Editor’s Note: It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking we need an arsenal of shiny new skills before we can make any money.

The truth is, it’s oftentimes our old hobbies and interests that have the most promise. In this essay, Kathleen Fair shows us how to turn pasttime into passive income.

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I guess since I first realised that one could own a business I’ve been interested in the workings of business. I’ve had many a thought of what I might do, from owning a retail store to my own hair salon. None of them really felt like me but were certainly fun to dream about.

It wasn’t until Spring of 2013 that I realised I have a perfectly good hobby that already has the potential to make money. I also really needed money to fund my studies. Since start up costs of running my business online were so small, I felt like I might as well give it a go.

My hobby was crochet. My mum taught me when I was in primary school (I am now 28), and I fell so in love with making things that I never really stopped. I also started to make my own designs just by mucking around with different stitches.

And so Crochet Katie was born. I started with an Etsy store (CrochetKatieStore), and still use this as my main store. However, I also started a website to drive more traffic to my Etsy store. In addition, I advertise on Twitter, using a combination of 2 websites: ifttt.com and buffer.com. These allow me to mix interesting articles from my favorite blogs to avoid driving people away with spam, and also to space Tweets evenly throughout the day. I have a Facebook page as well.

As well as advertising online, I try to wear my creations as much as possible, and am in the process of sewing fabric tags to my garments for branding. I also talk about my creations with anyone who will listen, and crochet in public. I have a line of cafepress items to advertise my brand.

Although I haven’t made many sales as of yet, it’s still the early days. While I’m at Uni I don’t have as much time to focus on the business, but I remain hopeful. I have recently realised that more item posts in the store means more item views, so my business can only really grow in that way.

I hope to focus more on patterns as, although I still need to make each item, it only needs to be made once. After that, if it is bought, then it is almost passive income.

So I guess, in conclusion, my hustling has only just begun. But I hope to continue on my journey, developing my brand, and hope my creations take off at least enough to give me a nice income while I study.