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What do you do?
#51
Beaux Wrote:I am often accused of having "too many irons in the fire". I owned a resturant, a B&B, and a catering company until 2009, at which time I sold all my holdings and returned to school. Having been declared disabled, I tried to look at my situation as an opportunity to presue a new career as a teacher. I have one semester left and I am working part-time as an office assistant until I finish the last of my classes and graduate.
HOWEVER, I opened a new small business this year, Cajun Creations, that allowes me to enjoy my hobby of glass-blowing and molded glass.....AND I also pick up a little money buying and selling vintage fabric....oh, and I'm not sure if it counts, but I also own several rental properties that keep me busier than I would actually like.....
Never a dull moment around this house! Lol

I wish **I** had that many irons in the fire!!!

Ive tried for years and years to find money to open up my own bakery...but been ignored and laughed at everywhere Ive been. Basically been told if I dont have $100K in the bank (or more) I can forget about any kind of loan.

And Im like WTF???? If I had THAT kind of money in the bank what the FUCK would I need a lousy loan for?????
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#52
I generally work for myself, sometimes as an independent contractor when I work for others. There were some real hard times, especially at the beginning, and I didn't eat everyday (and I'd crash art shows for the free food back then). I also had to give some things up, like in a very small town I made a little extra money at a new age shop doing henna body art (they bought the henna there at the shop and I got paid to apply it), but when I tried making a living at that in Venice I simply could not compete with the competition who were awesome.

But I'd been sewing since I was a little girl and found there was a neglected market for specially sized people (especially women) as big biz focused more on standard sizes and these people pay A LOT to to have clothes made, mended, and refitted for them. Using the library I expanded what I could craft and sold through various vendors (eventually settling on a thrift store that was good to me). I've made stuffed toys as well making over 10x the profit of the time and money put into them and to my amazement saw even thrift stores make over twice the money back they paid me as well (amazing how much you can jack the price up if you call them "originals" instead of "homemade" Rofl ).

I've also bartered as well as worked for money house sitting and babysitting and ran errands for people and thought up a mail proxy biz (originally I just offered to get holiday packages without a significant other finding out and deliver them for a "finder's fee" but I expanded to people who wanted to get controversial magazines without being caught at it and/or put on a spammer's list, and btw that gets me a lot more color catalogs as junk mail which I bleed with lacquer thinner, which I bought in bulk years ago on discount, onto freezer paper and sell as gift wrap).

Some odd jobs are amusing, too, like when I made $20 in 2 minutes by fixing a computer teacher's new pair of personal radios with VoX after he failed to get it to work after hours of trying (I called up the manual online, went to the "did you do something stupid" section, and was inspired to make sure all the screens matched; when one didn't I changed it so that it did and it worked. I lied about it taking me a couple of hours so that I'd still get the $20, but also to protect his ego.)

I've also managed to use my contacts as well as my own creativity to arrange for many temporary gigs, too (from playing the Snow Maiden at a Russian American Christmas party to taking several children to see the Hannah Montana movie, both of those examples making me A LOT of money at the time). Because of the glowing recommendation from my time as a library volunteer (helping with the summer's children reading program) I was also able to get work with a home-based children's birthday party biz as well.

I'm proud of my accomplishments and my independence, and at a time when all too many have lost their jobs I still have income. Nevertheless, even at the best of times I've had to keep a low overhead, use thrift stores as much as possible, I've never been able to afford a car worth having (and when my granny was hospitalized I had to sell a lot of stuff to finance my trip via Greyhound to get there) or get a decent credit card (when you conduct the majority of your biz on the grey market like I do then you don't get a credit score, and this has been a problem like when I rent I've always had to have someone else on the lease as my score is "insufficient credit history") and plenty of people would be mortified to live like that (though plenty of wage slaves DO, or foolishly use cash advance services so they don't).

However the economy has been slowly grinding down how much I make (because people have to have money to spend to buy my services and products), and though the thrift store I did the most biz through actually picked up as the rest of the economy sagged, even they're feeling it now. This means I have less opportunities than before. Furthermore I've moved so I have to carefully plan when I go back there to do biz (otherwise the price of gas wouldn't make it worth it), though I find I much prefer to working in "spurts" when I can (a couple of days or so of intense work, many days just coasting after). My partner has sold her home and we're pretty much living on that for the time being, as well as what we're both able to make.
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#53
Interesting topic!!!

I've not resigned yet, but I will talk with my manager one of these days, I can wait for her to find a sobstitute. But if they will make me very angry at the wrong time I think I could leave the workplace (and be fired...).
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#54
MisterTinkles Wrote:I wish **I** had that many irons in the fire!!!

Ive tried for years and years to find money to open up my own bakery...but been ignored and laughed at everywhere Ive been. Basically been told if I dont have $100K in the bank (or more) I can forget about any kind of loan.

And Im like WTF???? If I had THAT kind of money in the bank what the FUCK would I need a lousy loan for?????

It took me YEARS to save the money to open my restaurant, and I had to do it piece-meal. I started by opening the Cotten Gin Bed & Breakfast, then I opened my catering company, and FINALLY my restaurant.
I tried to get loans from the bank, but I ran into the same trouble as you, so I ended up advertising for investors. If you are serious about wanting to open a bakery, I would suggest looking for investors. In fact, I think the new "wave" of crowd-sourcing is fantastic and if I had to do it all again today, I would definitely give KickStarter a go! Good luck! Owning your own business is a LOT of work, but it is much more rewarding than working for someone else! Smile
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#55
Now I stay at home to look after my baby . . . but later I will work at a bar . . .
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