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Don’t Quit Your Job to Follow Your Hobby
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright December 2021
# Life Hacks
If you’re planning on quitting your full-time job and pursuing your hobby, hoping to make it a career please read this true story. You might change your mind and keep your day job, instead.
I am an Executive Coach, Mentor and Consultant for more than 30 years. One of those whom I coached is an executive who recently decided to quit her job to become a full-time yoga instructor.
Let’s call her Liza. She lives in Cheras and commutes to work in Petaling Jaya. She told me she’s tired of office work that involved extensive overseas travel.
Meanwhile, she had been supplementing her income by teaching yoga, twice a week. She asked me how she could turn that hobby into a business.
Here’s my advice. First, she had to be sure that she would earn enough through this business. At least, her income from the business should equal the salary she was earning from her job.
Second, I asked her to do her homework. She had to prepare a plan for her new business. Lastly, she and I would evaluate the viability of that plan. She would start the business only if we were satisfied that there was a 70% chance of success.
Two weeks later she came back with a well written Business Plan. I was impressed that she had used a template I recommended and spent time seriously preparing the document.
But I was curious about her assumptions. For instance, how sure was she of getting clients? How many will sign up? Would she be able to retain them over 12 months? Will they pay the fees that she expected? Finally, how did she plan to provide the training?
She failed on my first question. She did not know how she would be able to get enough trainees to support her training. “Advertising and promotions” were no guarantee of enough people signing up.
She would need at least eight people a day or 40 per week to earn enough to equal the income from her job. She had only two trainees who had followed her regularly on a part-time basis.
However, she had 200 followers on her Instagram account who were potential trainees but only 10 had attended her online class during the recent pandemic.
She also failed on the question of projected earnings. She wanted to be paid RM100 per hour but the market rate for her level of training was only RM50. That was unrealistic. At RM50 she could not meet her targeted income.
Also, she was not sure trainees will attend classes for 12 months. She was unsure if the trainees were even willing to sign a three-month contract, let alone make a year’s commitment.
My last question to Liza was about the place for training. She planned to hold her classes in her living room at a house she was sharing with her aged parents. That was not very professional.
My advice to Liza was for her to keep the day job but follow her hobby, teach yoga part-time. That way she will not be stressed out trying to make ends meet. She might have on-the-job stress because of too much travelling but at least she will get some relief from her hobby.
Good luck Liza.
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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