I can’t offer any pearls of wisdom, but thought I’d add my story
anyway. I have been a registered pharmacist for 30 years. I have
wanted out for most of that time. When both my parents had passed
away, something clicked in me to make me realize that I had gone that
route to try to get higher on the approval rating.(Truthfully, it was
my own approval I needed.) Anyway, after much agonizing over how in
the world to get out of pharmacy, I just started cutting back on my
hours about 8 years ago. I am now down to only about 20 hours a week
and the setting I am working in was a divine gift: no constant
phones, no weekends, no nights, only the staff doctor to work with,
very few drug interaction problems to deal with, no insurance
arguments (we are a nonprofit clinic that pays for the care), no
narcotic inventory to worry with, and the list goes on. Every time I
have decreased my hours worked in pharmacy, we have decreased
spending on things that were a waste and have literally found that
when you work more in a job you hate, you also engage in wasteful
spending in a vain attempt to compensate yourself for having to do
that.
During the last 5-1/2 years I have done what you are doing: teaching
myself in every way I can avail myself of (the best of which has been
experimentation and learning not to repeat my own mistakes). I
started out in the jewelry business trying to follow the footsteps of
two local jewelry artists but their route didn’t pan out for
me–trying to do shows as far as 10 hours away from home. The shows
were hit and miss and I ran up some debt. I try to be a realist, a
business person, and an artist. To me, some artists I have met are
not as aware of the particulars of their endeavor from a business
standpoint as they should be.
This year I decided I had invested enough and I have orchestrated my
approach to this business to almost guarantee I won’t have any years
with a loss. The three biggest components of that guarantee aRe:(1) I
only do shows close to home that I have done in the past that I know
will make a profit for me (and are a minimal risk if by some fluke
there is a bad year at one of them). (2) I offer my jewelry locally
in a shop that has sold well for me. (3) I will not spend anymore
large amounts on supplies without recycling pieces that I have had a
long time. In other words, if it hasn’t sold in a reasonable time
frame and I am tired of looking at it, I will refine the metal and
make a new piece. I am making a modest profit now but not enough to
quit my day job completely.
If you were desperate enough to ask my advice, I’d say to look first
at what it costs you to do your day job. What expenses would you
gladly do without? Are you willing to eat at home more? Do you really
need a new couch? Look into the idea (which I resisted so long) of
buying only used cars. Do you really need that magazine subscription?
The expensive vacations? The expensive gift buying at Christmas and
other holidays? How about beans and rice for a week of each month?
Can you give up the lattes at Starbucks? Can you get by with one
pair of shoes for each season? Can you buy clothes that don’t go out
of style so fast?
The biggest question, bar none, is: Can you do without credit card
purchases? Using credit is the absolute worst thing you can ever ever
do to yourself! After a long period of resistance, my husband and I
are doing Dave Ramsey’s total money makeover—I can’t believe the
difference it makes in our financial health after only a couple of
months! It is just as he says, “It’s not a math problem but a
behavioral one.”
Find some way to cut your regular hours a little at a time and give
that space to the jewelry work or some other work that you think you
can be passionate about.
note: I have thought that there might be other passions that would
be easier to make a living at. There are so many jewelers. If you can
find a niche, though, it doesn’t matter how many other jewelers are
making other jewelry.
J. S. (Sue) Ellington
http://www.jsellington.com