I am still considering if I want to take that plunge. I have been getting a little bit more work each year, depending on word-of-mouth and contacts made through an annual craft fair, so that my hobby now pays for itself with a little bit left over. I agree that the amount of time spent doing ancillary things (inventory, pricing, invoicing, contracts) is astonishing, and that's without me doing advertising and networking and marketing! The business-y things are not much fun to me (not a born entrepreneur). Also, if you specialize in one particular aspect (perhaps you have one item you make outsells everything else) you might find it gets boring doing the same thing over and over, and if you don't specialize you lose all the economies of scale you get with being a specialist.
I do love having a creative self-sustaining hobby that allows me to be home when my child is...
Alison