An Entrepreneur Who Turned Her Hobby Into Million-Dollar Business

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Entrepreneurs Who Turned Hobbies into Million-Dollar Businesses
Jane Porter
BY Jane Porter | September 13, 2012|
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Kim Lavine started making microwavable pillows as gifts forher kids’ teachers in 2001, assembling them at her kitchen table in Grand Haven, Mich., using a corn kernel filling. Around the same time, her husband lost his job, prompting her to consider turning her pastime into a source of income.

She went from selling pillows out of her truck to setting up mall kiosks and incorporating her company, Green Daisy, in 2002. Within two years, Lavine’s Wuvitpillow was in national chains, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Bed Bath & Beyond, and by 2006, it generated more than $1 million in sales.

Lavine then branched out into a pajama line, and after moving to a licensing model, a home décor line as well. In 2008, she put the retail business on hold and started a media company with plans to eventually relaunch the Green Daisy brand again. Lavinewrote about her success in Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea into a Million Dollars and How You Can, Too! (St. Martins, 2007).

To determine whether your hobby can become a business, she says, first ask: "Do you have a great product and can you demonstrate and prove its marketability?" That may sound elemental, but Lavine says too many entrepreneurs fail to consider thatquestion.

Related: 5 Tips for Transforming Your Hobby Into a Business From the 'Toy Hunter'

Here are three other entrepreneurs who transformed their hobbies into multimillion-dollar companies.
How to Turn a Hobby into a Million-Dollar Business
Terry Finley, founder of West Point Thoroughbreds where clients invest in one of the company's 55 horses.
Photo by Tibor Szlavik.

Terry FinleyHobby: Horse racing aficionado
Business: West Point Thoroughbreds
2011 Revenue: $6.5 million

When Terry Finley bought his first horse, Sunbelt, for $5,000 in 1991, he felt stuck in his job selling life insurance. Finley had been betting on horses for years, but had never made an investment like this. After Sunbelt won his first race that year, Finley started running small ads in racing papersand attracted an investor who paid $5,000 for partial ownership of Sunbelt. Within two months, he bought his second horse, Cal’s Zen Jr., and continued buying more horses on credit cards.

Soon after, he quit his job and founded West Point Thoroughbreds, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based race horse syndication management company. From the outset, Finley talked with clients who ran their owncompanies and asked for suggestions about growing a business.

"We started trying to build a brand and a reputation," Finley says. Through this informal advice, he learned the importance of tracking metrics. In 2004, he hired a web designer to revamp his website.

Today, West Point Thoroughbreds owns 55 syndicated horses and has 550 investors who profit when their horses win a race, are bred or getsold. Revenue has grown from $2 million in 2005 to $6.5 million annually over the past three years.

Related: 5 Ways to Use Your Network to Grow Your Business
How to Turn a Hobby into a Million-Dollar Business
Craig Jenkins-Sutton, owner Topiarius, an urban garden and floral design company.
Photo by Nick Gerber.

Craig Jenkins-Sutton
Hobby: Gardening
Business: Topiarius
2011 Revenue:...