How a hobby turned into an additional source of income

Ilze's story - how a hobby turned into an additional source of income. Each of us has a talent or passion that we pursue with joy and enthusiasm. For some it is sports, for others - traveling, but for Ilze it has always been artistic activities: painting, crafts, decoration making. Since school she stood out with creativity and also graduated from art school. Ilze worked in an accessory printing shop as a sales assistant, but in her free time created beautiful crafts that she gave as gifts to friends and acquaintances. But one day everything changed.

When talent meets demand

Over time, her circle of friends and acquaintances grew, and more and more often Ilze heard:

• "Can you make this for me too - for payment?"
• "Artistically high-quality works are appreciated, they are unique, you could earn money with this!"

Ilze began to consider - what if she really started earning from her hobby? However, several things held her back:

• She did not want to leave her main job, which she liked
• She did not know how big the demand would be
• She was not sure how to officially register such an activity
• She knew nothing about accounting and taxes
• She was afraid to hire an accountant and was not sure if it was even necessary

The solution came by chance - pats.lv

One evening while browsing the internet, Ilze noticed an ad for the accounting system pats.lv. Its message was simple and perfectly suited for her - “an easy way to manage accounting for the self-employed without prior knowledge”.

On the system's website she found answers to all her questions:

• She could keep her main job and officially earn from her hobby at the same time
• She needed to register her economic activity with VID
• Pats.lv provided instructions on how to do it quickly and easily
• The system automatically prepared reports, calculated taxes and even reminded her when to pay them

Ilze decided to try - she registered with VID as self-employed, joined pats.lv and started.

How it works in Ilze's daily life

Ilze did not need to become an accountant and did not even need to hire one. Pats.lv acted as a virtual accountant, performing complex calculations for her. She did not have many transactions and everything could be done independently.

The workflow was simple:

• Sells a painting or decoration on Etsy - enters the information in the system herself
• Buys materials - clay, brushes, paints, frames - takes a photo of the receipt, and the system reads it and records it as an expense
• The system calculates income, expenses, taxes and prepares reports
• All she has to do is submit reports to VID using EDS and transfer the required amount to the unified tax account, which the system specifies exactly

Her main job remained unchanged - her employer continued to calculate and process her salary. But all additional income from her hobby was now legal, structured and safe.

From passionate creativity to management position

Ilze continued to work at the accessory printing shop and developed her ideas there - sometimes even colleagues asked for help with design or special orders. Her passion and creativity were noticed, and after some time she was offered the position of store manager. Now Ilze manages a team, but she still creates her crafts in her free time, takes orders and uses pats.lv to ensure everything is in order financially.

“Not everything is as complicated as it seems at first”

Ilze often says that the biggest barrier was ignorance, not inability. Only after she started using pats.lv she realized how simple everything can be - if you use the right tools.

Her words of encouragement to others: “If you do something with joy, why not earn extra from it? And if someone else can take care of the accounting for you - go ahead and use that opportunity!”

Conclusions

Ilze's story proves that a hobby can be turned into official, organized activity, without losing your job and security. With pats.lv support she was able to:

• Avoid accounting mistakes,
• Maintain work / life balance,
• Turn her artistic talent into an additional source of income.

If you also have a hobby that can become a small business - know that you can do it too. Start with a small step - and let pats.lv take care of the rest.