Converting your special interest into a business

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You have a special interest in something, that interest consumes your life and as a side effect you become very good at it. But autistics often have difficulty with 'traditional' employment for a wide number of reasons. So here's the idea, convert the special intrest into a business.

Obviously it's possible, with several 'big names' including John Elder Robison succeeding in this area. Anyone on here done this? if so, what were the biggest challenges that you faced?

Competition. If your competitors are paying under the table, and your customer base is buying on price instead of quality it's hard to get ahead. Also, high overhead machinery, if you have to pay someone else more per hour than you can charge per hour to fix your equipment. Also, all the government agencies that want a piece of your little pie...contractors license, state and local business licenses, public transportation taxes on businesses, professional memberships, and licenses, insurance, bond....

I've been thinking the same thing as you are. But freelance can be a big deal, especially if you're interest is really out-of-this-world. Mine for example would be aviation. I don't have the capital to start a 'Cessna-like' company to build airplanes and such. Plus, I'd be bombarded by the FAA over this and that. Of course, when you design an aircraft, one of the factors is making the aircraft safe as possible as well as being able to fly & do the job at hand.

I also love paragliding and one of the fields could be teacher others how to paraglide, distribute equipment or even manufacturing paragliders, harness.. etc

But for those whose special interest is graphics, web design, programming, could easily start a freelance graphics business without a problem. But you still have to socialize with clients and such...