Hobby Vs. Business (Where's the Line?)

[Coluber42]

Personally, my definition of an activity that is more than "just" a hobby is one that brings in enough money that you wouldn't really want to just give up that source of income. A hobby that brings in a little extra cash to spend on a night out or a new toy here and there is still what I think of as a hobby. More than a hobby means it's making a meaningful contribution to your household expenses, quality of life, savings account, ability to invest in important things, etc, regardless of what actual percentage it is. (What the IRS considers it is irrelevant there, too)

If your goal is to develop your breeding activities to that point, you should start by at least keeping track of what your expenses are and how much time you're spending. This isn't just because of what you need to tell the IRS - it's because if you want to get something specific out of it, you have to know what's going into it. You are probably not going to cover an entire year's worth of feeders, bedding, supplies, electricity, equipment, etc, let alone paying yourself for the time it takes to feed animals, clean cages, take photos, post classified ads, answer questions from potential buyers, etc, by producing a clutch or two here and there. But if you know what those expenses really are, then you can get some rough idea of how many babies you'd need to sell and at what prices in order break even, make a bit of extra spending money, or substantially contribute to your household income.

Supplies and inputs generally get cheaper with volume; some kinds of labor get cheaper with volume too, but some kinds really don't. Paper towels are cheaper in quantity, but no matter how many bins you have to clean, there is only so fast you'll ever get at cleaning each one.

If you aren't breaking even at first, that's fine; most new businesses require either a growth phase or a big initial investment, or both. But you need to have an idea of what it will take to get to the point of being profitable eventually. If you can't envision getting there (like, you calculate that you need x number of clutches per year, but you just don't have the space to house that many snakes or you can't realistically see yourself with enough time to take care of that many, etc) you will probably be happier keeping it as a hobby that sort of pays for itself or brings in a little fun money.