If you’re going to work everyday, just to earn a living, you might also ask yourself what you could do to also be happy. How could you turn your passion into a career? Is it possible to quit your job and still make money for your family?
When my husband and I bought our home in a rural area we knew we wanted to be more sustainable than we were living in town. We started gardening and threw around the idea of raising different animals for food.
I wanted pigs. I love bacon! But Nick wanted chickens (and at the time a was afraid of all things with feathers!). He argued the point that we ate more chicken and eggs than we did pork, so I caved.
We ordered 9 hens and one rooster, to raise our chickens for meat and eggs.
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Who’d have thought that 10 chickens would turn into a dream career??
I over came my fears, at least of chickens, and 10 turned into 25. The garden grew. I started preserving food and was able to be more creative with my cooking and recipes. I learned how to make soap and so many more things that I was truly passionate about.
A Chick And Her Garden started, using SiteGround, as a hobby with a little extra spending money. But, I always wondered if I could make it if I could actually make money from a hobby.
With each new thing, I wrote. And I continued to write. I took courses offered by fellow bloggers on how they were able to be successful, and I learned a lot!
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At the time, I was working full time in a classroom for special needs kids, and loved it! You’re probably aware that the school systems are more and more unstable as a job force.
Well, my hours were continually being cut, to the point where I was down to 8 hours a week!
I really enjoyed working with kids so I bounced from one unstable job to another. And through all of it I just kept learning and writing.
Eventually I started a daycare in my home. I could write a little more and include the kids in my homestead tasks!
But, that was also unstable, and what I realized was, I had more control over the success of my blog, than I did the consistency of my daycare.
I also enjoyed it more! Both our passion for homesteading and the work put into blogging! And when I say work, I mean an average of about 10-15 hours a week, depending on what and how much I write!
We get so caught up in the idea of a 9 to 5 and the typical ways of earning an income, and we forget about trying to be happy. But it’s absolutely possible to turn your passion into a career! Whether that be raising children, cooking, DIY, homesteading or any other passion you have! There’s an audience for it all!
Nick and I talked about trying to make the blog and our homestead my sole income over and over. It’s a scary thing, because it’s not normal.
Eventually we came up with a compromise. I would work a few days a week at a local greenhouse (something that is more like plant therapy for me, than a job!) and I could focus more on turning my hobby into my full time career!
I took more courses and focused on writing more quality posts. One course in particular that totally changed my view on blogging was Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Michelle is my age and makes over $1,000,000 a year from blogging!
I started selling my soaps and have plans to add goats to our menagerie this summer!
I also, manage a Facebook group for homesteading bloggers and found myself answering a lot of questions about blogging and decided to launch a second blog! All about blogging! 😉 Blogging Over Breakfast is all about what you need to know to have a successful blog, even before you’ve launched!
Yesterday, I took a look at my earnings from one year ago when I was working and blogging. Then I compared them to my earnings from the blog and homestead now.
I’ve doubled my income!
By giving myself the chance to focus on what I love, instead of viewing it as a hobby, I am watching it grow monthly and surpass anything I ever thought it could be!
So, if that question is on your mind, “Can you turn your passion into a career?” The answer is an absolute yes!!
So, when should you start your journey? NOW! All it takes is that one step!
It feels huge and it can be scary but if you’re looking for the freedom and happiness of working when you want, the way you want head over to Blogging Over Breakfast for everything you need to know to get started!
Already blogging but not sure how to turn your hobby blog into a career blog? Take Michelle’s course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing! It is the course that pushed me into the full time blogger category!