“You cannot harness a horse and a tremulous doe to one cart…” Is it possible to turn your favorite hobby into a successful business?

2023-12-18 11:30:26

Eduard Zenchik at the opening of one of his many exhibitions, Narva, April 2023. Photo: Alexander Myasoedov

Serious upheavals in the Estonian labor market are forcing many to look for new sources of livelihood. Can a favorite hobby turn into a stable profitable business, since our country is rich in creative people? – Narvskaya Gazeta found out.

Creative industry? Want!

Marketing consultant Anton Osipovsky: “If you want to become a businessman, you must become a manager.” Photo: Anton Osipovsky archive

First of all, famous marketing consultant Anton Osipovsky from Narva warns us, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the terms used. “The creative industry (what we call creative entrepreneurship), it would seem, should be directly related to the process of transforming personal creativity into business. But in fact, there is a very “bottleneck” here, says Osipovsky.

The fact is that a future entrepreneur who has a hobby from which he wants to create a successful business, his own enterprise, at some point along this path finds himself in a situation where he must transform from a person creating something interesting into a businessman, then is in the organizer of the enterprise. And very often people are not aware of this, because a hobby is something you do in your free time, or a passion that you cannot live without. But business is completely different; it will require the acquisition of additional management competencies. This is the case in the vast majority of areas of the creative economy. If you want to become a businessman and make a profit, you must learn how to develop a business. Or be part of a team with specialized responsibilities.

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“The key point when we talk about how to turn a hobby into a business is to understand that these are in some ways opposite things, and few people manage to combine them successfully.

“Therefore, the key point when we talk about how to turn a hobby into a business is to understand that these are in some ways opposite things, and few manage to combine them successfully,” concludes Osipovsky.

Artist-entrepreneur: we have them
Perhaps a good example of the above can be the famous painter, photographer, graphic artist, designer, author of installations, performances and musical improvisations Eduard Zenchik. A bright and often shocking creator of beauty from Sillamäe, Eduard admitted to NG that he manages to combine art and business. But at the same time, he would not call his business prosperous. “Creativity is for me the work of life, its meaning, it’s hard for me to call it entrepreneurship,” he says. – From the outside, perhaps it looks like this, and yes, I live and eat thanks to my creativity. But I feel it as my mission, even as a life feat.”

“The work of selling your works takes up to 90% of effort and time, this is more than the creative process itself,” Zenchik assures. “So not everything is as sweet and beautiful as many people think.” At the same time, Edward really hopes that he will no longer have to do painting and completely unrelated work at the same time. “I had such an experience when I studied at the Art Academy and at the same time earned money for living and studying by repairing roofs,” recalls Eduard. “It was very difficult.”

It seems that Zenchik’s experience of combining business and hobby is quite successful, and gives a positive result because he himself as a person is to a certain extent unique. Over the years of creative activity, Edward created more than 5 thousand paintings. He almost never works to order, but constantly studies changing trends in contemporary fine art. “You need to know what will be in demand, but this is only part of my creativity,” explains Eduard. – Many of my exhibition projects are not commercial; I know that these works will never sell at all. And there are paintings that take into account the interests of certain target groups, and I believe that someone will like them.”
But in general, Eduard assures, he is not confident that there will be a guaranteed demand for his next work and that it will end up at the right time and in the right place. “It’s always a combination of many factors, so you can’t predict the outcome in advance,” he says.

You can’t live on needlework today
Now let’s move from the field of art to a more mundane sphere, and pay attention, for example, to the production of everyday and necessary things in everyday life. My interlocutor Marina, having lost her job with the closure of one of the Narva factories, has been knitting clothes, soft toys and selling them as a private entrepreneur for 20 years. She sadly states that it is now impossible to make a living from this.

“Here in Narva there is no demand at all,” explains Marina. – I can knit a pair of socks a day by hand, spending 5 euros on the material, and sell them for a maximum of 10 euros. That is, I will earn 5 euros a day. What kind of business is this? If you knit on a machine, you need to rent a room, use electricity, and you get 5 pairs a day. But they still need to be sold, which quite often doesn’t work out.”
Business is, first of all, a well-established sale of goods, she reminds of an elementary truth. But today few people are interested in her products. Until now, Marina’s mini-company has relied on making unique, exclusive items that also sold well in Tallinn. But now this product sales channel has become shallow – those same Finnish tourists no longer come to us due to the strong increase in prices in the Estonian tourism sector.

Optimism of the young
But student Yulia, whom I met at the pre-Christmas fair at the Narva branch of the Ida-Viru County Vocational Education Center, looks at the situation we are studying quite optimistically. Yulia is a future specialist in business organization and is confident that a creative passion can be turned into entrepreneurial activity. “Nowadays, business development in the world and here in Estonia is greatly facilitated by the use of the Internet and social networks,” she says. – This is a good way to promote your product. I know craftsmen who do a good job of distributing their handicrafts this way.” At the same time, Yulia agrees that when turning a hobby into a business, everyone should do what they are an expert in: someone creates products, and someone organizes their sale.

Future business organization specialist Yulia is confident that a creative passion can be turned into entrepreneurial activity. Photo: Alexander Myasoedov

As a matter of fact, Yulia herself applies this scheme: at the fair she sold very beautiful and original soft toys made by her mother’s hands. “Mom has been interested in this from a young age, and in recent years she has been making them for sale,” explained Yulia. “And now you can find it on our Facebook page, and this kind of marketing works well: up to several hundred euros per month.”

Hobby-profession-business
Olga Franz, project manager of the Narva branch of the Ida-Viru County Vocational Education Center, as a specialist, organizer and person involved in the training of these young people, also believes that their hobbies can become a business.

Project manager of the Narva branch of the Ida-Viru County Vocational Education Center Olga Franz is convinced that training opens up good opportunities for using one’s creative abilities.

“In the near future, we at the Center are planning to develop the ability for our students to sell their products in a special electronic store. That is why many guests from local Ida-Virumaa companies were invited to this fair to get acquainted with our products. This is a very good chance for young people,” she explains.

Olga is convinced that studying the technologies of sewing, woodworking, and cooking opens up good opportunities for using one’s creative abilities. “As practice shows, you can make money from this,” says Olga. “These days, many students sell their products, for example by preparing delicious food in their home kitchens and selling it through delivery companies.”

Alexander Myasoedov

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