Life & Work By Design Blog

If this describes you - social, outgoing, friendly, enjoys meeting and helping people, energetic, wants to live in other places, works well as part of a team - consider the Hospitality Industry.A young woman I know took a job after college as the night auditor at a major chain hotel in Washington, DC.  After working her way up to the accounting/billing office, she requested a transfer to anywhere in Western Europe and landed a job in London for 4 years. Continue Reading »

If you are an artist who is wondering how you can possibly support yourself selling one painting or drawing at a time, you might consider looking in the area of licensing one of your designs. A contract to use that seashells design you sketched at the beach one day might just be the ticket to provide you with the capital you need to continue your serious painting. 

In a recent article in Newsday.com, Keiko Morris offers some real-life stories of artists who have successfully done this to propel their careers forward.

The Giordano brothers learned about this niche from their father, Joseph, and continue to develop their respective fine art careers while having the financial security provided by their various licensing agreements which frequently continue to pay royalties. For many artists, this seems like a crass way to go, but Greg says, “When I got out of art school it was kind of taboo to be so commercial,” Greg Giordano said. “But I always did representational art. And it was more of a culture in our family to make art that goes on products that give people joy.”

In another example, Debbie Taylor-Kerman didn’t have a family business as a model when she discovered a market for licensing her products five years ago. A former textile designer, she was a stay-at-home mom who became enthralled with children’s picture books and wanted to do her own whimsical illustrations. She started with greeting cards and graduated to tableware and table accessories about three years ago, landing contracts with Oneida and Caspari Inc. She and her husband, Elliott, who also manages the business — called Debbie Taylor-Kerman — have bought a

Are you looking for some extra money or something interesting to do in your spare time?  Are you a person who wants to live and work “outside the box”? Then this book is for you.  Here are some of the more exotic ideas:

Pooper Scooper -  Clean up the poop on pet-owners lawns and earn $7.50 - $15.00 per visit with only a shovel, gloves and plastic bags. If you like animals and do not mind poop, this is a surprisingly growing market. Combine it with dog walking and pet-sitting for a great part-time money maker. See www.pooper-scooper.com  for more info.

Lipstick Reading - This is a form of party entertainment wherein you analyze a woman’s personality from the lipstick kiss you ask her to make on a cocktail napkin.  If you are creative, outgoing, and somewhat intuitive, you can earn $25 to $50 an hour providing this service. See http://face-and-emotion.com to learn more about reading people. 

Knights in Shining Armor - Work as an actor at Renaissance Fairs.  You can earn $7 to $25 an hour depending on your skills if you can juggle with fire, you will be hot. J Parts range from playing the Queen to being a beggar in the lane.  Upside -you get to learn to speak with Olde English. Check out www.renfaire.com

Gustatory Athlete - These are the guys (and gals) who eat 78 hot dogs in 3 minutes.  If this is one of your goals in life, there is such a thing as professional contest entrants. Big time eaters have won up to $30,000!  www.ifoce.com is the International Federation of Competitive Eating. No kidding!

Worm Farmer -  this has been around since the 60’s. You can actually get paid to raise worms for bait shops and organic farmers. Talk about silent partners - these guys just do their thing all day and happily reproduce as long as you provide them with a nice place to live.  A pound of worms can go for $20.  see www.acmewormfarm.com

Shell Picker in Kauai - these are some special shells that are tiny and special, but you can earn $100 a day crawling around on the beach.  With the popularity of shell jewelry and home accessories, I think you could do this anywhere there’s a beach. Find a jewelry maker and go get what they want.  www.niihaushellart.com gives useful information on the Kauai business.

Video Game Tester - If you still secretly want to play games all the time you could be a quality assurance evaluator (sounds much more professional).  You can earn $9 -12 per hour part-time looking for glitches, art errors, and levels that are too hard or too easy.  Check out www.gametester.com for a directory of employers and links to articles. Note: don’t ever fall for the scam where you have to pay them for the privilege of testing their game!

All these ideas came from a new book called Odd Jobs: 101 Ways to Make and Extra Buck by Abigail Gehring.  It’s brand new and available at bookstores now. 

I’ve had two conversations lately in which someone said, “if only…” followed by an obstacle or problem that they think prevents them from moving forward with their life, dreams and passions.  That got me thinking about the word IF so I looked it up - Webster’s defines it as a conjunction which implies something negative in 5 of the 6 general uses listed.  So, being the ultimate optimist that I am, I went looking for good inspirational quotes that put a positive spin on the word IF. Here are just a few:

If your goal is to have your own life, don’t lean up against a wall waiting for someone to recognize you. ~ Andrew Shue

If nothing ever goes wrong, the chances are nothing ever goes at all. Charlotte Paul

If at first you don’t succeed you’re like everyone else who went on to greatness. ~ Ray Bradbury

If you believe in what you are doing, and you find someone who believes in you, then you have the best environment to turn your dreams into reality. ~ Deborah Micek

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.  Author unknown

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it. ~ William Arthur Ward

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. ~ Frank Clark

If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. ~ Erica Jong

If you want a place in the sun, you’ve got to put up with a few blisters. ~ Abigail Van Buren

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little berserk. ~ George Sheehan

I really like this last one - for me, being a little berserk is what makes life interesting, but my favorite would be Mahatma Gandhi’s – that’s about as simple as it gets.  What new things are you asking for in your life these days?

 I use the word DREAM a lot in my writing and in my coaching conversations and sometimes wonder if it is correctly understood.  Dreams and Dreamers have often gotten a bad rap. I once knew a man whom several people described as a dreamer who would never amount to much, and of course Kenny Rogers made a huge hit out of a song entitled “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” that includes the line, “he’ll break you every time.”  So here you are, an intelligent, smart and ambitious person telling your friends and family that you are going to follow your dream.  If you are like the rest of us, they will tell you that you are nuts, silly or just plain crazy! I want to help you challenge that mindset right now. Valerie Young has written an article called Jumpstart Your Life by Dreaming Big in which she says the following: Wishing is passive. We wish for things over which we are powerless. We wish we’d win the lottery, that we were taller, that the waiter would hurry up. Dreaming is different.  Dreams are active.  They invite possibilities. You can see a dream.  That why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t say, “I have a wish”. Dr. King knew that dreams are visual, positive, and contagious!

A dream has substance and meaning. A dream can be shaped and grown.  Indeed, a dream can become reality. Dreaming is active.  Giving a dream its life takes planning, learning and work.  Wishers are unable to take action; dreamers are creative and proactive. So take a long look at your dream, and then start laying the groundwork to make it come alive.

The next time you have one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” moments, come back to this story. The product is called a “Fortamajig” and it is the invention of two college friends, now moms, with bright ideas and a lot of ambition.  They watched their kids trying to build a play forts out of bedsheets and couch cushions and decided to design a portable, flexible version that would allow creative little imaginations make a variety of forts.  They both have backgrounds in sales and marketing so they brought some expertise to the process, but their example of seeing a need and finding a solution is a classic.  Go to their web-site at www.thehappykidcompany.com  to see their product and read their story.

Manufacturing a product is not an easy process but like any other endeavor, it requires a good idea, a plan, financing and hard work. A helpful resource is:  http://inventionshowcase.com/resources.htm

So you have an idea of what you would love to do… This idea is totally different from anything you’ve ever done….But it’s a dream job that you can’t get out of your mind…..you need lots more information before you leap.

How about spending some of your vacation trying it on for size? There is a company called Vocation Vacations that has a list of over 100 different careers and jobs that you can actually experience with a mentor in that field. The list is chock full of interesting ideas.  Check it out at www.vocationvacations.com

If you don’t have time to actually take a vacation to do it, start by finding someone in your area who does what you want to do and ask them if you can volunteer to work for them for a few days, or just hang around and observe what their day is like.  Talk to them about what they enjoy about their job and what they don’t like about it.  The more you can find out about your dream endeavor, the more prepared you will be to make a decision to pursue it.