avoid burnout is to continue learning new things
about your hobby. Another is to spend your free time pursuing an
entirely different hobby. That's what entrepreneur Steve
Edmiston has done for years. In the early 1990s when he ran a law
firm, game-making and writing screenplays were two of his favorite
hobbies. When he chose to pursue game-making as a full-time
business, screenwriting naturally took over as the fun outlet.
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In 2000, Edmiston sold his interest in the law firm and launched
a Seattle business that manufactured coffee table games. "I
had that desire for game creation that had nothing to do with being
a lawyer," explains Edmiston, co-founder of Front Porch
Classics Inc.
It all came together after he met a few contacts at the local
Young Entrepreneurs Organization, who also wanted to start a new
business. Edmiston, 41, then decided to join forces with Mark
Jacobsen and Mark Pattison, both 41. In 2002, their game, Old
Century Baseball, earned the Toy of the Year honor from
Disney's Family Fun Magazine.
Currently on Front Porch Classics Inc.'s agenda: marketing
Dread Pirate, a treasure hunt game that Edmiston had originally
created for his daughter's birthday a few years ago. With sales
exceeding $1 million, the hobby has certainly proved to be more
than just a game for this trio.
Originally published in the April 2003 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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