How I Turned a Hobby into a Multi-Million Dollar Company
I remember reading my first self-development book when I was 22 years of age. It was a book titled “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. This book opened my mind to different ways of thinking to what I had been taught at school and college. It also sowed seeds in my mind about the benefits of running my own business.
Before reading this book, I had been purely focused on building my engineering skills — which I was using as a Software Engineer at Red Hat. But once I adopted some of the techniques from the book, I found that I was genuinely getting more things done than before. This quickly led to me being promoted to a management position.
After seeing the impressive results of putting into action what I learned from David Allen, I became more and more interested in expanding my learning. This took the form of reading dozens of books on self-improvement and psychology — including the fields of performance and sports psychology. I also came across a life-changing book titled “Time Power” by Brian Tracy. This amazing book took my productivity to a whole new level!
If you were to ask me back then what my hobbies were, I would have responded by saying that my main hobby was learning everything about how our mind works and how we can use it to make our lives happier and more productive.
In fact, I acquired so much useful information, that in 2005, I decided to start my own website to share what I had learned and what had worked for me. I named this website Lifehack. And as I’ll explain in the next few minutes, this website went from being something fun to do in my spare hours, to a multi-million dollar company.
From acorn to mighty oak
After I registered the name Lifehack, designed the website, and arranged for it to be hosted — I was ready to start writing the first few articles.
I usually did this for an hour or so after work each day, with the occasional weekend also being dedicated to my writing. To be honest, it wasn’t hard work — as I loved researching all the topics I was writing about, and I was also excited to be sharing my ideas and thoughts with other people.
Of course, it was a little strange at first, as I was writing and publishing content that virtually no one was seeing!
This went on for a few months, before I came to the realization that however good a website is, people still need to know about it and be able to find it. This is when I decided to put as much time into promoting my website as I was doing in creating content for it.
What a difference this made! Suddenly, I started to get a decent amount of people clicking on my site and reading my articles. To help capture this new audience, I created a subscriber list. Anyone who signed up was automatically notified via email when I posted a new article on my website.
To my surprise, this list went from zero to 1,000 in just under 12 weeks.
Over the next year, the subscriber list grew to over 50,000, and my website was getting a very healthy 750,000+ hits per month. Not bad, considering I was doing the writing, promotion and management of the site all by myself!
When I created Lifehack, I didn’t initially expect it to be anything more than a hobby site where I could share self-improvement techniques that were working for me. However, the huge interest in the site and its content persuaded me that this could be a full-time business. That’s when I decided to quit my job and dedicate all of my time to Lifehack.
To help me out, I set a goal to hire several staff members to cover three important areas of the business: marketing, finance and content.
However, this is when I encountered a major problem. Namely, it appeared to be impossible to find any candidates who shared my passion for self-improvement and popular psychology. For example, there were plenty of great writers who contacted me, but none of them had the passion for the subjects that Lifehack was sharing.
What was the solution?
Well, you may be surprised to know that I sent an email to Lifehack subscribers saying that I was looking for suitable people to fill a number of roles with the company. In the email, I specified that they didn’t need to be people who lived close to me, as I’d already decided that remote-working was a perfect fit for Lifehack.
Within just 24 hours of me sending the email, I had over a dozen people contact me to express their interest in the roles. These were people who had the skills I was looking for — but also had a passion, like me, for the topic of self-development.
Now, I won’t pretend everything was plain sailing; but over the next five years, Lifehack grew to be a company of 25 employees, with more than 10 million visitors to the website every month. Alongside this growth, advertising revenue also went through the roof — and has continued to grow until the present time.
I’m pleased to say that Lifehack is now one of the most widely read productivity, health and lifestyle websites in the world. We’ve also published an incredible 30,000+ articles. It makes me happy to think of the millions of people that our content has helped.
So that’s the essence of how I turned a hobby into a multi-million dollar company.
Now let me share some specific techniques that you can use to put yourself on the same journey.
Turn your hobby into a business
Not every hobby will be a potential business. For instance, if drinking cocktails is a popular pastime of yours, it may be enjoyable — but it’s unlikely to make you any money!
Fortunately, however, many hobbies (flower arranging, cooking, photography, etc.) are fertile ground to be turned into startups. So although I don’t know your specific hobbies, I’m confident that one or more of them could become a potential money earner for you.
So here are my 6 top tips for turning a hobby into a business:
1. Start small, aim big.
Just like I did with Lifehack, don’t try to do too much at first. You’ll probably need to rely on other income for at least the first 12 months. And if you’re working a full-time job plus trying to build your new business — you’ll run the risk of burning out. Start small but keep your sights on the big prize.
2. Enlist the help of others.
Not only is it typically more fun to work with others, but if you have the right people around you, you’ll have access to an endless supply of fresh ideas and perspectives. And of course, as your business grows, it’s helpful to have colleagues who can take on some of your tasks.
3. Set definite goals.
Without definite goals, you’ll really just be living in a world of wishful thinking. I know, because I’ve been there myself! However, once you have set yourself definite and realistic goals — including a map of how to get there and when you want to get there — then you’ll find yourself brimming with purpose and drive.
4. Break big goals into small goals.
This is a key element of success that most people seem unaware of. Big goals can often seem hard to reach, and are therefore easy to quit. The secret is to break down big goals into smaller, bite-sized chunks. This will keep you motivated and on track, and will make your big goal feel way more achievable.
5. Celebrate your successes.
Life and work should be fun and enjoyable. To help achieve this, I recommend that you celebrate all of your successes. This includes the small goals that you achieve on your way to your big goals. I’ll let you decide how you want to celebrate your successes, but personally, I like to take my family out for a meal or on a day trip.
6. Learn from your mistakes.
Nobody is perfect. And it’s only human for the occasional decisions and actions to go wrong. However, when this happens, you shouldn’t dwell on them as a negative. Instead, look for what you can learn from these situations. For instance, if you’ve failed to respond to a customer at the time you promised, this could be a sign you need to improve your time management skills or that you’re promising too much to your customers.
Take that first step
As the famous Lao Tzu quote says: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Just like I did with Lifehack, you’ll need to start the ball rolling if you want to see success come your way.
My suggestion is that you pinpoint which of your hobbies you could turn into a business, and then use the 6 tips I’ve highlighted below to put you (and keep you!) on track for victory.
Of course, not every business idea will turn into a multi-million dollar earner. But by following the steps I’ve outlined in this article, you’ll give yourself a great chance of having a full-time business that you love — with a healthy income as a reward.
Need further help in getting started? Then click through to download Lifehack’s powerful resource: 3-Step Guide to Break Free and Design the Life You Want. This FREE guide can really make the difference between failure and success in your life.
