Three of four Romanians with a hobby can earn money from it, says Visa Europe

Three out of four Romanians who have a hobby can earn additional incomes from it, and four out of ten Romanians say they want to make money from a hobby or from a business ideas in the future, according to a study conducted by Visa Europe on nine European markets.

The Romanians who are already capitalizing their hobbies earn an average income of over RON 5,000 (EUR 1,133) per year, according to the Visa Europe study. People aged 25 to 34 have the highest annual income (RON 6,356 – EUR 1,440) and in terms of geography, the highest average annual gains are made in Bucharest and Ilfov county (over RON 10,200 – EUR 2,311).

The most profitable hobbies are in constructions, renovations and interior design (RON 5,887 – EUR 1,334), followed by those in design (RON 5,834 – EUR 1,322), photography (RON 5,778 – EUR 1,309), gastronomy (RON 5,509 – EUR 1,248) and childcare (RON 5,487 – EUR 1,243).

Passion is the main motivation for 58 percent of the Romanians and the Polish who started a business based on a hobby, compared to the European average of 43 percent. Changing the activity from their workplace was the main motivation for 29 percent of the Romanians who have opened a business based on their hobby, while the wish to work for themselves was the impetus for 26 percent of the persons who have already redeemed their passions.

While bureaucracy is the main concern of the Romanians who have a business based on a hobby or want to start one, most Europeans fear the lack of orders.

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Thus, the lack of orders and insufficient sales are the main concerns for 38 percent of the Europeans who can open a business based on their hobbies. Other reasons of concern raised by the respondents to the Visa Europe survey are obtaining financing (28 percent), as well as the administrative work and the high volume of papers (26 percent).

Moreover, more than half of the Romanians aiming to earn money from their hobbies say that they will use their personal savings to start a business, almost a quarter (23 percent) would turn to family and friends, and 15 percent of respondents intend to apply for a grant dedicated to small businesses. Given that the concept of crowdfunding is relatively new on the local market, only 11 percent of the Romanians who want to open a business based on their hobbies plan to turn to this method of alternative financing.

Among the respondents to the Visa Europe survey, the Polish (49 percent) and the Spaniards (43 percent) are most open to foreign and alternative financing solutions for setting up the business they want, while Romanians are second to last to it, same as the Swedes (26 percent), followed by the Turkish (24 percent).

The motivations of the Romanians who want to open a business based on their hobby are essentially the same as for people who have already done so: passion (65 percent), the flexibility conferred by their own business (46 percent), the wish to be their own boss (44 percent) and to have a different activity from the one performed at their workplace (33 percent).

In terms of promotion, Facebook and Twitter social networks are more popular than traditional methods, such as creating a company website. Thus, two thirds of the Romanians who want to make money from their hobby say they use both social networks to promote their business. Direct recommendations are considered important by 60 percent of the Romanians who want to start a business based on their hobby.

Most Romanians who want to start a business from a hobby (70 percent) would like it to become their main source of income.

The Visa Europe survey was conducted online over Q4 2014 in nine European countries – UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, on a sample of over 18,000 respondents, of which over 2,000 Romanians who earn or would like to earn money from their hobbies.

Staff