Lily's Lessons Learned From Turning Hobbies into Businesses (Featuring Kombucha Sampling Photo Shoot)

A few days ago we sampled our kombucha to a local restaurant interested in the idea of serving my kombucha as a beverage and in mixed drinks. I won't reveal where until it's a for sure thing as they're just doing trial stuff with it now, but it's seeming to be the start of a lucrative business opportunity that started as a personal interest to improve my health through this fermented elixir. As we mentioned in our Anarchast episode, we have many businesses we have started here and they all started out of a personal self interest. These are almost always things I'm already doing for myself, just on a bigger scale to provide for the market and in turn my pocketbook.

For people not used to starting businesses (those working for others) it's really often hard to wrap your head around where to start. If they're anything like I was 6 years ago, they've not even got one specific thing they're interested in enough to make happen. I was the type to try something new, become interested and then lose interest once I got to a point where I realistically needed to start being creative instead of just regurgitating what I learned. This happened with guitar, skateboarding, programming and a lot of other things I'm sure.

For me, this is the result of a childhood spent detached from reality (it's really not a good idea to lie to kids to "protect" them from the fucked up life they were born into) and a good healthy brainwashing from the public school system ("it's the only way you won't end up like your family!" They said). When I went to college, I went with the mindset that it was literally my only chance at success. I wasn't athletic, I wasn't good at making money so I needed to go get a degree so I could get a job....and the job didn't even seem like a sure thing. And that was terrifying! When I met John and he told me that I could do whatever I wanted for a living I thought he was full of it but I really wanted to believe him. He told me I could make a living making hemp jewelery if I wanted to, and honestly the only reason I didn't make my attempt at that work was because I didn't believe it was possible.

But I went into kombucha brewing like I approach most new interests in my life now: with the complete intent of learning everything I can about it so I can become an expert (if its something I really like...turns out I LOVE fermenting things) and eventually start getting paid to either teach others or produce a high quality product. The mindset you enter into things with does matter, because it determines how effectively you're able to learn. A stressed out mind worried about failure doesn't absorb much and often fails.

I've spent a good amount of time thinking about what my kombucha business would look like, in a daydreaming sort of way. I've always been good at daydreaming but I now see my former dreams were often not productive, they just weren't. Now I dream about opening a kombucha bar and sharing my brew with the people of Acapulco, already familiar with fermented drinks like Tepache. In a way, that may be coming true by being served at this restaurant and I'm excited at the prospects of this. Regardless of this, I'm selling it to friends like @modprobe so it's at least bringing in something. And my posts about kombucha have made me some money here on Steemit and The Homestead Guru. The point is to learn to make your hobbies work for you.

This starts with a lot of good research so you can learn how things work and how much it costs to get started. We did this with glassblowing after being told I needed minimum 15000 dollars to get started myself with my own setup. Upon our own research we found we could do it for just a few thousand dollars and anyone following me knows we have done so here in Mexico. Learning as much as possible before getting started helps you keep costs low which helps you start making money sooner.

Pay attention to the costs, keep a log if necessary. I keep a log of my ferments so I know the dates, but there is a lot of value of also keeping logs of: time spent on the project, costs of things you buy as you buy them, profits made ect. It allows you to have a good understanding of where you stand in terms of making or losing money.

Learn the value of yourself and your product. This is something I struggle with quite a lot myself as I never know what to charge. It's easy to charge too little I've found, really consider how many hours and materials get put into whatever it is that you're pricing and value yourself at what your worth. I'm learning that bit by bit, as I find that people don't mind paying higher prices than what I used to charge them for things, especially considering it's hand made and higher quality a lot of the time.

It's important to assess the local market. This is useful for finding a direction to go in as well as with honing in on what to focus on. We have had a lot of different conversations with people interested in moving here about starting business. Sometimes they've got something good and we will tell them so, by saying there's a market for it. Sometimes they're off base either just because there'd be no interest or because it's already too saturated. Take solar panels for example...there are too many places in Acapulco selling those and not enough people using them. I knew there would be a market for kombucha here from the beginning as there's a health food culture here in Acapulco specifically. Mexicans are also not shy to fermented foods, natural medicine and probiotics. I can also ferment jamaica (hibiscus flower) tea, which is damn near a delicacy here.

If you've got an interest you already spend a lot of time on, look into ways you can make it work for you. Almost always there is a solution, even if it's just blogging about it consistently here on Steemit. If you've got an idea you love and any sort of means to make it happen, my advice is to get started and stick with it for awhile regardless of failures. It'll eventually work out, and if it doesn't, chances are you'll have found something else to day. What works today might not tommorrow, so it's important to be flexible.

One of the things that people seem to find most fascinating about us is how much stuff we're involved in. We: farm, make cannabis oil, run a restaurant/pizzaria (sometimes), blog, are starting two conferences, brewing and selling kombucha, glassblowing and starting a glass empire, and a lot of other stuff too. Someone commented recently making an analogy about spinning 12 plates at time, just to drop one and pick up another here and there. Diversity has saved my ass because when one business fails, another becomes stronger or starts anew. I get the desire to specialize as learning new things isn't easy, but I now very much see the value in showing interest in many different things and pursuing them all.

My journey learning these things has not been easy and has been honestly full of failure. I came into this as a person who had basically forgotten how to learn, how to think. I still struggle day to day with these things but I am coming to find that they are the truth.

Check out some of our other recent posts!

Lily's Succulent Garden: An Updated Photo Story
Restaurants of Acapulco: La Tortuga Revisited
Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant Pot Recipe and Photo Shoot

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