Growing up, I recall having a black and white television in the living room of my house, that my sisters enjoyed watching; Years later when my mum upgraded to a colour TV, they were overjoyed.
I was not bothered.
I've always been one to be making something from something; Collecting items to be recycled into making toys, fashion, or anything my mind could conceive was a hobby in itself.
Craft was my thing.
Whether it was sewing, macrame, papier mâché, tie-dye, t-shirt screen printing, anything with my hands.
My toys, like cars, were all dismantled and reassembled because it was important for me to understand how, and what made things work.
I was a rebellious teenager, so t-shirt screen printing was right up my alley.
Adults in my circle and generation felt that teenagers' opinions had no value; So t-shirt design was my voice. I could wear any message big and bold.
Here's a recreation of one of my favourite original designs.
Teenage me in my "Pussy Footprints" T-Shirt
I made a manual screen-printer for clothes, and I printed this design on a plain white t-shirt. It was my favourite thing to wear with jeans.
I particularly took pride in wearing that t-shirt to extra classes and evening church activities. I creatively found ways to dress it up, and down, to suit most occasions.
I was baffled by the reactions of my teachers and elders.
I loved cats. Who doesn't?
I grew up with many cats in my house, and my cats loved to play in my back garden and then walk over my clothes with their dirty paws.
Yet, my design was frowned upon.
My parents didn't mind me using my mind creatively; something that was highly favoured over me using it mischievously.
I outgrew that hobby.
Years later, while working as a part-time Chiropractic Assistant in the Uk, I needed to subsidise my income.
With many hobbies in mind, I wanted to do something fresh that would not require much material cost or overhead.
I scratched my brain long and hard to come up with something.
Then one day I ordered Tibetan silver earrings from eBay that cost only 99p, free delivery. That got me thinking.
So reasonable, I realised that it's something I could start a business from.
I quickly mastered bidding on eBay and got the best of deals and resold the items for much profit.
Inspecting the items, the thought came to me that I could start making products myself. I researched buying the findings, and I discovered special shops with beautiful hand crafted glass beads and everything needed for jewellery design.
The material was relatively cheap because I could buy them in bulk.
Once I got the hang of making the earrings, my speed increased.
Working on afternoon shifts gave me the mornings to be productive.
I researched seasonal/festive street markets, and I did some networking for locations to set up a stall, and I found out what the local legal requirements were.
There was a small insurance cover needed to protect me in case of accidents caused by my display.
With my certificate in hand, I was able to confidently set up my stall at authorized venues.
Some venues proved to be better than others in terms of traffic, still, it was always a nice exercise.
Historic places like the Steam Trains in Leicester were some of the locations that I visited. Sales were slow, as it was not the right clientele. Still, it was a lovely day listening to the sounds of the locomotives, and the steam was atmospheric.
Coming up with a better strategy, I was able to secure a table for display at a big university campus in Leicester, where I made a big profit from sales.
It was unbelievable how fast students, employees and visitors forked out the cash to buy my non-essential items.
Still, they were original unique pieces.
Who doesn't like to have something that they know on one else will ever have the same of?
Check out a previous post with some of my collection made while living in the Philippines here in the year ⬇️
I'm an avid believer in tapping into and developing our resources into income, so I hope this post inspires you in some way or another.
🔹Option three🔹
Have you, or anyone you know, ever turned a hobby into a business or opportunity to make a few dollars on the side. Tell us what it was and how the process went from hobby to income; the challenges, work-arounds and successes. Blogging on hive and playing Splinterlands is excluded from the topic.
