Wofano Wotanto
Hero
I'm pleased to say that my painting/modeling business never went beyond paying the rent and the costs of minis I planned on actually keeping for myself. The rest of life was paid for by investment income and a more conventional part-time job (also in a field I enjoyed, book sales). I could have made more on the hobby if I'd accepted more commission work, but I discovered pretty quickly I'd rather cherry-pick that kind of work and rely mostly on painting on spec for sale on ebay and social media (back when it was less poisonous). There's something to be said for the "paint two, sell one" approach to minis as long as your tastes are at the right level of obscurity. Too commonplace (ie everything from modern GW) and it's just unsellable, too weird (remember the minis for the Low Life RPG?) and it takes forever to find a buyer.Successful businesses are often the worst on folks in this regard. It means they are focusing on all the attributes of business not related to their craft which leads to massive burnout in many cases.