Have you ever thought about starting a business from your hobby? Your Saturday afternoon’s doing whatever it is that you love can be fun and profitable. You could give gardening lessons to a community of beginners or sell handmade blankets online. The possibilities are endless and you can make a marketplace with just about anything!

As free as the land of the interweb may be there can some limitations on what you want to offer to the public, especially when it comes to businesses. We’d like to ask, where do we draw the line between in starting a marketplace? Of course you can invest your time and money into a passion project but the key is sustainability. So we pose the question: Can anything be a marketplace? 

Related: 5 Lessons to Be A Marketplace Leader 

Simple Answer: Yes

Of course you can turn anything into a marketplace! If you are an expert in your craft and you have the yearning to teach others or share the world of your artistry then by all means. It’s fulfilling being able to do something you love everyday while making a living. Setting your own hours, forming your own perfect team and producing products or services exactly how you want. The control you get to really plan, develop, and implement your work is definitely one of the most rewarding experiences one can have. So yes, with a lot of hard work and proper planning, anything can become a marketplace.

Not-So-Simple Answer: No

Jumping into building a brand and marketplace just because you are an expert or have years of experience in the field does not necessarily correlate to a successful marketplace. Most entrepreneurs can get to the launch with proper investors but, like we mentioned earlier, we want sustainability.

Sustaining the prosperity of a company is never a one-and-done thing. It’s constantly evaluating your customers, competitors, trends, tech, ANYTHING! Sometimes companies reach the top of their industry and they become complacent. When that happens, the younger, newer, and harder working competitors step in to offer better customer service or more efficient product.

Understanding your audience is a major key in forming a good company. What many entrepreneurs may be blinded from is the passion for their industry. Your life may be under water basket weaving and it’s all you think about so there are probably many like yourself. Yes there may be other that enjoy the aquatic activity but is there enough to create a following off of? It’s probably unlikely. So you want to make sure that your marketplace fills the void of a niche market but not so niche that it gives you an unsustainable amount of clients.

Related: Keys To Creating A Successful Marketplace Platform 

This just cracks the surface of the why’s and why not’s of building a marketplace. In the end you make the judgement of proceeding or not but also ask your friends and family if it’s a good idea, if most agree that’s a great sign. If you can, try looking into a few research studies on your industry and target demographic, some surveys may help too!

Good luck!